Press Release The Andy Warhol Museum Announces the 2013 Performance Series, Off the Wall

The 2013 Off the Wall series features seven nationally acclaimed performing artists and runs from January 25, 2013 through April 27, 2013. Off the Wall 2013 is the 13th edition of the series.

The Off the Wall series is curated by Ben Harrison, curator for performing arts at The Warhol. Performances take place at The Warhol, as well as the Byham Theater, New Hazlett Theater, and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater.

“Off the Wall provides a platform in Pittsburgh for unique, and at times unsettling, humorous and hard to explain encounters with a range of live art. The work often prods at conventions and conditions of theater, performance, cabaret and storytelling,” stated Harrison.

The schedule and artists: Off the Wall: 2013

Tammie Fay Starlite: Chelsea Madchen

Friday, January 25, 2013
8 p.m.
Warhol theater

In Chelsea Mädchen, the performance artist and country chanteuse-cum-evangelist, Tammy Faye Starlite, who has channeled Tammy Faye Baker and Tammy Wynette in wonderfully subversive cabaret performances in New York and LA, rediscovers Nico, a German actress and model who was one of Andy Warhol’s more popular “superstars” and briefly fronted The Velvet Underground. With dialogue based on actual encounters Nico had with journalists, the show includes a brilliant repertoire of songs including VU classic’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” “Femme Fatale” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” as well as notable Nico covers of David Bowie’s “Heroes,”Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine,” Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine” and The Doors’ “The End.”

Directed by Michael Schiralli; musical director is Keith Hartel (True Love, the Richard Lloyd group).

Tickets: $25/$20 CMP members & students; visit www.ticketweb.com or call 412- 237-8300.

Shana Moulton and Nick Hallett: Whispering Pines 10

Friday, February 8, 2013
Warhol theater
8 p.m.

Co-presented with Carnegie Mellon University, School of Fine Art

Whispering Pines 10 is a one-act opera by artist Shana Moulton in collaboration with composer Nick Hallett, and featuring vocalist Daisy Press. Directed by Elyse Singer, it features a live performance by Moulton as her alter ego Cynthia, a hypochondriac agoraphobe prone to colorful hallucinations and absurd fantasies. While Cynthia seeks health and total happiness within her virtual environment—an interactive video set that utilizes real-time multimedia techniques its creators call “live animation”—she usually settles for fad cures and new-age kitsch, creating situations in turn comic, contemplative and surreal.

Whispering Pines 10 was developed through the Harvestworks Artist In Residence Program with additional support from the Experimental Television Center, The Kitchen, New Museum of Contemporary Art and Rhizome.
Tickets: $25/$20 CMP members & students; visit www.ticketweb.com or call 412- 237-8300.

David Cale: HARRY CLARKE
Friday, February 22 & Saturday, February 23, 2013
Warhol theater
8 p.m.
David Cale is an Obie-winning solo performer, writer and actor who has performed two sold out shows, A Likely Story and Palomino within the Off the Wall series. Cale returns to the Warhol with his new solo show HARRY CLARKE, a sexually charged and hilarious one-man thriller. HARRY CLARKE is the story of a shy mid-western man who feels more himself when adopting the persona of a cocky Londoner, Harry Clarke. Moving to New York and presenting himself as an Englishman, he charms his way into a wealthy family’s life, romancing two family members as the seductive and sexually precocious Harry Clarke, with more on his mind than love. With his spellbinding and emotionally nuanced storytelling, Cale has created a riveting story of a man leading an outrageous double life.

Directed by Joanna Settle.
Tickets: $25/$20 CMP members & students; visit www.ticketweb.com or call 412- 237-8300.

SEINENDAN THEATER COMPANY – ROBOT/ANDROID – HUMAN THEATER
Friday, March 8 & Saturday, March 9, 2013
Warhol theater

8 p.m.
Co-presented with Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania
The Seinendan Theater Company, created in 1983 in Tokyo and led by the highly influential and innovative theater director, Oriza Hirata, has collaborated with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro and the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, to develop “robot-human” theater, a new field involving a fusion of theater arts and science. This special project includes two short plays; Sayonara, which features an incredibly human-like android who consoles the human actor dealing with a fatal illness; and I, Worker, set in the near future and involving two robots interacting with a young couple (human actors), in a play that essentially questions the meaning and nature of work and its value and role in contemporary society.

