Directed by: Kendra Ware
Written by Virgina Grise, Martha Gonzalez and Helena Viramontes
Musical Director: Martha Gonzalez
Performers: Tylana Enomoto Juan Perez, Lulu Matate
Set Design: Tanya Orellana
Video Design: Yee Eun Nam
Directed By Kendra Ware
Written by: Virginia Grise
Produced by Cara Mia Theater
Performer: Faylita Hicks
Set and Video Design: Lianne Arnold
Directed by Kendra Ware
Lydia Li Pictured
Set design: Tanya Orellana
Text: Virginia Grise
Kendra Ware pictured
Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind: From Sharp Shooters to Earthmovers, Roaming Dogs, Helicopters in the Sky, Quarantines and Men that Fly is a performance lecture by Martha Gonzalez & Virginia Grise, directed by Kendra Ware. An invitation into our artistic process and an opportunity to listen in on some of the music we have been creating for the concept album Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind, inspired by Helena María Viramontes’ epic novel Their Dogs Came with Them.
Martha Gonzalez pictured
Video design by Yee Eun Nam, set design by Tanya Orellana and music by members of Quetzal, including Martha Gonzalez, Tylana Enomoto and Juan Perez. In LA, we will be joined by legendary guitarist Bob Robles.
Martha Gonzalez singing and playing the harana.
Turtle - (Manny Rivera)
Ermila - Leilani Clark
Bone soup was served by the performer and audience to the audience.
Directed By: Kendra Ware
An immersively staged manifesto on a woman’s journey toward healing trauma.
Performer: Florinda Bryant Written: Virginia Grise
Audience member participates in making limeade for the people.
Presented at REDCAT, Santa Barbara Contemporary Museum, Son of Semele
Through the use of harrowing personal accounts of incarcerated women, this piece explores how circumscribed behavioral and oftentimes racially biased responses affect female offenders of color and critiques the United States' historic and current treatment of women deemed undesirable to their community.
Written, directed and performed by Kendra Ware about escaped political prisoner Assata Shakur
Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary Arts 2014
Written, Directed and Performed by Kendra Ware
Photos by Roberta Wong
Performers courtesy of IndyConvergence 2013, Indianapolis, IN
IndyConvergence - Indianapolis, IN 2014
Presented at Pan Asian Rep, New York City 2008
Running time: 55 min.
Recollections is a Butoh inspired mediation on the last day in the life of a homeless woman. Adapted in part from Yukio Mishima’s Sotoba Kamachi, this is an in depth lookat the life of a woman who relives her painful life daily. This urban exploration is as much about the weight of living with love lost as it is about delving into a woman’s life as a homeless woman. Blending the classicalmusic of Erik Satie with Wu Tang Clan’s The Rza, with voiceover, we are able to peer into the beauteous hell of this woman's life.
Written, Directed and Performed by Kendra Ware
Performer - Kendra Ware
Pan Asian Rep New York City, Live performance with clay, newspapers, water.
Experimental HipHop/Butoh collaboration with TheBillyMark
Performed site specific & at REDCAT 2010
Kendra Wareand Billy Mark are both performers and creators of Scratcher: a hip hop butoh inspired exploration, a collaboration they began while students at CalArts. Kendra began studying butoh while an undergraduate atSarah Lawrence College under Ernest Abuba and began to further pursue it under the tutelage of Yumukio, Atsushi and Naoko Maeshiba among others. Billy Mark, also a composer whose music has been featured in several operas and theater productions is also an accomplished free styling MC and poet. The two came together after an initial conversation about the evolution of hip hop and how the physical language ofbutoh can be used to enhance the performative aspects of (sub)urban life in hip hop.
As collaborators we have begun a physically and emotionallyin-depth investigation into the world of hip hop and its place in society utilizing butoh sensibilities. We have explored the role of the black man and woman in hip hop, past and presently; the emergence of the hustler as a business model and our role as performer/observers limited in our influence of hip hop culture due to our sheltered upbringing. What we found and will be presenting, is our initial deconstructed view of hip hop, focusing in on a singular man and a womanjourneying toward self discovery equipped only with a mic and a spotlight or metaphorically a voice and inner desire.
The piece is called Scratcher because we feel we are just scratching the surfaceof whathip hop butoh could be. We are taking the initial steps to unearth what we feel could be fertile groundwork for a new form of expression. We are trying to create a new language, representative of ourgrowing multicultural world, one that expresses ourmutual pain and triumphs. Quantifying hip hop and further distilling it down to into primal movements conceptually, physically, musically and vocally takes significant time and energy. By participating in your festival, we hope to further enhance the piece byperfecting the performative aspects of the show and sharing our work with a greater audience.
Directed by Kendra Ware
Co-conceived and Performed by Kendra Ware & Billy Mark
Kendra Ware & Billy Mark, 2010, REDCAT, Los Angeles, Live performance, hip hop music, glitter.
