Night Hawks presents it's monthly late night art extravaganza this Monday, June 18th. This month the theme involves technology and experimentations with artificial and/or mechanical elements. Like always, Night Hawks showcases its theme across genres and art. Basically this Monday will be a techno dance party like none other. And there will be video games. Don't miss these emerging artists:


Night Hawks is honored to bring to the party Laura Escude (Los Angeles) - A classically trained violinist who works with a variety of software, all controlled by MIDI devices such as the UC-33e and a MIDI glove. Found sounds, sampling, and the violin affected by different types of hardware all make up her body of work going back 20 years.


Organ Music of the Organ Corporation (San Francisco) - The music collective takes their name from a 1970s organ manufacturer and draws from the traditions of free jazz and musique concrete. Night Hawks' plan to showcase their noise elements and abstractions of frequencies in the unique Bootleg ambiance.


DSS Improv (Los Angeles) is a trio of improvisational electro-acoustic musicians. FM transmitters tie together their mixer feedback sessions, DIY circuitry, amplified viola and audience involvement all "to diffuse the notion of control amongst the group and audience". I can't picture a better setting for this experimentation than the high-caliber crowds Night Hawks draws in.

[image from art-rash.com]


Orgone Resonator by Samuel Partal and Damien Johanson (San Francisco) is an installation in which audience members may be inserted into the resonating chamber to experience the musical performance as part of the sculpture. Partal and Johanson both multimedia artists explore the controversial theories of Wilhelm Reich. (I had to wikipedia that one.) The notion of Orgones - a theorized energy source responsible for neuroses, rain and sexuality - is quite intriguing.


"Burlap I-IV" by Philip Stearns - Another Cal Arts alumni makes his mark on the circuit-bending community by continuing his installation. Burlap combines sculpture and circuitry where each piece produces tones, sequencers, and dynamically behaving oscillators. The natural element of the burlap material is a beautiful contradiction to the notion of circuitry as something cold and calculated.


Electroacoustic Installation by Cooper Baker - Straight from the Cal Arts faculty, Baker currently manages the school's Music Technology department. Circuit Bending fans have probably seen his work at REDCAT and the LA Circuit Bending Festival. Cooper brings his diverse background and knowledge from software writing to photography to the Bootleg for this one night only where he'll creates a sound-art installation/ multimedia work of art.


Aaron Myers, a recent USC grad, has always been fascinated with video games, including information visualization, artificial life and generative image-making. TorrentRaiders was his MFA project - an arcade stylization of bit-torrent waves. You can also go play his live action video game Mobzombies before the arcade madness hits Monday. He'll be showing a new 2-D piece with light patterns that react and self-generate.

[image from Flickr]





Volum (UK, Berlin, Detroit, Los Angeles) of the world renowned electro duo Volsoc brings his proclaimed "breakdance music for aliens". Playing the night's DJ will be Jean-Paul Bondy rocking robot beats and a slew of surprises. See jbondy.com - the man's also quite the accomplished animator.

[image from properlychilled.com]


Night Hawks presents Hawktronics
Monday, Jun. 18th 10:00pm
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly (Just West of Alvarado)
Echo Park, 90057
$10 cash only

Labels: art, events, music, Nighthawks, performances

Don't forget:
LE CIRQUE DU TITTY! TITTY! BANG! BANG!
Night Hawks' monthly art event has quite the full lineup sure to satisfy all the freaks at the freak show.




LIVE MUSIC BY:
D Numbers -- Santa Fe, NM
We Drew Lightning -- Santa Fe, NM
HowardAmb -- Project Runway's Santino Rice loves these guys and so should you.
Catherine Campion -- A veteran of stage & screen and the most delightful person you'll meet.

LIVE ART BY:
Ashley Huizenga (video)
Christina Amezquita (photography)
Shon Kim (video/drawing)
Andy Ayala (mixed media)
Annie Terrazzo (mixed media)
LD Grant (painting)
Teresa Moore (painting)
Portland, OR Free Music Project (video)
Nichole Navar (video)



LIVE PERFORMANCE BY:
Gumby Girl (contortionist)
John Monastero (clown)
Nameer Khadi (juggler)
Zoe Nissam (fire)
Mimi Moss (fire)

BURLESQUE BY:
Bobby Burlesque (burlesque)
Lolita La Vey (burlesque)
Lola Ramona (burlesque)


All appearing at Night Hawks
This Monday May 14th
10:00pm
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd.
LA 90057
$10 donation

Labels: events, Nighthawks, performances

Once upon a time, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks set out to write a play each day, every day for 1 year. She came up with a collection of very short plays and a very huge theatre movement. Already a hit at various theaters around town, directors take on one or two plays, often direct them in site specific spaces with amazing results. Mr. & Mrs. Kickass Productions with Bootleg bring to the Bootleg Theater seven choice choices. The show is late but short. Enjoy their bar and snacks while you're there and get a sneak peak of the lobby space where Night Hawks will be held.

