PERFORMANCE PROJECTS
*GOODBYE MAURICEWork-in-Progress
Created and performed by Laryssa Husiak
Presented by Dixon Place's HOT Festival, Inner Beauty Salon (Joseph Keckler), and Mitsu Salmon.
Speaking the words from a heart broken by love and grief. Join me for moments unexpected of laughter, song and tears.
*I'M FINE
Created and performed by Laryssa Husiak
Director and collaborator: Katie Brook
Music: Brendan Connelly
30min.
Join me as world renowned historical romance novelist Patsy St. Bernadette for an evening of romance novels, torch songs and a little California dreaming. photo credit: Katie Brook
First performed at Dixon Place in March 2008.
*NO MORE MAURICE
Created and Performed by Laryssa Husiak
25 min.
No Set necessary
created and performed by Laryssa Husiak
Each day Bernie boils a pouch of pasta,
unscrews a bottle of sauce and waits in front of the bathroom door wondering: Maurice, will you still love me tomorrow?photo credit: Laryssa Husiak
Performed at: Ephemeroptora, Dixon Place HOT 2007
*DEBUTANTE
Created and Performed by Laryssa Husiak
10-25 min
No Set necessary
Debutante: where coming out is not what it used to be. Escorted by comic conflations, stylized movements and her big puffy white dress, performing artist Laryssa Husiak cordially invites you to the collision of several Ukrainian debutante generations, passing down tradition from one lesbian at time. Debutante is comprised of three generations of debutantes: Lecia - the grandmother with her thickly accented Ukrainian debutante tradition, Svetlana – the sharp witted and self-praising host and stepmother and Cornelia - the young woman coming out. Debutante is as absurd as it is touching. Braided together by physical gesture, video instruction and pressing histories these larger than life women share their wildest and most personal moments with the audience and each other through dance, projections, raging incantations and dialogue with intimate egg puppets. Cornelia serves as the receptacle of history and tradition for the woman her life and the debutante culture that they imbue. The question arises: how does tradition transform? What happens when you take a tradition of purity, heterosexuality and high class and apply the same language and ritual to a young, radical performing and lesbian culture? You find yourself dancing with Laryssa Husiak’s Debutante. Photo Credit: Sunita Prasad
Performed at: La MaMa (w/Taylor Mac), Frontera Festival - Austin, TX, Dixon Place, Ephemeroptora
*HOT FLASH
Created and Performed by Laryssa Husiak
Directed by Jess Barbagallo
35 min
Set: piano, slide projector, oranges, desk
Welcome to the absurd and heartfelt world of Hot Flash. Solo performing artist Laryssa Husiak invites each of us to burrow into the dark and passionate underbelly of six intricate women, each with their unique festering desires. Each woman has an object ranging from the piano to a silver pot with oranges that inspires her to communicate her story. Balanced with original voice and piano composition, choreography and prose, Hot Flash creates a warm container holding a span of materials such as a child’s relationship with the Virgin Mary, a woman in love with her therapist, a person who only wears slip-on shoes in case they need to walk through a metal detector and a woman coping with sexual abuse. The stories are not epic, they are everyday. Hot Flash hopes to explore the inner lives and idiosyncrasies of these women in order to ask larger questions about desire, trauma, love and the boundaries between them.Photo Credit: Stacey Karpen
Performed at: HERE's American Living Room Festival, Manhattan Theater Source
* When I Realized I Liked GirlsAt Dixon Place's HOT FESTIVAL
Curated by Laryssa Husiak
Was it the batting eyelashes of your best friends older sister? When you blushed at the mannequins at Victoria's Secret? When you wove your first hemp bracelet or got your mixed tape of the Indigo Girls? You remember and so do we... Join us for an evening of memories, songs, videos, dance and performances with: Jess Barbagallo, Faye Driscoll, Sharyn Jackson w/ La John Joseph, Laryssa Husiak, Joseph Keckler, Sunita Prasad and Laura Stinger. Curated by Laryssa Husiak
AUDIENCE RESPONSE!
"When I Realized I liked Girls" was an evening of shared stories and new works by 7 artists. In an effort to engage the audience in the conversation,
I had little pieces of paper with the prompt, "When I Realized" and the audience could respond anonymously. Here is what they said:
"When I Realized"...
*"I liked girls I was more boyish. I was just learning to speak. I didn't know how to make the words, but I knew my body was saying, 'No, no, use he, him and his!"
*She wasn't kidding I was like, 'Ok, grandma, I love you, too!'"
*"Was gay, when on my 5th birthday, my mother gave me $10, took me to the local toy store, and told me I could pick any toy I wanted. I chose 2. A Jem doll and a Rainbow Brite.
*"I had a dick in my mouth, I took it out because: a.) i was afraid I would accidentally bite it off b.) diseases."
* "Felix Corakerres "Never Met a Girl Like You" "Young Rascals"
*"Reading a sci-fi story about a sex scene between a woman and a giant orchid. And masturbating with a medical vibrator."
*"Age6 - Star Wars V, Ula's gold bikini. Age 7 Little Mermaid. Age 8 - 16 Denial/Jesus Years. Age 17 - Claire. I still love her and she still doesn't know it. Age 18 - Stacy - not really sure how that happened. Age 22 - Sarah - we fucked to a play list of every Fiona apple album. We kept going when the play list ended."
*"When I think back, I should have realized I was gay but Vicki was my 1st relationship, from 4th to 7th grade. We did not even have a label for what we had but we just loved each other dearly and sex was wonderful, we couldn't wait to see each other."
*"Well there was this nun...Ask me later to explain"
*"Liked girls. I had already spent 1 year at an all women's college. I wanted to use a night of drinking as an excuse to make out with a girl I knew to be unavailable, but I didn't understand why I wanted to. I the night ended with that girl leaving while I was out (unaware of my intentions) and I went back to my room alone."
*"I liked boys: I made a collage of Fred Savage. It was pretty simple."
*"I liked girls, I had a crush on my 72 year old great aunt ( by marriage) and I was very excited to share a bedroom with her."
THANKS TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED!
*THE CUPBOARD FESTIVAL
