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PROJECTS

REVIVING ANNIE (April-May 2012) I am mounting a barebones, experimentally cast production that uses the Broadway musical, Annie as its point of departure. The project will take place over 6 weeks at the EFA Project Space in Manhattan. It will exist as an ongoing live performance and as video about the process of putting on the production, from auditions to opening night. All of the performers will be adults and the casting of each part will be based more on the willingness and desire of the performers than on singing, dancing ability, or appearance. I hope to tap into a population of adults who perhaps fantasized as children about being Annie or being in Annie, but for whom it wasn't a possibility. Please contact me if you are intersted in participating. We are currently seeking a theater director and choreographer. (photo: Hayley Panchyshyn)
TREMENDOUS (2010, trt: 1 hr 14 min) Organized around the principle of a tidal wave, the content of this video was shot with the participation of more than 170 visitors during a three-month residency at Recess Activities, Inc., a unique artist program/ gallery space in Manhattan. I built seven minimalist gray-scale sets inside the storefront space and invited visitors into conversation with the use of an intake form. The resulting video is a complex but cohesive experimental narrative about the experience of being overwhelmed. It is made up of interviews, reenactments, and performances conceived of in collaboration with visitors. Click to watch excerpt.
CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS (2011) All the hugs from Friday Night Lights, Season One. Click to see.
THE NEED FOR GRAND EMOTION (2009, trt: 30 min 22 sec) In this series of staged dramas, 30-year old Will inexplicably finds himself back in high school trying to win the approval of a group of girls. In scenarios ranging from mundane and pathetic to violent and absurd, the character and the video work together self-consciously to squeeze authentic experience and emotion from the most artificial of circumstances. Click to watch.
THE TEMPORARY AND HEROIC TRANSCENDENCE OF ONE'S FATE (2008, trt: 24 min 44 sec) Mario Cuellar plays the artist and sometimes himself in this series of staged dramas. This disruption of gender and identity is paired with an examination of the various techniques one uses to grapple with and transcend mortality in the midst of daily life. Click to watch.
A PROBLEM OF COURAGE (2008) An installation at DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas that included the video One Thing After Another with other videos, photos, and other objects. Read the accompanying writing for the show.
ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER (2007, trt: 27 min 41 sec) This video takes a look at the way travesties large and small hang about; the way regret, grief, humiliation, and tension play themselves out after the fact, shifting in and out of consciousness, repeating endlessly, and being re-made along the way. It was shot completely alone by the artist using only costumes and props that were on hand. Click to watch.
REINCARNATED SCENES (2005-06) video These reenactments are my effort to degrade and venerate the heroics of Hollywood movies. By utilizing the techniques of cinema in the simplest possible ways I hope to recreate narratives that are stripped of everything but the pathos inherent in the medium. Click to watch.