Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Ira Glass, host of This American Life, have been working together to combine two art forms that – as Ira puts it – “have no business being together – dance and radio.” The result is a funny, lively and heartfelt evening of dance and stories that has brought down the house wherever it’s been performed, starting with its first test run at Carnegie Hall in 2013.
The show includes radio interviews restaged as dance pieces, plus stories from the lives of each of the three performers, Ira Glass, Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass. “What makes it work is a shared sensibility,” Glass says. “As dancers, Monica and Anna are these amazingly relatable and funny storytellers without words.” Bass notes, “I think it’s still blowing Ira’s mind to see some of the radio pieces remade this way, with props and costume changes and lighting cues.” Barnes adds, “combining these art forms has led to a show that’s unlike anything I’ve ever choreographed before.”
As the title indicates, the show is in three acts. Act one is about the job of being a performer. Act two: falling in love and what it means to stay in love. Act three: nothing lasts forever. “People who like This American Life will probably like this,” says Glass “because it’s just like the radio show, um, if you picture dancing during all the stories.”
This program is exclusively co-represented by Steven Barclay Agency and Pomegranate Arts.
Monica Bill Barnes (Director/Choreographer) is a choreographer, performer, and the Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company, a New York City based contemporary dance company founded in 1997. Barnes creates full-length shows that tour the country’s biggest stages and tiniest rooms, bringing dance where it doesn’t belong: making site-specific dances in public places, mounting collaborations with radio hosts and bringing down the house at comedy shows. MBB&CO has performed in more than 75 cities throughout the United States, been commissioned and presented by The American Dance Festival, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and performed all over New York City in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The BAM Opera House. Barnes has been an invited guest artist at many universities and has choreographed for various theater productions. She began working with radio host Ira Glass in 2012 when she created a solo for David Rakoff for This American Life Live! In 2013 Barnes collaborated with Glass to create, choreograph and direct a new show that combines radio stories and dances: Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host. The show has since toured to over 60 US cities. Other current projects include a collaboration with author/visual artist Maira Kalman creating a guided museum workout, and Happy Hour, the world’s only karaoke office party dance show featuring Barnes and Bass.
Anna Bass began working with MBB&CO in 2003 and now serves as Associate Artistic Director. She has performed Barnes’ work all over the country, on stages ranging from public fountains and city parks to New York City Center and Carnegie Hall. Bass performed in Glass’s two most recent This American Life Live events – catching boxes while dancing as a part of TAL’s cinema event, and appearing as a roller-skating mouse alongside Mike Birbiglia in The Radio Drama Episode at the BAM opera house. She often assists Barnes with theater projects, and served as the Assistant Choreographer for productions at The Atlantic Theater, The Public Theater and Yale Repertory Theater. Bass is originally from a small town in Virginia where she studied almost every dance style, from classical ballet to country line dancing. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life. The show is heard on more than 500 public radio stations in the U.S., and also on public radio in Canada and Australia. Most weeks it’s the most popular podcast in America. Under Glass’s editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence. A television adaptation of the program ran on the Showtime network for two years, winning three Emmys. The radio show has put out its own comic book, greatest hits compilations, live stage shows, two feature films, a “radio decoder” toy, temporary tattoos and a paint-by-numbers set. A spin-off program called Serial ran for twelve weeks in 2014 and quickly became a pop culture phenomenon, the most listened-to podcast ever created. This is Glass’s professional dance show debut.
Jane Cox (Lighting Designer) has designed with MBB&CO for more than a decade, and her collaboration with the company is central to her creative life. Recent theater includes Color Purple and Jitney on Broadway, Othello at NYTW, Hamlet at the Barbican in London, the new play Roe currently playing at Arena Stage in DC, and Amelie, a new musical arriving on Broadway this spring. Other designs include The Flick, The Ambassador, All The Way, and Machinal (TONY and Drama Desk nominations). Jane has a long-standing relationship with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is the director of the Program in Theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.
Kelly Hanson (Costume/Set Designer) has worked with MBB&CO on every company show since she first met Monica in 2001. She is also a Production Designer for The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, where she does approximately 220 live shows a year. She has been nominated for an Emmy and an Art Department Guild award. Kelly was born in Bryan, TX and earned her MFA in set design at University of California, San Diego. She lives in Queens with her husband and two amazing kiddos, who support her more than they know.
Robert Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director) began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deavere Smith while she developed Let Me Down Easy. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He originally joined MBB&CO to tour with Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host in 2013. Since then he has gone on to create and produce Happy Hour and The Museum Workout with the company. In 2014 he joined Ira Glass and This American Life producing Episode 528, “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM. As a director in New York he has worked at the Ensemble Studio Theater, The Flea, The Atlantic Theater, Office Ops, and Access Theater where he directed the NYTimes Critic’s Pick production of Michael & Edie.
Tess James (Lighting Director/Stage Manager) is a freelance Lighting Director and Designer. Throughout her career she has had the privilege of working with a wide range of amazing artists and companies including New York City Opera, BAM, New York City Center, Glimmerglass Opera, The American Repertory Theatre, Dallas Opera, Center Stage in Baltimore, The Public Theatre, Summer Scape at Bard College, and Den Nye Opera in the Netherlands. She currently resides in Brooklyn.
Monica Bill Barnes & Company is a contemporary American dance company that brings dance where it does not belong. We create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook – dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum. Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, we constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures. The company consists of a team of collaborators: Artistic Director/Choreographer, Monica Bill Barnes; Associate Artistic Director/Performer, Anna Bass; designers Kelly Hanson (Set/Costume) and Jane Cox (Lighting); and Robbie Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director). Together, this team creates the most unlikely experiences for every kind of audience. For more information go to www.monicabillbarnes.com.
Booking
To discuss booking or scheduling “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host” please contact:
Steven Barclay, Steven Barclay Agency
Petaluma, CA
707-773-0654 (toll free in US: 888-965-7323)
steven@barclayagency.com
www.BarclayAgency.com
OR
Linda Brumbach, Pomegranate Arts
New York, NY
212-228-2221
info@pomarts.com
www.PomArts.com
This program is exclusively co-represented by Steven Barclay Agency and Pomegranate Arts.
Ira Glass
To discuss booking or scheduling Ira Glass for solo speaking dates, please contact:
Steven Barclay, Steven Barclay Agency
Petaluma, CA
707-773-0654 (toll free in US: 888-965-7323)
steven@barclayagency.com
www.BarclayAgency.com
Monica Bill Barnes & Company
To discuss booking or scheduling Monica Bill Barnes & Company only, please contact:
info@monicabillbarnes.com
MonicaBillBarnes.com