Tickets are FREE
Suggested DONATION OF $10
Saturday, June 26, 2021
7 pm (PST)
Artist talkback via Zoom at 8:15 pm
Friday, June 25, 2021
7 pm (PST)
Artist talkback via Zoom at 8:15 pm
For the past 8 years, Inferno Theatre has presented the Contemporary Diasporas Performance Festival— a multicultural, interdisciplinary performance and arts festival. The festival was created out of Inferno’s mission to link cultures and explore human relationships.
Historically, this festival had been presented in Berkley featuring works from artists of diverse cultural roots that were all developed in the San Francisco Bay Area. This year’s festival includes works by local theatre, dance, music, and performance artists along with art makers in the US and around the world. The festival was presented, for the first time, online as a digital festival last June due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s festival, SHIFTING will also be presented in digital form this year.
SHIFTING is part of a two-year focus on the concept of democracy and the immense need for social justice that hit a tipping point in 2020. Artistic Director, Giulio Cesare Perrone, says that the “next two festivals this summer, and summer 2022 will feature works that challenge many of our assumptions and test our biases.”
Meet The Artists
SHIFTING
Program Information
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 7 pm
Water/Waves selections from The Farallonites
Artistic Director: Dana Lawton
Dana Lawton Dances Company: Olutola Afolayan, Michael Armstrong, Leah Curran, Garth Grimball, Colin McDowell, Robin Nasatir, Vera Schwegler, Jennifer Smith, Kara Townsend
Music and Sound Scores by: Thomas Edler
Videography and Editing by: Henry Lawton
Additional Editing by: Michael Lupacchino
About
Originally slated for its world premiere in April 2020 at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco’s Fort Mason, The Farallonites tells the stories of the lighthouse keepers and their families who lived on the Farallon islands between the 1850s and the early 1900s. The show examines the resilience of the island residents as they endured harsh physical conditions, repetitive hard labor, and near total isolation. In addition to Lawton’s choreography, The Farallonites features original musical scores, ambient sounds, spoken word, and visual art—creating a cohesive and rich environment to help audiences fully connect with the story.
Due to COVID-19 the performance at the Cowell was put on pause. After months in quarantine, the company took the challenges of the pandemic as an opportunity to adapt the work in new ways. As the DLD dancers navigated their own parallels to the Farallonites’ feelings of isolation and disconnection while dealing with 2020’s harsh realities, Lawton reimagined the work and the stories of those who lived on the Farallon islands in new, outdoor spaces which included the beach and an amphitheater secluded among the redwoods.
Artist Bios
Dana Lawton is the Artistic Director of Dana Lawton Dances (DLD), founded in 2007, in addition to being a tenured faculty member at Saint Mary's College in the Performing Arts Department, a faculty member at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and Co-Director of the Enchanted Ridge Dance Retreat. DLD was an Artist in Residence at the Flight Deck (Oakland) in 2014-15 and is a permanent Company in Residence at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, CA. Lawton holds an MFA in Choreography from Mills College and a BFA in Dance from California Institute of the Arts.
Dana Lawton Dances (DLD) is a multi-generational modern dance company based in Oakland, CA. Founded in 2007 by Bay Area dance artist, choreographer, educator, and Izzy Award nominee Dana Lawton. A key goal of DLD is to make dances that celebrate social diversity and meaningful collaborations with other artists.
The company’s dancers range in age between 20 and 65, each of whom offers a unique perspective into the rich multiplicity of human lives, provides the audience with a new perspective on what constitutes a dancer, and inspires people to re-imagine what is possible at any age. https://danalawtondances.org
Detention
Director/Cinematographer/Performer: Zaquia Mahler Salina
Violinist: Shayla James
About
Detention, directed and performed by Zaquia Mahler Salinas with violinist Shayla James, is part of a dance film series called Move American produced by DISCO RIOT. In 2020, Detention questioned the concept of freedom in a society consumed by incarceration of the marginalized, and comments on the experiences of people of color in immigrant detention facilities, the prison industrial complex, and the school to prison pipeline.
