Adapted for the Stage by Rick Sparks & Gary Carter
Based on the novel by Horace McCoy
Directed by Wojtek Klemm
Choreography by Anna Krysiak
Featuring actors from the A.R.T. Institute Class of 2016
Yowza! Yowza! Yowza!
Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? springs to new life in Rick Sparks and Gary Carter’s new dramatic adaptation. Set during the Great Depression, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? steers the audience into a brutal dance marathon where hopefuls scramble through exhaustion and humiliation to win an economic reward, and with it, a desperate hope for life-changing possibility.
Waltz music swells. Horses trudge out onto the floor and dance…This topical production blurs the time difference between the Great Depression and now. Intensified by OBERON’s immersive atmosphere, Klemm’s physical style—quivering, sweating, dashing, leaping, wriggling—shows America’s dizzying dance of desire and survival at its cruelest.
The production is organized in cooperation with Culture.pl as part of the Campus Project.
The Campus Project aims at fostering lasting relations between Poland and top-tier American academic institutions that span music, visual arts, film, literature and theatre. As well as initiating workshops, study visits, concerts, lectures, conferences and exhibitions, the Campus Project supports the initiatives of its partner universities: MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and the University of Michigan.
The Campus Project was launched in 2012 by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute – a national cultural institution aiming to strengthen Polish cultural impact and to enrich international cultural exchange. The Campus Project and all other Institute’s activities are carried out under the flagship brand Culture.pl.
More information about the Campus Project and Polish culture worldwide at www.culture.pl.
Credits
Creative team
Adaptors
Rick Sparks & Gary Carter
Adaptors
Rick Sparks & Gary Carter
The duo’s adaptation was originally presented by Greenway Arts Alliance in Los Angeles, which galloped away with 17 theatre awards. Gary Carter, a founding member of it’s company lives in Los Angeles teaching Multimedia, and perpetually restores a Craftsman home. Rick Sparks (also director of original Horses production) has garnered 20 theatre awards for his work as writer and director. Other shows include I Love Lucy Live On Stage, Clutter, and Off-Broadway's production of Down South. www.sparksmambo.com
Director
Wojtek Klemm
Choreographer
Anna Krysiak
Choreographer
Anna Krysiak
Anna Maria Krysiak is a graduate of the State Ballet School of Poznań,Poland (1990) and danced with the Grand Opera Ballet in Poznań from 1990-1992 . From 1992-2005 she was an original member of Silesian Dance Theatre in Bytom, Poland, directed by Jacek Łumiński. Through her time with SDT she performed and worked with Melissa Monteros, Anna Sokolov ("Dreams"), Condrat Drzewiecki and Avi Kaiser (Batsheva Dance Company, Israel), Paul Clayden (DV8, UK), David Dorfman NY, Mark Haim, Stephan Brinkman (Pina Bausch Theatre) and others. She has performed and taught in countries all over the world, including Canada, USA, Germany, Russia, Austria, Lithuania, India, Great Britain, Holland, and all throughout Poland. In 2000, Anna was awarded the Karol Szymanowski Medal by the Polish Ministry of Culture for her unique achievements in dance. As a guest artist with the University of Calgary Dance program 2005-2007, she worked in association with W&M Physical Theatre Canada (Melissa Monteros and Wojtek Mochniej). From 2006-2008 she was a member and choreographer of Theatre Junction's RCA ,(Grand Theatre inCalgary-Canada). In 2008 she cooperate with Mariusz Treliński in projection King Roger of Karol Szymanowski in the Marińskij Theatre In Petersburg (Russia), where the orchestra was conducted by Valery Giergiev. From 2009 she has worked as an independent choreographer, dancer, and teacher in Poland and out of country. In 2010 she worked with Maja Kleczewska in..Between.. (Grand Theatre, Warsaw), music Agata Zubel. In 2011 she cooperates with Aura Dance Company (Lithuania, Kaunas) and made her own piece Apie Mus. In 2012 she danced in the opera Latajacy Holender (Roger Wagner) directed by Mariusz Treliński (Grand Theatre, Warsaw) and Media; directed by Barabara Wysocka (Grand Theatre, Warsaw). In June 2012 she performed in the world premiere of Slow Man, libretto Jahn M.Coetzee, music Nicholas Lens, directed by Maja Kleczewska (Grand Theatre, Poznań). In 2013-2015 she performed as the soloist-dancer in Moby Dick, directed by Barbara Wysocka, choreography Jacek Przybyłowicz (Grand Theatre, Warsaw) and as the solist-dancer in Faust, directed by Maciej Prus Opera Nova, Bydgoszcz. From 2014 she has worked as choreographer with Polish director Wojtek Klemm, (Antigone, Lucerne Theatre; Św.Joanna Szlachtuzów Brecht, Theatre of Bogusławski Kalisz-Poland). Her technique explores suspentions, momentum, and impulses in very strong, physical movement. She uses all the possibilities of human body and its impulses: weight, energy flow, momentum, balancing between equilibrium and falls, using gravity, movement, and standstills.