Round 2
Works-In-Progress Series – BURNING
Written and Performed by Heather Harpham
Directed by Cassie Tunick
June 9th at 7:00pm
BURNING is a highly kinetic, semi-comic romp through the absurd landscapes of climate change where comedy, tragedy, activism and cautious optimism collide.
Using movement, song, monologue and otherworldly images — this solo play pings between Hurricane Sandy, our obsession with apocalyptic movies, NPR’s narcoleptic effect, and the million trivial tasks that preoccupy us while Rome burns. Faced with a winnowing polar ice cap and obdurate political leaders, BURNING asks the uncomfortable question: If we can’t Google, Tweet, Skype or buy our way out of this particular fix, what happens next?
Ultimately, BURNING invites audiences to climb into fraying hammock and drift down into a dream deep enough, perhaps, to re-envision the way people inhabit the planet.
A reception will follow the performance with wine available for a small donation.
About The Writer/Performer
Heather Harpham is a writer and performer of physical theater, originally from northern California. Her solo plays and theatrical collaborations have been presented nationally and internationally, including in Nepal at the Kathmandu International Theater Festival and in Estonia at the Notafe Festival. Her previous solo work, Happiness, was presented by the inaugural All For One Festival in 2011. She has performed at DTW, Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place, 3LD Art & Technology Center, and many other NYC venues. Together with Cassie Tunick and Danny Tunick, Harpham is part of the physical theater ensemble Second Nature, whose work is regularly produced in NYC by Triskelion Arts Center and Roulette, both in Brooklyn.
Harpham has published in MORE Magazine, received the Brenda Ueland Prose prize for her fiction writing, a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and was a 2009 nominee for a New York Innovative Theater Award for her ensemble work with Company SoGoNo. She has taught master classes in physical theater and improvisation at colleges, universities and conservatory programs throughout the US, including The Neighborhood Playhouse, Muhlenberg College, The Pratt Institute and Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently adjunct faculty at Manhattanville College and at SUNY Purchase.
About The Director
Cassie Tunick is a performer, writer, director, and teacher. Her physical improvisations have been seen on stages across the US and in Germany, France, Holland, and Estonia. Theatrical collaborators include the Butoh troupe inkBoat, experimental music-theater group Reflex Ensemble, video artist David Finkelstein, poet Katie Yates, and most recently Abby Bender. She is a founding member of the company Second Nature, performing regularly with Danny Tunick and Heather Harpham (Cassie and Heather’s long-standing collaborative relationship spans 37 years). In New York her work has been presented at Triskelion Arts, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, Ontological Theater, Brooklyn Museum, Irondale Center, Dixon Place, Movement Research, and Roulette. She is a Senior Teacher of Ruth Zaporah’s Action Theater, devoting herself to the study and development of Action Theater for the last 25 years. She holds an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa Institute and recently finished editing a book on improvisation by Ruth Zaporah due out in September from Random House. She is thrilled to be involved with Burning in a directorial capacity. www.cassietunick.com
Monday June 9th at 7:00pm
At TheaterLab
357 W36th St. 3rd Floor
(between 8th and 9th Avenue)
TheaterLab is an ADA accessible space
Admission is Free!
A reception will follow the performance with wine available for a small donation