Now, the plight of the Palestinian people is front and center and Detention re-focuses on global systems of colonial oppression, imperialism, and the military industrial complex. Thousands of Palestinians are unjustly and indefinitely incarcerated in Israeli jails on administrative detention. Acknowledge the illegal separation walls built by Israel, the checkpoints, the oppressive and unequal treatment of the Palestinian people, and the millions of Palestinians subjected to life in the open air prisons that are Gaza and the West Bank funded by US dollars. The struggle for liberation and justice are one struggle—from Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go! From Ferguson to Palestine, resistance is not a crime!
Artist Bios
DISCO RIOT Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Zaquia Mahler Salinas, is a native of San Diego. She holds a BA in Dance with Honors from UC Santa Barbara and an MFA in Dance: Creative Practice with Honors from Saint Mary’s College of California where she focused on dance as a platform for social justice. She is currently serving as dance faculty at San Diego City College and Coronado School of the Arts. As an artist, Zaquia has been choreographing and producing work since 2011 and has presented live and filmed dance works throughout California, Texas, Peru and Mexico. Zaquia is also an E-RYT 500 certified yoga teacher and leads classes throughout San Diego.
Shayla James balances her time as a researcher and teaching artist in the non-profit sector. She is a multi-instrumentalist whose work is rooted in community engagement, empowerment and collaboration across disciplines. Shayla is the Education Program Manager for Blindspot Collective. She has taught for Arts for Learning, and has volunteered in the Learning and Community Engagement Department at the San Diego Symphony. Shayla also volunteers as the Chair of Rising Arts Leaders of San Diego. https://discoriot.org
Disturbed Earth
Creative Concept: Nan Busse
Collaborators: Heikki Koskinen, Nan Busse, Tobey Kaplan
About
Disturbed Earth is a collaged text of Beckett, Cage and TS Eliot with original verse by Tobey Kaplan, paired with images of our tenuous on-going planetary habitation and music animated by the bold and spirited sounds of artist Heikki Koskinen. Consider this video work a poetic narrative: a multilayered performance of words, music and film.
Our hope is that this experience prompts consideration/perspective/ empathy for living beings that are out of place. We are all the proliferation of nomad voices singing out this spreading of humanity, diasporas of seeds and weeds…
* with each step, a gentle wind blows ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Artist Bios
Nan Busse - In addition to creating her own dances/shows, Nan has joined Deborah Hay's SPCP, danced around the world with Danny Nguyen and many other choreographers. Performing (dance and didgeridoo) with musician Joe Lasqo and many fine, new music artists has been a periodic source of joy. Recently a resident fellow at Dorland Mountain Artists’ Colony and creating work for Yugen Theatre in Action, her pieces include after Frost, Hands, A Sentence is Inside Itself (Best of SF Fringe 2016) , and the Joyce Project performances that include theatre, sound, and movement centered around local history and personal stories.
Tobey Kaplan - Itinerant seasoned poet and educator has encouraged creative writing, reading and composition in the SF Bay for over 40 years at several East Bay community colleges and through California Poets in the Schools. She has given poetry readings and literacy/social change workshops throughout the country. For the past twenty years, she has collaborated with musicians and performers; please find her work in selected anthologies and collections, both paper and digital. Most recently viewed on many open-mic Zoom screens performing her poetry, her honors include an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, resident fellow at Dorland Mountain Artists’ Colony, and a Bay Area Arts Award/New Langton.
