- Field Day |
- Buildings Alive |
- Visions |
- CLGBT |
- Green Community |
- Fun & Free S#!T |
- Crossword |
- CL Space |
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Did you grow up with Amy Vanderbilt? Actor/director Ami Sallee Corley needs your help
Posted by amisalleecorley on Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 7:55 PM
One of my goals when I took the leap last February and became a freelance artist was not only to have more time to commit to Jobsite, but also to collaborate with the artists I've met in the Tampa Bay area on original projects. This not only ensures more work for artists in our community, but it raises a consciousness for Tampa-grown art. The first to come to a fully realized production is The Agreeable Husband, a dance-theater piece based on Amy Vanderbilt's "Complete Book of Etiquette", a how-to book for husbands and wives published in 1952. We need the community to help us with the next layer of the project, set to open this April.
I am conducting interviews with mothers, fathers and children who grew up with this book and its ideals. If you or someone you know fits this description, we'd love to have your perspective in this project. Please e-mail AgreeableHusband@gmail.com.
About the creation of The Agreeable Husband
The Agreeable Husband is a collaborative dance/theater piece that Shana Perkins and I have been developing for over a year. Shana, who is a member of Moving Current and on faculty at Orange Grove Middle Magnet School, and I first worked together on The Gorilla Theatre's production of Jane Eyre, a multi-art project directed by Nancy Cole which combined the talents of Shana's modern dance background and Betsy Goode's live cello underscoring to assist the all-star cast in telling the story. I approach acting from a movement/physique-based perspective, and Shana approaches dance to tell a story in addition to executing technique. We had an instant respect for each other. Our first duet collaboration was for DeMario Henry's dance concert, Heart 2 Heart, at The TECO Theater at TBPAC, to great success which increased hope to get the bigger project accomplished.
Shana, who was raised on Prince Edward Island with the history of this book as a strong undercurrent in the household, originally brought the idea to me during production of Jane Eyre in November of 2007 and we started working on the concept in summer 2008. Our usual meeting ground, The Front Porch, was the birthplace of this project. The HCC Dance department became the guinea pig on which Shana worked out most of the choreography and, as talented as they are, four of the original dancers are still being used in the final production. Christopher Rutherford just recently came on board as the director of multi-media aspects and will be working closely with Ground Up Films to bring the video elements to fruition. We are close to finalizing the rest of the cast and musicians and will let you know when we have that good news to share.
When can you see the final product? We will be debuting the full production of The Agreeable Husband at this year's Ybor Festival of the Moving Image, the first week of April.
So let me know if you or your parents can contribute to the interviews and we look forward to seeing you at the debut in April. I plan to use this blog to document the process of collaborative work as well as what it's like to produce your own work. I hope you enjoy.
Ami
Top Commenters
Comments (0)