MONK PARROTS, OPEN CHANNEL CREATIONS & ROGER SMITH ARTS present HOTEL ROOM TRILOGY by BARRY GIFFORD production concept and direction by GREG SKURA: A THREE-PART EXPERIENCE: TRICKS  STARR*  BLACKOUT

*World premiere, adapted from Mr. Gifford’s short story ROOM 584, THE STARR HOTEL, from his book AMERICAN FALLS

PERFORMANCE DATES
OCTOBER 27,28,29 2011
at
The Roger Smith Hotel
501 Lexington Avenue, New York NY

HOTEL ROOM TRILOGY is a trio of one-act plays that take place in a New York City hotel room across different periods in recent history. The event will take place in a room at the hotel and include an audience of only 10 for each performance, creating an intimate, voyeuristic experience of mood and menace for those who “check in” for the 75 minute experience.

The first of the trilogy, “TRICKS”, set in 1969, is a study in identity and psycho-sexual tension that features art-horror film star Larry Fessenden, Rob Sheridan, and Megan McQuillan. “STARR”, set in the present, is a world premiere adaptation of Mr. Gifford’s short story “Room 584, The Starr Hotel” from his book American Falls, and features Darrell Larson as a man on the run from the law, and, himself.  “BLACKOUT”, a quiet, magical story set in candlelight during a blackout in New York City in 1936, features Luke Leonard and Tilly Scott.  Overseeing the action as the hotel’s Bellboy and Maid are Joey LePage and Keely Hunt, respectively.

Greg Skura is responsible for the production concept and directs.

BARRY GIFFORD’s fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in twenty-eight languages. He has been the recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Library Association, the Writers Guild of America, and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. His books Sailor’s Holiday and The Phantom Father were each named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times, and his book Wyoming was named a Novel of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. His film credits include Wild at Heart, Perdita Durango, Lost Highway, City of Ghosts, Ball Lightning and The Phantom Father. Barry Gifford’s most recent books are Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels and Sad Stories of the Death of Kings. For more information visit www.BarryGifford.com.

MONK PARROTS, INC. is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit performing arts organization founded in New York City that encourages creative approaches to theatre-making and builds repertory performance works that cross artistic boundaries. www.monkparrots.org

OPEN CHANNEL CREATIONS, LLC provides artists a platform to exercise unfiltered creative expression.  www.openchannelcreations.com

ROGER SMITH ARTS is a multi-disciplinary arts production company providing cultural entertainment as a way to promote dialogue within and between the leading disciplines of the New York and global art worlds.  The company’s mission is to establish itself as a pre-eminent and sought after cultural institution to the city of New York.  www.rogersmithlife.com

For more info, including tickets and show times, visit www.hrt-nyc.com or call 212.229.8042.

Buy tickets HERE

More info

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The Solarium at The Roger Smith Hotel
501 Lexington Ave, at 47th Street, New York NY 10017
Cross Street: 47th Street and Lexington Avenue
Subway: E, 6, V to 53rd and Lexington or 4, 5, 6, 7 to Grand Central
Tickets: $15 (paid at door, cash only)

Reservations: call 212.339.2092 or email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com

Roger Smith Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts production company providing cultural entertainment as a way to promote dialogue within and between the leading disciplines of the New York and global art worlds. The company’s mission is to establish itself as a pre-eminent and sought after cultural institution to the city of New York. Recognizing dialogue as the backbone of any cultural organization, RSA embraces variety as a means to foster the exchange of creative ideas. RSA produces performance art and site specific installation exhibits, jazz and acoustic singer/songwriter concerts, poetry readings, chamber music concerts, and ongoing speaker series, all with leading creative intellectuals of their various fields.

The mission of the New York City Classical Guitar Society is to provide a framework for the shared enjoyment and exploration of the classical guitar in New York City, and to promote awareness and appreciation of its heritage and influence across musical genres, bringing together performers, composers, supporting members of the guitar community, and the listening public in ways that enrich the experience of all. nyccgs.com

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We are pleased to announce Kata Mejia’s fifth show at The LAB (for installation + performance art). APOLOGY, a performance installation, questions the meaning, effects and repercussions of both asking for, and being asked for forgiveness.

