Life and Times – Episodes 4.5 & 5
Life and Times is a multimedia, multi-episode project, generated from a single question, which director Pavol Liska asked of company member Kristin Worrall: “can you tell me your life story?”
With each episode we attempt to tackle a different formal and aesthetic challenge, and on principle we always choose an aesthetic form which makes us uncomfortable or is outside our skillset. The work of the project then is about acquiring the necessary skills and pushing ourselves to the limit to get there. Episodes 4.5 & 5 explore drawing, painting, animated film, and book arts.
Episode 4.5 starts where we left off with the end of high school and the search for love – starting with the older boys in science class and ending finally in the comfort of the family cat. This hand-drawn animated film features an original recorded soundtrack with orchestra.
The saga then continues and takes even more unexpected twists and turns in Episode 5 with the first sexual experience -- which we’ve made into a 140 page hand-drawn, hand-calligraphed illuminated manuscript. Working with the devotion of 16th century copyist monks, using techniques of early medieval bookmaking, directors Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska have drawn and lettered every page of the story in glorious detail. The reading of the book is accompanied with a live musical concert on keyboards.
A production of Nature Theater of Oklahoma in co-production with Berliner Festspiele/ Foreign Affairs, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) as part of Crossing the Line Festival 2013, and steirischer herbst festival, Graz.
Conceived and Directed by PAVOL LISKA and KELLY COPPER From a telephone conversation with KRISTIN WORRALL Original music by DANIEL GOWER (4.5 & 5) and ROBERT M. JOHANSON (4.5) Keyboards DANIEL GOWER Vocals JULIE LaMENDOLA w/ ROBERT M. JOHANSON Design PETER NIGRINI Dramaturg FLORIAN MALZACHER Production manager DANY NAIERMANProduction Chronology
November 2014 Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany (w/ Episode 6)
September 2014 steirischer herbst festival, Graz, Austria (w/ Episode 6)
September 2013 FIAF Crossing the Line Festival, New York, NY
September 2013 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Philadelphia, PA (w/ all Episodes 1-5)
June/July 2013 Berliner Festspiele/Foreign Affairs, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Germany (w/ all Episodes 1-5)
May 2013 Norfolk & Norwich Festival, United Kingdom (premiere w/ all Episodes 1-5)
May 2013 Göteborgs Dans & Teater Festival, Sweden (w/ Episodes 1-4) (in-progress)
Additional Exhibitions Portions of this work have also been exhibited as visual art separate from the performances as follows:Jan-March 2018, Boundless, Central Features Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM
September 2016, Theatre of Nations, Moscow, Russia (part of “Times Square(d): Theater of the Absurd”)
September 2013, Times Square Alliance/Times Square Arts, Midnight Moment, New York, NY
September/November 2013 FIAF Gallery, French Institute/Alliance Francasise, New York, NY
October 2011, Chat d’Oeuvres Program, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
