Time Track Productions and The Ritz Theater Presents:

Unbranded: Conversations in Performance

with Time Track Productions, Skewed Visions, Laurie Van Wieren, and Michelle Kinney.

 Apri 9-12

Unbranded is a dialogue between artists across disciplines culminating in the presentation of new work by all participants. Featuring Paula Mann and Steve Paul of Time Track Productions, Laurie Van Wieren, Michelle Kinney of Jelloslave, Skewed Visions, and Ritz Theater Managing Director Jim Bovino, Unbranded is a series of conversations about the making of art in a consumer commodity-driven society.

The group is by no means monolithic. The ongoing conversation drives the creative process forward, connecting the whole to its parts through open discussions and renewed perspective on survival as creators of non-traditional work. But each artist’s contribution is autonomous, free from expectation of content or form, and rooted in his or her own unique practice. It is our hope that these conversations will result in emboldened artistic statements that will impact the individual artists and the community far beyond the public performances.

UNBRANDED IS:

Time Track Productions: Paula Mann and Steve Paul

www.timetrackproductions.org

Co-artistic directors Steve Paul and Paula Mann have been presenting their individual and collaborative work in Minnesota for the last twenty years. Both are award-winning artists whose work has garnered support from the Jerome, McKnight, and Bush Foundations. Their work has been presented by many performance venues in New York and has been seen across the United States, Canada, Italy and Germany.

Steve Paul is a graduate of the University of Iowa. In the 20+ years since then, he has been a writer, director, performer, designer, musician and media artist based in the Twin Cities. His work has been seen throughout the United States and Europe. Currently he teaches animation at the University of Minnesota Department of Art and the Art Institutes International Minnesota in downtown Minneapolis. Paula Mann moved to the Twin Cities from New York in 1987, armed with a BA and MFA in dance from New York University, and following eight years as co-director of the New York based company, Dudek/Mann + Dancers. Mann’s work has been presented in New York at Dance Theater Workshop, P.S 122, Danspace, Off Broadway at the Douglass Fairbanks Theater and Movement Research, and in the Twin Cities, by the Southern Theater, The O’ Shaughnessy Dance Series, the Walker Arts Center, the MN Dance Alliance, Hamline University, and most recently at the Ritz Theater. Her solo work has been presented throughout the U.S. and Canada. Mann has been recognized with several awards from the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, the MN State Arts Board, MRAC Arts Activities and Community Arts, two Sage Cowles Chairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bush Artist Fellowship. Paula Mann is a recipient of a 2005 Artist Initiative Grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a 2003 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers. In July 2009 Time Track Productions will present their new work at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City. She is currently on faculty at the University of Minnesota Department of Theater and Dance.

Jelloslave: Michelle Kinney

www.jelloslave.com

As a composer, Michelle has received awards and grants from The Bush Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, NEA/Rockefeller, Harvestworks/Studio Pass, and the American Composers Forum. Her work appears on various compilation recordings including the recent “Sonic Circuits X” from the Innova label.

In addition to performing in her own bands (now Jelloslave), Michelle has recorded, performed and toured throughout Europe and the United States with some of the most respected innovators in new music today. Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, Myra Melford, George Cartwright, Leroy Jenkins, Elliot Sharp, Brandon Ross, Steven Bernstein and Steve Tibbets are among the artists calling on Michelle’s contributions as a cellist.

She has also worked extensively in pop music, including many recordings and appearances live and on TV (Tonight Show, Letterman, VHS Storytellers) with Natalie Merchant, several recordings with Sheryl Crow, performance projects with producer Hal Wilner, The Letterman Show with Lou Reed, recording with John Cale, and Richie Havens’ recent release “Wishing Well”.