Through physical actions that transcend the spoken, written and felt qualities of an apology, the performance installation will focus on the idea that an apology cannot repair damage. “Receiving an apology may at times even cause a feeling of emptiness within those wronged.” explains Mejia.

The artist  will use her body to paint the gallery floor. Using a paint soaked thread to create winding, meandering traces in an abstract oval shape, she will use only her feet to pull her proned body and the thread backwards through the   space. Mejia’s struggle to complete the action will reference the idea that an apology is a difficult journey for those who receive it as well as a weight laden with guilt for those who offer it. Furthermore, as the artist moves throughout the space the lines on the floor will build up causing past lines to become less intense and less significant, reflecting the way memory and possibly pain diminish with time.

Performances will take place October 6th and 7th, 6-8pm. The installation will be on view October 7-28th.

Kata Mejia is a performance artist with a background in painting and dance who lives and works in Philadelphia. She graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Masters degree in Performance in 2004. She received her BFA from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin. She has been awarded several grants and scholarships, including the James Nelson Raymond Fellowship in 2004, the Trustee Scholarship from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, a Colombian Government Scholarship for Graduate Studies abroad, and a Graduate Studies Scholarship from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2002. Kata Mejía received a 2009 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.Kata Mejia website

The LAB (for installation + performance art) is a New York based, converted storefront turned fishbowl producing 20+ fast paced performance art and installation exhibitions annually. Aimed at the furious midtown foot traffic, The LAB’s programming is designed to confront modern relationships between art and audience and seeks to force an interaction between the high energy, “outrospective” exhibitions it produces and the nearly 25,000 daily passersby. The LAB is located on the North East corner of 47th and Lex and is a Roger Smith Collaboration. The LAB Gallery website

For further information contact Danika Druttman on 212.339.2092 or email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com

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Reservations: 212.339.2092 or send us an email

Threefifty Duo has been described as “a classical guitar duo with a rock edge,” as guitarists Brett Parnell and Geremy Schulick seamlessly weave their contemporary rock sensibilities into the rich fabric of classical guitar. After years of writing and performing together and with a second album under Threefifty’s belt, the duo’s stylistic tendencies have further expanded, with genre blurred by an intensely personal sound that is rhythmic, infectious, engaging, and at once both new and accessible.

Formed in the halls of The Yale School of Music, taught by renowned classical guitarist Benjamin Verdery, and molded by the multi-faceted music scene of their hometown New York City, Threefifty Duo has gone on to play in a diverse array of venues and festivals, from concert halls to rock clubs. Highlights include SXSW, The 92nd Street Y, The New York Guitar Festival, Southpaw, Pianos, The Monkey, Wittenberg University, Sarajevo’s Dom Armije, Genghis Cohen, Connecticut Guitar Society, and California State University at Long Beach, where choreography was set to their music. Recent projects have also included a collaboration with video artist Jennifer Stock. In the fall of 2010 Threefifty Duo set off for a three-week tour of the UK, where they played as part of CMEAS’ Fall UK Tour and the Lancaster Music Festival.

Their self-titled debut album marked the duo as innovators in classical guitar programming, moving effortlessly between the compositions of their classical heroes, contemporary counterparts, and their own creations. While the album captured the verve and enthusiasm of a well-practiced and polished duo, it is Threefifty’s sophomore effort, “Circles,” that presents the listener with a volume of all original compositions and a full emergence of the duo’s distinctive voice, highlighted by Dominic Frasca’s sumptuous production.

Threefifty Duo has been featured on WNYC’s “New Sounds” with John Schaefer and Premier Guitar magazine’s website, and has received critical acclaim from Time Out NY, Guitar Edge Magazine, Vintage Guitar Magazine, Classical Guitar News, Minor 7th, Lancashire Life, and the UK’s Classical Guitar Magazine, who wrote of it: “Brilliant! … each track is an attention-grabbing item and throughout there are no low-points. The style is difficult to describe: performing on classical guitars and steel-stringed guitar, Circles is an amalgamation of classical/rock/folk; sometimes romantic, sometimes thrillingly energetic, but at all times spell-binding. Loved every second of it and will play it time and again.”

