BBC (Big Black Cockroach) at REDCAT
Photo by Brian Hashimoto
BBC (Big Black Cockroach)
Writer and performer Paul Outlaw returns to REDCAT with a gripping work of experimental theater, inspired by classical European mythology, American comic books, current events, and Franz Kafka’s best known novella, Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis). A nightmarish satire, in which a right-wing American white woman wakes up in the body of a Black man, BBC (Big Black Cockroach) mixes a disorienting cocktail of historical violence and near-future visions. Innovative design elements, including projections and spatialized sound design built entirely from recordings of Outlaw’s voice and movements, echo the expanding identities within the protagonist, and the production’s indelible central image—a queer Black male body in stark isolation—becomes the vessel for America’s violent past, present, and future.
REDCAT >> Los Angeles, CA >> June 20-22, 2024 at 8:30pm PT >> livestream June 22
Conceived, Written, and Performed by PAUL OUTLAW
Directed by SARA LYONS
Lighting Design by CHU-HSUAN CHANG
Sound Design by JONATHAN SNIPES
Projections and Visual Media Design by HANA S. KIM
Stage Management by LANAE WILK
PR: MATT JOHNSTONE PUBLICITY
Produced by OUTLAWPLAY
Production Managed and Co-Produced by BROOKE HARBAUGH
This Emancipation Thing - student edition at Lehigh University
photos by Marcus Smith
Sara Lyons Projects Presents
THIS EMANCIPATION THING - student edition
In a revised, student-centered new adaptation, Sara Lyons brings This Emancipation Thing to college campuses in a process of co-creation that centers education of legacies of feminist activism and hosting community conversations on feminist topics like bodily autonomy, sex education, safe relationships, abortion, and others, all chosen by student co-creators. Through rigorous contemporary, media-driven theater, This Emancipation Thing - student edition creates a unique opportunity for gender-expansive students to lead community-building in their university through theater.
Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University >> April 12-20, 2024
Conceived, Adapted, and Directed by SARA LYONS
co-created with THE ENSEMBLE
Performed by ROOSTER DEMOTTE, VIRGINIA MCMAHON, HARLEY ROACH, and AJ OSTAPOVICH
Archival texts adapted by SARA LYONS from texts by Vivan Gornick; Shulamith Firestone; Anonymous members of Redstockings (1969); Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan
Scenic and Lighting Designer: CHRIS MELESKI
Media Designer: JOSEPH AMODEI
Sound Designer: ANDREW NELSON
Costume Designer: MARY ANN SWORDS-GREENE
Stage Manager: NOVA ROBERTSON
Assistant Media Designer: AJ OSTAPOVICH
Technical Director: TREVOR FLOCCO and KEVIN GALLAGHER
Assistant Technical Director: SPENCER DUFF
This Emancipation Thing premieres at REDCAT
photos by Angel Origgi and Emily Anne MacDonald (photos 3 and 6)
Sara Lyons Projects Presents
THIS EMANCIPATION THING
Pull up a cushion, have a cookie, get comfortable. Speak if you like, or just listen: This Emancipation Thing is an invitation to connect, to resurrect the second-wave feminist consciousness-raising circle in a new theatre event led by an interracial, gender-expansive ensemble. How do our relationships, our desires, our relationships with our bodies vibrate between 1968 and 2023, across generations? Whether for an hour or for six, settle into a womb of listening and care as contemporary LA-based feminists of all ages and genders intervene in the past, collapsing time in a new kind of theater experience from director Sara Lyons. With reproductive rights slipping through our fingers, what wisdom must we awaken from the activists who ushered in Roe v. Wade (1973)? What of that past must we crumble — and how will we emerge from the rubble?
