Rachel's Brain and Other Storms: Rachel Rosenthal: Performance Texts

Description

Rachel Rosenthal is an internationally recognised pioneer in the field of feminist and ecological performance art. Her revolutionary performance technique integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets into an unforgettable theatre experience. In the last twenty years she has presented over thirty-five pieces nationally and internationally. She has been called 'a monument and a marvel' and critically ranked with Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Ping Chong, Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson. Her work is passionately dedicated to interrogating, illuminating and improving the relationship between human beings and the planet we share with so many other species. Her performances explore and embody the long history and urgent future of this deeply troubled relationship, and use viscerally compelling performance to draw us into a direct experience of the beauty and power of our lives in nature.

Rachel Rosenthal is Director and Founder of The Rachel Rosenthal Company. In the last 20 years she has presented over 35 full-scale pieces and has developed a revolutionary performance technique that integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets. She is an NEA, J Paul Getty Foundation and California Arts Fellow and recipient of numerous awards. Una Chaudhuri is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of Drama at New York University.

"She and her troupe...offer a mind altering meditation on purity and the loss of it--both personally and globally."--American Theatre Journal "The kinetic ingenuity of this company of eight is striking, its ensemble unity smoothly cohesive . . . It is always spellbinding to see an impulse initiated by one performer instinctively extended by several others without premeditation or visible effort . . . The uniqueness of Rosenthal's company lies in the fact that out of a well lubricated mechanism, Rosenthal has created a living organism."--Los Angeles View "[Her] company is remarkable . . . Each displayed striking stage presence, inherent talent in several performance disciplines, and professional polish."--Los Angeles Times "Elegant madness."--LA Weekly "Think of Rosenthal's work as an antidote to LA's easily consumable entertainment industry, offering sharp commentary on our lives at the end of the 20th Century."--Buzz Magazine "Larger than life. Much."--The Hartford Courant, December 23, 2001