CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents a reading of a new play with video by Yoshiko Chuma & the School of Hard Knocks in the White Room at CRS. The text is taken from Yoshiko’s collection of works from 2000 – 2015 from Sarajevo, Macedonia, Manipur, Romania, Fukushima, Ramallah, Amman, Kabul, Berlin, Bogota, Maracibo and New York.

Performances will take place on Friday & Saturday, November 20 & 21, 2015 at 7:30 pm and 9 pm. The performance is about one hour in duration. Tickets are $20 ($15 for students and seniors), and there are only 15 seats available for each performance.

Cast: Miriam Parker, Saori Tsukada and Heather Litteer
Live video painting:  Kit Fitzgerald
Unfinished series film and documentation:  Megumi Eda

Designed by Clouds AO, winners of the recent NASA competition to design the first inhabitable structure to be built on Mars, and opened in June of this year, the White Room at CRS was named by Homes to Love as one of nine studios around the world to “achieve design nirvana.” This performance will be the first theatrical event to be held in the space.

Yoshiko Chuma, artistic director of The School of Hard Knocks (SOHK), has been a creative force in postmodern performance, traveling and interacting with artists in relatively isolated parts of the world since the 1980’s. She has assembled her newest project, π=3.14…First Reading with Three Actresses, through a creative process called “Dry Tech” that emphasizes verbal communication between the artists. Dry Tech traditionally refers to a theatrical rehearsal without the performers, in which the design and technical staff run through the operation of all the technical elements of production, stopping and starting to make adjustments. In contrast, the Chuma-style Dry Tech consists of a meeting, usually not in the performance space, that includes the entire team including performers wherein Chuma leads the team exclusively through the verbal calling out of the technical cues and action and extensive discussion of the work. The method—often interview style—investigates the artists’ perspectives and stories—both artistic and personal. This creative process mines material from the team members’ sharing about how they understand the work and how they view themselves in the context of making the work. Elements of this material may then be incorporated into the production, enabling a multiplicity of distinct and at times conflicting voices and viewpoints to emerge and co-exist.

ヨシコ・チュウマ/Yoshiko Chuma（振付、演出家、ダンサー、活動家）
ヨシコチュウマは1978年以来、ニューヨークのダウンタウン・ダンス界の火付け役として活躍してきた。1980年、スクール・オブ・ハードノックスを創立し、以来同カンパニー･芸術監督を務める。カンパニー名はアメリカの慣用句に由来していて、実社会での厳しい体験を通して学ぶという意味をもつ。チュウマは1980年のベニス・ビエンナーレで作品名として初めてこの名称を使っている。
チュウマは、60以上の作品を35カ国で作り、アーティスト及び観客にとっての「パフォーマンス」という概念に絶えず挑戦し続けてきた。これまで1500人以上のパフォーマーを巻き込み、シアター公演、ストリート・パフォーマンス、グランド・パレード、大規模なハプニング、一般家庭のリビングルームでのパフォーマンスなど実に様々な場所で公演を行った。2000年－2003年には、アイルランドのダグダ・ダンスカンパニー芸術監督も兼任。パレスチナ、ヨルダン、マケドニア、ルーマニア、コソボ、インド・マニプール、アイルランド、日本など紛争、国境、民族等の歴史や問題が複雑に入り組んだ土地をテーマに取り組んできた。音楽、映像、動き、言葉を様々な視点や尺度からモザイクのように張り合わせ、組織的なカオスを空間上に描き出す作風で長年実績を積んできた。代表作としては、NYで60人のパフォーマーによるFive Car Pile-up (1983-1999)、パリオベラ座の初めての屋外パフォーマンスOpera Popincourt (1986)、動くキューブを大々的に使ったシリーズ：A Page Out of Order (2006-2009)、パレスチナ屈指のダンスカンパニー・エルフヌーンとのコラボレーション:6 Seconds in Ramallah(2011),Documentation #1-6 (2011-2012)、Love Story Palestine(2012)などがある。中馬の才能と姿勢に共感し、これまで共同制作を行ってきたアーティストには、作曲家のタン・ドゥ ンやアルヴィン・カラン、ロック／ポップス・ミュージシャンのノーナ・ヘンドリックス、美術家のアレックス・カッツ、エリザベス･マリーほか、多くのダン サー・メディア・アーティスト、音響・照明デザイナーがいる。世界各地でマスター･クラスやワークショップを実施。全米芸術基金、グッゲンハイム基金、ニューヨーク・アーティスト基金、国際交流基金、ミート・ザ・コンポーザー/コリオグラファー・コミッション、フィリップモリス・ニューワークスなどから助成を受け、精力的な活動を続けている。過去三度 （1984年、98年、2007年）にわたり、NYのパフォーミングアーツ界で優れた作品に与えられるベッシー賞を受賞。

THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS [SOHK] (Founded in 1984) is an award-winning collaborative effort of choreographers, dancers, actors, singers, musicians, designers, and visual artists working under the artistic direction of Yoshiko Chuma.  The School of Hard Knocks, which takes its name from the American idiom meaning to learn things the hard way, was the title of the company’s first production, a collaboration between Yoshiko Chuma, Jacob Burckhardt (filmmaker) and Alvin Curran (musician) presented at the 1980 Venice Biennale. Over the course of the company’s history, more than 1,000 people have performed under Chuma’s direction in situations ranging from theatrical dance concerts to street performances, parades, large-scale spectacles and intimate Living Room Projects, Chuma’s signature program which brings post modern music and dance performance to homes, businesses and community centers. Living Room Projects have been performed in homes in Budapest, a car show room in Nagoya, and gardens in the East Village of New York City. Since its foundation in 1984, the company has created and performed original works in the U.S., Europe and in Asia and has welcomed over 1,000 performers to participate in theatrical dance concerts, street performances, parades, and large-scale spectacles.

The School of Hard Knocks has created and performed original works in their annual New York season, and on tour in the United States, Asia, and Europe, with a particular focus on Eastern European countries, including Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, the Baltic Republics, and Bosnia. In the last five years, The School of Hard Knocks has made a commitment to offering young dancers from Japan international exposure and opportunity.

朶恵（えだ・めぐみ）MEGUMI EDA長野出身。３歳より舞踊家の母の元、家の居間でクラシックバレエを始める。16歳で、ローザンヌ国際バレエコンクールでセミファイナリスト、スカラーシップを授与したのをきっかけに、ドイツのハンブルグバレエ学校に留学。のち、ジョンノイマイヤー率いるハンブルグバレエ団の初の日本人メンバーとなる。その後、オランダ国立バレエ団、ロンドンのランバートダンスカンパニーにて数々の振付家（イリ・キリアン、ウィリアム・フォーサイス、ハンス・ファン・マンネン、マッツ・エックなど）と仕事をする。2004年よりニューヨークに活動の拠点を移し、ARMITAGE GONE!DANCEカンパニーの中心的存在として世界の第一線で活躍。同じ年、ベストパフォーマーとしてニューヨーク・ダンス・アワード（ベッシー賞）を受賞。2013年に退団してからは、自らの企画プロジェクトや外部カンパニーへのゲスト出演、立体芸術、ビデオアートを使った作品作りなど精力的に活躍している。

KIT FITZGERALD is a  media  artist and director. Her video, multimedia installations, and performances have been seen worldwide. She has collaborated with composers Max Roach, Peter Gordon, and Ryuichi Sakamoto; choreographers Donald Byrd, Bebe Miller, and Bill T. Jones; poets Sekou Sundiata and Bob  Holman, and  theater  companies  The  Talking  Band  and  Northern Netherlands Theatre. She is a pioneer in live video performance where she brings the immediacy and ensemble possibilities of live performance to video in her live video painting. Kit also directs music videos, documentaries on art and artists, dance videos, and creates digital paintings and album covers. Her work has twice been in the Whitney Biennale. She is the recipient of prizes at international film and television festivals and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Japan Foundation. Her work is distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.

HEATHER LITTEER is a member of Caden Manson’s Big Art Group touring internationally and in the states. She also assistant produced the Special Effects Festival and Curated an Evening of Performance called Night Bazaar and her own reading series W.O.(e). R.D. She has been and avid performer in the NYC since the early 90’s in all performance mediums from stage, screen and smokey chanteuse. Her daring film choices include  working with Darren Aronofsky,Jane Campion and Mary Harron and most recently playing the sexual revolutionary Queen Bee in John Reed’s latest film “ReVo” and Vicky a killer for hire in “Dumbo” by Brazilian director Gustavo Von Ah. She is the recipient of the 2014 Fox Fellowship with La MaMa. She studied Playwriting with Brandon Jacob Jenkins this Summer at La MaMa Umbria and her one woman show, Lemonade,I’m not a Hooker I just play one on TV premiering at La MaMa in spring 2016. Ms. Litteer is also a member of the legendary Jackie Factory where she was known as Jessica Rabbit Domination. heatherlitteer.com

MIRIAM PARKER is a New York City born and bred dancer/performance artist and arts organizer. She feels very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the School of hard knocks for the past 4 years. She lived in Europe and Israel from 2002-2007 at which time she worked and studied with Choreographers Amanda Miller, William Forsythe, and The Saarbruken ballet. In recent years she has been building her reputation in collaborative performance art, working with the artist Jo Wood Brown on a interdisciplinary project “InnerCity Projects”. She has collaborated with, Katy Martin, Alain Kirili and Anita Glesta.  Miriam Parker’s work has been presented in numerous Vision Events in New York and Paris as well as at Under the Bridge Festival etc.  In this past years she has danced with choreographer Sally Silvers and Andrea Miller.

Described as a “charismatic mover with astounding precision,” SAORI TSUKADA harnesses her ability in theater, dance, in between and beyond. Tsukada was nominated for Best Actress twice at Dublin Fringe Festival. She is a member of X-ID REP company at the New Museum. Her silent film performance project Club Diamond (with Nikki Appino) will be presented at The Public Theater as part of 2016 Under The Radar Festival’s INCOMING! series.