Roger Smith Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts production company providing cultural entertainment as a way to promote dialogue within and between the leading disciplines of the New York and global art worlds. The company’s mission is to establish itself as a pre-eminent and sought after cultural  institution to the city of New York. Recognizing dialogue as the backbone of any cultural organization, RSA embraces variety as a means to foster the exchange of creative ideas. RSA produces performance art and site specific  installation exhibits, jazz and acoustic singer/songwriter concerts, poetry readings, chamber music concerts, and ongoing speaker series, all with leading creative intellectuals of their various fields.

The series is co-sponsored by the New York City Classical Guitar Society.

The mission of the New York City Classical Guitar Society is to provide a framework for the shared enjoyment and exploration of the classical guitar in New York City, and to promote awareness and appreciation of its heritage and influence across musical genres, bringing together performers, composers, supporting members of the guitar community, and the listening public in ways that enrich the experience of all.nyccgs.com

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–

The Roger Smith Hotel and Roger Smith Arts are pleased to present SYNESTHESIA #1. Taking place on September 28th,  it will be the first in a series of elaborately directed dinners centered around a 10 course tasting menu created by Chef de Cuisine, Daniel Mowles, and interspersed with a wild and edgy cocktail of performance art, music, poetry, and dance.

Conceived and directed by the Roger Smith Arts team of Matt Semler and Danika Druttman, the evening is intended to be an all out attack on the senses. “What we want to do is make people choke on their food” says Semler. “Not just because the food itself will be so good, but also because what’s going to be going on around them will be so stunning, that they might actually forget to chew.”

Mowles, a master of flavor combination, will create his 10 courses drawing from the following culinary concepts:

Green Tea Truffles, Sour Cherry Jam, Tangerine, Curry Aioli, Green Apple Truffle Mignotte, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Frisée, Scallop Tartar, Aged Cheddar Grits, Summer Peaches and  American Caviar.

The performances and art interactions will include the works of poet Richard Jeffrey Newman, performance art collective BabySkinGlove, Colombian/Japanese Butoh Duo LEIMAY, Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd, sound artist Alan Sondheim.

The evening is priced at $75 a head and tickets can be purchased http://synesthesia.eventbrite.com/

For further inquiries call 212.339.2092 or email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS HERE

SYNESTHESIA #2 will take place on October 27^th.  Artists and menu will be announced October 3^rd.

Performers:

Consisting of over fifteen artists, BabySkinGlove is a performance collective based out of Brooklyn directed by Bailey Nolan. Their productions are avant garde interpretations of historical events. BabySkinGlove aims to remove the audience from their true location and transport them to a psychic place, leaving each voyeur with a different, unique, and decidedly inspirational experience. In the past year BabySkinGlove has collaborated with accomplished artists including Ryan Trecartin, Vanessa Beecroft, Amanda Lepore and James Franco.

Australian born guitarist Rupert Boyd is acclaimed as one of the most talented guitarists of his generation. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Australia, and has been described by The Washington Post as “truly evocative”, and by Classical Guitar Magazine as “a player who deserves to be heard.”

LEIMAY is the parapluie for Ximena Garnica art works, Shige Moriya art works and the collaboration work between these two artists at the intersection of  dance, performance, and installation art. Their work has been developed in residencies at the Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, the New Hazlett Theater, the National Museum of Dance, and Hanoi Contemporary Arts Center. LEIMAY is a project of the experimental and contemporary art and performance space known as CAVE.

Richard Jeffrey Newman is the author of The Silence Of Men (CavanKerry Press, 2006), a book of poetry, and three books of translations from classical Persian literature: Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan, Selections from Saadi’s Bustan (Global Scholarly Press 2004 and 2006) and, most recently, The Teller of Tales: Stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. He is Professor of English at Nassau Community College.

