[Usittne]

[Sabrina@kofest.com]

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Artistic Associates,

What follows is our annual announcement of the workshops and 
performances at The Ko Festival of Performance, now in its 13th year 
on the Amherst and Hampshire College campuses in Amherst, MA. I 
hope you will pass it along to appropriate colleagues and students.

Please excuse any duplicate postings.  Many of you are highly 
networked individuals, and while I have spent long hours eliminating 
duplicates of this email list by hand, it is possible that some of you are 

on more than one listserv, and there are a few of you for whom I have 
multiple email addresses.  Do let me know by return email if you would 
like to be removed from this list, have email address updates, or if you 
would like to receive weekly reminders of our performances during the 
month-long festival.

All best wishes,
Sabrina Hamilton
Artistic Director
Ko Festival of Performance
www.kofest.com,

6-Day INTENSIVE WORKSHOPS July 12 - 17
BUTOH AND BEYOND:
eastern and western approaches to performance
with Naoko Maeshiba
What is Butoh? This Japanese contemporary dance/theatre form has 
been fascinating many artists and audience in the West with its 
grotesque beauty combined with extreme intensity. On one hand, the 
form is studied and practiced as a method or a technique. On the other 
hand, it is considered more as a philosophy or a spiritual practice. The 
workshop reexamines the recognized characteristics of butoh and 
compares its approach to performance with western approaches to 
acting and movement.

Naoko Maeshiba, performer choreographer, and theatre director, 
draws from her extensive background in Eastern and Western dance 
theatre forms in conducting this multi-faceted experiment. The 
workshop moves in three phases.  First the participants will be 
introduced to the physical and spiritual training of butoh. Each day 
consists of a dynamic mind-and-body training, partnered stretching and 
relaxation exercises, followed by sensory and image work. These will 
be followed by experiments that ask the participant to consider: 1) the 
source of impulse - self or others 2) the conscious vs. unconscious 
state in performance 3) process vs. product 4) sense of time. Finally, 
students will use the two different approaches to create two short 
pieces that that address the same theme.

July 19 - 24
BREATH, VOICE and SPOKEN TEXT
with Leeny Sack
This work begins with the breath as a first and ongoing lesson in 
presence, change and the spirit of inquiry. The exaggerated and 
inward focus of this initial phase serves as ground and reference for all 
subsequent study. Vocal work is organized around the practice of 
vowels and consonants in connection with subtle energy systems and 
their application to the performance of spoken text. Spoken text is 
approached through specific elements including breath and somatic 
work, Skinner technique, and nonverbal sounding, in combination with 
highly provocative texts on sex, death, religion and politics. Sound in 
internal space (resonators), sound in external space (environments), 
the concept of the Vocal Score (sound-memory and repetition), vocal 
collaboration, projects, and field trips are included according to course 
length and the progress, capacity and balance of each student and of 
the entire group.

July 26 - 31
EMBODYING THE OTHER IN DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE:
story, spirit and subtle energy
with Deborah Lubar and Laurie McCants

In this workshop, we will focus primarily on three things:
1. The manner in which true story can be mined for its gold, and 
transmuted into dramatic monologue.

2. The basic idea of subtle energies (demystified), and how the innate 
fields of energy within which we each live and operate inform, dramatic 
character, the life of a story, and the human spirit expressed through 
theatre,

3. The development of character through an understanding and 
experiencing of subtle energies, and the vitality of the story as reflected

through its unique language.

As preparation, all participants will need to come with a taped and 
transcribed true story of someone quite different from themselves 
whom they have interviewed. In searching for the right kind of story, 
what you are looking for are people who have made hard and 
courageous choices, survived difficult times, maintained a lit and 
resilient humanity, and - however ordinary and "unfamous" they may 
be - have the capacity to nourish and inspire us with their tale. Please 
do not bring a whole "life story" - just a small, shining fragment of the 
longer tale. In transcribed form (typed and double-spaced), it needs to 
be only between 2 - 5 pages, no longer!

August 2 - 7
SHAKESPEARE/MASK:
the Bard, through Balinese and Commedia masks
with the Artistic Directors of Pig Iron Theatre
Workshop participants will join Company Artistic Directors Gabriel 
Quinn Bauriedel, Dan Rothenberg, and Dito van Reigersberg for a 
series of experiments in theatrical style in order to find a new language 
with which to perform Shakespeare's plays. Pig Iron attacks iambic 
pentameter with an eye towards discovery, play, and physical 
character.  Using Balinese and Commedia masks, participants in this 
class learn to speak Shakespeare's texts with the entire body. The 
workshop will focus both on mask training and research into how to 
marry mask work with Shakespearean language. Ariane Mnouchkine 
of the Theatre du Soleil believes that the mask on the face has the 
same theatrical distance as Shakespeare's words on the lips. This 
workshop, part of Pig Iron's on-going theatrical research, intends to 
plumb the extremes of these plays in order that an audience 
experiences them afresh.

Beyond attacking mask technique and Shakespeare's plays, this 
workshop emphasizes physical discipline, risk taking, finding pleasure 
in performance and working collaboratively with fellow artists.

Workshops cost $350. $25.00 discount for registrations before May 15.
Optional room and board are available on the Amherst College 
campus for an additional fee. The workshops will be held in Studio II or 
Studio III of Webster Hall on the Amherst College campus in Amherst, 
MA.

