E-Release on "Fabrik" (Performances begin January 17 at Urban Stages Theatre)
WAKKA WAKKA PRODUCTIONS will present the New York premiere of "FABRIK" An original theatre piece featuring puppets, masks, sets and music - comes to NY following a successful fall tour throughout Norway PERFORMANCES BEGIN JANUARY 17 at URBAN STAGES THEATRE
(New York City, December 17, 2007) - Wakka Wakka Productions will present the New York premiere of its latest original theatre piece entitled "Fabrik," featuring expressive hand-and-rod puppets created by Wakka Wakka member Kirjan Waage. "Fabrik" will begin performances on January 17 and will officially open on Wednesday, January 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Urban Stages Theatre, 259 West 30th Street (between 7th & 8th Aves). Performances will run through February 17.
"Fabrik" tells the exceptional story of Moritz Rabinowitz, a successful, immigrant, Norwegian Jew who "built a factory from a button" only to watch his life be swept away by the Holocaust. Originally from Poland, he immigrated to Norway in 1911 to escape pogroms and persecution. In Haugesund, a small fishing village, he discovered a land rich with opportunity. He called it home. Poor but determined, he eventually built one of the largest clothing empires in the country, with department stores in several cities and his own factory. Although wealthy and a leading employer and large presence in the town, he experienced a good deal of anti-Semitism. The only Jews in Haugesend, he and his family were treated as outsiders, rarely invited to social events or people's homes. In his time alone in the apartment above his store, Rabinowitz avidly wrote columns for local and national newspapers, expressing his socioeconomic ideas about commerce in Europe and Norway's natural resources. In time, the primary focus of his columns became warnings to his countrymen about the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. He even published his own book on the danger he felt was to come, "The World Crisis and Us." His portentous denunciations were ignored by everyone except the Nazi's themselves, who considered him "the leader of the Jewish resistance in Norway" when they invaded in 1940.
Inspired by Nordic and Yiddish folktales, "Fabrik" has been written, directed, and designed by the Wakka Wakka ensemble (David Arkema, Gabrielle Brechner, Kirjan Waage, Gwendolyn Warnock), informed by research of the time period, the writings and life of Moritz Rabinowitz, his family, workers and countrymen. Original sound design and music composed by the ensemble has been combined with a score created by Lars Peter Hagen from a palette of industrial noise, period and folk music. Danny Goldstein (Walmartopia) serves as a directing consultant. Wakka Wakka Productions Inc. (www.wakkawakka.org) is a group of theatre artists who share a common language in creation and ensemble work. Their mission is to push the boundaries of the imagination by creating works that are bold, unique and unpredictable. To date they have produced: b9: Clinch Mountain Lookout in August 2001 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Undermining superficial notions of beauty and normality, the play is centered on a seemingly perfect couple whose relationship disintegrates as domestic bliss turns to marital horror. In August 2002, in a co-production with Haugesund Theater in Norway, Wakka Wakka created Fattie and Skinny Show! Fattie and Skinny are two friends who put on a show in their living room. Hilariously inept performers, the pair attempts a series of vignettes, acting sometimes as lawyers, motorcycles, blind men or puppeteers, grinning and bowing between each skit. In 2003, Wakka Wakka Productions was invited to bring Fattie & Skinny Show! to New York City as part of the Stage '03 Festival at ManhattanTheatreSource. Due to popular demand, the show was extended for seven weeks at the Wings Theater in Greenwich Village. In 2004 the company wrote a new puppet based play entitled The Untold Story of Monkey. The show was performed for a four-week run at The Tank on 42nd Street. The play follows the adventures of a young monkey named Julius from his home in the jungle, to scientific laboratories, to outer space and finally, to his untimely death.
In the winter of 2005, Wakka Wakka created Erik the Amazing and the Shallaballah, a family puppet show about a boy who overcomes his fears by becoming a superhero. From March 2005 through August 2006, Erik enjoyed a monthly Saturday residency at a 600 capacity venue on 42nd Street in NYC. The show has also been performed at The Children's Museum in Bridgehampton, The Brooklyn Children's Museum and The Catskills Mountain Foundation. In the summer of 2006 The NYC Parks Foundation produced Erik at various city parks for over 1200 children. Wakka Wakka has also performed on the cabaret and vaudeville scene in NYC at various venues including Punch at Galapagos, Slutty Puppets at CBGBs Gallery, Schoolhouse Roxx at PS 122, Bowery Poetry Club, Clemente Soto Valez and Collective Unconscious. In March of 2005, to celebrate the centennial of Norway's independence from Sweden, Wakka Wakka Productions was invited to perform for the King and Queen of Norway during their visit to the United States. In the summer of 2005 Wakka Wakka Productions, Inc, in collaboration with Director/Co-Writer Raffaele Passerini, produced a short film entitled "The Birdman." The film has been shown at Cannes Film Market, Genova Film Festival, L'Isola Del Cinema, Cinema Da Mare, La25a Ora, Il Festival Del Cinema Espanso, The Italian Film Festival on Miami Beach, Florida, and broadcasted on Italian National TV LA 7.
In April, 2006, Wakka Wakka premiered The Death of Little Ibsen at the Sanford Meisner Theatre. The play is a unique blend of theater history, puppetry, and dark comedy mapping Ibsen's quest to find his true self. The New York Times called it "an exquisite little one-act show that evokes the best of Jim Henson's early, dangerous days with the Muppets. These people may be geniuses." Variety's Mark Blankenship wrote: "Within seconds The Death of Little Ibsen can move from hilarious to indescribably moving." The production extended its run three times at The Meisner.