Alan Sondheim is an independent writer / theorist / artist. He co-founded the Cybermind and Wryting email lists. He is editor of Being on Line and author of .echo, Disorders of the Real and The Wayward. He is also published widely online and his video/sound work is internationally exhibited.

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS HERE

Listening To Your Food: Synesthesia

From www.foodiggity.com

Last week we did a test run and here are a few of Daniel’s ideas…more coming soon!

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Over coffee at Lily’s, with myself, Danika Druttman and James Knowles, we tossed around the idea of building a young collectors art program. To be honest the idea might have been in circulation for sometime (you never know where the origin of these things comes from). Whether we came up with it or it had been a rolling stone, nothing is new, just rearranged…

James Knowles as Ben Franklin #RogersRewards

Anyway, out of his wallet he pulls two crisp $100 bills and presents them to the both of us.

The objective is to build a body of work with the intent of capturing and stimulating a collector’s imagination. For a long time our efforts have been focused on the subject and perspective of the artist and their motivations. This new initiative takes into account the mind and eye of the collector, the stories and perspectives of the people who purchase works of art.

Sent into the summer months with an idea, we now revisit the concept with newly acquired works of art. After spending a couple weeks at the Vermont Studio Center, I returned to New York with two works from a fellow artist in residence, Ester Hasskamp.

As I canvassed her studio during the open studio visit, my eye was drawn to a small black piece of paper with a threaded outline of a blue moon and its rays. Without receiving a formal title from the artist, I call it “Blue Moon & Ray”.

The second work that caught my attention was a gravestone rubbing with the name Alice. This stimulated a funny memory that involves my sister Phoebe. Phoebe and I went to support the new Bier Garden that had just opened in our neighborhood. There was a live band that was playing one of those songs similar to “Sweet Caroline” where a full crowded bar participate in the chorus… This song, which neither of us had ever heard, has burned itself into my memory as a bar room classic and will always stimulate the question, “Who the fuck is Alice?”

“Who the fuck is Alice?”

As we begin to build our collectors’ portfolios we have a confidence that our decisions have the potential to appreciate in value with each contribution. The stories that motivate the purchase and relationships that we build with the artist become long-lasting.

This is just the beginning.

As we grow this collection, we embrace artists and collectors alike to participate. As the collector has his/her own identity and personality, so will the collection. I have created my own personal blog that will follow my contributions to the overall collection and will also be providing updates to Roger Smith Life as the project grows.

Not to make it too much of a competition, but I am interested to see what Danika brings to the table.

Cheerio.

Be well,
John Knowles
a.k.a Panman

Follow @pancity on twitter.
Other related links
My100artcollection.tumblr.com
Panmanmixtapes.tumblr.com

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In his second show at The LAB Gallery, Jongil Ma will be collaborating with Elizabeth Winton to create a forested enclave that will transform The LAB into a real life illustration as if `from a children’s book. The scene will include a troupe of elaborate, fantastical beetles and a wolf preying over them as they prepare for a feast. They will be surrounded by both urban and wild landscapes with flickering buildings, leafless dead trees, paper cutouts and bushes.

Jongil Ma, best known for creating large abstract installations of bound colorful wood strips, and Elizabeth Winton, who has been working with mixed media collage and painting for years, will come together to build a surreal picture of our time’s concerns. Steeped in both humor and a more serious social awareness, the installation will illuminate the unique fears of our current time. The piece will play off innate tensions between the playful and political, the individual and the social, the real and manipulated.

