Kiros Pictures is a small film production company founded by two screenwriter/producers that, to date, has produced five short films and is transitioning this year into feature film development and production.  Kiros comes from the Greek word meaning “a moment of divine time,” referring to the opportune moment in which something should be brought into existence.  The company’s goal is to bring unique and interesting film to the world at just the right time.  Kiros Pictures’ writer/producer Joe Brouillette tells us more…

Who or what have been your biggest influences?

Screenwriter John August (Go, Big Fish, The Nines);
Writer/Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins);
Playwright/Screenwriter Tom Stoppard (The Real Thing, Arcadia, Shakespeare in Love).

What has been Kiros Pictures’ greatest success to date?

Winning a $10,000 Grand Jury prize in a national contest for our first short film, Sissy Frenchfry.  That, and figuring out our first business tax return.

If you could collaborate with any creative mind, living or dead, who would it be?

Tough question. Either Oscar Wilde or Paul Rubens.

You’ve been a member of Fractured Atlas since March of 2007.  How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Fiscal sponsorship and film production insurance.

Complete this sentence: “A world without art is…”

“…a world that has stopped evolving.”  Seems complete to me!

What projects are on your horizon?

We’re currently co-producing a children’s feature film with Persistent Entertainment, and trying to get studio funding for it.  In addition, we have five indy feature film scripts in search of financiers and/or producing partners.  And we’re writing more all the time.

How can we see and learn more about your company’s work?

You may visit the website for our first project at sissyfrenchfry.com or myspace.com/sissyfrenchfrymovie.  A company website will be developed soon.

Founded in 2001, Stone Soup Theatre Arts creates collaborative work based on relevant social issues. Each season, the company chooses a theme and begins with a published work, usually by an international playwright.  The season culminates in a collaboratively-created piece based on research, workshops and travel.

Stone Soup gets its name from the Grimms Brothers’ tale about a town that comes together, with what little sustenance they have, to create a magical meal.  Managing director Leigh Goldenberg says, “Our company is always looking for contributors — artistic collaborators or audience members — to our pot!  This means anyone who wants to join in the conversation and bring a little something with them…”

Recently, we talked shop (soup?) with Leigh and artistic director Nadine Friedman…

Who or what are your biggest influences?

The founding members of Stone Soup Theatre Arts were moved by the work of the Group Theatre — its collaborative nature and socially significant work.  Now, our influences are less often particular styles of theatre; we focus more on what is inspiring in current events. If we can’t stop talking about something, and feel our audience shouldn’t either, then we know we have to find or create a play about it.

What has been your greatest success to date?

Our production of Elie Wiesel’s “The Trial of God” was a big turning point for the company, and probably our most significant success. The play was artistically challenging, both in the text and our approach to the casting. We were proud to receive our most substantial press for this piece, which brought in an incredibly diverse audience for us. Having Chasidic Jews in the audience watch a black woman onstage playing a rabbi was completely unforgettable. “The Trial of God” also furthered our company’s mission by uniting us with five other Off-Off Broadway companies to produce “The UnConvention,” an artistic protest to the Republican National Convention in NYC in 2004. The entire festival felt vital and relevant and we were lucky to work with our peers to create a cohesive, provocative statement.

Stone Soup has been a member of Fractured Atlas since 2003. How do you use your membership?

Primarily, we use Fractured Atlas (FA) as our fiscal sponsor, which has been invaluable. We use the donation history tool [that comes with fiscal sponsorship] as a fund-raising database. We have also gotten general liability insurance through Fractured Atlas, and special offers that are available to FA members, such as discounted publicity work from Wise Elephant. We regularly check the FA website to see what our peers are up to. We have found the events calendar to be an incredible resource to attract like-minded artists to our master classes and audition workshops. And our company members are also excited about taking courses on Fractured U!

Finish this sentence: “A world without art is …”

“…unrevealed!”

What’s ahead for Stone Soup?