Available for booking
REDCAT Los Angeles, CA >> December 9, 2023 >> 4:30p, 6:30p, and 8:30p
Conceived and Directed by SARA LYONS
co-created with THE ENSEMBLE
Performed by JENNIFER JONASSEN, JACK MACCARTHY, STACI MIZE, CHENOA RAE, MICHELLE SUI
Archival texts adapted by SARA LYONS from texts by Vivan Gornick; Shulamith Firestone; Anonymous members of Redstockings (1969); Jamison Green; Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan; Lena Hill
Scenic Designer: EMILY ANNE MACDONALD
Media and Interaction Designer: JOSEPH AMODEI
Lighting Designer: CHU-HSUAN CHANG
Sound Designer: JONATHAN SNIPES
Costume Designer: LENA SANDS
Stage Manager: MACY E. KUNKE
Production Manager: CHRISTA TROESTER
Producer: NIKKI DILORETO
Producer: JESSICA HANNA
Producer: SARA LYONS
Fundraising Manager: SIOBHAN O’LOUGHLIN
Associate Sound Designer: YASMINE EL-TAYEB
Assistant Director: STACI MIZE
Scenic Fabricator: ALAN TOLLEFSON
Assistant Scenic Designer: YESSI GARCIA-GARIBAY
This Emancipation Thing premiere announced at REDCAT
December 9, 2023
Photo by Angel Origgi
THIS EMANCIPATION THING
conceived and directed by Sara Lyons
REDCAT >> Los Angeles, CA
December 9th, 2023 >> 4:30pm, 6:30pm, and 8:30pm
click for tix & info
Pull up a cushion, have a cookie, get comfortable. Speak if you like, or just listen: This Emancipation Thing is an invitation to connect, to resurrect the second-wave feminist consciousness-raising circle in a new theater event led by an interracial, gender-expansive ensemble. How do our relationships, our desires, our bodies vibrate between 1968 and 2023, across generations? Whether for an hour or for six, settle into a womb of listening and care as contemporary LA-based feminists of all ages and genders intervene on the past, collapsing time in a new kind of theater experience. With reproductive rights slipping through our fingers, what wisdom must we awaken from the activists who ushered in Roe v. Wade (1973)? What of that past must we crumble — and how will we emerge from the rubble?
“A truly remarkable artistic research experiment crafted for the stage.”
—Grace Courvoisier, LA Dance Chronicle
Co-created by the ensemble
Performed by Jennifer Jonassen, Chenoa Rae, Jack MacCarthy, Staci Mize, and Michelle Sui
Media and Interaction Design: Joseph Amodei
Scenic Design: Emily MacDonald
Lighting Design: Chu-Hsuan Chang
Sound Design: Jonathan Snipes
Stage Manager: Max Kunke
Production Manager: Christa Troester
Producers: Nikki DiLoreto, Jessica Hanna
Please note: This Emancipation Thing includes mention of suicide, and frank discussions of sex and gender-based violence.
This Emancipation Thing is repeated three times, evolving live each time with inspiration from audience participation. If you’d like to see all three performances, contact the box office at tix@calarts.edu.
This Emancipation Thing at REDCAT, 19th Annual NOW Festival
September 1-3, 2022
Sara Lyons Projects presents
THIS EMANCIPATION THING [in progress]
19th Annual New Original Works Festival
REDCAT - Los Angeles, CA
Virtual performance September 3 @ 8:30p
Sara Lyons’ This Emancipation Thing is a new interdisciplinary performance that embraces second wave feminist histories as embodied and non-linear. The theater becomes a multimedia consciousness-raising session as archival texts from 1968 and interview transcripts with L.A.-based feminists of all ages and genders create a textual landscape and collaborative installation that collapses time. What resonances and glitches emerge between 1968 and 2022, across generations? With reproductive rights slipping through our fingers, what wisdom must we learn from the activists who ushered in Roe v. Wade (1973)?
Conceived and Directed by Sara Lyons
Co-created by the ensemble
Performed by Alanna Blair, Ginna Diaz, Patty Gone, Jennifer Jonassen, and Chenoa Rae
Media and Sound Design by Joseph Amodei
Scenic Design by Emily MacDonald
Lighting Design by Chu-Hsuan Chang
Assistant Direction by Claire Edmonds
Text adapted by Sara Lyons from archival documents by Vivian Gornick for New York Times Magazine, Shulamith Firestone, New York Radical Feminists, New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and the performers.
Supported by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
Sara Lyons Projects is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.
Sophia Cleary’s One & Only in residence at The Kitchen
September 20 - October 2, 2021
(c) Paula Court 2021
In Residence: September 20–October 2, 2021
512 West 19th Street
To learn more about the project, visit The Kitchen OnScreen
Sophia Cleary is in residence to develop a stand-up comedy show for an audience of one person. Developed from the comedic material she has performed in recent years, Cleary uses the frame of the black box theater to explore the limits of connection between performer and single-person audience using intimacy as her medium. One & Only is a performance series where each show is borne of the unique connection between Cleary and her audience. Each performance simultaneously celebrates and upsets 1:1 power dynamics, and asks: “How does the apparatus of theater support or disrupt a relationship?” Directed by Sara Lyons. Lighting Design by Madeline Best. Organized by Matthew Lyons, Curator.
