Actor, director, producer, Sandy Simona has organized and eclectic festival entitled “Zay Gezunt!”
T
he program will spotlight new work from Eastern European & Jewish visual and performance artists. Although it might mean “goodbye” in Yiddish, “Zay Gezunt!” is really an introduction to an exciting and eclectic group of Eastern European and Jewish visual and performance artists. Curated by the multi-disciplinary performer Sandy Simona, “Zay Gezunt!” features new work from all manner of storytellers — from those who use words to others who use paint, motion, even sound, to tell their unique tales at Highways Performance Space and Gallery.
Lost in Lvov
Created and Performed by Sandy Simona & The Storytelling BAND
Dramaturgy by Marina McClure
See the Los in Lvov trailer.
http://vimeo.com/83625724
A biographical, multimedia, storytelling experience. A time capsule of memories, secrets and most precious experiences of, The Belman sisters. Three sisters, who immigrate to America from the U.S.S.R before and after Perestroika.Their memories left behind– implanted in pockets and shelves of their brains, burned into memories of photos they set on fire, and smuggled in their hearts their new homes, with Soviet trinkets and recipes they passed down to their grandchildren. Intimate winks and glimpses of their past lives wander as they reinvent themselves in America.
The Storytelling BAND, lead by Caitlyn Conlin
Based in Los Angeles, The Storytelling BAND creates environments that explore the use of storytelling and improvisation through the relationship of text, voice, music and visual imagery.
Combat the Wack (see image)Created and Performed by EVeryman, Lux Moderna and Dubvirus
The power of manifestation and working together to overcome our obstacles in this ever changing world of ours. through multilingual-electronic- live-dj-spun, hip hop dance theatre- fused with live mapped projection.
FAGALA
Created & Performed by Comedian, Jeffery Scott Basham
Old Jewish grandmother walks into a bar noticing all the men holding hands with other men, walks over to the bartender and says, “Fagalas?
Artist Zhenya Gershman’s work will be on view as part of the event.
“Over a number of years my grandmother, or as we call her in our family BABA, has allowed me to watch her age, exploring her image with various media on canvas, paper, and plexiglass. These intimate portraits reveal Baba’s complex and ever changing nature. As in jazz variations multiple colors resonate with her shifting moods – Black, Blue, Pink. Baba was born in 1917 – her wrinkles tell a story of a long journey from the age of carriage and horses to that of cell phones.
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he continues, “I painted her hands swollen from arthritis caused by washing with snow during World War II. I painted a ring she designed many decades ago for her then beautiful hands, residing now as if on a twisted branch – no longer able to remove it, the ring has grown to be a part of her anatomy. Most of all I painted her gray eyes that are shiny and blue when she recalls her happiness and dull and gray when she ponders the downfalls. This is my BABA. But she is also an archetype, a cornerstone, and a galaxy.”
BABA (see image) by Visual Artist, Zhenya Gershman.
$20 general admission / $15 members, students, seniors
What: Performance
Where: Highways Performance Space, @18th St. Arts Center, 1651 18th St. Santa Monica, 90404 (1/2 block north of Olympic Blvd.)
When: 8:30 pm TWO DAYS – Friday + Saturday, February 21st & 22nd
Phone: 310 315- 1459
Website: http://highwaysperformance.org