Heikki Koskinen is a Finnish Bay Area musician. Chosen as the top Finnish Jazz trumpet player in 1970’s, Heikki studied music at Berklee College of Music. Heikki has led his jazz groups and worked as a music educator. He is active in the Finnish community, composes and plays multiple instruments and is currently working on a project featuring ancient Nordic laments with musician, composer Rent Romus. In 2019 Heikki received Finnish Music Archive’s “Jazz Legend Award” #34. He was featured last year in the Diasporas 2020 Festival with What have we gotten into/what has gotten into us? in collaboration with Nan Busse and Tobey Kaplan
https://www.heikkikoskinen.com
http://www.themonthly.com/byday1204.html
solo cell
Choreographer/Dancer: Kaveri Seth
Music: Formwela 3 by Esperanza Spalding
About
I am here. I am alone. I and I alone, can be here for myself, and help myself. I and I alone, can get past this idea of me, and be there for you. 2020 has afforded me time. Time to be, time to think, time to know, like, and work on myself. 2020 has forced intimacy upon me, the kind that makes you ask questions and really feel.
Artist Bio
Kaveri Seth is an actor, dancer and choreographer trained in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, exploring a fusion of contemporary dance and Bharatanatyam movement in her work. She graduated with an MFA in Dance Design and Production with Honors from Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California in 2017.
As a choreographer, what interests Kaveri is the kinesthetic relationship that exists between performer and spectator. She believes that through movement one can share experiences visually, intellectually and viscerally, holding the ability to bring about transformation of the heart.
Bird of the Inner Eye
Librettist/Reader: Joan Schirle
Composer: Gina Leishman
About
American painter Morris Graves (1920-2001), a native of Seattle, achieved fame at the very moment he was sent to an army stockade in Fort Roberts, CA as a WWII conscientious objector. After 11 months in prison, and two successful AWOL attempts, he wondered if he would ever paint again.
I became interested in Graves after learning that he spent the last 30 years of his life at “The Lake,” an estate he created in rural Humboldt County, CA, where I live. After reading the passionate letters written over his lifetime of resistance, creation, environmental advocacy, and spiritual seeking, I applied for a residency at The Lake, now a private artists’ retreat (Morris Graves Foundation). It was there I felt that his words should be set to music, and invited composer Gina Leishman collaborate on Bird of the Inner Eye.
Because the pandemic delayed our first concert readings by over a year, we as yet have no recordings of the music. So my readings are accompanied only by a few piano voicings from Gina’s score. August 27-29 will be the first public concert readings at the Arcata Playhouse! Follow Bird of the Inner Eye on Facebook.
Artist Bios
Joan Schirle is a playwright/librettist/actor/director. She is currently collaborating with composer Gina Leishman on a chamber opera, Bird of the Inner Eye. Based on the letters and archives of American painter, Morris Graves (1910-2001), the opera centers his 11 months in an army stockade as a conscientious objector during WWII. His detention was simultaneous with his achieving fame as an artist, but is a little-known aspect of his work. This is Schirle’s third collaboration with Leishman and their first work together on an opera.
Schirle is the Founding Artistic Director of Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, California, an ensemble of artists dedicated to performance, training, and research in the physical theatre. She has written over fifteen plays and musical theatre pieces, and has toured widely as a principal performer with the Dell’Arte Company. https://dellarte.com
Gina Leishman is a composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and performer, British born but resident in the US since seemingly forever, having fled the goldfish bowl of Old Europe. She composes for theater, opera, dance, film, television and concert stage, and has garnered numerous awards. Collaborations with other artists include directors Karin Coonrod, Robert Woodruff, Lisa Peterson and Joseph Chaikin, writers Ellen McLaughlin, Tony Kushner and Naomi Wallace, choreographers David Gordon, Bebe Miller and Deborah Slater, composer Doug Wieselman, and performance artists Rinde Eckert and John Kelly. Recordings are available on Koch Jazz, New World Records, Busmeat, and GCQ Records. She is also an award-winning narrator of audio-books. She lives in New York City. https://ginaleishman.com
my mystic mind and being in solitude
Concept, Direction, and Performance: Rudradeep Chakrabarti
Videography and Editing: deCcoy Gallerina
About
This performance is captured from a specific phase of mind and body in solitude during the ongoing pandemic times. I first met and interacted in close proximity with roving sacred baul mystics who are also poets, singers, and of course great musicians in the state of Bengal in eastern India. I was immediately connected with their nomadic life, vision, and music even with their way of alternative living with political discourse.