"Fabrik" is a co-production of The Nordland Visual Theater and Wakka Wakka Productions, Inc. The Six Points Fellowship and The Jim Henson Foundation have generously supported this production. Six Points supports individual artists in the New York area who want to develop new projects with a Jewish focus, theme or element. To promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States, Muppets creator Jim Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation in 1982.
The complete schedule for "Fabrik" (January 17 through February 17) will be: Tuesdays through Sundays at 8:00 pm. The Opening Night Curtain on Wednesday, January 23 will be at 7:00 p.m. There will be one additional performance on Monday, January 21 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $25.00. Students and seniors: $17.50. TDF vouchers accepted. Tickets for all performances are available at 212-352-3101 (or online at www.theatermania.com).
Reviewers and press are invited to attend beginning with the performance on Sunday, January 20. Please e-mail or call Jim Baldassare to make your press reservation.
Note: This production is appropriate for those 10 years of age and older, but it should also be noted that this is not a childrens' show - it's a theatre piece with puppets.
COMPANY BIOS
David Arkema began studying piano and the Suzuki method at the Cambridge Music School in Cambridge, MA. His interest in jazz improvisation led him to The Rivers Music School where he studied piano and trumpet and began composing music using MIDI. At Hamilton College, he played in the jazz ensemble and combo, sang in the College Choir and performed in student and faculty productions. David was a member of Bobby Peru, and formed Yodapez, an all-improvisational comedy troupe. After graduation from Hamilton (B.A. and Departmental Honors in Theater, Minor in Mathematics), David produced and performed in The Maids at the Boston Center for the Arts. He then completed the two-year program, and Laboratory of Experimental Movement at Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq. He has performed in Switzerland in Les Linottes, London and Beirut with the Shakespeare Players, and in Edinburgh at the Festival Fringe. David has helped to create, performed in, and written original music for all of Wakka Wakka Productions past works. In NYC, in addition to his work with Wakka Wakka Productions, David has written and performed as Stewart Ambrose Pierce, III in The Bastard American Show, as Kip in 27 Lakeside Drive, and as The-King-of-the-Pop in The Hyperextravangelists. He performed as Archestratos in Agamemnon, a Vortex Theatre Company production which was nominated for a 2006 Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Director of a Play, Gisela Cardenas).
Gabrielle Brechner is a native New Yorker who was raised, literally, in the non-profit theatre founded by her father and at which he served for 25 years as the Artistic Director, The American Jewish Theatre. She spent the first 18 years of her life working every post in the Off-Off Broadway establishment. In 1998 Ms. Brechner graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance and a B.A. in English Literature. She has studied at Circle in the Square Theatre in NYC, the Chautauqua Institution and Appel Farm Arts & Music Center. She is certified by the Society of American Fight Directors as an Actor Combatant proficient in Rapier and Dagger, Quarter Staff and Unarmed Combat. From 2000 to 2006 she worked in live concert promotion and production as well as venue management as the General Manager of a 1000+ capacity Music Venue in Times Square. Gabrielle has helped to create, produce, and run the technical aspects for all of Wakka Wakka Productions past works. Gabrielle was recently chosen as a fellow in the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, funded by the UJA Federation of New York, which supports individual artists in the New York area who want to develop new projects with a Jewish focus, theme or element.
Kirjan Waage was born in Haugesund, Norway. He graduated from the University of Bologna, Italy where he studied puppet theatre under Professor Remo Melloni and was part of the University of Bologna's Theatre School CIMES. He then moved to Paris to complete the two year program and the Laboratory of Experimental Movement (LEM) at Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq. While in Paris, he launched his own series of stuffed animals called Aminols, later leading into the creation of a series of puppets. Kirjan toured Ireland and France with the French Theatre Company La Filante in 2000. In Norway the same year, he was the assistant director of the The King from Etne and performed with Theatre Eclipse in the play Herlaug. In 2001 he joined The Shakespeare Players along with fellow Wakka Wakka members to play Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet. The production played in London and Lebanon at the Al Bustan Arts Festival. Kirjan has helped to create, performed in, designed and constructed the puppets for all of Wakka Wakka Productions past works. In the short movie The Birdman directed by Italian filmmaker Raffaele Passerini he played the title character and wrote and devised the final performance of the birdman in the film. Kirjan is also a cartoonist and in 2007 he received a grant from the Norwegian Arts Council to publish his first comic book.
Gwendolyn Warnock holds a B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University, (Performance Studies) and graduated from the two year program and the Laboratory of Experimental Movement (LEM) at Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She was seen in Mary Zimmerman's production of The Magic Flute, and in Street Signs production of the Perjured City by Helene Cixous. She also trained on the trapeze at the San Francisco School of Circus Arts and the Actors Gymnasium in Chicago. She has used her aerial skills in several productions including Romeo and Juliet as Juliet with the Shakespeare players (London, Beirut) and in Acts of Love as Salman Rushdie, which she adapted and directed. (Evanston, IL). Gwendolyn has helped to create, performed in, designed costumes and written original music for all of Wakka Wakka Productions past works. Gwendolyn starred in the short movie The Birdman directed by Italian filmmaker Raffaele Passerini.
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