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Contact: Margaret Crane
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Long Neglected Modernist Masterwork Channels the Voices of War's Aftermath

CalArts' Center for New Performance (CNP) in association with Los Angeles-based Poor Dog Group Premiere Gertrude Stein's Brewsie and Willie.

Los Angeles, CA, June 17-Men and women of the armed forces grapple with the anxiety of returning home in Brewsie and Willie, a world premiere stage adaptation of Gertrude Stein's post-World War II novella. Produced by the California Institute of the Arts' (CalArts) Center for New Performance (CNP) in association with Poor Dog Group, a groundbreaking experimental theater collective, Brewsie and Willie will run from July 13 to August 1, 2010. Performances will be on the 7th floor of 533 South Los Angeles Street. Tickets and other information are available at brownpapertickets.com.

In timeless fashion, Brewsie, Willie and an array of other soldiers and nurses exist in limbo bracketed by the end of the war and their return to civilian life. This period of aimless rest and relaxation becomes a space of rambling reflection and the progenitor of a vast, indescribable anxiety. The core performing ensemble is drawn from Poor Dog Group, a thrilling young company made up of recent CalArts alumni, whose work has drawn attention throughout the United States and eastern Europe.

"The Poor Dog Group brings its remarkable aesthetic courage to the production," said CNP Artistic Director Travis Preston, who is also directing the production. "We are thrilled to pool our talents and resources with this vital collective of emerging artists and in the process, infuse both our organizations with fresh energy and direction."

This exploration of Stein's work exemplifies CNP's and Poor Dog Group's shared interest in developing original theatrical expression through radical reexaminations of existing texts. A closely knit ensemble, the group is uniquely suited to recreate the intimacy found among young soldiers. The fragility of their position as emerging artists is echoed in the vulnerabilities of Brewsie, Willie, and their fictional compatriots.

CalArts' Center for New Performance (CNP), the professional producing arm of the California Institute of the Arts, was established in 1999 as a forum for the creation of groundbreaking theatrical performance. Originally entitled the Center for New Theater, the name was expanded in 2005 to reflect the broad range of the Center's interests. Seminal artists from around the world are brought to CNP to develop work that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater and performance. CNP productions have included Stephen Dillane's Macbeth, directed by Travis Preston, which premiered in Los Angeles and has subsequently toured to London and Australia, with upcoming performances in France and Germany; What to Wear, a post-rock opera directed and written by Richard Foreman and composed by Michael Gordon; and AH!, an interactive opera no-opera performed in 13 languages, which received its world premiere last September at REDCAT.

Poor Dog Group most recently presented the absurdist comedy, The Internationalists, at the Lillian Theater in Hollywood. In summer 2009, they toured the production through Poland, Croatia and Serbia. Click here for more information about Poor Dog Group.

Brewsie and Willie has received significant support from Kashco, the downtown realtor and development corporation. As a part of President Obama's American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) selected CNP and Poor Dog Group to receive $50,000 to support artist salaries for Brewsie and Willie.

CalArts has a multidisciplinary approach to its studies of the arts through six schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater. CalArts encourages students to explore and recognize the complexity of the many aspects of the arts. It is supported by a distinguished faculty of practicing artists and provides its Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts students with the hands-on training and exposure necessary for an artist's growth. CalArts was founded in 1961 and opened in 1969 as the first institution of higher learning in the United States specifically for students interested in the pursuit of degrees in all areas of visual and performing arts.

Poor Dog Group Announces the World Premiere of Their Latest Original Work ***The Internationalists***
Limited Engagement Runs From April 24 to May 9
April 21, 2009 - Poor Dog Group (PDG) is presenting the world premiere of The Internationalists, their latest original performance. This is PDG’s first full run of their original work at the PDG Performance Warehouse. Conceived and directed
by Jesse Bonnell, Artistic Director of PDG, this piece was commissioned by the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF) in March and will now be performed in downtown Los Angeles.
The Internationalists investigates the race to outer space told through the lens of a youthful generation brought up in the Information Age. Unaware of the mounting threat of Sputnik, the first Russian satellite to orbit the Earth, America
finds its global dominance in question. Vintage newsreels, NASA’s flight records and modern user-generated information delivery systems all collide to give a glimpse into cyber-reality.
In development, the group drew upon the relationship between the past and the present in an effort to examine cultural memory as it relates to identity politics and technological advancement.
Through movement, live music, sound and meta-theatrical performance, The Internationalists points the gun at America’s renewed sense of self and the theatre’s corrosive and fraudulent nature. By using humor as a destructive force,
the performance forces audiences to laugh out loud at the dark nature of human progress.
The show runs on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM from April 24 – May 9. Tickets
are $17 general admission, $10 for students, and $5 for CalArts Students and
Alumni.
The PDG Performance Warehouse is located at 2485 Hunter Street in downtown
Los Angeles.
For more information contact info@poordoggroup.com or visit
www.poordoggroup.com
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EMERGING LOS ANGELES-BASED ARTS COLLECTIVE
CELEBRATES THEIR NEW HOME WITH AN INAUGURAL GALA

LOS ANGELES, CA - In a time when the economy is in sharp recoil, a jubilant young theatre company is reaching out to the remaining patrons of the arts by hosting their inaugural gala.

On January 17, Poor Dog Group, the collective comprised of visual artists, musicians, and performers is inviting members of the Los Angeles arts community to celebrate their new performance space in downtown Los Angeles. The evening will host a myriad of influential cultural field workers and invite them to explore the space, view an original performance produced by the collective and view the visual art created by the artists, which will be displayed on the gallery walls.

The original theatrical performance explores the work of surrealist painter, René Magritte, including his fascination with Fantômas, a character of unmotivated evil depicted in Louis Feuillades' silent films. The collective draws parallels between the notions of evil depicted in Magritte's work and the U.S. Patriot Act enacted by the Bush Administration in 2001. Magritte's juxtaposition of ordinary objects in unspecified contexts is also utilized to deconstruct the notion of a 'gala,' which will enable the patrons to reexamine their involvement with the arts and philanthropy. The performance is also exposing the fundamental need to reach out for financial support for the arts in a time when the world is in a recession and the arts depend on the generosity of the communities they serve.

The gala begins at 6:00 p.m. and will be held at PDG Performance Warehouse, 2485 Hunter Street, Los Angles. Tickets range from $50 - $500 and can be purchased by contacting Itamar Stern, itamar.stern@poordoggroup.com

Press who RSVP and present a valid media badge will receive once complimentary ticket.

For more information please visit: www.poordoggroup.com

About Poor Dog Group:

Poor Dog Group (PDG) is a Los Angeles based collective of performing and media artists committed to nurturing a distinctive aesthetic through adventurous collaboration. Our mission is to develop original theatrical expression through the creation of new work and radical reexaminations of existing texts; to redefine, educate and expand our own perceptions of performance and theatrical form; to generate accessibility for new audiences; to use experimental methods of the body, text and technology; to craft new American theater; and to develop the cultivation of a limitless and periodic space.

Over the past year, PDG has presented work at REDCAT, UCLA, The Elephant, The Echo, and The Atwater Playhouse. In addition, this past summer, the group traveled to Croatia to develop a new work with the Ulysses Theater Company.

Media Contact:

Itamar Stern

415-706-4480

itamar.stern@poordoggroup.com