We are currently in the planning stages for our 8th season — Diagnosing the Present — an exploration of healthcare. We plan to produce two plays in repertory in Spring 2009, one original and one previously published. We are also continuing our workshop series this November and hosting a gala in December.

How can we learn more about Stone Soup’s offerings?

We welcome everyone to join our artists in our Souped Up Sundays Master Class workshops this November, or to attend our annual benefit on December 6th. These are casual ways to meet company members and see how we operate.  We also throw unusual fundraisers ranging from bingo picnics to dog beauty pageants!

Our website, www.stonesoupkitchen.org, has background on the company, details about upcoming events, and our e-newsletter sign-up.

A Philadelphia-area visual artist and member of Fractured Atlas since December 2003, Ellen Priest has taken jazz as the subject of her paintings since 1990.  She creates a series of mixed-media paintings based on a single jazz composition. Her recent work has used jazz pianist/composer Edward Simon’s “Venezuelan Suite” as its inspiration.

Ellen, tell us more about your technique.

My paintings are constructed from superimposed layers of paper — the back layer opaque watercolor paper, the front layers translucent vellum — each with drawing, color and more recently, collage.  The result is that one sees a painting through a painting.

Who or what are your strongest influences?

I would point to three very diverse sources:  First, my steadiest visual art influences have been Cezanne’s later watercolors; Matisse’s color and compositional structure; and Abstract Expressionism, especially the work of Willem De Kooning and, later, Joan Mitchell.

Jazz and related African and Latin American music have changed my work.  Specifically, the rhythms and harmonic structures have both affected color and composition.  My website offers more thoughts about the interface between jazz and my paintings.

And, finally, I’ve been fairly athletic all my life.  My favorite sports are the “balance sports,” where motion depends on weight and balance thrown off-center, often in response to terrain: skiing, swimming, cycling, rollerblading, water-skiing and skating.   

It’s not often that a visual artist claims athleticism as an influence… Tell us how your enjoyment of sports has influenced your paintings.

I love being a physical person in a physical world, and movement is critical to understanding my artworks. It’s particularly apparent in my brush studies.  I strive to get an anthropomorphic feeling into the marks I make, even though they are abstract.  Art gives form to feeling.  Movement is the carrier of meaning. A career-changing book I read over 30 years ago, philosopher Susanne Langer’s Feeling and Form, developed both those concepts. You could say that I work with visual movement.

How do you define “success”?

To me, there are two kinds of success: public and private.  The public or “career” success includes the critical recognition, the sales of my paintings, the grants and exhibitions.  This success keeps me fed and in the studio, and will preserve my work when I’m gone.

The second is my personal assessment of my artwork — the images themselves, the clarity and creativity of my thinking, the intensity and rigor of my long-term process.  Have I created artwork that satisfies my largest goals?  This is the success that allows me to look myself in the eye after nearly 30 years in the studio and feel happy.  This is also the one that keeps shifting, and moving farther out ahead of me as the work continues to grow.

These two kinds of success clearly merge at times — for example, when I see people experiencing the joy and energy I hope they will in the presence of my work.

What has been your greatest success to date?

In 2007, my first museum show was held at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.  While the exhibition was up, I received my second Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.  Both were deeply gratifying.

How did you hear about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to join?

I was researching health insurance on the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) website, which led me to Fractured Atlas.  I was intrigued by Fractured Atlas’s mission and joined [in 2003], figuring that as it grew, even more services would be available to me…which has been true.

Finish this sentence: “Art is important because ______.”

…it gives symbolic form to experience, both for the artist and for the viewers.

How can we see and learn more about your work?

Please visit www.ellenpriest.com.  Lots more paintings, and lots more about the interface between jazz and my images.  There’s also a short animation designed to help viewers understand the surface and physical depth of the paintings.

Images:
Top and middle: Jazz: Edward Simon’s ‘Venezuelan Suite’ #10 and #3, © 2006. Oil and flashe on collaged paper, each 42″ x 42″.
Bottom: Jazz: Gonzaguinha’s Africa/Brazil #9, © 2004. Oil and flashe on collaged paper. 42″ x 42″.

