Last year I had the – distinctive – experience of watching a modern-day interpretation of Punch & Judy, courtesy of a new DC theater company called dog & pony dc. While that particular show was a bit raunchy for my taste, I so admired its creativity, and loved the company’s mission:
dog & pony dc is a developing ensemble of artists that takes what we know—traditional forms and classical texts and narratives—and shakes up, reorganizes, and turns them upside down to create innovative performances that are contemporary and visceral.
Appropriating artistic works is nothing new, but something about dog & pony’s approach feels very of-the-moment to me, in how it resembles the energy and creativity of Internet remix culture: take apart the pieces, and re-assemble them into something new.
Their latest project, Courage: A Political Theatre Revivial, riffs on Mother Courage and Her Children, a play by Bertolt Brecht. They’ve been blogging their rehearsal process, documenting “thoughts, clips, anecdotes, confessions and love-letters.” It’s a fascinating window into how they’re thinking about the show.
Right now dog & pony is promoting a series of “workshop performances” of Courage – here are the details:
May 1 & 2 @ Chief Ike’s Mambo Room (1725 Columbia Road, NW WDC)
May 8 & 9 @ Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (545 7th Street, SE WDC)
All performances start at 7:30pm and are Pay-What-You-Can.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Some people’s raunchy is other people’s ribald, Amanda. ;-)
I got an email about this from dog & pony – would love to check it out if my hectic schedule permits, esp since Chief Ike’s is so close by.
True that :) I’ll be doing 48 Hour Film Project stuff this weekend but if you end up going, let me know what you think – I might check it out next week (…at a far less convenient location!)
Thanks for posting about our show. Hope you can make it to CHAW next weekend. Introduce yourself if you do, would love to chat.