Workshop showings taking place the week of September 27 will give select guests a preview of the project during this developmental stage. Follow @thekitchen_nyc on Instagram to be alerted about how to join the livestreams of the evening showings from Thursday, September 30 through Saturday, October 2.
A post-residency discussion will take place with the artist and collaborators on Thursday, October 14 at 5pm EDT. To RSVP, click here.
VIRTUAL EVENT: Paul Outlaw’s BigBlackOctoberSurprise
presented by REDCAT/Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater - October 22-31, 2020
BigBlack
OctoberSurprise
written and performed by Paul Outlaw
directed by Sara Lyons
sound design by Jonathan Snipes
visual design by Adam J. Thompson
Oct 22-24, 28-31 @ 8:30pm PT
Oct 24 & 31 @ 11am PT
In 2020, Black Americans continue to face disenfranchisement, inequality and the constant threat of violent death. In the final week before The Most Important Election in Our History™, as the nation goes to the polls to elect The Most Powerful Man in the World™, BigBlackOctoberSurprise offers a meditation on isolation, imprisonment and imperiled Blackness in America — not only in this year of Covid and insurrection, but throughout a history that began in the holds of the slave ships. From the creative team behind the upcoming BBC (Big Black Cockroach), this new take on the Kafka-inspired reality is yet another metamorphosis, an online hybrid provocation combining live and filmed performance.
BBC (Big Black Cockroach) in residence at Ucross
Director Sara Lyons and Writer/Performer Paul Outlaw have been selected out of several hundred applicants for an artist residency at Ucross, a creative laboratory for the arts on a historic 20,000-acre ranch in Wyoming’s majestic High Plains.
Ucross has provided more than 2,000 residencies to some of the world’s most accomplished artists in its nearly 40 years of existence. It has been home to ten Pulitzer Prize winners, eight MacArthur “genius” grantees, seven Tony Award winners, six National Book Award winners, two Academy Award winners and an Emmy Award winner. Through its residencies, partnerships and support of emerging artists, it continues to have an impact on the cultural dialogue of the country and the world. Alumni include Billy Porter, Colson Whitehead, Yaa Gyasi, Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel and Joy Harjo.
We are humbled about this opportunity to be immersed in developing an evening-length version of BBC script in March.
I’m Very Into You at Sarah Lawrence College, Oct 10 & 11 2019
Jer Adrianne Lelliott in I’m Very Into You at LAX Festival 2018 - photo by Gema Galiana
I’m Very Into You
by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark
adapted and directed by Sara Lyons
featuring Sarah Lawrence students:
KASEY BRITT / SARAH STERLING / BRIDGET ANNE CASHMAN / BENNETT ATKINS /
MARIA SCHREINER / ZAB TESLER
media design Adam J. Thompson
sound design Aaron Landgraf
Frances Ann Cannon Theater @ Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
Oct 10 @ 7pm / Oct 11 @ 6pm and 9pm
Press for BBC (Big Black Cockroach) at REDCAT
“…gut-wrenching…Beautifully directed by Sara Lyons and enhanced by the severely stark and aggressive lighting by Chu-hsuan Chang, Outlaw confronts and exposes both white and black stereotypes, fears of “the other” and common racist statements made by people who think of themselves as non-racist or bigoted.” -LA Dance Chronicle
“The use of light set each new scene and the writing was superb…The power of this work is a see-for-yourself kind of experience. Paul Outlaw will challenge you and leave you stunned.” -Broadway World
“this challenging work impacted me the most of all the works in the festival this year…the power of BBC’s exploration of xenophobia, black virility, and gender confusion left me speechless and stunned.” -Artillery Magazine [full article]
Brian Hashimoto photography
REDCAT NOW Festival 2019: BBC (Big Black Cockroach) by Paul Outlaw
Inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: a white, cis, heterosexual, Tr*mp-supporting American woman awakens to find herself transformed into what she considers a monstrous vermin—an African-American man. Directed by Sara Lyons, Paul Outlaw’s BBC (Big Black Cockroach) is an evocative, farcical live-action horror show about black virility, white fragility, gender confusion, internalized homophobia and misogyny.