New York-based Small Pond Entertainment is an emerging theatre arts organization that was started five years ago by artistic director Michael Roderick when he found that it was virtually impossible for an artist to be at their best when they also had to produce.  In this interview with Fractured Atlas, Michael elaborates on his organization’s mission, tells us what’s ahead, and explains what goes into making a “Hot Cripple”…

Michael, tell us more about Small Pond Entertainment’s mission and work.

Small Pond Entertainment seeks to help artists who are developing work by providing producing services, enabling the artist to focus on their art.  We assist the artist by general managing the production, helping to find donors, and helping them budget.  We do this while teaching the artist all about producing so that they can go on and do it themselves someday.

What has been your greatest success to date?

I would have to say this summer’s sold-out productions: “Sleeper” at Manhattan Theatre Source, “The Director’s Reality” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival, and “Hot Cripple”.

Tell us more about “Hot Cripple”:  How did it come about?

“Hot Cripple” came from a chance meeting with the writer/actress Hogan Gorman at an after party for another show we produced, “Liberty and Joe DiMaggio”.  Hogan told me that she had a story and she’d eventually be looking for a producer.  She emailed me when it got accepted into FringeNYC, but her invite ended up getting buried under a mountain of other emails.  Luckily, a mutual friend forwarded me her need for a producer the day before the paperwork was due and she came running down to the school where I work and signed me on.

It seems that with “Hot Cripple” you really accomplished your mission of providing production assistance so that artists can better focus on their art: at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival, the one-woman show garnered actor/playwright Hogan Gorman the festival’s Overall Excellence Award for “Outstanding Actor”.

What did you expect (or want) your audience to experience during the performance and to take away after they leave?

My hope for the piece was that the story would get the audience talking about the current U.S. healthcare system and open up a dialogue about how poorly people are treated when they don’t have health insurance.  I like finding really good stories that get people to talk.

You’ve been a member of Fractured Atlas since 2004. How did you find out about our organization?  What motivated you to become a member?

A friend of mine was running a theatre company called Prophecy Productions, which was a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.  He explained to me how fiscal sponsorship worked and I went on the website to check it out.  When I saw how informative the site was and how much support the organization provided, I decided to sign up then and there.

Finish this sentence: “The artist’s role in society is to…”

“…to lead people to ask questions. To challenge the norm and refute the dominant ideology. The artist is there to turn on the lights when it’s hard to see the art.”

Who or what are your biggest influences?

Our biggest influences come from the theatre community, the public, Playwrights Horizons, Ken Davenport, as well as many other companies and producers.

What’s next on Small Pond Entertainment’s horizon?

We are currently running a monthly comedy series that splits all proceeds with indie theatre companies; I am currently writing a blog for people interested in producing on the ground level; and we have a show coming up in January 2009 called “Dead Pan”, which is also quite thought-provoking.  And we continue to help as many artists as we can with networking events and development opportunities.

How can we read/experience/learn more about you and your organization’s work?

You can always check out my blog, http://oneproducerinthecity.typepad.com/, or take a look at the Small Pond website: www.smallpondentertainment.com.

Images:
Top: Michael Roderick, Artistic Director, Small Pond Entertainment. Photo by Erica Singleton.
Middle: Promo image for “Hot Cripple”. Hogan Gorman, Playwright, Actor.
Bottom: Images from “Proof by Disproof” (July 2006). Pictured: Craig Anthony Grant, Christopher Beier (top) and Nell Casey.

Name: Mariana Bekerman
Websites: www.mbdancecompany.com
Fractured Atlas Member Since: March 2005
Fractured Atlas Services Used: Fiscal Sponsorship, Calendar of Events, Job Listings

The Mariana Bekerman Dance Company is an eight-year-old modern dance company that fuses the classics with underground dance styles, in particular, “vogue” dance.  The New York-based company has performed throughout the tri-state region and is currently in the process of expanding its audiences by performing its repertoire both nationally and internationally.  Additionally, the MBDC is delving into arts education programs, teaching and performing for youth in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Artistic director Mariana Bekerman focuses on making work that touches the human spirit, avoiding what she calls “the gloom, doom and angst of concert dance.”  Recently, she took the time to answer a few questions from Fractured Atlas…

Mariana, who and/or what are your biggest influences?

