The Man Who Appear**ed

The Living Theatre presents a New Science production by NAPOLIWOOD, a film production company based in Naples, Italy, together with LORETTA AUDITORIUM, a New York-based theater production company of The Man Who Appear**ed.–a live filming on a soundstage open to the public through the lens of the theater. The Man Who Appear**ed. is inspired by a short story by Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. It is about a woman whose life is shattered by the sudden appearance of an old acquaintance. The woman, a successful writer, is confronted with the specter of a man whom she remembers as a talented and promising poet, now a down-and-out alcoholic–a failure.The film shoot shares the stage with a theater performance. Is it a play becoming a film or a film becoming a play? The event becomes a hybrid vehicle for scripted and improvised investigations.Will the audience lean back in critical contemplation as theater-goers, or will they surrender to the compelling illusion of the screen narrative? Meanwhile the actors and crew must satisfy two masters: the camera and the live audience.The production will present rushes of the day–takes, improvisations, and fragments from the writer’s experiences as she chooses, selects, organizes, and refines in the process of creation.The theatre is the vehicle that transports the story into recorded fiction. The audience, actors, director, and film crew collaborate to organize a narrative from the disorganized fragments of a human life. From the daily news to our daily lives to what we remember from our dreams–it’s all in the editing.Obie Award-winning actress Sheila Dabney stars in the role of the Woman. Obie Award-winning actor John Kohan appears as the Man; Jessica Slote as the Writer. Directed by Martin Reckhaus (Loretta Auditorium). Set and video/sound designed by Gary Brackett (Napoliwood). Video Jockey & Editing by David Markham-Gessner. Post-sound from composer Patrick Grant. Mise en scene by Reckhaus, Brackett, and Slote.