For further information, including instructor bios, go to www.kofest.com,

You can also email Info at kofest.com or call (413) 427-6147. To 
download a registration form, go to www.kofest.com and mail the 
completed form to The Ko Festival of Performance, PO Box 137, 
Amherst, MA 01007

PERFORMANCES 2004
a season devoted to the theme of:
"The Document, the Documenter, and the Documented:
celebrating the preservation of knowledge and lamenting its loss
- through performance, display and public forums"


SUNDAY, JULY 11th at 8 p.m. ONE NIGHT ONLY!
THE HEROIC AND PATHETIC ESCAPADES OF KARAGIOZIS† Ralph 
Lee's Mettawee River Company of New York
A visit from our annual favorites with their new piece drawn from the 
nearly extinct folk puppet theater tradition of Turkey and Greece. In 
these tales our hero uses all his wit and a minimum of actual work to 
satisfy his insatiable hunger. Karagiozis presents a world where the 
underdog sometimes manages to scramble to the top of a realm 
populated by an array of heroes and fools, beauties and dragons. 
These tales reflect the outrageous humor and feisty spirit of nations 
who have survived centuries of empires, invasions and political turmoil. 
Mettawee will use a range of scales to express the heightened reality 
of these stories, incorporating puppets, masks and giant figures in the 
process of bringing them to life.

An all-ages event, outdoors on the Amherst College Observatory Lawn 
off of Snell Street. Bring blankets, lawn chairs and insect repellant, but 

leave the pets at home.

The performance will be ASL interpreted.
Adults $6.00, Children $4.00 No reservations necessary.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, JULY 16-18 at 8 p.m
OUT OF THE GARDEN
a double bill of EVE and EXILE
Ko Theater Works of Amherst, MA

EVE: Leslie Farlow (choreographer, writer, performer)
In this dance/theater work, Eve dances into the Garden lured by the 
Apple, argues with the Snake, then confronts the Almighty on his 
puritanical attitudes towards sex. Prancing around in an Ann Taylor 
cocktail dress, she's flung to the ground by the wrath of you-know-who 
and finally dances joyfully in defiance. Text is written by Lesley Farlow 
with excerpts from the Gnostic Gospels. Original music composed by 
Roger Seitz. Costume by Thrift Shop.

EXILE: Leslie Farlow (choreographer, writer, performer)
Video and direction by Mitchell Polin
In movement and monologue, Exile traces a woman's journey up to the 
line of the unthinkable act-and over. Based on the story of Medea, with 
text drawn in ancient Greek from the Euripides play, as well as from the 
trials and writings of Andrea Yates and Susan Smith.

FRIDAY - SUNDAY, JULY 23-25 at 8 p.m.
THE ALEXANDRIA CARRY-ON
A collaboration by Laurie McCants, Theo Bleckmann, and F. Elaine 
Williams with Sabrina Hamilton and Rand Whipple

The vanished Library of Alexandria, once contained almost all of the 
known books of the world, gathered from the many cultures of the 
ancient Mediterranean. It disappeared without a trace. This new solo 
music-theatre piece tells the story of a curious slave (played by avant- 
garde jazz performer Theo Bleckmann) who repairs the precious 
papyrus scrolls stored in the honeycombed shelves of the Library. He 
teaches himself to read, and discovers what has been hidden from him: 
the tantalizing possibility of knowledge, freedom, and love. Blending 
ancient text, contemporary music, and modern technology, THE 
ALEXANDRIA CARRY-ON premiered at the Bloomsburg Theatre 
Ensemble in Pennsylvania, and will be performed in the fall at the new 
Biblioteca Alexandrina in Egypt, followed by a national tour.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, JULY 30 - AUGUST 1 at 8 p.m.
and special matinee on SUNDAY, AUGUST 1 at 3 p.m.
SOUNDING TO A
Ko Theater Works of Amherst, MA
premieres a multimedia performance piece about refugee trauma from 
the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai to 1950s Cleveland, and the solace of 
food. The project is conceived and performed by Eva Ungar Grudin, in 
collaboration with director and designer, Sabrina Hamilton, Ko Festival 
Artistic Director, and with Yossi Gutmann, the world-renowned Israeli 
violist based in Vienna, Austria, who performs in the piece and serves 
as Music Director.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, AUGUST 6-8 at 8 p.m.
POET IN NEW YORK
A one-man fantasia about gay Spanish poet and playwright 
Federico Garcia Lorca
Pig Iron Theatre of Philadelphia, PA
With Dito van Reigersberg, Directed by Dan Rothenberg
In 1929, Lorca, suffering from a broken heart, arrives in New York City, 
just in time to see the Stock Market Crash. †In a landscape of tenement 
buildings, Harlem blues clubs, and overcrowded streets, he is unable 
to write. POET IN NEW YORK is about Lorca's artistic and sexual 
awakening in the unfamiliar and chaotic metropolis of Manhattan. Dito 
van Reigersberg plays eleven characters in this highly physical one-
man tour de force.

WINNER - Total Theatre Award, London
"Intelligent and evocative"
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A stunning performance"
-- The Herald (Edinburgh)

NOTE: Due to the renovations being made in Amherst College's 
Holden Theater, all performances except the outdoor Mettawee 
production will be held in the Theatre in Emily Dickinson Hall on the 
Hampshire College campus.

Tickets:$15 General Admission; $12 Students & Seniors
A very limited number of $6 SPECIAL RUSH TICKETS will be available 
1 hour prior to curtain.

Box Office opens July 12. (413) 559-5351
For information prior to the opening of the box office call (413) 427-
6147.

AGAIN, FOR MORE INFO, GO TO:
www.kofest.com