The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University and Open Dance Project present “Bonnie & Clyde”
For Immediate Release
MEDIA CONTACTS
The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University |
Erin Rolfs, Director of Marketing & Communication
erin.rolfs@rice.edu | 713-348-4115
Open Dance Project | Robin Anderson, Managing Director
robin@opendanceproject.org | 832-962-8982
The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University and Open Dance Project present
“Bonnie & Clyde”
(HOUSTON, Texas, April 6, 2022) —The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University and Open Dance Project (ODP) present “Bonnie & Clyde,” an immersive dance theater performance devised by the ODP ensemble under the choreographic direction of Annie Arnoult. Nine ticketed performances will run at the Moody’s Lois Chiles Studio Theater beginning May 27, 2022.
“We’re delighted to once again partner with Open Dance Project and its talented team,” said Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director Alison Weaver. “Their innovative use of dance, design, and sound to convey thought-provoking themes and directly engage the audience brilliantly activates the Moody’s theater and underscores its partner-driven mission.”
Using history and disrupt/ed-ive narrative to ask critical questions about today’s world, “Bonnie & Clyde” personalizes the contemporary issues of gun violence and prison reform through the lens of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow’s story. Situated in the 1930s through original music, costume, lighting, and immersive set design, this work looks inward at the emotional experience of two young criminals from Texas in the midst of the Great Depression. Through compelling choreography the couple’s sensationalized drama is peeled back to reveal the human experience of love, desperation, and violence.
Contributing to the intimacy of the narrative, the performance engages audience members through a multisensory experience that places them in the direct center of the theatrical moment thereby allowing individuals to navigate the stage within their own sense of boundaries. As audience members walk through a collagist, three-dimensional set installation by Ryan McGettigan, they are surrounded by video and soundscapes designed by David Deveau and Edgar Guajardo.
“The immersive multimedia environment draws from archival photos, journal entries, letters, government documents, and environmental recordings that also inspired the movement and text.” said Arnoult. “It is designed to be actively explored by the audience, who stands and walks in and among the performers in a format that directly confronts conventional divisions between artist and audience.”
Los Angeles-based Hunter Perrin and New Mexico-based Garreth Broesche composed the original live score that includes new arrangements of old tunes beloved by Barrow and Parker like “Deep Ellum Blues” and Jimmie Rodgers’ “Sleep Baby Sleep.” The score highlights the duo’s fascination with showmanship while rooting the story in the context of 1930s popular media that glamorized the myth of Bonnie & Clyde and consequently overshadowed the reality of bungled robberies and failed relationships.
Supported by accomplished artists Ryan McGettigan (set designer), David Deveau (lighting and projection designer), Ashley Horn (costume designer), and Edgar Guajardo (sound design), the show benefits from their extensive local and national design experience specializing in interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative use of movement, space, and form. This is the fifth immersive performance this collaborative team has built together with production manager Christina Maley and ODP artistic director Annie Arnoult.
The nine intermission-free, hour-long performances will take place May 27 and May 28 at 7 and 9 p.m.; June 1, 2, and 3 at 8 p.m. and June 4 at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Moody’s Lois Chiles Studio Theater. Tickets are $35 for the general public and are available at moody.rice.edu. The production features mature content and is recommended for ages 13 and above.
Press review tickets, photos, interviews, and access to in person or virtual open rehearsals available by request. Please contact Robin Anderson, robin@opendanceproject.org
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WHEN: Friday, May 27,7 pm and 9 p.m.
Saturday, May 28, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Wednesday, June 1, 8 p.m.
Thursday, June 2, 8 p.m.
Friday, June 3, 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 4, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
WHERE: The Moody Center for the Arts
Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University
6100 Main Street, MS-480, Houston, TX 77005
(University Entrance 8, at University Boulevard and Stockton Street)
TICKETS: www.moody.rice.edu $35
713.348.ARTS
Production Team:
Annie Arnoult (Choreographer), Garreth Broesche & Hunter Perrin (Composers), Paul Beebe (Recording Engineer), Lauren Davis (Scenic & Prop Artist), David Deveau (Lighting and Projection Design), Ashley Horn (Costume Design), Lynn Lane (Photographer), Ryan McGettigan (Set Design), Edgar Guarjardo (Sound Design) Christina Maley (Production and Stage Manager), Robin Anderson (Producer)
ODP DANCERS:
Joshua De Alba, Sonia Engman, Atticus Griffin, Madelyn Manlove, Taylor McAnulty, Lizzy McGoldrick, Cameo Renée, Joseph Stevens, Jaime Garcia Vergara, Brenden Winkfield
SUPPORT
Bonnie & Clyde is co-presented by Open Dance Project and the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. Bonnie & Clyde is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, and a National Endowment for the Arts Project grant. Additional major supporters include Texas Commission on the Arts, the Brown Foundation, Inc. and Dance Source Houston.
Co-Presenters:
Open Dance Project is a contemporary dance-theater company, under the direction of Annie Arnoult, whose ensemble-driven work transforms literary, historical, and community-based source material into highly stylized performance experiences. Through a collision of dance and theater, live performance and new media, urban grit and magical realism, Open Dance Project breaks down conventional barriers between artist and audience to make dance more accessible and meaningful for both. Open Dance Project is on the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Artists Roster and is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. The company brings high-quality interdisciplinary arts education and arts integration to Houston school children through its extensive education and community engagement program and partners with Young Audiences of Houston and Arts Connect Houston to work towards arts equity in Houston schools.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/opendanceproject
Twitter: @opendanceproj
Instagram: @opendanceproject
The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University’s mission is to encourage creative thinking and original expression, enrich curricular innovation, and promote cross-campus and community collaboration through transformative encounters with the arts. We are a public-facing institution that connects the arts at Rice to the greater Houston community.
The Moody mounts three exhibitions a year in its galleries, curates numerous temporary and permanent public art installations throughout Rice’s campus, and hosts public performances, conversations, classes, and hands-on workshops. By centering these efforts on generative partnerships with artists, scholars, and students from various disciplines, the Moody presents unexpected and ever changing entry points into the arts which bridge communities and areas of interest, thus realizing its mission.
@theMoodyArts | #atTheMoody
About Rice University
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as the best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
Moody Center for the Arts
Rice University
6100 Main Street, MS-480
Houston, TX 77005-1827
Moody.rice.edu
713-348-ARTS
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