POLLOCK written by Fabrice Melquiot, directed by Paul Desveaux / With Jim Fletcher and Birgit Huppuch / A production of Compagnie L’héliotrope Assistant to the Director Amaya Lainez
February 15 – 18 and February 22 – 25 Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 3 pm / Duration: 75 minutes
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy and FACE Contemporary Theater Program aim to highlight the work of French playwrights—both in French and English translation—for a broad American audience. In recent years, greater attention has been devoted to developing productions of French plays translated to English staged with an American cast. POLLOCK, directed by Paul Desveaux, is part of this momentum.
In this play, acclaimed French playwright Fabrice Melquiot (© L’Arche Editeur) highlights how it is impossible to fully understand the brilliance and madness of Jackson Pollock without studying his marriage to artist Lee Krasner. POLLOCK explores the charged empty space between Pollock (performed by Jim Fletcher) and Krasner (performed by Birgit Huppuch); between his genius and her spirit; between the inhibitions of the former and the frustrations of the latter.
Post performances discussions:
-February 16 with Fabrice Melquiot and the creative team
-February 22 with the creative team.
Co-presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. and Abrons Arts Center.
The production of POLLOCK is made possible by funds from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in partnership with FACE Foundation; Abrons Arts Center, New York; Institut français-Paris; Le Tangram – Scène nationale d’Evreux; and Compagnie L’Héliotrope. Compagnie La Vallée/l’héliotrope is supported by the Ministry of Culture – DRAC Normandie, and Région Normandie. www.heliotrope-cie.com
Special thanks to Peregrine Whittlesey, Literary Agent
* This actress is appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association
About The Actors
Jim Fletcher (Jackson Pollock)
Jim Fletcher has worked with Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players for over 15 years. This past year he performed in the Wooster Group’s production of A Pink Chair (at Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts) and in Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty’s Why Why Always at Abrons Arts Center. He has appeared in the films of Kamal Ahmed, Linas Phillips, Zbigniew Bszymek, and Roland Ellis, and in Tony Oursler’s Imponderable.
Birgit Huppuch (Lee Krasner)
Birgit last performed at Abrons in Pig Iron’s Twelfth Night. Credits include Venus (Signature), The Moors (Playwrights Realm, Yale Rep), Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb), The Debate Society’s Blood Play (Bushwick Starr, Public), A Map of Virtue (13P), Not What Happened (BAM Next Wave), Neighbors (Public), Angel Reapers (Joyce), and Telephone (Foundry, Obie Award).
About The Playwrite
Fabrice Melquiot has published about forty plays with L’Arche Editeur. Melquiot has received many awards including two from the Syndicat National de la Critique, France. He has worked closely with director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota for many years, and continues to collaborate with Demarcy-Mota as current Director of Theatre de la Ville, Paris. In 2008, Melquiot received the Prix Théâtre de l’Académie Française for his entire body of work. His texts have been translated and performed in a dozen languages. Since 2012, he has served as director of Théâtre Am Stram Gram in Geneva, International Center of Creation for Children and Youth.
About The Director
Paul Desveaux is the Director of the Company l’héliotrope founded in 1997. Desveaux has staged a large repertoire of works by authors including Frank Wedekind, A. Ostrovski, A. Tchekhov, Nathalie Sarraute, and Fabrice Melquiot. He has also directed trans-disciplinary projects such as Philip Glass’ opera Les Enfants Terribles (2007), worked with Ensemble Intercontemporain on the opera Hypermusic Prologue (2009) by Hector Parra, and collaborated with scientist Lisa Randall and filmmaker Santiago Otheguy on Vraie Blonde et autres by Jack Kerouac (2002/2004). Desveaux has developed a regular collaboration with the choreographer Yano Iatridès and the composer Vincent Artaud.
About Abron Arts Center
Paul Desveaux is the Director of the Company l’héliotrope founded in 1997. Desveaux has staged a large repertoire of works by authors including Frank Wedekind, A. Ostrovski, A. Tchekhov, Nathalie Sarraute, and Fabrice Melquiot. He has also directed trans-disciplinary projects such as Philip Glass’ opera Les Enfants Terribles (2007), worked with Ensemble Intercontemporain on the opera Hypermusic Prologue (2009) by Hector Parra, and collaborated with scientist Lisa Randall and filmmaker Santiago Otheguy on Vraie Blonde et autres by Jack Kerouac (2002/2004). Desveaux has developed a regular collaboration with the choreographer Yano Iatridès and the composer Vincent Artaud.
About THE Cultural Services Of The French Embassy
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, language, and higher education across the U.S. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, educational and university programs to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French-American exchange around literature and the arts
www.frenchculture.org / www.abronsartscenter.org
Abrons Arts Center – Underground Theater
466 Grand St, New York, NY 10002