Laurie Van Wieren

www.mnartists.org/Laurie_Van_Wieren

Laurie Van Wieren is an independent choreographer, performer, and teacher based in Minneapolis, who has been creating dance and performance since 1980. She grew up on the west side of Chicago, and attended the Art Institute of Chicago. As a solo performer, and with her company, the B-Specifics, she has performed in many venues, including the Walker Art Center, the Southern Theater, Dancespace, DTW, First Avenue, and on the Lake of the Isles. Laurie is the recipient of fellowships from the McKnight, Jerome, Bush and Rockefeller foundations. She is the founder and producer of a monthly choreographers showcase and discussion, the “9x22 Dance Lab”, a meeting-place for dancers and dance-makers in Minneapolis. She teaches, both privately and a class called “Out of Character” at the University of Minnesota. lvw@visi.com

Skewed Visions (Gulgun Kayim, Charles Campbell, Sean Kelly-Pegg)

www.skewedvisions.org

G?lg?n Kayim is an interdisciplinary theatre artist, writer and teacher recognized for her work through numerous grants, awards and fellowships including a 2006 Creative Capital Foundation Grant, a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship (2004), Jerome Foundation Travel/study Grant (2002), a Minnesota State Arts Board Theatre Fellowship (2001) and two MSAB Artist Assistance Grants (2004/2007) among others. She is a founder and co-artistic/managing director of Skewed Visions. For the company she created "The Hidden Room", part of the Days and Nights series (2006), also performed at the Walker Art Center and the International Festival of Movement and Dance, in Yaroslavl, Russia. She created two elements of "The Car", adapted, designed and directed "The House" - both part of "The City Itself Trilogy" (2004); created "The Orange Grove" (2003), "The Eye in the Door part two: Breakfast of Champions" (1998) and "Untitled #1" (1998).

Kayim's work has been recognized and reviewed in local, national and international journals, newspapers and media and regularly appears on critics best of the year lists. Kayim was a 2006 Walker Art Center resident artist, as part of "Open Ended: The Art of Engagement" exhibition featuring installations by Ralph Lemon and Rikritrivanya. She regularly works independently with writers at the Minnesota Playwright's Center, theatre practitioners Phillip Zarrilli and Ludmilla Ryba -an ensemble member of Tadeusz Kantor's Cricot 2- and with local dancers and visual artists.

From 1996-2000 Kayim was program coordinator of the Public Art on Campus and the Jerome/Lilly Temporary Public Art Commission programs at the Weisman Art Museum. She served as adjunct curator at Intermedia Arts' Art Inside/Outside Space installation program (2003) and as director of the Minnesota Site-Specific Visible Fringe Festival (2004). She is an affiliate faculty member in the Dept of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota and holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Minnesota, an MA in Theatre Theory and Criticism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA (Hons) in Theatre and Film from the University of Middlesex, London.

Charles Campell; Co-Artistic/Managing Director Skewed Visions

One of the three co-Founders of Skewed Visions, Charles makes work and performs as Skewed Visions. He has created multiple performance pieces including Islands of Chekhov, Strange Love (performance), A Quiet Ambition with Cherri Macht, The Car: The Taxi, The House, Pipes, and The Bicycle with architect-sculptor Steve Epley. He has also been seen with Flaneur Productions in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Leeds, England; and Edinburgh, Scotland. He took a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1997.

Sean Kelley-Pegg: is a multimedia artist creating works which explore intimacy in the urban environment by mining the relationships between media, performance and site.

In Time For Bed (2006) he created a pair of site-specific projections for an historic office building. The videos explored the sensual relationship between an artist, his puppets, and the very fabric of the building he is trapped in. In The Taxi (2004), he directed a site-specific performance for a Minneapolis taxicab. Participants accompanied the driver as he picked up an unanticipated passenger.

Kelley-Pegg directed Pipes in August, 2004, and an accompanying short film, Fortunately. He received the Intermedia Arts Art Inside/Outside Space installation commission in 2003 for the sound installation Side Walk. He created large video projections for Skewed Visions production The Orange Grove. He managed and produced the 1998 production of Untitled #1 and conceived and produced the second performance-by-mail series Take Out in collaboration with graphic artist Kristin Johnson. Kelley-Pegg directed Skewed Visions first performance, La Traviata, at the Walker Art Centers OUT THERE ARTCORE 9 event in January 1997.

From 1990 to 1992 Kelley-Pegg founded and worked collaboratively with the physical theater company The Conspiracy at Minneapolis venues such as the Hennepin Center for the Arts, Space Space and the Southern Theater. Kelley-Pegg was Assistant Director and Dramaturg to Ping Chong in his 1994 production of Undesirable Elements at the Illusion Theater. Kelley-Pegg studied at the New School University in New York City and holds an M.F.A. in directing from the University of Minnesota.