Announcing the FirstWorks Frontier Series – Spring 2018
FIRSTWORKS FRONTIER SERIES – SPRING 2018
GROUNDBREAKING PERFORMANCES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
From the wind-swept steppes of Central Asia, to a sizzling dance party hot off the streets of Venezuela, to the festival circuit’s most innovative live cinematic puppet theatre – let FirstWorks take you there!
QYRQ QYZ / FORTY GIRLS
MARCH 14, 7:30 PM AT RISD AUDITORIUM An ancient epic of Central Asian “girl power” told through music, poetry and contemporary film.
Across the steppes of Central Asia, modern bards still sing the tale of Gulaim, the teenage warrior who defended ancient clans from Eastern invaders with the help of her qyrq qyz, or 40 girls, Amazons of Turkic legend…
This powerful matriarchal narrative comes to full-throated life through the next generation of Turkic female poets and musicians, performing live against a backdrop of stunning film by Uzbek film and video artist Saodat Ismailova.
Presented in partnership with the Provost’s Office,
Rhode Island School of Design
BETSAYDA: THE VOICE OF VENEZUELA
MARCH 18, 7:00 PM AT RISD AUDITORIUM A spirit-shaking percussion and voice fiesta!
With their “singular, passionate, and purposeful voices” (NPR), Venezuelan singer Betsayda Machado and her multigenerational band of musicians and dancers La Parranda El Clavo take the stage for their FirstWorks Frontier Series Providence debut. Hailing from the tiny Venezuelan village El Clavo—where their music has been igniting parties in the town square for over 30 years—these masterful performers invite audiences to discover, indulge, and celebrate the contagious beats of tambor, a genre of Venezuelan Afro-Soul said to make dancers float.
MANUAL CINEMA – LULA DEL RAY
APRIL 7, 8:00 PM AT MOSES BROWN WOODMAN CENTER “Theatrical magic…astounding” – The New York Times
Manual Cinema transforms our experience of attending the cinema, masterfully weaving together shadow puppetry, theatre, cinematic techniques, multi-channel sound design and live music to create haunting, immersive stories that have taken the performance world by storm.
Inspired by the music of Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline, Lula del Ray is a reinvention of the classic coming-of-age story set in the mid-century American Southwest. A lonely girl living on the outskirts of a vast satellite array, Lula runs away from her desert home and into a world of danger, deception, and disappointment.