with sound design by Jonathan Snipes and lighting design by Chu-Hsuan Chang
REDCAT - August 1-3, 2019 - tix & info
About the New Original Works Festival: REDCAT's Annual New Original Works Festival transforms REDCAT into a summer laboratory premiering new contemporary dance, theater, music and multimedia performances. This year's festival launches nine new works by Los Angeles emerging and mid-career artists who are re-defining the boundaries of contemporary performance to invent hybrid artistic disciplines, re-imagine traditions and confront urgent issues. Each of the three weekends features a triple bill of three premieres in a shared evening. Each program is premiered on Thursday evening and repeated Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:30 pm.
Refest Los Angeles 2019
Exhibition: Salon @ NAVEL
Friday, March 15th - 6p-10p - FREE - NAVEL 1611 S Hope St LA CA 90015
Hosted by NAVEL, CultureHub LA’s Salon at Refest explores innovative strategies in participatory performance that serve as vehicle for social change. This pop-up exhibition at NAVEL's Downtown LA space showcases interactive installations, performances, and experiences by Los Angeles artists across disciplines as well as artists from CultureHub’s global community.
Participating Artists:
Adeline Ducker
Alex Rickett
Amanda Ho
Anshul Pendse
Caroline Yoo
Cordelia Istel
Dahn Gim
David Elliott
Eddo Stern
Elizabeth Leister
Emotional.Store (Bailey Hikawa + Scotty Wagner)
Gerard Delmàs
Hayeon Jo
Hsinyu Lin
Hye Jeoung Choi
Ingeborg Govaart
Jen Agosta
Ji Sun Park
Jon Haddock
John Brumley
Kristin McWharter
Lea Schönfelder
Lilyan Kris
Luna Jeong
Mengyu Chen
Mi You
Michal Sela-Amit
Miller Klitsner
Nick Crockett
Peter Mark + Scarlett Kim
Sara Lyons
Seung Yong Noh
Sieun Lee
Sofia Staab-Gulbenkian
Sol Namkung
Soeun Kim
Steven Amrhein
Steven Ha
Tyler Stefanich
Weidi Zhang
Xin Xin
Yeji Kim
Refest LA 2019 is free and open to the public.
*The exhibition will open at 6pm, but join us at any hour!
**Street parking is available.
Refest 2019
CultureHub's annual festival brings artists, activists, and technologists together to envision our role in re-shaping the future. Through exhibitions, performances, and conversations, Refest 2019 explores how we create, resist, and redefine gender within an evolving technological landscape.
www.culturehub.org/refest-2019
Join us for the rest of Refest LA 2019: bit.ly/refestla2019
Critical Forum with Sara Lyons @ PAM
January 23rd @ 8:30pm - PAM Residencies, 5810 1/2 N Figueroa St, LA CA 90042
Is there intimacy without power? In response to #MeToo narratives of so-called “grey areas” of consent, director Sara Lyons is creating a new participatory performance work that contends with the third space that emerges between two individuals during sex. As a starting point for a group discussion about the capabilities and limitations of making performances engaging these issues she asks: "How can we expect language--inherently patriarchal and intellectual in its form--to provide the necessary tools to achieve a pleasurable and just sexual experience?"
www.sara-lyons.com
Together Feel in Residence @ Automata
Sara is currently in residence at Automata in Los Angeles with UNTITLED CONSENT PROJECT through Los Angeles Performance Practice/Automata’s D+R Residency initiative.
Is there intimacy without power? TOGETHER FEEL is a participatory, mixed reality performance project contending with so-called “grey areas” of consent and the foreignness of language in the face of immediate sensation and desire. What happens when we rely on language to hold that ephemeral third space between two individuals having sex? In a series of structured one-on-one analog and mediated interactions, performers and audience members will meet at intersections of mind and body, blindness and sight, me and you, and attempt to dance across these chasms. With material developed from found accounts of sexual experience and assault narratives, TOGETHER FEEL participants must contend with the impossible task of consent: mediating physical experiences through language. TOGETHER FEEL will deconstruct gendered problematics of one-on-one intimacy, perform the treacherous chasm between self and other, and ask what is at stake when our most vulnerable sensations must be mediated through language. TOGETHER FEEL seeks to expand the feminist cultural conversations about consent and lay the groundwork for new frameworks for sexual collaboration.
