Matinee

Matinee

MATINEE (premiere 2017) is a dance/theater/film adaptation of American novelist Robert Coover’s New Yorker short story of the same name, by SPDT Artistic Co-Directors Stuart Pimsler and Suzanne Costello, in collaboration with filmmaker Andrew Welken. Films-within-films-within-films collide as performers search for connection and romance, moving effortlessly through the stage and screen.

MATINEE references different cinematic themes, from film noir to musicals to romance, while telling the story of a woman floating between the realms of reality and fiction.

“A sumptuous multidisciplinary collaboration of film, theater, and dance, ‘Matinee’ is a multimedia export that Pimsler can be proud of.” (Rebecca Ritzel, Star Tribune)

“Matinee revives the thrilling days of yesteryear when cinema was for millions the chief purveyor of dreams and escapism…the work explores the complexities of relationships and changing realities through a narrative puzzle that shifts locations, from train cars to shabby hotel rooms to wilderness vistas—and that’s just for starters.” (Linda Shapiro, City Pages)

MATINEE premiered at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis last season (February 2017) to critical acclaim and has been touring nationally since then. SPDT engages guest performers from every producer/presenter’s community to perform in selected sections of the work.

In the October 2016 edition of the acclaimed American Theater Magazine, Dramaturg and Head of Playwriting/Directing at the University of Texas at Austin, Liz Engelman, when asked about the most exciting works of theater written in the last five years said, “This dance-theatre work focuses on our fascination with film and the mystique of movies, mixing movement, text, and media to do what SPDT does best: create poetic and dynamic head and heart pieces that examine and explode our need for love, longing, and the human-est of connections. Plus they are just amazing to watch.”

Adapted from the short story by Robert Coover*

Filmmaking/Video Editing: Andrew Welken

Video Projection Design: Jared LeClaire

Lighting Design: Karin Olson

Costume Design: MaryBeth Gagner

Sound Design: Brian J. Evans

Commissioned by the Wharton Center for Performing Arts and the William Wright Endowment Fund for New Works, Michigan State University. Additional research and development supported by James Madison University and St. Olaf College Dance Departments.

*Adaptation of Robert Coover’s story by Stuart Pimsler. “Matinee” Copyright © 2012 by Robert Coover. The story originally appeared in The New Yorker. Used by arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf of the author. All rights reserved.