Sibyl Kempson’s performance company, 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr. & Perf. Co., in collaboration with Thomas Riccio, will continue to develop 12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens, a performance immersion project that will present twelve, one-day performances over a period of three years at the Whitney Museum beginning in March 2016.
Named for Brian Sykes’ theory of mitochondrial DNA, which posits that we are all descended along matrilineal lines from seven original mothers, 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf. Co. unearths and contemplates – in contexts of live performance, ritual and installation – places in human history where science, religion, and feminism intersect. Its primary guiding principles are to intuitively uncover new narrative structures, to interrogate perceptions of the civilized in relation to ideas and preconceptions of the barbaric, the sacred, the profane, the true, the ordinary, and the in/animate – multiplying the possibilities of meaning, fostering imaginative practice in all participants of the performance, inviting all to exercise alternate ways of knowing, and locating the signals and patterns of a deeper order. www.7daughtersofeve.com
Spring and Fall 2017 will see the premiere of twin projects THE SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. and SASQUATCH RITUALS, at New York Live Arts and Abrons Arts Center/site-specific locations outside of NYC, respectively.
Sibyl Kempson’s plays have been presented throughout the United States and in Germany and Norway. She launched the 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr. & Perf. Co. in April 2015 at the Segal Center at the City University of New York. The company’s inaugural production, LET US NOW PRAISE SUSAN SONTAG, premiered at Abrons Arts Center in NYC. Her work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Dixon Place (four Mondo Cane! Commissions from 2002-11), the Walker Art Center and MAP Fund for her recent collaboration with Elevator Repair Service FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND (at New York Theatre Workshop), a USA Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, a Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Commission, a McKnight National Residency and Commission, a New Dramatists/Full Stage USA commission, and a National Presenters Network Creation Fund Award. Her collaboration with David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group, I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER, received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Production in 2015. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a member of New Dramatists, an Artist-in-Residence at the Abrons Arts Center, and a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Her plays are published by 53rd State Press, PLAY: Journal of Plays, and Performance & Art Journal (PAJ). MFA Brooklyn College. She teaches and has taught experimental playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College, Brooklyn College, and the Eugene Lang College at the New School in NYC.
Thomas Riccio, performance and media artist, writer and director, is Professor of Performance and Aesthetics at the University of Texas at Dallas. Previous positions include: Professor of Theater, University of Alaska; Artistic Director, Chicago’s Organic Theater company; Resident Director, Cleveland Play House; Assistant Literary Director, American Repertory Theater; Visiting Professor, University of Der es Salaam, University of Pondicherry (India), University of Nairobi, and the Korean National University for the Arts; and Artistic Director, Tuma Theater, an Alaska Native performance group. He has directed at American regional theaters, including, LaMama ETC, The New York Theatre Workshop, and the National Theater of Italy.
Riccio works extensively in the areas of indigenous performance, ritual, and shamanism, developing performances and/or fieldwork in South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Russia, Alaska, Korea, India, Nepal, China, Vietnam, and the Republic of Sakha (Siberia), which declared him a “Cultural Hero.” He devised/directed a performance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2009) and worked with the Miao, an ethnic minority group in China (2015). Riccio has conducted workshops and given lectures throughout the world and has received numerous grants for his projects. Academic writings have appeared in TDR, TheatreForum, Theatre Topics, Theatre Research International, and PAJ. In 2007, Peter Lang published his book Performing Africa: Remixing Tradition, Theatre and Culture. He is the recipient of the International Distinction Prize in Playwriting from the Alexander Onassis Foundation and was a Narrative Engineer for Hanson Robotics. His photographs, videos, and installations have been exhibited in a variety of galleries. He is the Artistic Director of Dead White Zombies, a Dallas-based, post-disciplinary performance group, most recently creating/writing/directing performance immersions, kaRaoKe MoTeL (2014) and DP92 (2015.) www.thomasriccio.com & www.deadwhitezombies.com