The Hidden Faces of Courage

A Semi-staged Public Reading
By Mary Driscoll
Directed by Jacqui Parker

Saturday, June 2, 8 pm
10 Channel Center Street
Boston, MA

Free, Donations Accepted

Click here for reservations or call 800.838.3006

Fort Point Theatre Channel is proud to host the first semi-staged reading of The Hidden Faces of Courage. This is the newest theatre piece from the Generational Legacy Project of the nonprofit On With Living and Learning, Inc.—OWLL.

The Hidden Faces of Courage came about by working with women worthy to be honored. The play centers around the life of one formally incarcerated woman, her friends, and her son. Their stories symbolize the lives of innumerable woman and children of similar circumstances. That is to say, they become a product of poverty, violence, drug use, and prison. It is their legacy of courage they hope to pass on.

Combining monologues, rap, spirituals, and dance, The Hidden Faces of Courage will be presented by the women of OWLL and professional actors from Our Place and Fort Point Theatre Channel. Come to have fun, laugh, cry, and learn something amazing.

OWLL, led by FPTC member Mary Driscoll, uses theatre as a medium for public dialogue to promote economic opportunity and active engagement for all members of a community.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events. The program is also supported by a grant from Mass Humanities. 

Indiscreet Discretion

By Silvia Graziano
 

Choreography by Courtney Peix and Contrapose Dance

Music Composed by Brendan Burns

Directed by Marc S. Miller

June 15-23
10 Channel Center Street
Boston, MA

Click here to order tickets
or call 800.838.3006
(Note: cash or check only at the door)

Check out this slide show of rehearsal photos by Daniel J. van Ackere

About Indiscreet Discretion

"Where there was id, there shall be ego." - Freud

Fort Point Theatre Channel's playwright and co-artistic director Silvia Graziano's new play takes a deep, dark look at the battle between our human and animal impulses. This premiere production is a chilling story of a trio of characters whose paths cross with surreal results. A big city writer is holed up with his lover in the country and as they discuss his upcoming murder story, a stranger comes upon their house, seemingly the victim of some kind of accident. The three people share secrets, but the inevitable battle for control leads to the question of where their stories of sex and violence will end. The actors will be joined on stage by a pair of dancers from the Contrapose Dance and musician Brendan Burns, who composed the score for play.

Click the photo for more rehearsal photos like this in the slide show by Daniel J. van Ackere.

Since its founding in 2007, FPTC has earned a reputation for unique productions that bridge the diverse genres of its 13 artist members and their guests. With Indiscreet Discretion, FPTC takes this further, combining traditional theatre with original dance by Contrapose Dance, and featuring live music composed and performed by Brendan Burns. The script has a touch of Edgar Allen Poe and Harold Pinter-mixing reality with surrealism-while blending the dark and the delicious.

Click here to read Dream Weird's interview with playwright Silvia Graziano about Indiscreet Discretion.

The Ensemble

The acting ensemble is composed of three of Boston's finest: Michael Fisher, Becca A. Lewis, and Victor L. Shopov. They are joined by 2 dancers from Contrapose, Burns, and guest musicians. The expansive, organic set is created by installation artist, Rick Dorff, a member of Fort Point Theatre Channel and a founding member of the Atlantic Works Gallery in East Boston where he shows his work.

The Production Team

Production Stage Manager: Vivian Yee
Costume Design: Maureen Festa
Lighting Design: Todd Sargent
Sound Design: Mark Warhol
Set Design: Rick Dorff
Workshop Stage Manager/Props Design: Amanda Sheehan
Makeup: Maya Landi
Assistant Lighting Design: Ida Aronson
Photography: Daniel J. van Ackere
Design Associate: Douglas Urbank
Graphic Design: Nick Thorkelson
Publicist: Amy R. Handler

Musicians 

Brendan Burns, Guitar, Loops, and Prepared Guitar
Kirsten Lamb, Upright Bass
Tony Leva, Bass
Kathy Olson, Baritone Sax
Valerie Thompson, Cello

Dancers

Magdalena Gyftopoulos
Tony Tucker

Silvia Graziano

The Hidden Faces of Courage

Tamziq: Scattered and Connected

At the same time that a growing number of Iraqi refugees are resettling in Massachusetts, a large number of veterans are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Tamziq: Scattered and Connected was conceived by FPTC member Anne Loyer to create an opportunity for dialogue and exchange with and within these communities and to broaden understanding of the cultural influences on our changing communities. Anne Loyer is director of the Odysseus Project and artist in residence at the Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at UMass Boston. This collaborative project seeks to create an opportunity for exploration and conversation about the impact of war on the communities and cultures of Iraqi and other Arabic refugees; the impact on education; and the related topics of gender, human rights, storytelling, and differences between American and Arabic perspectives.

