Week One at the Rhubarb Festival

WEEK ONE: FEB 4 - 8, 2009

GRAHAM & DIANE
8pm, The Cabaret
Created and performed by Lex Vaughn
Directed by Walter Boscariol
Meet Diane: A meek admin assistant who is trying her hand in the performing arts, after being inspired by a visit from corporate comedians at her workplace. Meet Graham: a brash and utterly foul-mouthed ventriloquist doll and Diane's only friend for twenty years.

A HISTORY OF THE CAGE
8pm, The Chamber
By Amos Latteier
A History of the Cage is a lecture/performance uses zoo architecture as a lens to explore a wide variety of topics including nature, freedom, spectatorship, identity, and our complex relationships with animals. The interdisciplinary performance blurs the genres of PowerPoint and documentary film, producing a unique synthesis of education and humour.

ASSALAAMU `ALAYKUM (PEACE BE UPON YOU)
8:35pm, The Cabaret
Created and Performed by Jon-Paul
Because we need each other, we believe in one another, and I know that we're going to uncover what's sleeping in our souls. Who cares about a description? Take a chance on someone. What, you haven't got 25 minutes to spare?

SWEET ECSTASY: PLANS FOR AN ESCAPE ROUTE
8:35pm, The Chamber
Created and Performed by Don Simmons
Employing cinema's methods of emotional manipulation this performance will develop cinemagraphic moments into magical moments lived inside the theatre, questioning - which is more "real" our current lived experience, or the more fictional experience of the movies? This performance will explore the emotional rollercoaster of a Summer Blockbuster.

WHAT'S IT LIKE?
9:10pm, The Cabaret
Created and Performed by David Bateman
Directed by Chad Dembski
Mixing spoken word with stand-up, theatre, and performance poetry, What's It Like? provides a serio-comic response to the sincere, well meaning, yet frequently frustrating questions one is inundated with upon particular forms of personal disclosure.

MONTPARNASSE
9:10pm, The Chamber
A Sheep No Wool/Groundwater Productions presentation
Created and performed by Maev Beaty and Erin Shields
Created and Directed by Andrea Donaldson
Montparnasse is an erotic submersion into the world of artist models in Paris in the 1920s. Peek behind the canvas and discover a rich culture of voyeurism, paint, sexual autonomy, nakedness, identity, anonymity, jealousy, ego, cruelty and the Divine Muse.


Buddies In Bad Times Theatre presents
A RHUBARB FEATURE PRESENTATION
THE BE(A)ST OF TAYLOR MAC (New York)
THURS - SUN 4 SHOWS ONLY!
9:45pm, The Chamber (90min)
By Taylor Mac
Directed by David Drake
A flamboyant chameleon of words, music, and sociopolitical tirades, visual and vocal phenomenon Mac employs gender-bending surrealism to explore the human condition and challenge the contemporary culture of fear.



RHUBARB WEEK ONE SPECIAL EVENTS:

FESTIVAL KICK-OFF BASH
Wed, Feb 4, 10pm, The Cabaret
Celebrate Rhubarb's 30th Anniversary following the opening of Week One with libations, revelry and performances by very special guests.

TALKING TO CHRIS DUPUIS
Chris Dupuis aka the "Barbara Walters of the performance art scene," interviews three participants from the 2009 Rhubarb Festival and shows you a side of these artists you never new existed.
Thurs, Feb 5, 7 pm

(Photo: Taylor Mac)