Guild Hall’s latest William P. Rayner artists-in-residence, Catherine Galasso and company, who will be working on City of Wom_n – a dance work that reclaims New York City’s Sheroes, interrogating how histories are written and the criteria for who is remembered. The group will be in residence at The Tower through March 20th.
Manifesting as five distinct shows tailored to each of the five boroughs, the project utilizes the NYC subway system as a base to construct a theatrical tapestry of loose portraits of the women who lived, worked, and made names for themselves in this city from the 17th to the 20th century. Channeling women in their own words, the piece draws on memoirs, poetry, and interviews by a wide range of luminaries, including Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, bearded sideshow performer Lady Olga, LES poet Diane Burns, and celebrity transwoman Christine Jorgensen. City of Wom_n is inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s iconic woman-centered subway map, and engages themes of activism, resilience, and legacy.
A multidisciplinary, intergenerational, and ethnically diverse group of female-identifying artists make up the cast and creative team. Each performer will embody multiple characters, engaging in first-person storytelling, as well as abstract image-making. The team includes Catherine Galasso (Director), Sheryl Sutton (Dramaturg & Performer), and Performer/Co-Creators Martita Abril, Toni Carlson, Indah Mariana, and Saori Tsukada.
Throughout their Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residency, the creative team will continue their work and explorations of City of Wom_n through daily rehearsals, workshops/roundtables with Guild
Hall’s Teen Arts Council, and a showcase of work to an invited audience of Guild Hall’s upper-level members. In addition, Catherine Galasso will meet several times with noted Art Historian, Curator, and member of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts, RoseLee Goldberg.
“We are so excited to welcome Catherine Galasso back, now as part of the Guild Hall William P. Rayner
Artist-in-Residence program” says Anthony Madonna, Guild Hall’s Patti Kenner Senior Associate for Learning + Public Engagement. “As Guild Hall is embarking on this new residency program, we are inviting artists who have close relationships to us, and that we feel exemplify Guild Hall’s founding mission to be ‘a gathering place for community where an appreciation for the arts would serve to encourage greater civic participation.’ To incorporate and reflect community voice, thought, and action into the creative process is a hallmark of Catherine’s work, seen through both the community dance & vocal ensemble in last Summer’s Notes on de Groat performance, and we are thrilled to be able to continue to support her work through this new project, City of Wom_n.”
Of the project, Catherine Galasso shared “As we weave together first-person narratives of monumental, yet underrecognized, women from NYC history, we see our own struggles reflected back. Telling the stories of 25 marginalized women in just and respectful ways feels like an impossible task. But we embrace this impossibility as part of the process and believe that our honest and personal approach will at the very least inspire critical dialogue about who is remembered and how.”
She continued “My team and I had a truly revelatory time when we performed ‘notes on de groat’ at Guild Hall this past summer. Maybe it was the pre-show talk by Robert Wilson and Sheryl Sutton, or the fact that this was our first time back on stage before a live audience post lockdown, or the incredible support that I felt from the entire Guild Hall team, but I left feeling like it was one of best performances of that show we had ever given. Guild Hall therefore feels like the ideal place to return to develop our next work, which represents both exciting new territory for me as an artist.”
For more information about this and other programs, visit www.guildhall.org.
