SYLVIA MILO

I AM THE UTTERANCE OF MY NAME

A musicodramatic piece on the mythic and historic Mary Magdalene

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Created by Sylvia Milo & Nathan Davis

Performed by Sylvia Milo

Live Music by Nathan Davis

 

A workshop reading

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December 11th, 2017  |  7pm

Theaterlab

357 W 36th St

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Playwright/performer Sylvia Milo and composer/percussionist Nathan Davis are collaborating on a musicodramatic piece on the mythic and historic Mary Magdalene. The materials plumb Gnostic texts and other primary sources, in settings using hammered dulcimer, low gongs, water, and live electronics. Equal parts chamber opera, installation, and ritual, the work will elucidate the lattice of contradictions around Magdalene, her archetype, and her symbolism. This AFO presentation is a first look at a work that the artists will continue developing in 2018 at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy and at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC.

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SYLVIA MILO (Creator/Performer)is an award-winning actress, playwright and producer, based in NYC. Her play, The Other Mozart, had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run at HERE Arts Center and in London at St. James Theatre, and has been touring in the US, Canada, and in Europe. She received the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance in The Other Mozart, and Off Broadway Alliance Award nomination for Best Solo Performance. She played Bob Dylan in the OBIE Award-winning The West Village Fragments — by Peculiar Works; Ophelia in The Ophelia Landscape — with Mira Furlan at the Mark Morris Center; Hamlet in Hamlet — an all-female version of the play, which she adapted and directed herself; she has performed at La Mama, Cherry Lane, Ontological-Hysteric, Dixon Place and The Ohio Theatre. As a member of the Bats at the Flea Theater she starred in Seating Arrangements — co-written by Sylvia, directed by Eric Pold of Gob Squad. Sylvia is also a violinist (acoustic and electric violins - Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory, CBGB's, Joe's Pub) and has composed scores for dance and theater (Merce Cunningham Studio, La Mama). She is a graduate of New York University, with extensive training at the Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler Institutes, in Michael Chekhov technique, and at The Grotowski Institute in Poland. 2018 Baryshnikov Arts Center Bogliasco Foundation joint Fellow. www.sylviamilo.com

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NATHAN DAVIS (Creator/Composer)"writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (NYTimes). His opera/ballet "Hagoromo" premiered at the BAM Next Wave Festival. Lincoln Center presented “Bells” for ensemble, multi-channel audio, and live diffusion broadcast through a conference system to audience members’ mobile phones. He has received commissions from Donaueschinger Musiktage, International Contemporary Ensemble, American Opera Projects, Tanglewood, Calder Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Steven Schick, Claire Chase, Miller Theatre, and the Ojai Festival. Other performances at Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, the Park Avenue Armory, The Kitchen, Roulette, Darmstadt, Helsinki Musica Nova, and Acht Brücken Köln. Davis was a Fellow at the Camargo Foundation and is the 2018 Aaron Copland Fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation, and he has received awards from Meet The Composer, Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, and ASCAP. He and Phyllis Chen won an NY Innovative Theater Award for their score to Sylvia Milo's play The Other Mozart, for which Davis also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Sound Design. CDs include “On the Nature of Thingness” (winner of Independent Music Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Album) and “The Bright and Hollow Sky”. An active percussionist, he is a member of ICE and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Nagoya Philharmonic. www.nathandavis.com