365 Plays
by Suzan-Lori Parks
Showtimes:
March 9 & 10 @ 10:30pm
FREE
Bootleg Theater (aka host of Night Hawks)
2220 Beverly Blvd.
(213) 389-3856
Ample Street Parking

Directors: Anthony Byrnes, Michael Dunn, Jessica Hanna, Jennifer Li, Robert Prior, Kirk Wilson
Lighting Design: John Eckert
Sound Design: Adam Phalen
Players: Rob Adler, Don Allen, Joshua Allen, Ashley Blumstein, Sissy Boyd, Joshua Wolf Coleman, Patty Cornell, Liz Davies, Jenn DeMartino, Michael Dunn, Elizabeth Guilliams, Jessica Hanna, Danielle Holland, Marc Jackson, Daniele Watts, Jon Morris, Patrick Mapel, Robert Navarret, Tim Ottman, Avo Soltes, Andrea Tvetkov, Sarah Utterback, Kirk Wilson and Jabez Zuniga
Producers: Michael Dunn, Jessica Hanna and Kirk Wilson

Labels: events, Nighthawks, performances

Artel gets their name from two sources - 1.) the acronym American Russian Theatre Ensemble Laboratory - 2.) a nod to the Russian tradition of coop communities. Historically an Artel means
a Russian cooperative labor group that often provided protection for groups of fisherman or miners. The LA-based group brings a historical sense of justice to the performance art world while exploring on stage the possibilities of dance, movement, and puppetry with explosive affect.

Artel will be at the one-night only all ages event Nighthawks' Where The Wild Things Are Monday Mar. 19 at Bootleg Theater. Throughout the night you'll find members of Artel among the crowd and taking the stage for a variety of site specific pieces.

Check out their blog for more info on their exciting processes involving Commedia del Arte, Russian traditions, and ritual.

You can also find members of Artel marching against the war in Hollywood next Saturday in a fantastic resistance ritual.
The Butoh Surge Parade
Saturday Mar. 17
more info at corpusbutoh.org

Labels: events, Nighthawks, performances

If you go to Betalevel's website for their next event you'll find a bunch of psycho-babble and obscure expressions in German. If you go to Betalevel's next event, Late Night Snack, you'll find an eclectic group of intellectuals and artists showing off in a basement in Chinatown. The good news is, you are encouraged to show off too. There will be new forms of performance art and discussion as well as snacks.

Tuesday Mar. 6 9:30pm
Late Night Snack
Betalevel
Chinatown

Directions:
1. Find yourself in front of FULL HOUSE RESTAURANT located at 963 N. Hill Street in Chinatown.
2. Locate the alley on the left hand side of Full House.
3. Walk about 20 feet down the alley (away from the street).
4. Stop.
5. Notice dumpster on your right hand side.
6. Take a right and continue down the alley.
7. Exercise caution so as not trip on the wobbly cement blocks underfoot
8. The entrance to Betalevel is located 10 yards down on left side, behind a red door, down a black staircase.


Image from betalevel.com.

Labels: art, events, performances

Just in time for Valentine's Day, aka The Lonely Hearts Club Extravaganza Orgy, watch the agony of love in Ten West's chilling tale set to Johnny Cash's "Hurt". A tragic enactment with Barbie dolls, of course, starring 1/2 of Ten West's amazing post-modern vaudevillian duo, Jon Monastero. I saw him perform this live recently and while the impact of the ending is best experienced on stage, this video comes very close.



Catch Ten West's next live show and you won't be sorry.
Playing practically nightly at 24th Street Theater.

Labels: performances, videos

The LA theater community sure can be wacky. Among the struggling extras, would-be models, and sketch comics, anytime there's an experimental theater event, the fire-eaters show up. The Theatre of Note's 12th Annual Marathon Benefit Night will be no different. What will be unique is the amount of performance art they'll pack in their marathon schedule which starts Saturday at 1:00pm and heads on without stopping into the wee hours of the next morning. Tenacious D took the stage hostage a couple years back. You might discover the next big act too, just make sure you sit a couple rows back to avoid getting any hair singed off. $18 grants you admission for the 15+ hours.

Saturday, Jan. 20
12th Annual Hollywood Performance Mayhem to benefit
Theatre of Note
1517 N. Cahuenga
Validated parking available at Arclight Cinemas parking garage.

