Notes on the Classification of Spectral Lines, the Art of Water Writing, and Other Important Ephemera is the first production from Catastrophe Theory Arts - a new collaborative venture with an express interest in combining the arts and sciences. This first production - a collaboration between Rebecca Whitehurst and Stephen Pruitt which premiered at Austin's Fusebox Festival in April, is an assemblage of short pieces about a wide variety of topics ranging from baseball signals to the feminist history of astrophysics; the decoding of signals from alien intelligences to the seemingly ancient, but in fact modern tradition of Chinese ground writing with water; and from the deconstruction of the music of Les Miserables to the ephemerality of far away radio transmissions picked up when driving on West Texas highways late at night.
Notes will have four performances at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road Austin, TX 78722 May 26 - 28th (Thursday - Saturday) at 8pm
"Whitehurst is an exuberantly engaging performer, physically extraordinarily expressive, whether she's dancing or speaking." - Katherine Catmull, Fusebox Blogger "Notes is a series of vignettes that weave themselves into something essential and difficult to grasp. It’s about passion and grandeur and hope and connection. Each piece finds its own orbit until finally you get a glimpse beyond to the light of distant stars. It was wonderfully personal in a variety of unexpected ways." - Aaron Sanders, Fusebox Blogger Catastrophe Theory Workshops is a new venture born out of the desire to create original work and explore storytelling and performance in a low-risk experimental format, with an emphasis on collaboration and an interest in science and the arts. We’d tell you more, but frankly it’s a bit of an adventure and we’re curious to see where it goes.
Native Austinite Rebecca Whitehurst has worked around the globe as a theater animal-- actor, dancemaker, writer and director. She received her BA in Philosophy from Stanford, and then attended the CalArts MFA program in Choreography before embarking on a professional career with Diavolo Dance Theater. Freelancing as an actor and choreographer in New York City led her to the Institute for Advanced Theater Training MXAT/A.R.T. at Harvard, where she received an MFA in Acting and performed in regional and off-Broadway theater. While on a Fulbright Scholarship to Russia, Rebecca spent a year as a guest teacher at the Moscow Art Theatre School choreographing original works, creating a movement praxis for actors, and writing a play about Olga Knipper Chekhova. She is now very tired. Stephen Pruitt is a theatrical designer, writer, photographer, and former aerospace engineer who has been working out of Austin since 1997. He is the production and lighting designer for Forklift Danceworks, Tapestry Dance Company, Kathy Hamrick Dance Company, Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre, and several other dance and performance companies in Austin. He is also the resident lighting designer for Trouble Puppet Theater Company and a company member with the Rude Mechs. His short form works and performance pieces have been seen at festivals around the country, though not recently, and once was called “a sharp combination of Bill Nye and David Sedaris."
For more information about the performance or Catastrophe Theory Arts email us.. |