Lush Valley - Kristin Marting

LUSH VALLEY is a live art performance being developed by Yana Landowne, Kristin Marting, and Tal Yarden that chases the elusive idea of the American Dream, an idea born with our founding that remains our central driving myth. Why does belief in the "Dream" leave us with both shattered illusions & continued hope? LUSH VALLEY uses dance, music, text, & video to explore how the Dream shapes our imaginations. This project digs into the current mutation of The American Dream in order to take the pulse of our modern world as we transition into a new democracy. Although LUSH VALLEY is complex and experimental, we trust that the combination of meaningful dialogue between artists and community members and integration of text, video and dance will create a thought-provoking and immediate journey for our audiences. To create it, we will bring together artists & community members.

THINK TANK APRIL 12th
7-9 PM
Free and Open to the Public
RSVP to lushvalley@here.org

We are holding our first of several community THINK TANK sessions on April 12th which will delve into the concept of AMBITION. These Think Tanks are open to the public and will be a cross between Town Hall and Open Space format. We are looking to have a diverse group of folks at this event - we are looking for artists, politicians, entrepreneurs, models and beauty pageant participants, bankers, sociologists, educators, psychiatrists, and anyone else who is interested. If you would like to attend, or know someone who may be interested in part taking in this event, please email lushvalley@here.org to rsvp.

Check out the Lush Valley Blog HERE

Kristin Marting biography

Kristin Marting
Over the last 20 years, Kristin Marting has constructed 24 works for the stage, including 10 original hybrid works, 8 adaptations of novels & short stories and 5 classic plays. She works in a collaborative, process-driven way to fuse different disciplines into a cohesive whole. Recent projects include ORPHEUS, a collaborative alt-musical; James
Scruggs's solo work DISPOSABLE MEN and his recent new play (RUS)H. She also directed SOUNDING and DEAD TECH (collaborative hybrid works inspired by Ibsen texts), both of which received MAP Fund awards. Prior works have toured around the US. She has collaborated on several large-scale political action art events, including The Line in 2004.

For the last 15 years, she has been developing a unique hybrid directorial/choreographic form that features a "gestural vocabulary" used both as an emotional signifier and as a choreographic element. This vocabulary, though specific to each project, is in a state of constant development with an ever-growing set of permanent gestures being added to the repertoire.

She is a co-founder and the Artistic Director of HERE, where she cultivates artists and programs all events for two performance spaces-including 14 OBIE-award winners - for an annual audience of 45,000. She created and co-curates HARP, HERE's Artist Residency Program. For 19 years, she curated THE AMERICAN LIVING ROOM, an annual summer festival featuring over 30 new works by emerging artists; and for 8 years, QUEER@HERE, an annual festival of gay and lesbian work.

She regularly serves on grant panels for NEA, NYSCA, DCA, and TCG among others. In 2005, she was honored with a BAX10 Award for Arts Managers. Previously, Marting co-founded and served as co-artistic director of Tiny Mythic Theatre Company for nine years. She served as Robert Wilson's assistant for HAMLETMACHINE and SALOME, and as a director for
Childrens Theatre at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. She graduated from NYU with honors in 1988. She has lectured at NYU, Harvard, Columbia, and Williams College among others. kristinmarting.wordpress.com.

Mahayana Landowne biography

Mahayana Landowne
Mahayana has worked as a professional theater director for over 15 years and served as dramaturg on many of her productions. Her love of research and dramatic structure has lead her to work primarily on new work. She likes to create imaginative and dynamic support for collective dramatic visions that transcend daily life. Recent productions directed include: Fairytale Experiment (Rubulad), MIXED (Baruch), This is Way Beyond My Remote Control (at The Wild Project),
Picasso Project (Luna Stage), Blue. (Vital Theater), Carcass (Diaspora Drama), Baby Dance (Schoolhouse Theater), The Heiress (The Roundtable Ensemble at the Mint), Machinal (U. of Rochester), and Terrible Infant (Fringe Festival). Musicals include: Spring Bling, Summer in the Hummer, and The Dick Cheney Holiday Spectacular (Ace of Clubs), Western
Unidad (Ice Factory Festival, Ohio Theater), Post-Code (American Living Room, HERE), Woman's Voices of Union Square (Tenement Museum). Favorite past productions include The Skriker, Antony and Cleopatra, The Seagull, brass logic, Streetcar Named Desire, Obgynt, King Lear, and Mud. Affiliations/Fellowships include: Drama League, Lincoln Center
Director's Lab 04, Directors Lab West 06, Woman's Project, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizon's Theater School, NYU and Yale School of Drama. NYU-BFA-acting YSD-MFA-directing. For more info check out: yana.landowne.org.

She is also a social political activist: She served as Resident Director for Billionaires for Bush 04-08, Co-executive Production Director of Dance Parade 08,09. Core member Metropolis in Motion 06-. Founder of Radiant Axis, leading workshops in creative expression. She has spent months on the road traveling America, and grew up a Quaker.

Tal Yarden biography

Tal Yarden
has created video designs for numerous shows. Current projects include, Sounding (HERE), Zoom (ZviDance). He is a frequent collaborator with director Ivo van Hove. Their current projects include Mozart's Idomeneo (La Monnaie, Brussels), Little Foxes (New York Theater Workshop), The Misanthrope (Shaubuhne, Berlin) and Children of the Sun (Toneelgroep Amsterdam). Recent productions include Cries & Whispers, The Antonioni Project, Angels in America, and Roman Tragedies (Toneelgroep Amsterdam) and Wagner's Ring Cycle (Vlaamse Opera). Other recent work includes Pop! (Yale Repertory), The Night Watcher (Primary Stages), Distracted (Roundabout Theater), and Beast & Liberty City (NYTW).
Previous design work includes Pavel Zustiak's Le Petit Mort and Martha Clarke's Kaos in New York and Ivo van Hove's productions of Mourning becomes Electra and Rent, Mark Wing-Davey's Monkey in the Middle and Stephen Petronio's The King is Dead (with Cindy Sherman) and Not Garden. He has also designed for Reza Abdoh's Tight Right White and
Quotations from a Ruined City, and Tim Feldmann's Twin-Project. In New York he has collaborated with John Jesurun, Jim Simpson, Mikel Rouse, DD Dorvillier, Mia Lawrence, Kyle de Camp, Conway and Pratt, and Margarita Guergue. Together with Patricia Fox he created the original productions of Corpus Exquisitus and A Dog and Pony Show. In 1994, he
co-founded the theater company Chashama for which he created the site-specific shows Jr. Black's Office and Disease Machine.

Tal Yarden was born in Israel and grew up in Red Hook, NY. He studied film at Bard College with Adolfas Mekas, Paul Arthur, P. Adam Sidney, Bruce Bailey, Tom Brenner and Ken Ross. He also studied documentary filmmaking with the founder of Cinema Verite, Jean Rouche at Harvard. During the 80s he made music videos for various bands including the Silos, 10,000 Maniacs, and Barkmarket. He also frequently designs video installations for commercial events and concerts.