More Information About Meditations: Eva Hesse

Website

http://www.highwaysperformance.org

Description

Meditations: Eva Hesse
Written and Directed by Marcie Begleiter
Directed by David W. Watkins

A new play and interdisciplinary performance work inspired by the life and times of the influential mid-20th century artist. Meditations takes us through the last day of the artist’s life with a Dying Eva laboring to complete her final exhibit. Moving in and out of memory, Hesse’s life plays back in a series of episodes reflecting earlier incarnations--including Young Eva confronting a traumatic childhood, and Adult Eva’s complex relationship with her husband, artist Tom Doyle, and an intensely focused creative process. In the end, an unlikely angel of death appears to help her make peace. Through the expressionistic evocation of Eva Hesse’s story, Meditations explores the profound human desire to create meaningful work. 

Eva Hesse’s life was marked by extraordinary professional achievements as well as heart-breaking personal challenges. Escaping Germany in the 1930s on one of the last Kindertransports, she was reunited with her family in New York. After studying at Yale, she and her husband Tom Doyle, were invited to live and work for a year in an abandoned German textile mill, surrounded by remnants of the Nazi industrial machine. In that environment, filled with shadows of her old life, Eva began making some of the 20th century’s most beautiful and influential sculptures. She died of a brain tumor at age 34, just as her work was being widely recognized.

Marcie Begleiter, writer and designer of the piece, is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been presented in Los Angeles and New York. Her plays have been short listed for national awards including the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Award and the Padorowski National Playwriting Competition. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Art Center College of Design and was the Founding Director of the Integrated Learning Program, an interdisciplinary design curriculum at Otis College of Art and Design.

David Watkins, Jr. is a Los Angeles-based director and writer. David has directed plays at The Ark, Celebration Theatre, The Black Box and The Complex in Los Angeles. He is a founding member and writer at Fierce Backbone, a company dedicated to developing new dramatic works for the stage, and David currently serves there as Head of the Directors Unit.

About the Ticket Supplier: Highways Performance Space

Highways Performance Space is Southern California's boldest center for new performance. Founded in 1989, Highways continues to be an important alternative cultural center in Los Angeles that encourages fierce new artists from diverse communities to develop and present innovative works.

Highways promotes the development of contemporary socially involved artists and art forms. Our mission is implemented through four programs (the performance space, workshop/university program and two galleries). Annually, Highways co-presents approximately 250 performances by solo dramatic artists, small theater groups, dance companies and spoken word artists; curates and exhibits approximately 12 contemporary visual art exhibits per year with work that explores the boundaries between performing and visual art forms; commissions and premieres new work by outstanding performing artists; organize special events, curate festival, offer residency and educational programs that engage community members in the arts while providing access to professionally-directed instruction.