May 30, 2007

Puppeteer Ulrike Quade Brings Work-In-Progress The Wall to MASS MoCA

(North Adams, Mass.)Ulrike Quade is one of Holland's most outstanding visual theatre makers -- a performer and puppeteer who after years of research combining puppetry, dance, physical theatre, sceneography, live music, and visual arts will perform a work-in-progress showing of The Wall at MASS MoCA. The work is a collaboration with visual artist Michiel Voet and musician Erik Sanko and is presented as part of NL: A Season of Dutch Arts in the Berkshires on Saturday, June 30, at 8 PM in the Hunter Center.

The Wall is a visual theatre installation brought to life by the fragmentation of words, movement, music, and puppetry. The tentative story line presents a series of portraits of individuals who live in a claustrophobic contemporary basement space from which there is no escape. One day the walls around the community break down, revealing that the entire community is the dreams and nightmares of Erik Sanko, the live musician accompanying the show. The characters living inside the wall are the tools of Sanko's songs and ultimately his inspiration. Although puppetry is the focus of this work-in-progress, the material is not appropriate for children.

Each puppet is created out of large pieces of rubber foam, cut with special scissors, which allow each character to have particular features and be moved in specific ways. Most of Quade's puppets require concentrated movement of the puppeteers in order to make the characters life like and give them the abilities to interact with the other puppets and the puppeteers themselves.

Quade began her research in puppetry at the High School for the Arts in Utrecht, Holland. Since then she has been nominated twice for the Anjerfonds Prize in Dutch literature, was distinguished as the most remarkable and innovative performer of the New Theatre Makers Series of the 2003/2004 season, and in 2004 she was the first Dutch director to be awarded a Directors Lab Scholarship by the Lincoln Center in 2004.

The residency is a co-production of Stiching Bewegingsalarm and MASS MoCA with the financial support of the Duth Fonds voor Amateur -en Podiumkunsten, FAPK and De Proeve, Werkplaats voor Poppen- en Objecttheater.

A summer-long showcase celebrating the arts and culture of The Netherlands, NL: A Season of Dutch Arts in the Berkshires will take place June through August 2007 in the picturesque, culturally rich Berkshires region of Massachusetts. The broad range of The Netherlands's vibrant artistic culture, including contemporary and classical music, visual arts, dance, theater, film, lecture series and more will be presented. MASS MoCA, Tanglewood, Bang on a Can, Jacob's Pillow and the Clark Art Institute are among the arts organizations that have selected and are collaborating with leading artists from The Netherlands'.

NL: A Season of Dutch Arts in the Berkshires received initial funding from the Netherlands Culture Fund and generous support from the Fund for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.

The showcase is coordinated by the Department of Press and Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York and the Service Centre for International Cultural Activities (SICA) in Amsterdam.

Tickets for Ulrike Quade's work-in-progress showing of The Wall are $10. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Wednesday through Monday (June 30 through September 4, from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. daily). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org