This program’s six-city tour is co-produced by Japan Society, New York and The Japan Foundation; and organized by Japan Society, New York.
Tickets: $25/$20 CMP members & students; visit www.ticketweb.com or call 412- 237-8300.

Young Jean Lee Theater Company: UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW

New Hazlett Theater
Saturday, March 30, 2013
8 p.m.

Co-presented with New Hazlett Theater

Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company returns for its fourth installment in the Off the Wall series, following memorable performances demonstrating Lee’s subversive style and acerbic wit, dealing with Asian American stereotypes (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven), African-American culture (THE SHIPMENT), and last year’s dark comedy about life’s futility (We’re Gonna Die). In Lee’s latest experiment around gender politics, UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW features six charismatic stars of the downtown theater, dance, cabaret, and burlesque worlds who come together to invite the audience on an exhilaratingly irreverent, nearly-wordless celebration of a fluid and limitless sense of identity.

UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW was co-commissioned through the Spalding Gray Award consortium including The Andy Warhol Museum, Performance Space 122, Walker Arts Center and On the Boards.
Tickets: $25/$20 CMP members & students; visit www.ticketweb.com or call 412- 237-8300.

Nora Chipaumire: Miriam
Friday, April 19 & Saturday, April 20, 2013
Kelly Strayhorn Theater
8 p.m.
Co-presented with Kelly Strayhorn Theater
The Warhol is pleased to partner with the Kelly Strayhorn Theater to welcome back dancer/choreographer, Nora Chipaumire. As a much anticipated follow-up to lions will roar…, a collaboration with fellow Zimbabwean and legendary musician Thomas Mapfumo (co-presented with the August Wilson Center in 2011). Chipaumire returns with Miriam, her first character-driven work, with influences such as Joseph Conrad’s writings; the life of South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba; and the Christian iconography of Mary. Accompanied by a dynamic score from Afro-Cuban composer Omar Sosa, Chipaumire and fellow performer, Okwui Okpokwasili command the stage—both crime scene and sacred space—with a striking performance dealing with the objectification and power of the black female body and the alienating experience of living in exile.

The tour of Nora Chipaumire is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The presentation of Nora Chipaumire was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Tickets: Ticket range $15 – 25; visit www.kelly-strayhorn.org or contact the Box Office at 800-838-3006.

Sandra Bernhard: I Love Being Me, Don’t You?

Saturday, April 27, 2013
Byham Theater
8 p.m.

Co-presented with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Sandra Bernhard is an actor, comedienne, singer and author who has been challenging fans and critics with unforgettable stage shows since she got her start at L.A.’s Comedy Store in the ‘70’s. In I Love Being Me, Don’t You?, Bernhard delivers her unforgettable blend of outrageous humor, biting satire and fiercely energetic live performance.
Tickets: Ticket range $35 – 40; visit www.trustarts.org or contact the Box Office at Theater Square at 412-456-6666.

Season sponsor:

Funding for the 2013 Off the Wall performance series was provided by the Quentin and Evelyn T. Cunningham Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.

Media sponsor: Pittsburgh City Paper

Pricing information:

Full subscriptions:
$123/$98 Students & Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh members

Single tickets:
$25/$20 Students & Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh members

For tickets call 412-237-8300 or visit www.ticketweb.com.

Special single ticket program pricing:
Nora Chipaumire at Kelly Strayhorn Theater
For tickets call 800-838-3006 or visit www.kelly-strayhorn.org.

Sandra Bernhard at Byham Theater
For tickets call 412-456-6666 or visit www.trustarts.org

Seating is limited for most performances, advance purchase is strongly suggested. For more information, please visit www.warhol.org.
Please note: All performances may contain adult subject matter and strong language.