ICONS: As part of this project, Fort Point Theater Channel will produce staged readings and a production of works by Middle Eastern playwrights. The first reading, from Waiting for Gilgamesh, by Amir Al Azraki, will take place at HallSpace Gallery in Dorchester, June 20, 2012, during Icons, an exhibition of work by Anne Loyer. Icons is a series of art works that has grown out of interviews with U.S. veterans of the Iraq war and with Iraqi citizens, recorded over the past three years. This will be presented in conjunction with Danny Bryck reading an excerpt from his new one-man play, No Room for Wishing.

The June 20th reading begins at 7 pm and is FREE.

The other main parts of the project are:

American and Middle Eastern Artists: A Conversation in Art, fall 2012: This exhibit will feature local and international artists from the United States, the Middle East, and its Diaspora. An artist panel, reception, and film screenings will take place in fall 2012 and spring 2013.

Artist Network: Creating a community of local American and Middle Eastern artists in Boston. Meetings, supported by professionals and academics specializing in area studies, art/politics, and other relevant fields, will lead to work for the exhibit.

Education: With the goal of developing mutual understanding that goes beyond the media portrayal of our respective cultures, the project is partnering with playwright Amir Al Azraki at the University of Basra to explore opportunities for educational projects involving students in Iraq and the United States.

For more information on Tamziq: Scattered and Connected and the Odysseus Project, see http://www.odysseusproject.org/tamziq.html.

No Room for Wishing

June 20, 2012

HallSpace Gallery

Dorchester, MA

Fort Point Theatre Channel is pleased to host Danny Bryck reading an excerpt from his new one-man play, No Room for Wishing. This will be presented in conjunction with a reading of excerpts from Waiting for Gilgamesh, by Amir Al Azraki, during an exhibition of work by Anne Loyer and others.

No Room for Wishing is a one-man documentary play about Occupy Boston written and performed by Bryck and directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. Using only the exact words of the people involved in and affected by the movement, the show pieces together the voices and experiences of many diverse individuals into the larger story of what happened over the two months that Dewey Square was occupied.

Both personal and political, No Room for Wishing is an up-close look at the sociopolitical climate of contemporary America and the way it affects a broad spectrum of people. Probing the ways that we as a culture perceive and communicate with each other, it asks, “What happens when we try to reinvent society?”

Click here for more information on No Room for Wishing.

Click here for more information on the exhibition and reading from Waiting for Gilgamesh.

Exclamation Point! 10: FILMSTOCK

Curated by Mark Warhol

FREE!
10 Channel Center Street
Fort Point

Friday July 6th and Saturday July 7th at 8pm

Come one, come all, to the tenth Exclamation Point! to view works by Fort Point residents, artists, and friends inspired by film. We'll include several genres, from films old and new, shorts, silent and musical works to theatre and animations.

The program will feature the premiere of the animated fairy tale Où est Fleuri Rose? that follows the adventures of a pink teddy bear in Quebec, set to the music of Mark Warhol with the artistry of animators Nick Thorkelson and Amy MacDonald.

Additionally, we’ll feature the experimental work of Pelle Lowe. Earthly Possessions is a trance film that uses the heightened emotional language of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Michel Foucault's Herculine Barbin as a starting point for a meditation on the eroticism of grief and the fluidity of gender identity in extremis. An early exploration of the uses of poetry in film, it intentionally pushes the boundaries of contemporary emotive expression.

These two films will be complimented by David Henry Haan’s play It Always Rains When John Cusack Is in Anguish, presenting a comedic encounter between John Cusack and a woman at a bus stop, and several film shorts and other works, including…

• Soundproof by Rocco Giuliano, a whimsical look at the filmmaker's old and new home, exploring the persistent tension between individuality and community

• o(77) by Julie Miller, a visionary experience intended to induce trance through image in order to experience altered states

• Vac†ncy by Mike Ware, an intensely personal short film, a meditation on the Catholic Church

 • The Passenger by Julie Zammarchi, an animated film of the memories, dreams, and visions that crowd a woman’s consciousness as she travels in a car toward her own death

• Breakfast, an installation about family and time, exploring the mutability of memory by Julie Mallozzi

And more!