Woodbury's point was driven home in Katherine Brook's American Realism (with text arranged by Liza Birkenmeier), performed last week simultaneously in two venues: The live rendition was at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibits while a live-streamed version could be seen about three blocks away at Space 15 Twenty, on Cahuenga, beamed onto a large screen in a patio area between chic clothing stores and Umami Burger.
Inside the white-walled LACE gallery, a group of young men (Cory Antiel, Ben Ferguson, Nick Marcucci, Stephen Tonti and Daniel Weshler) in sandals and shorts munched on popcorn and pizza in an enclosed Astroturf rectangle depicting a tawdry corporate workspace — a couple of steel desks and chairs, a microwave oven for the popcorn, blinds suspended from two parallel beams overhead (set by Josh Smith). They sang (beautifully) a capella (choral arrangements by Smith) an array of traditional Celtic and Dust Bowl–era American folk tunes while strewing popcorn and the detritus of their pizza on the Astroturf. They wandered off into a back room, to be replaced by female janitors (Nanc Allen, Birkenmeier, Erica Bitton, Graziela Damien) who cleaned up after the men while drifting into text extracted from Voices From the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection.
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REDCAT: Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 W. Second St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Category: Bars and Clubs
Region: Downtown
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Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE)
6522 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Category: Art Galleries
Region: Hollywood
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The sense of hardship on the so-called Okies' trek from Oklahoma to California, as well as conditions in a migratory work camp, was almost as visceral as the musical theme from Scottish ballad "The Red Rose and the Briar" sung by both groups repeatedly so that it wouldn't let go. When the women wandered offstage, the men returned, recycling both the music and the text in staging variations, making it clear that the three-hour show was being performed in "loops," during which the audience was invited to come and go, or visit the live-streaming version down the block.
On the outdoor patio of Space 15 Twenty, the brick storefronts encased bustling shoppers. There was almost nobody in the folding chairs facing the screen, during which the haunting melody of "The Red Rose and Briar" being broadcast through the shops and eatery made the point, deep in the bones, of the precipice we live on, between living well and the anguish of our history.
NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL | Presented by REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., dwntwn. | Thurs.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.; through Aug. 11 | (213) 237-2800 | redcat.org
AMERICAN REALISM | Conceived and directed by Katherine Brook, text arranged by Liza Birkenmeier | Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 6522 Hollywood Blvd., and Space 15 Twenty, 1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hlywd. | Closed | lace.org
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