Boris Eifman, Baryshnikov, Nijinsky, Erte, Madonna and Bjork.  In terms of the work itself, I am influenced by my personal life philosophy, experiences and human interactions.

What has been your greatest success to date?

Self-producing five dance concerts, including one at the Joyce SoHo; co-producing with LaGuardia Community College; and most recently, signing an eighteen-month contract with Global Talent, who sponsored us when we performed at City Center Studio as part of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conference this past January.

How did you find out about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to become a member?

I knew of Fractured Atlas through the Field, I believe.  I was a member of another non-profit…but was soon informed that it is best to be a member of an organization that funders are familiar with.  This is why I joined, along with other great perks such as funding opportunities for members from Fractured Atlas itself!

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

I use Fractured Atlas as my fiscal sponsor when soliciting for grants and individual sponsors…and for general advice.  I frequently use the Fractured Atlas website to scroll through job listings and other happenings around town, to remain connected with the art community.

Finish this sentence: A world without art is ______. “…colorless.”

Is there any advice that you would give to a dancer at the start of their career?

A dancer who is at the start of his/her career needs to dance for everyone and be available for everyone at all times…which is unrealistic, so they had better know what they can/not handle and be truthful about it.  If they are working with someone, they must have faith and full trust in that artist — otherwise, why even dance for them?  And they must research the company or artist they will commit to, since it is a commitment.  Thanks to today’s technology, this is not a problem at all.

How can we see, experience and learn more about your company’s work?

The Mariana Bekerman Dance Company website is www.mbdancecompany.com.  We will be performing on Saturday, November 1st at 11:30 PM at China Club, 264 W. 47 Street (bet. Broadway & 8th Avenue). Contact us through our website for performance details or to be put on our guest list.

Photos by: Tetteh Tawiah

Name: Nicholas DeMaison
Websites: www.myspace.com/operacabal, www.southhadleychorale.org
Hometown: Rochester, NY; now resides in New York City
Artistic Disciplines: music composition, conducting
Fractured Atlas Member Since: June 2007
Fractured Atlas Services Used: Development Grant, Fiscal Sponsorship, Event Liability Insurance, Calendar of Events

Both a composer and conductor, Nicholas DeMaison is the founding music director of Opera Cabal, a fledgling experimental opera company bent on the creation and production of new music, new opera and new theater; and the director of the South Hadley Chorale, a 90-voice symphonic choir in South Hadley, Massachusetts.  Recently, he took the time to answer a few of our questions…

Who/what are your biggest influences?

As a composer, the usual suspects, from Perotin to Feldman, Manoury, Scelsi, and Lucier; as a conductor, Boulez, Carl St.Clair, Gustav Meier, and Lucas Vis; as the builder of artistic communities, organizations like the The Walden School, The La Jolla Symphony and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

What has been your greatest success to date?

It seems that “successes” for me always come in unlikely places and forms.

When the South Hadley Chorale decided to hire me, I was pretty stoked  despite the fact that I would be making a 150-mile commute every week from NYC up to central Massachusetts.

And Opera Cabal’s biggest success so far was also, strangely, its biggest disaster.

We typically make use of non-standard performance spaces: private homes, art galleries, old warehouses…whatever.  About a year ago, we organized and booked our second 4-day festival of new opera/music/theater (Delusions : 2007) at the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago’s Industrial Bridgeport neighborhood.  Artists and musicians were coming from New York, San Diego, Madison, and Buffalo to perform/display their work.  During the performances on the second night, the commissioner of the Chicago Police came to the gallery and shut down the festival, citing the gallery’s lack of a Public Presenter’s License.  Turns out, the gallery had run into this problem before…

(Editor’s note: Read more about the gallery’s closure here.)

