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New York is..."American Culture Defined" | Project Description:
What is American Culture? It’s not my culture. It’s not your culture. It’s our culture.
New York is...“American Culture Defined” is a bold and innovative theatrical production that takes audiences on a familiar yet distinct journey through the diversity of New York City. The work is inspired by creator William B. Johnson’s 16 year experience performing in the NYC subway. This creative exploration of the subway experience provides a fresh take on the concept of the American Melting Pot and connects the percussive traditions of the African, European, Asian, South East Asian and American with their contemporary offspring found in varying genres of American music, dance and poetry.
This nationally significant work has the opportunity to positively affect cultural divisiveness by offering understanding and a sense of shared identity; ultimately challenging artists and audiences to inquire more in-depth about who they are as both Americans and global citizens. Project Background: In 2007, we held a 1-day workshop presentation featuring this diverse composite of drummers with the accompaniment of traditional and contemporary dancers and historically-based poetic narrations. The performance received an overwhelmingly positive audience response thus inspiring Johnson to develop the concept into a full scale theatrical production.
Project Timeline: New York Is… "American Culture Defined" will be developed in three stages over a period of two to three years:
1) Contemporary Concert/Conceptual presentation
2) Multi-Media & Documentary/Final Performance Development
3) Full scale production
Each stage consists of developmental work and public presentations.
| Stage One: Contemporary Concert/Conceptual presentation
During the 1st year, Johnson will develop the concept, initial script and a portion of the score for New York is… The score, composed/arranged by Johnson and performed by Drumadics and guest artists, will feature original music exploring the multicultural sights and sounds of New York City.
The presentation in this stage will focus on the production’s contemporary music while introducing some choreography, videography and poetry, to bring audiences into a process that is accessible. In the latter stages of development, Johnson will incorporate more traditional, unfamiliar and complex components.
| Stage Two: Multimedia & Documentary /Final Performance Development
A major component of the second stage will be the development of the multimedia component including the filming of extensive documentary footage of the cast, the subway experience and New Yorkers. The documentary will be fully integrated into the final production.
During the developmental process Johnson will work with a diverse cross-section of traditional and contemporary music and dance artists, including both subway and stage performers, to develop a live performance representative of NYC’s cultural milieu and the performance culture of the subway. With the assistance of spoken word artists, he will also finish the development of a script that is informed, in part, by the documentary footage that will be filmed within the subways throughout the developmental process.
| Stage Three: Full Scale Production
In its final stage, New York is…"American Culture Defined" will be a fully-staged, evening length production of rhythm, dance, poetry and culture that enables a diverse cast of drummers, dancers, musicians and poets, all of which could be found performing within the NYC subway, to share their stories of American culture. The final production features Bucket Drummers (America), with the accompaniment of a Djembe Orchestra (West Africa), the Tabla (India), Taiko (Japan), and contemporary American brass, string and percussive instruments. The musical presentation will be heightened by an elaborate set, cutting-edge dance choreography and arresting poetic narrations that weave this explosive, historical and entertaining production together.
"New York is…” will be a “documentary performance” thoughtfully designed to blur the lines of theater & reality, and audiences & participants, to engage the entire community in a multi-layered conversation about American art, culture and identity.
Theatrically set on the mezzanine of the NYC Times Square subway station, where the world’s cultures converge, the production recreates and re-contextualizes the daily subway experience through a live exploration of the City’s culturally diverse music and dance forms, and projected documentary footage/testimonials from subway pedestrians, employees, and performers (including those within the production).
The drum, which is the most prevalent instrument performed within the NYC subway and similarly throughout the world, plays a central role in this narrative that juxtaposes a diversity of traditional and contemporary music and dance forms with the urban New York City landscape and individual testimonials, to redefine one’s view of modern American culture and the concept of the Melting Pot. |
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