I worked with some bauls for some years in one of my theatre projects in India. Some of these baul mystics wanted me to become a baul but it didn’t happen for my search for contemporary theatre practice in life—though i am always inspired with their approach to an artistic journey of life. During this ongoing phase of stillness in life, I tried to immerse myself in the journey of mystic mind and body in solitude. I thought it to be the best way of living during the ongoing pandemic times on earth. The baul mystics of India sing, lecture, recite, meditate, move, dance, and play instruments all in the course of a single performance providing poetic narrative with deep philosophy of thoughts with strong political discourse.
Artist Bios
Rudradeep Chakrabarti completed his masters degree in theatre from prestigious National School of Drama of India and is also a graduate with special honors in drama from Rabindra Bharati University of India. After extensive travels in Asia and in some countries of Europe in search of theatre, he founded his own small self-funded independent theatre organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, Theatre Movement International. The organization produces contemporary political theatre performances with Native American issues and with themes on silk road traditions of south Asia. Right now, they involved with a series of short theatre performances about unheard life of indigenous Chiricahua apache tribes and their radical voice related to socio- political and environmental issues of new Mexico and Oklahoma.
deCoy Gallerina is a Cross-Platform, Cross-Genre Artivist, member of the Chiricahua Warm-Springs Nde' (Apache) Tribe of New Mexico (Geronimo & Cochise's group) with extensive training, performance, exhibition, curation and publication background in the arts. deCoy is the founder of ' Radical Medicine' arts organization, member of Theatre Movement International.
Antigone/Fragments
Written and Performed By: Giulio Cesare Perrone and Valentina Emeri
Music By: Carol Braves
Videography By: Danielle Marie Ferguson
About
Origin story: Antigone was sentenced to death for defying her Uncle Creon’s editct (as the King of Thebes) which forbade Antigone’s brother’s Polinice burial. In defiance of the edict, Antigone buried her brother and committed suicide.
Our fragment: Our fragment is centered on what Valentina and Giulio remember about the original story of Antigone by Sophocles. They wrote it by putting together intuitions, memories, and other bits on paper, at first separately and then weaving them together trying to create a story to which we can rely today. Antigone’s individual choices and free will, show the strength of a woman against male authority and unjust despotic government.
Artist Bios
Giulio Cesare Perrone is a playwright, director, and set and costume designer as well as the artistic director of Inferno Theatre. Giulio began his career in his native Italy where he directed and designed mainly for the theatre. Since his arrival in the United States in 1995, he has directed and designed for both the theatre and opera.
Now a US resident, Giulio has over 250 theatre and opera productions to his credit. He has worked for companies including San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Festival Opera, Dell’Arte International, the ACT Academy, Opera San Jose, California Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Works, A Traveling Jewish Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre, The Denver Theatre Center, Arizona Theatre Company, The Alley theatre and more. International credits include work in Milan, Rome, Naples, Sicily, Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, and Denmark.
Italian native, Valentina Emeri began dancing at age 8 and earned her BA in Acting at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Silvio D’Amico in Rome. She continued her performing education in Europe with John Strassberg, Anatolij Vassiliev, Jurij Alschitz and studied with Peggy Hackney in Berkeley to be a Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA).
Valentina performs in Italian, German, English and loves movement theatre. She currently collaborates with Giulio Cesare Perrone’s Inferno Theater in Berkeley, Freilichtspiele Südtiroler Unterland in Italy, and Bea Basso in San Diego.
Carol Braves began her violin studies at the age of 10. She earned a BA in Music History and Art History from Holy Names University. Carol has performed with a variety of orchestras and chamber groups throughout the Bay Area. She also crosses over into Argentine Tango, Cuban, Mexican Folkloric, Scottish, Polish, and other non-classical genres. An avid dancer, she performs and tours with Jubilee American Dance Theatre. She is based in Oakland, CA.
Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 7 pm
Encore presentation of Antigone/Fragments
Look Beyond the Color
Performer, Director, Deviser: Freddy Villano
Collaborators: Danielle A. Gorre, Stephen Cross
About
Look Beyond the Color is a song from Red56's 2019 debut album, Eminence Funk. Red56 is the brainchild of Danielle (vocals) and Freddy (bass & vocals). The video component was created specifically for SHIFTING, utilizing my expertise in mask and clown, and some burgeoning video-editing skills. I have wanted to score a silent film for quite some time now. So, this is my attempt at that. I do hope you enjoy it.
Artist Bio
Freddy Villano is a musician, writer, theater performance artist, Alexander Technique Teacher-in-Training, and a co-founding member of Ithaca Integrated Arts, LLC. https://www.facebook.com/freddy.villano
Kappa Maki
Written and Directed By: Robert Fields
Actors: Cheri Miller, Miyoko Sakatani
About
Human nature suggests that most people prefer living in a peaceful and restful state but only a few living at the top can pretend to do so. These are the people who insist that many of the complicated matters in life have been settled and should be left in the past. Kappa Maki is a story about the budding friendship between two women of different cultures. One is teaching the other how to make Kappa Maki, this Japanese favorite, but a passing thought becomes the real lesson shared.
Artist Bios
Robert Fields has written screenplays, stage plays, radio plays and other short pieces. He has worked as a script doctor and consultant on various independent feature films.. Fields has had many readings of his works as well as productions of radio pieces at KPFA in Berkeley and short plays at the Somerset Community College in Somerset, KY and the Fade to Black Festival in Houston, TX. He wrote and produced one of his short films, Like Fred & Ginger which was selected to be included in a San Francisco film festival as well as one of the earliest Contemporary Diasporas Performance Festivals by Inferno Theatre.
Cheri Miller received her first acting and stage lessons under the guidance and tutelage of the celebrated actor, director and playwright, the late Mrs. Mary L. Booker, training twice a week within workshops Mrs. Booker taught in Bayview. She made her stage debut during the Bayview Opera's House Juneteenth celebration on the ACT Stagecoach in 2015. Cheri has continued working within the family of ACT, with a performance in the production of Crack. Rumble. Fly: The Bayview Stories Project, and Every 28 Hours, produced by Claudia Alick and ACT. She made her directorial debut in April 2019 with Regina Evan’s 52 Letters at the Eastside Arts Alliance.
Miyoko Sakatani is very grateful and humbled to be a part of Robert Fields’ powerful play. She is a Bay Area actor and singer. Her favorite past shows include: Uncle Vanya, Distracted, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and You Can’t Take it With You. Also with the Berkeley Rep Theatre she performed in the Free Speech Movement and a lead understudy for The Great Wave. Films include the award winning feature, East Side Sushi and A Hundred Blocks (Ex. Producer Marshawn Lynch). Throughout the 2020-21 pandemic, she has performed multiple Zoom readings and plays. Miyoko wrote and performed a solo piece at the Marsh Theater about her family’s immigration and incarceration/internment. She is the founding director of Playland Productions. She also performs with a SF Bay Area ukulele band. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5706042
Inaction: In ACTion
Creator/Performer: Joe Orrach
About
I came up with the idea from some physical movements a dear friend, teacher, mentor and amazing actor Andy Robinson shared with me during my 3 years under his helm for my MFA. A few weeks ago, I had the idea to add sound and connect parts of it to rhythm. And here we are. What started from an internal birthing and awakening finally is externalized
Artist Bio
Joe Orrach is a Creator/Choreographer/Tap Dancer based in NYC and San Francisco. He is the Artistic Director of the Joe Orrach Performance Project (JOPP). He is an actor, choreographer, dancer, and story-teller in live theatre and film. Joe is known as the “pugilistic hoofer” and has tap-danced with Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmy Slyde and Michelle Dorrance. He has been directed by Woody Allen, James Mangold, Jeremiah Chechik and David Shiner. Joe conceived/directed/choreographed and performed original works IN MY CORNER, STReetFeaT, Roughing It Up, and shaDOW in the US and Europe.