We left that night completely defeated, feeling that nearly seven months of planning, preparation etc. had just evaporated.  On Saturday morning, some friends who had heard about our disaster offered to let us use a large performance space in their home.  We scrambled for the next 9 hours, moved our entire setup (sets, lights, sound equipment…everything) across town to Hyde Park, and at 7pm, Phyllis Chen’s Toy Piano Roadshow, the Nonsense Company, and Opera Cabal played to a modest, but very devoted crowd of 25.   It was the most powerfully intimate and magical performance I have ever experienced, and it drastically changed the way we think about our work.

How did you hear about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to become a member?

I heard about Fractured Atlas from Nathan Davis, a NY-based percussionist, and even though at the time I had no idea how I might use the varied services offered, it seemed more than likely that at some point in the future I would.

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Event advertising, event insurance, and a professional development grant.   Opera Cabal has applied for fiscal sponsorship, as well.  As soon as I am no longer an “underemployed” musician, I plan to look into the health insurance packages.

How would you finish this sentence: “The artist’s role in society is…”
“…to demonstrate an alternative.”

How can we read more about and experience your organizations’ work?

We haven’t officially started advertising any of these events, but Opera Cabal has two upcoming shows this season:

- My own “Ursularia,” and new pieces by Rick Burkhardt, presented in collaboration with The Nonsense Company; at Chicago’s AVaerie, Dec. 11-13, 2008
- Sciarrino’s “Lohengrin,” in collaboration with The Nonsense Company and UC San Diego; at UCSD’s brand spanking new Prebys Music Center in La Jolla, CA; May 16/17, 2009

And the South Hadley Chorale performs Bruckner’s Mass no. 2 in E Minor on March 15, 2009, in Mount Holyoke’s Abbey Chapel; South Hadley, MA.

To read more about our/my work, you can check out our reviews in Time Out Chicago, and the blogs Telecommuniculturey and Deceptively Simple.

Images:

Top: Nicholas DeMaison

Middle: Ryland Barton, Jonathon Eliot, and Griffin Sharps performing Eliot’s “Lamia.”  Opera Cabal’s Collusions : 2007 Festival, April 2007, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago.

Bottom: Majel Connery (Artistic Director, Opera Cabal) as St.Ursula, in Nicholas DeMaison’s opera “Ursularia.”  Opera Cabal’s Collusions : 2007 Festival, April 2007, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago.

Name: Cara Winter
Website: www.carawinter.net
Hometown: New York, NY
Artistic Disciplines: writing, acting
Fractured Atlas Member Since: February 2002
Fractured Atlas Services Used: Fiscal Sponsorship, Health Insurance, Liability Insurance

Cara, tell us about your work in a few sentences.

For about a decade, my focus was on performing, and I worked and toured all over the country.  But I’ve always written, on the side.  I am often inspired by the work I’m doing as an actress; for instance, I wrote two children’s plays while teaching acting to children, and wrote a play about an alcoholic while on tour with… well, you get the picture.  Last summer, my first play, “Social Work”, was picked up and produced by the Manhattan Repertory Theatre; and I have three more adult plays, all in-progress: “Poker Face”, “Seeds”, and “Alan Alda sat next to me on a park bench”.

Who/what are your biggest influences?

David Auburn, Aaron Sorkin, and Amy Sherman-Palladino are my major writing influences.

What has been your greatest success to date?

As a performer, it would have to be playing to a packed Fox Theatre in St. Louis.  Incredible.   As a writer, it was when “Social Work” was produced at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre.  The actors were amazing, the director and co-producer were incomparable.  Then the “aftermath” of the play’s success was SO cool:  several requests came in from development types to read the play (one at the Public, one at the Flea, as well as a film producer).  It was an incredible experience, and I learned so much.

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Fractured Atlas has helped me to obtain liability insurance (when I produced a short film), fund-raise and promote my production/s, and network with other artists.  For a while, though, the most important aspect of my association with Fractured Atlas was access to health care.  Last August we welcomed our first child into the world (a son, Avery), so having good health coverage was a priority.  My husband is also a freelancer, so he doesn’t have coverage through an employer.  Without FA, I’m not sure what we’d have done!  Glad I didn’t have to think about that.

