Film to stage
Cameras and mics create a multilevel experience; viewers get a stage director’s command of space and full, layered sound.
Published 20:43, October the 5th, 2009
Big Dance Theater puts Paris in its proper place
French film becomes a clever stage adaptation
Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, directors of Big Dance Theater, transform the script of an elegant little French film, Agnes Varda’s “Cleo From 5 to 7,” into a delightful show, “Comme Toujours Here I Stand,” that both reconstructs and comments on the movie.
Parson and Lazar created a set where scenes unfold — some live, others on video. Multimedia is central to their process; live video feeds serve as scenery, sound man Jeff Larson’s equipment rolls around the stage and an anxious assistant actually seduces him when her own sweetheart, constantly phoning the set, disappoints her.
Claudia Stephen’s period outfits, perfect recreations of pert early-’60s dresses and dramatic peignoirs, plant us in the era of a black-and-white movie that unfolds in real time on the summer solstice, its actors cruising Paris on foot, in buses, in taxis and in private cars.
Big Dance Theater
Wed. through Sun., 8 p.m.
The Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St.
$15, 212-255-5793 ext. 11
www.thekitchen.org