Labels: events, performances

The premise behind this elaborate production is simple: make up a musical/pageant/spectacle , where all props and costumes must be made from items found at the 99cents Only Stores. An annual event, the past four shows have seen musical variety shows, feuding tribes of puppeteers, a 99cents Only village, and last year's dinner theater set in Wyoming. If you grew up with any exposure to Lawrence Welk, this year's show is a familiar premise: the pageant of the four seasons. Ushured in by a glorious Mother Nature, Summer through Spring follows a young man and lady through four show stopping numbers. Writer/Director/Choreographer Ken Roht has an interest in minimalist opera and sought to grow as an artist with more abstract collage work. What occurs each second on stage is not just collages of technicolor plastics but a series of gorgeous tableaus where the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock would be jealous. With at least a dozen dancers on stage at all times, producer Jessica Hanna assures this is not the largest cast in the 99 cents show's history but by far this year boasts the most donations. (99cents Only lets the company have free reign on their warehouse and all designers are encouraged to keep buying as the budget allows). Familiar household objects pop out of plastic palm tress, like rainbow feather dusters and loofahs. Laundry baskets double as giant flowers. Christmas tinsel dresses the dancers' hula skirts. In fact the only thing not originating from the 99cents store would be the performers' leotards and sneakers, a minimalist white which makes everyone on stage deranged mimes. Each season anticipates a giant song and dance number and every actors' physical abilities are top-notch. In L.A. we get a nod to the plight of the out of work triple-threat, when the actor under the Lizard-Elvis makeup from the summertime Hawaiian under-the-sea showstopper flashes his headshot and phone number on the back wall. The screen on the back wall is another layer to the mayhem morphing like a giant screensaver to fit the mood of each season. Fall brings a modern ballet, while Winter is not the predictable Nutcracker snowflake suite, but a sparse meditation where the white of snow is no longer associated with purity but creates cold. This is the moment in the 50 minute show where one can rest from the sensory overload and actually appreciate the artistry by every cast member. Spring, of course, comes to full bloom and re-awakening but with a folk music soundtrack. Did I mention every bit is original music and lyrics? The arrangement is wonderful if not lost in the bootleg theater's sound limitations. Fans of past shows and lovers of all things Americana-kitsch will find a home here and maybe think twice when buying their next cheap toilet brush.

The pageant has been extended but will close Jan. 28th.

The 99 cents Only Modern Something presents
Pageant of the 4 Seasons
Thurs-Sat 8:00pm
Sun 7:00pm

Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd.
Echo Park
(213) 389-3856

Labels: performances, reviews

No - that's not the nickname you gave your little brothers for fighting over the last of the turkey-day leftovers - it's a play - in fact it's a fascinating look at three Texans, masculinity, border town politics and a more than needed wake-up call for our current immigration affairs. The Fountain Theatre is hosting a staged reading Tuesday night. The more people that come, the more the Fountain will want to put it up on the main stage. Please come out and support new LA theater director Danielle Holland and her cast.

Tuesday, Dec. 5
8:00 pm
Presented at The Fountain Theatre
a reading of THE WAR BOYS by Naomi Wallace
directed by Danielle Holland
featuring
Marc Devine
Jordan Levinson
Ammar Mahmood

The Fountain Theatre
5060 Fountain Ave
Free admission
reception afterwards

“This half of me is Mejicano. This other half is WASP. Como sabes which side is which? My mother was a Mexican. She used to tell me: Este lado es Mejicano. This side is Mexican - the side with the heart.” - Greg

Labels: events, performances

This may be simplifying it - but a one-person show is hard to pull off. If the audience doesn't connect to the story or the performer lacks engagement then there is no other cast to fall back on. "The Gimmick" is like many solo shows; intensely autobiographical and fortunately for L.A. theater goers, she holds your attention. In the intimate walls of the Fountain Theatre, Dael Orlandersmith tells the tale of Alexis, an underprivileged black girl trying to escape her fate in 1970s Harlem - which means avoiding the hustles and sins or "gimmicks". She finds solace in books. She finds power in the written word. We hear pages from Alexis' journal and Orlandersmith doesn't neglect the message as she packs the show with fierce alliteration and repetition. As she reenacts the moment Alexis discovered the liberating power of words all I could think was this should be required viewing for public school kids. Like many one-woman shows, Orlandersmith acts out the cast of characters. There's the local working girl, a constant reminder of what she does not want to become, the drunk and constantly disappointing parents, and the highlights: her best-friend Jimmy, and her mentor the local librarian. The supporting characters are so real and at the same time brilliantly larger life, as they shine through the Alexis' eyes. Often their words are choked in tears. I found myself wiping my eyes a lot during the 60 some minute show. The Gimmick is an emotional story and never holds back the bitter pain of self-exploration. Orlandersmith's journey is our own, full of heartache with constant hope for artistic triumph. The engaging journey is an enjoyable one, not to be missed.

The Gimmick runs until October 1. Wed-Sun. 8pm
Fountain Theatre
5060 Fountain Ave.
East Hollywood, 90029
Box Office 323/663-1525

Labels: performances, reviews