WORK IN PROGRESS SHOWING:
Sunday, Jan 13 @ 2:30pm // free // RSVP
I’m Very Into You presented by the Wattis Institute, San Francisco
Jeanne Gerrity / Wattis Institute
I'm Very Into You
by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark / adapted and directed by Sara Lyons
Featuring a local cast of queer and feminist artists:
LYNN BREEDLOVE / IVY JEANNE / SILK WORM / SAIR GOETZ / JAVIER STELL-FRESQUEZ / LUNA IZPISUA RODRIGUEZ
Media Design Adam J. Thompson
Sound Design Aaron Landgraf
The Wattis Institute - San Francisco, CA - November 30th, 2018 - 6:30pm - FREE
The west coast premiere of Sylvan Oswald’s Vendetta Chrome
photo by Nardeep Khumi
Coeurage Theatre Company presents:
Vendetta Chrome
By Sylvan Oswald
Directed by Sara Lyons
Lex Theatre - November 24th-December 15th
Vendetta, a late bloomer at a Victorian girls' school, must save her friends and her family from a legacy of trouble -- and it's all in the dance moves. In the West Coast premiere of Sylvan Oswald's melodrama-farce, spirited movement sequences by Milka Djordjevich (Anthem) meet today's feminist rage. Director Sara Lyons (I'm Very Into You) leads a female and nonbinary cast through the lightness and the darkness. Oswald's Vendetta Chrome is "a saucy spoof on the inane mannerisms of Victorian education for young ladies with a pointed message." (Variety)
Tickets on sale at: coeurage.org/buytickets / All tickets are Pay What You Want.
Cast: Principals
Diona Elise Burnett-Vendetta
Provvidenza Catalano-Algie
Katie Canavan-Gertie
Nicole Monet-Tallulah
Elena Murray-O’Connell
Marta Portillo-LaDonna
Tarina Pouncy-Ivory
Emily Price-MaryMaryAlice
Janet Song-Bosworth
Cast: Alternates
Kari Lee Cartwright
Leesa Kim
Marnina Schon
Roshni Shukla
Sammi Smith
Production Team:
Sara Lyons - Director
JR Bruce- Scenic Designer
Azra King-Abadi-Lighting Designer
Milka Djordjevich- Movement Director
Alexis Chaney- Costume Design
Joseph V. Calarco- Sound Designer
Rachel Shanblatt- Production Stage Manager
Evelyn Myers- Stage Manager
Elspeth Weingarten- Assistant Stage Manager
About Coeurage:
Coeurage Theatre Company exists to make impassioned theatre accessible for all audiences through Pay What You Want admission and fresh, challenging productions.
I’m Very Into You presented by LAX Festival 2018
I’m Very Into You by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark / adapted and directed by Sara Lyons
Featuring a cast of local Los Angeles underground queer and feminist artists:
GINA YOUNG / PAUL OUTLAW / JENNIFER JONASSEN / JER ADRIANNE LELLIOTT / PROVVIDENZA CATALANO / ROBIN PODOLSKY / YVES AGUSTIN ARMANDO / ELSPETH WEINGARTEN
Media Design Adam J. Thompson
Sound Design Aaron Landgraf
Stage Manager Aaron Saldaña
Assistant Director Shen Heckel
October 13, 14, 16, 18, & 21 @ Think Tank Gallery (Los Angeles)
I'm Very Into You at OUTsider Fest in Austin, Feb 14-18
photo by Rolando Sepulveda II / OUTsider
I'm Very Into You
by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark / adapted and directed by Sara Lyons
Featuring Ashley Clark, kt shorb, Mal Zook, Zachary G Henry, Sally Strecker, Donnesh Amrollah, Kimmothy Cole, Electra Mourning
Media Design Adam J. Thompson and Joseph Amodei
Sound Design Aaron Landgraf
Production Manager Laura J. Khalil
Medea/Shulie
adapted and directed by Sara Lyons
with text by Euripides and Shulamith Firestone
Euripides' classic myth of Medea's murderous revenge collides with the work of the late American feminist activist and author Shulamith Firestone as five young women enact a contemporary ritual of women's rage.
11.29-12.2 / Helen Wayne Rauh Studio Theatre / CMU School of Drama / Tickets