A few weeks ago I participated in a workshop for this forthcoming performance, at Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge.
The work is currently being performed in New York and I hope to join the chorus for the London edition at the Tate in the new year.
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PERFORMA 13
CALLY SPOONER
AND YOU WERE WONDERFUL, ON STAGE
AND YOU WERE WONDERFUL, ON STAGE
Friday, November 8, 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm
Saturday, November 9, 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm
Sunday, November 10, 6:30 pm
Saturday, November 9, 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm
Sunday, November 10, 6:30 pm
National Academy Museum, New York
MOTINTERNATIONAL London and Brussels are delighted to announce Cally Spooner's most ambitious production to date: "And You Were Wonderful, On Stage", a new Musical presented by Performa 13, in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Tate Modern, London.
"And You Were Wonderful, On Stage" is a musical for an a cappella Chorus Line, relocated from the margins of the musical form, to take on a splintered lead role.
Spooner draws on the genre of the Broadway Musical to articulate the constructed mechanics of behaviour and a loss of live delivery in contemporary life. Teetering between moments of comedy and tragedy, the production is structured as a series of prologues and overtures, as the Chorus Line ruminate on fallen idols and dashed dreams, channelling distorted media feeds from current affairs. Prominent figures who have stumbled at a moment of liveness or authenticity, appear abstracted and episodically; Beyonce’s lip-syncing at Obama’s inauguration, Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal and public apology, and more besides, become dramatic public moments of standardization or mechanisation. Spooner sets up an interplay between the elegant, authoritative permanence of the National Academy’s architecture, and the ephemeral movement of songs, bodies, and conversations, asking ‘what it takes’ to become, and remain, visible. As the performance continues, the light, gossipy phrases become infected by an emerging language of “high performance” PR speak, which reaches toward sameness and automation, leading the performance to its climactic, spectacular finale.
"And You Were Wonderful, On Stage" is a Performa Premiere, curated by Charles Aubin and Laura McLean-Ferris.
The project is evolving and itinerant, with musical composition by Peter Joslyn and a core ensemble of singers who have been collectively developing the piece with the artist. The preliminary structure was commissioned and produced by the Stedelijk Museum, curated by Annie Godfrey Larmon with Hendrik Folkerts, and will evolve at and tour to Tate Modern in January 2014.
With very special thanks to Annie Godfrey Larmon and Wysing Arts Centre.
Supported by MOTINTERNATIONAL
Cally Spooner (1983; Ascot, UK) is an artist based in London.
Using theory and philosophers as alibis to help her write, and casts of arguing characters to help her perform, she produces plotless novellas, disjunctive theatre plays, looping monologues and musical arrangements to stage the movement and behavior of speech.
Spooner’s productions have been presented at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunsthal Charlottenburg, Copenhagen; KW Institute, Berlin; Wysing Art Centre, UK; Jeu De Paume, Paris; Serpentine Gallery, London. She is represented by MOTINTERNATIONAL
