Conceived as a dialogue for theater, Kicking Down the Quilt deals with the spiritual condition of the contemporary, or hyper-contemporary —a society of today. The protagonists of this story have no specific gender, race, names, or age. They are democratically elected representatives of intimacy. The play’s text talks without discrimination about our darkest affairs and most glorious battles, of which we ourselves cannot speak.
Kicking Down the Quilt, Poland. Playwright: Rafal Dziemidok. Director: Dmitri Barcomi. Cast: Amy Coleman, Aleksandr Krapivkin, DeVante Lewis, David Mandelbaum, Demetrius Stewart, Weronika Wozniak.
“Theater understood as a practice organizing time and space provides the words coming from the stage with context, meaning, interpretative nuance. Therefore, the plot and psychology of the characters are not present in this text, they might be taken on as topics for its staging. ”
Free and open to the public. Online registration through Eventbrite is required.
The 2022 Spring Stage Readings: Bridging the Worlds is dedicated to the people of Ukraine fighting for their independence. 🇺🇦 Suggested donation ($10) will be used to support Ukrainian refugees. All collected funds will be donated to People in Need, a Czech non-governmental, non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in helping people in emergencies all over the world.
Proof of vaccination and wearing of a face mask during the event is required.
This reading is produced by Tomek Smolarski and supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
ABOUT
RAFAL DZIEMIDOK is a playwright, dancer, actor, choreographer, theatre director, and improvisation coach. Dziemidok danced with and for numerous theater companies, including Dada von Bzdulow (Gdańsk), Gdański Teatr Tańca (Gdańsk), Compagnie Yvette Bozsik (Budapest), Teatr Powszechny (Warsaw), Public and Private/Clement Layes (Berlin), Novoflot (Berlin), Theater o.N. (Berlin), Two Fish/Theater an der Parkaue (Berlin), Julian Rosefeld (Berlin) and others. He is a cofounder and a leader of Koncentrat Artistic Group. Dziemidok choreographs in theatre, opera and film: Tragedy-Medea (Polish Dance Theatre, 2007), The Conquest of Mexico (Staatstheater Saarbrücken, 2012), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Teatr Studio, Warszawa, 2017 – as director), Julietta (Wupperthaler Bühnen GmBH, 2018), Heart of the Factory (European Solidarity Center, Gdańsk/Adam Mickiewicz Institute, 2018), and others. Dziemidok received a scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2008, 2017), the Aerowaves network selection (2011), and holds an MA in law (University of Gdańsk, 1996), LLM (Comparative Constitutional Law, CEU Budapest, 1997), and LLM (Human Rights, CEU Budapest, 1998). He creates stage and site-specific works with amateur and professional dancers, group and solo performances, constantly searching for abstract language and precision of the personal stories told on stage.
DMITRI BARCOMI is a New York City director and theater creator. His artistic interests include working with unusual source materials, exploring technology in performance, and honoring queer icons. Barcomi’s work has been seen throughout New York at Ars Nova, HERE Arts, La MaMa, Cloud City, BRIC, and other hubs of experimental new work, as well as internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Teatr Slowackiego in Kraków, Poland. He is Artist-in-Residence at Playmachine Theater Lab, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and an associate artist with Pioneers Go East Collective. In addition to his work in theater, Barcomi is also a violinist and drag queen manager, currently representing Nancy Nogood. Founder of international artist collective §175. He received BA from The New School. Dmitri is currently working towards an MFA in directing at Columbia University.
CAST
AMY COLEMAN is co-founder of The New Yiddish Rep. Theater Company. She has appeared in many of the company’s productions, including the Yiddish version of Death of a Salesman in which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award as co-producer. She directed the company's American premiere of Yosel Rocover Speaks to God. Ms. Coleman was a member of The Hot Peaches, a gender-bending theatrical troupe featuring Marsha P Johnson. Amy originated the role of Vickie in the Off-Broadway hit, The Last Session, and played Janis Joplin in the original production of Beehive at The Village Gate. As a singer, Amy has performed throughout Europe and the United States She has recorded 5 CDs that include her original songs. Her play Crazy Meshugga Hurricane Earthquake was recently performed at Theater For The New City in NYC. Coleman is a practicing psychotherapist.
