Aaron Landsman

CURRENT PROJECTS

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Supported by a HERE Artist Residency, and major funding from NEFA, MAP, Jerome and NPN, I am working on a four-city performance project with director/dramaturg Mallory Catlett and designer Jim Findlay. We call it performed participatory democracy. Inspired by photographer Paul Shambroom, and by a truly Shakespearean city council meeting I attended in Oregon a couple years ago, this piece is about the poetry in bureaucracy, the architecture of power and the comedy of procedure. Audience members and performers will be Mayors, schoolkids and priests, testify on issues of their concern, and be webcast live every night. City Council Meeting harnesses the imperfection of democracy and the imperfection of theater. Premieres in the winter of 2012-13 at HERE and DiverseWorks Art Space.

We have a website here. We've tried out excerpts of the project at Stanford University, Women Center Stage and A.R.T.'s Emerging Americas festival in Boston. Read more here.

RUNNING AWAY FROM THE ONE WITH THE KNIFE

2w, 1m

A three-character play about suicide and religious faith. A monk, a ghost and her sister wake together. Based on conversations with a member of The Little Brothers of Jesus, and on stories from friends. Developed through a residency at University Settlement, at P73's Yale Residency and at the UC Santa Barbara Summer Theater Lab. Looking for a place to play.

SPECIAL TONIGHT

3m, 2w

A five-character play in which three men sit in a sauna and psyche each other out, one of their girlfriends shows up outside the gym, and the four of them go to dinner at a cozy little restaurant. After working site-specifically for a number of years, I'm excited to build this new piece for a theater. Special Tonight was a finalist for the Yale Drama Series.

APPOINTMENT

Begun in 2009, Appointment is a series of collaborative, repeatable 15-minute pieces that are performed in offices for one viewer at a time. Using the rituals and environment of the workplace as a departure point, Appointment takes a situation that can seem beneath examination and turns it into a cause for pleasure and surprise.

I am developing the project through collaborations with theater and dance companies, individual artists, and students at performance training programs. The first version, "The Advisors," took place at 2009's Prelude Festival at CUNY with collaborators Sibyl Kempson, Daniel Alexander Jones, and animator and musician Brent Green.

Last March, I created a new series of Appointments in Oslo, Norway, which were performed at the offices of SOS RASISME, while people went about their workdays.

The next Appointments will Austin Texas's FuseBox Festival and in Berlin in 2012.

Appointment is being archived, slowly, at this blog.

PATIENT BOY

4m, 2w

A new, environmental theater work I wrote, and am buidling with Mallory Catlett. It's about nostalgia, nihilism, idealism, punk rock, and young love. Mall burnings enuse. Regret? Irony? We are seeking partners for further development.

RECENT PROJECTS

EUREPICA - a project with Free Theater of Belarus - March 2009

Free Theater of Belarus, a group of dissident playwrights, directors and actors I've gotten to know in Minsk (home of Europe's last dictatorship), commissioned 12 playwrights from 12 countries to create new plays around the common theme of "A changing Europe." We got together in Minsk last spring to read the first drafts, and the project premieres in March in Lund, Sweden. Free Theater has gained the attention of playwrights like Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, both for the struggles they endure to make their work, and the lovely pieces they produce. Other countries represented in Europica include Sweden, Turkey, UK, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Belarus, and Macedonia. Eurepica will be on tour in 2009-2010. (Read more about the project).

Read a profile of me and other theater artists working in conflict zones in BACKSTAGE

OPEN HOUSE - 24 performances in 24 living rooms - Spring 2008

READ THE PRESS * LISTEN TO A WNYC RADIO STORY ON THE SHOW * WATCH EXCERPTS ON YOUTUBE

The Foundry Theatre commissioned Open House, which was performed in a different apartment each night. A comedy of romantic failure told in hindsight, a futuristic real estate seminar, and a neighborhood meeting about the changing city, it was my first show fully-produced in New York in five years. The piece was directed by Melanie Joseph and starrred the lovely and talented Raul Castillo, Heidi Shreck and Paul Willis.


