Sept 18th-20th
How to Make a Passive Dance
An Immersive Dance Performance by SanSan Kwan
How do you make a passive dance? In an era marked by increasing political aggression, How to Make a Passive Dance poses a timely question: is there value in being passive? Asian Americans historically have had a fraught relationship with passivity, but might there be reason for us to reconsider qualities like deference or quietude? And how can dance – a medium defined by embodied action – serve paradoxically as a space for exploring inaction? This quintet investigates dance as a practice of listening and attunement. Audiences will be invited into an intimate, immersive experience that encourages receptivity.
Nov 6-15
The Madness of Lady Bright
The Madness of Lady Bright is a poignant one-act play about Leslie Bright, an aging Drag Queen living alone in a New York City rooming house. Over the course of one evening, a series of encounters force him to confront his loneliness, isolation, and fear of growing old. Blending humor with heartbreak, the play explores the universal need for companionship and human connection while reflecting the particular social marginalization experienced by gay men in 1960s America.
Drawing on Leslie’s fascination with Giselle and her own dedication to an ephemeral love, Mannakin Theater & Dance weaves choreography into the production for fresh experience with this modern classic.