Finish this sentence: A world without art is…

lonely.

How can we see/hear/read/experience/learn more about your work?

Whenever I’m in production with a piece, I usually send my blurb to Fractured Atlas’s community calendar.  I also have recent news on my own website: www.carawinter.net

Images:
Top: “Social Work” by Cara Winter at Manhattan Repertory Theatre;
Catherine Gowl as “Margaret” and Stas May as “Geoff”.  Photo by N. Warren Winter.

Bottom: Cara Winter as The Ghost of Christmas Past, with Cork Ramer as Scrooge; National Tour of “A Christmas Carol”.

Name: Jari Chevalier
Websites: http://jariart.com, http://livinghero.com, http://jariscope.com
Hometown: New York, NY
Artistic Disciplines: Visual art, writing
Fractured Atlas Member Since: Spring 2008
Fractured Atlas Service Used: Fiscal Sponsorship

Jari Chevalier is a mixed media artist and writer whose current visual work integrates the mysteries of the human body with cosmological and deep sea imagery, conjuring eerie narrative landscapes.  Her influences include Eastern philosophy and advances in science, as well as her travel within Asia and background in poetry.  Her solo exhibition “Mathematics of Ecstasy” is scheduled at seven venues in North Dakota during the 2008-2009 season.

We asked Jari to tell us about her influences and experiences…

How did you find out about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to join?

“I created an integrative exercise DVD that was videotaped by Randi Cecchine, a New York artist who makes independent films. At one of Randi’s fund-raising parties last year, I made out a check to Fractured Atlas in support of a Cecchine project.

I then joined Fractured Atlas to organize fund-raising for my own project. The Fractured Atlas system is fast, professional, and reasonably priced. I am an emerging solo artist with the need to raise cash fast, in order to take advantage of immediate and near-term opportunities. Fractured Atlas has provided answers to pressing problems and enabled donors to make tax-deductible contributions to my project.

The funding I’ve received so far has enabled me to update my website and purchase materials for continuing current studio projects, while I move forward to raise funds for a perfect-bound ‘Mathematics of Ecstasy’ show catalogue.”

What/who are your biggest influences?

“Visual Art: Anselm Kiefer, Tim Hawkinson, Elizabeth Murray, Matthew Ritchie, Lee Bontecou, Helen Frankenthaler, Fred Tomaselli and Barbara Takenaga.  Literature: Kafka, Beckett, Henry James, William Matthews.  Thought/Spirit: J. Krishnamurti, Vipassana practice and study of Buddhist psychology, quantum physics, shamanic vision. Music: Steve Reich, Bobby McFerrin.  Overall: Loved ones, India, Japan.”

What have been your greatest successes to date?

“Integrative breakthroughs in consciousness and intuitive knowing. Development of patience, empathy, open-minded courage. Release of old patterns of thinking and feeling. Developing the aptitude for synthesis of multidisciplinary study, international travel, and rich life experiences into original metaphorical languages. Recognition of these inner successes through poems published in international journals, serving as a contributing editor for the literary magazine Barrow Street, and creating a solo touring museum exhibition of 25 works within five years of embarking on visual art-making.”

Finish this sentence: the artist’s role in society is . . .

“…to cut new pathways of perception; to venture into psychic wilderness; to provide antidotes to all that anesthetizes people; to create new rhythms and synapses; to crystalize and clarify; to share insight, wisdom, aesthetic pleasure, joy; to invent new codes for our tragicomic follies and the brave, enduring enterprise of life; to pass these codes on to our comrades of the future.”

How can we see, experience, or learn more about your work?

“My current work, exhibition schedule, and contact information is found at http://jariart.com. For my writings and teachings, visit http://livinghero.com (podcast page—interviews with living luminaries and mavericks) and http://jariscope.com (blog page—essays and podcast posts in a chronology).”