	CURRENT PROJECTS *CITY COUNCIL MEETING* Supported by a HERE Artist Residency, and major funding from NEFA, MAP, Jerome and NPN, I am working on a four-city performance project with director/dramaturg Mallory Catlett and designer Jim Findlay. We call it performed participatory democracy. Inspired by photographer Paul Shambroom, and by a truly Shakespearean city council meeting I attended in Oregon a couple years ago, this piece is about the poetry in bureaucracy, the architecture of power and the comedy of procedure. Audience members and performers will be Mayors, schoolkids and priests, testify on issues of their concern, and be webcast live every night. City Council Meeting harnesses the imperfection of democracy and the imperfection of theater. Premieres in the winter of 2012-13 at HERE and DiverseWorks Art Space. We have a website here. We've tried out excerpts of the project at Stanford University, Women Center Stage and A.R.T.'s Emerging Americas festival in Boston. Read more here. *RUNNING AWAY FROM THE ONE WITH THE KNIFE* 2w, 1m A three-character play about suicide and religious faith. A monk, a ghost and her sister wake together. Based on conversations with a member of The Little Brothers of Jesus, and on stories from friends. Developed through a residency at University Settlement, at P73's Yale Residency and at the UC Santa Barbara Summer Theater Lab. Looking for a place to play. SPECIAL TONIGHT 3m, 2w A five-character play in which three men sit in a sauna and psyche each other out, one of their girlfriends shows up outside the gym, and the four of them go to dinner at a cozy little restaurant. After working site-specifically for a number of years, I'm excited to build this new piece for a theater. Special Tonight was a finalist for the Yale Drama Series. APPOINTMENT Begun in 2009, Appointment is a series of collaborative, repeatable 15-minute pieces that are performed in offices for one viewer at a time. Using the rituals and environment of the workplace as a departure point, Appointment takes a situation that can seem beneath examination and turns it into a cause for pleasure and surprise. I am developing the project through collaborations with theater and dance companies, individual artists, and students at performance training programs. The first version, "The Advisors," took place at 2009's Prelude Festival at CUNY with collaborators Sibyl Kempson, Daniel Alexander Jones, and animator and musician Brent Green. Last March, I created a new series of Appointments in Oslo, Norway, which were performed at the offices of SOS RASISME, while people went about their workdays. The next Appointments will Austin Texas's FuseBox Festival and in Berlin in 2012. Appointment is being archived, slowly, at this blog. *PATIENT BOY* 4m, 2w A new, environmental theater work I wrote, and am buidling with Mallory Catlett. It's about nostalgia, nihilism, idealism, punk rock, and young love. Mall burnings enuse. Regret? Irony? We are seeking partners for further development. RECENT PROJECTS EUREPICA - a project with Free Theater of Belarus - March 2009 Free Theater of Belarus, a group of dissident playwrights, directors and actors I've gotten to know in Minsk (home of Europe's last dictatorship), commissioned 12 playwrights from 12 countries to create new plays around the common theme of "A changing Europe." We got together in Minsk last spring to read the first drafts, and the project premieres in March in Lund, Sweden. Free Theater has gained the attention of playwrights like Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, both for the struggles they endure to make their work, and the lovely pieces they produce. Other countries represented in Europica include Sweden, Turkey, UK, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Belarus, and Macedonia. Eurepica will be on tour in 2009-2010. (Read more about the project). Read a profile of me and other theater artists working in conflict zones in BACKSTAGE OPEN HOUSE - 24 performances in 24 living rooms - Spring 2008 READ THE PRESS * LISTEN TO A WNYC RADIO STORY ON THE SHOW * WATCH EXCERPTS ON YOUTUBE The Foundry Theatre commissioned Open House, which was performed in a different apartment each night. A comedy of romantic failure told in hindsight, a futuristic real estate seminar, and a neighborhood meeting about the changing city, it was my first show fully-produced in New York in five years. The piece was directed by Melanie Joseph and starrred the lovely and talented Raul Castillo, Heidi Shreck and Paul Willis.