ALEKSANDR KRAPIVKIN originally immigrated from Kharkiv, Ukraine to Chicago. Aleksandr holds a BFA and a MFA in Acting and is a proud member of AEA. Krapivkin is based in New York City and has served multiple times on NQTs Artistic Collective. His collaborative short film The Fisherman and the Fish is currently being shown at international film festivals.
DEVANTE LEWIS is a theater artist. Non-binary. Aspiring superhero. Lover. Twenny-sumn.
DAVID MANDELBAUM has been producing, acting and directing in experimental theater in New York for over 40 years, working at La MaMa, Theater For The New City, Castillo, St. Clements, The Common Basis Theater and others. In 2007, he and Amy Coleman founded New Yiddish Rep and presented it’s first show, the Holocaust classic by Zvi Kolitz Yosl Rakover Speaks To G-d, which he adapted and performed under her direction, This was soon followed by Allen Lewis Rickman’s The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum, and Shane Baker’s The Big Bupkis: A Complete Gentile’s Guide to Yiddish Vaudeville. Under Mandelbaum's leadership, New Yiddish Rep has presented original films, concerts, performance art, and art exhibits, in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. NYR has produced classics of the Yiddish theater by Sholem Aleichem, Moshe Nadir, I. L. Peretz,, and most recently its' critically acclaimed production of Sholem Asch's God Of Vengeance. It commissioned and produced the translation of the ground breaking Yiddish world premiere of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. as well as the Yiddish world premiere of Eugene Ioneco's Rhinoceros, Hanoch Levin's The Labor Of Life and The Whore From Ohio. and Slawomir Mrozek's Out At Sea”. It produced Chaver Paver's translation of Clifford Odets’ Awake And Sing and its celebrated production of Joseph Buloff's translation of Death Of A Salesman which garnered two Drama Desk nominations for best revival of a play and best actor.
DEMETRIUS STEWART is known for Ideologix ( Krakow, Poland) Phantasmagoria (LaMama Theater). The Future Perfect (Primary Stages). Featured Member with comedy troupe Tasteful Sideboob (People's Improv Theater). And High School Musical: The Tour United Kingdom(UK). Demetrius is happy to be a part of Kicking Down The Quilt with this talented group and would like to thank Dmitri Barcomi for this great opportunity.
WERONIKA HELENA WOZNIAK was born in Poznan and grew up in Konin and Wroclaw in Poland. She graduated from the Conservatory at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and since 2016 has performed on numerous Off and Off-Off-Broadway stages. Selected theater: Midsummer Night's Dream (The Seeing Place), The Jewish Question (Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center), The Video Games (Off-Broadway, Elektra Theatre), Vandals (The Tank, Dixon Place), Detective Story (Heights Players), Lord Byron's Two Foscari (Off-Broadway, Davenport Theatre), Octopi Wall Street (Hollywood Fringe Festival ‘19), Three Sisters (Columbia University). As a part of Polish Theatre Institute in New York, she is currently engaged in a world-wide theatrical undertaking called Bobkowski Project. She dedicates her spare time to studying languages, karate and writing.
THE 2022 SPRING STAGE READINGS
The 2022 Spring Stage Readings: Bridging the Worlds is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, Untitled Theater Company #61, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, GOH Productions, and Romanian Cultural Institute. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Spring Stage Readings is part of the Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel.
The 2022 edition has been conceived in consultation with Attila Szabo, Deputy Director, Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute; Martina Peckova-Cerna, Head, International Cooperation Department, Arts and Theatre Institute, Prague; Tomek Smolarski, Performing Arts Programming, Polish Cultural Institute New York; Raluca Cimpoiasu, Program Manager, Romanian Cultural Institute; Vladislava Fekete, Director, Theatre Institute in Bratislava; and Andrea Domeova, Head of the Centre for Editorial Activities, Theatre Institute in Bratislava.