Interview with Jongil Ma and Elizabeth Winton

Studio visit with Jongil Ma

Jongil Ma received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2002. He has had a solo exhibition at The LAB Gallery in 2009 as well as participating in shows at in Jamaica Flux: Workspaces & Windows at Jamaica Center For Arts & Learning in Queens, LMCC Governors Island Project in 2010, as well as public art projects sponsored by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism of Korea in Kwangju and Damyang respectively. His work has been featured in international exhibitions including the 2009 International Incheon Women Artist’s Biennale in Korea and he participated in the Lodz Biennale 2010 in Poland. Jongil recently showed in the AIM Biennial Exhibition in the Bronx Museum in June and ‘Flow. 11 Art and Music at Randall’s Island, Islip Art Museum in May, 2011 and Space K Gallery at Kolon Building in Gwacheon Korea. His awards have included the INC Visual Arts Award from the AHL Foundation and a Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park, The artist of year from Hanyang. Jongil Ma website

Elizabeth Winton is a Brooklyn-based visual artist working primarily in painting, collage and printmaking. She received her BA with a focus in fine art from Connecticut College in 1991. During this period and continuing after graduation she studied independently in New York, working as an artist’s assistant to Elizabeth Murray and Mimi Gross. Elizabeth has had residencies in Johnson, VT and retreats in Provincetown, MA and East Hampton, NY. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States, including shows at Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY; Kolok Gallery, North Adams, MA, Margaret Bodell Gallery, New York, NY; the Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center in Nashville, TN; and the Guadalupe Cultural Center, San Antonio, TX. Her most recent solo show, curated by Douglas Dunn, was at CUE Art Foundation in 2011. Elizabeth Winton website

The LAB (for installation + performance art) is a New York based, converted storefront turned fishbowl producing 20+ fast paced performance art and installation exhibitions annually. Aimed at the furious midtown foot traffic, The LAB’s programming is designed to confront modern relationships between art and audience and seeks to force an interaction between the high energy, “outrospective” exhibitions it produces and the nearly 25,000 daily passersby. The LAB is located on the North East corner of 47th and Lex and is a Roger Smith Collaboration. The LAB Gallery website

For further information contact Danika Druttman on 212.339.2092 or email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com

Installation time lapse video

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THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1ST 6:30-7:30pm

Please join us to celebrate the completion of our Summer show ‘Projected Drawings’, with home-made Popsicles from the Roger Smith Food Cart outside the gallery on the corner of 47th and Lexington.

SHOW ENDS SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2011
CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Helen Dennis: Projected Drawings Video Interview click to watch

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The Starlight Room at The Roger Smith Hotel

Monk Parrots, Inc. & rogersmitharts

Present a Sneak Peek/Insider’s Reading

HOTEL ROOM: “TRICKS” & “BLACKOUT”

Plays by Barry Gifford

Production Concept & Direction by Greg Skura

Featuring:
Larry Fessenden  John Harmon  Eric Hunt  Heidi Jackson  Luke Leonard  Joey Lepage  Rob Sheridan  Jennifer Skura   Keely Kate Williams

Make your reservations here
or RSVP to info@monkparrots.com
or call 212.229.8042

The Roger Smith is a hub for social media in #NYC. People. Art. Food. Wine. For 10% off our best available rooms rate: bit.ly/RSrooms

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Praised as a guitarist with “enormous facility on the guitar, a fluent technique, who plays with total confidence and professional expertise, panache and artful spontaneity”, by Grammy Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin, Australian classical guitarist Scott Borg performs extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, he has been a featured artist at major concert halls such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and New York’s Apollo Theatre with rock legend Carlos Alomar. As a winner of Artists International, he made his Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall where New York Concert Review described his performance as “well balanced, gracefully presented, and expertly played”. Previous engagements have included performances and masterclasses at the Merida International Guitar Festival in Yucatan, Mexico, ICPNA International Guitar Festival in Lima Peru, Shell Darwin International Festival Australia, the 92nd Street Y, New York City Classical Guitar Society and Sydney Classical Guitar Society. www.scottborgguitar.com

The Second Sundays Classical Guitar Concerts Series As the name implies, this series takes place on the second Sunday of every month in the spectacular and intimate Penthouse on the sixteenth floor of the hotel. Co-curated by composer and musician Frank Wallace and musician and president of the New York City Classical Guitar Society John Olson, the SSCCS series presents musicians performing in styles ranging from the Segovia Tradition to the rock inspired, from flamenco to modern art song.

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