Leap Year (Performance)
Friday – Saturday, June 20–21, 2008 at 8 PM
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) Presents
An Evening of Dance & Physical Theatre Improvisation by
Nina Wise with Annie Kunjappy
In Leap Year, award-winning SF artist Nina Wise and long-time collaborator Annie Kunjappy attempt to ride the surging crest of the precarious present, fueled and beleaguered by memories of the past, seduced and inspired by the imagination of the future. In this work, narrative emerges from a robust physicality. It's dance, it's word jazz. It is accessible, exciting, unpredictable, and miraculously relevant to the issues of the moment. Leap Year will feature both solo and duet work.
"You leave a Nina Wise performance uplifted, as if you've seen something fresh, moving and above all deeply human." — Ashland Tribune
"Simply being in the same room with this consummate improviser for a couple of hours is to watch the unknown unfold before your eyes. .. I was deeply moved and entertained ... Wise distilled something of the complexity of living in today's world into something bizarre, brave and beautiful." — SF Weekly
"Annie Kunjappy is freaking marvelous..." — The Well Nourished Moon, San Francisco
General Admission $20
Students/Seniors/CRS Members $15
Nina Wise is the founder of Motion Theater, a form of highly physical autobiographical narrative. She is known for her outrageous, funny, and moving improvised performances. She is a seasoned performer and a dedicated meditator, and brings her skills at stage and spirit into play as she spins movement and stories into an always unpredictable rendition of what it is like to be human. Her pieces have garnered seven Bay Area Critics' Circle Awards, and she has received, among other prestigious honors, three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Her written pieces have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. She lives in San Rafael, California.
Annie Kunjappy is the co-artistic director of Strangefruit Theatre Ensemble, creating original work since 1995. Strangefruit’s Sewing Lessons was nominated by San Francisco’s Theatre Critics Circle for best direction, costume and sound design. trangefruit is dedicated to the creation of plays using texts from other genres such as poetry, short stories, memoirs and interviews. Ensemble members work collaboratively to create the total world of the play including staging, costumes, set and music. Annie's most recent appearances have been in Strangefruit’s Aesthetics of Hidden Things, Traveling Jewish Theatre's Opening To You and Moonwatcher, and Performing Objects Stationed in the Sub-World at the Lab in San Francisco. She has designed award-winning costumes for Nightletter Theatre, Campo Santo, Intersection for the Arts, Traveling Jewish Theatre and Word for Word. As a member and teacher of Motion Theatre she performs and teaches improvisational theatre with Corey Fischer and Nina Wise in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and New York. Annie is a member of Big Apple Playback Theatre. She was born in Malaysia and currently lives in Brooklyn.