Recently, Joe choreographed and performed in Terrence Blanchard’s opera in jazz CHAMPION at SFJazz and reprised the role with the National Opera at Kennedy Center. He choreographed The Royale at the Aurora in Berkeley, CA. In 2019, he premiered Everything Begins at Dawn in St. Petersburg, Russia, along with the musicians from IN MY CORNER, and shaDOW. When not in the theatre, Joe can be found in classrooms and community centers where he’s committed to performing arts outreach. Joe got his MFA at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts, and is a recipient of Dance Studio Life’s Generous Heart award. https://www.joeorrach.com
Dystopia
Concept | Choreography | Sound Design | Performance | Video Editing: Surabhi Bharadwaj
Videography: Meenakshi Mohan (My Mom)
About
Dystopia is an experimental work (in progress) that explores the pandemic's impact on mental health. While some have used the opportunity in adversity to spend quality time with their family, many have experienced insurmountable pain, loss, and suffering in this time. The tragic stories of losing loved ones, the anguish of helplessly watching, and the pain of social distancing even from the near and dear - has affected our mental wellbeing in some way or another. Is this fear and insanity the "new normal?”
Artist Bio
Surabhi Bharadwaj is the Artistic Director of Siddhi Dance Academy, Dublin, California and a seasoned Bharatanatyam dancer, teacher, and choreographer trained under eminent Gurus in India. Surabhi holds an MFA in Bharatanatyam from Sastra University, Thanjavur and an MFA in Dance: Design and Production from Saint Mary’s College of California.
Surabhi is an Empanelled Artist of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and is also recognized as a Graded Artist by Doordarshan (the National Broadcasting Channel of India). She has received accolades for her performances (both solo and ensemble) across India, USA, Europe, and the Middle East. She has worked as the Principal Dancer of Punyah Dance Company and in Raadha Kalpa Dance Company (two leading classical dance companies in India) before moving to the USA in 2015. Apart from dancing, Surabhi also freelances as a dance lighting designer.
Her debut dance production Ashrutam – The Unheard Voice, premiered in San Francisco in November 2019 to rave reviews. She continues to create work and hopes to reach diverse communities through her dance. https://www.surabhibharadwaj.com
mangmangkik
Writer, Actor, Editor: May Ramos
About
mangmangkik was created in order to capture the culmination of my 2020 experiences. I connected concepts from the piece "What the virus said" (from Lundimatin, an article by Paru Dans) with Ilokano folklore to tell a story about the pandemic, the anthropocene, colonization, as well as my personal grief. Throughout this pandemic I have been unexpectedly uprooted—more than oncefr—om soil that I believed was home. Concurrently, I have been examining how colonization (like a disease) spreads and causes harm and death.
How do we heal from colonial and personal trauma, which intersect in various ways? For me, the answer has been to dig for ancestral roots. To understand regeneration and restoration through my people, our songs, our stories and mythos, our nature, and our spirits. To decolonize is to actualize ourselves. To actualize ourselves is to empower ourselves. To empower ourselves is to give us the strength to not only heal, but resist. Which of your roots must be cut? Which will stay? Where did they come from? What and where will you plant yourself?
Special thanks to my parents who have strengthened me with the sound of our people ever since I arrived into this world.
Artist Bio
May Ramos (they/isuna) is a queer Ilokano artist, educator, and activist based in Berkeley, CA. Within the world of theatre, they have worked primarily as an actor around the Bay, with theatres such as Shotgun Players, Killing My Lobster, Cutting Ball, and Z Space. They have also recently begun writing rap music (you may have seen them recently in "Phantasmagoria", a collaboration between Bay Area theatre cypher, Mugwumpin, Cutting Ball, and the band Skip The Needle) and delved into Burlesque. They also write plays, poetry, and music. Follow their burlesque account at @calypsoburlesque