Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector

NEW STAGE THEATRE COMPANY OFFERS FIRST NORTH AMERICAN STAGE ADAPTATION OF "NEAR TO THE WILD HEART" BY CLARICE LISPECTOR
Multimedia theatre piece is adapted by Ildiko Nemeth from the English translation by Alison Entrekin.
Production evokes a rich, expansive female interior as it dramatizes the life and passions of its heroine.

WHERE AND WHEN:
December 5, 2019 to January 18, 2020
The New Stage Performance Space, 36 West 106th Street (basement), betw. Central Park West and Manhattan Ave.
Subways: #1, B, C to 103rd Street. Note: this space is not wheelchair accessible.
Presented by New Stage Theatre Company
Performing company's website: www.newstagetheatre.org
Performance schedule: 8:00 PM December 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 and January 16, 17, 18.
Running time: 1:30.
Tickets $27 general admission, $22 seniors & students
Box office: 212.422.0028, https://ci.ovationtix.com/34971/production/1016760
Critics are invited December 5, 6 and 7. Press are also welcome to attend shows beyond official press dates.
Photos are available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dwyDXdGjhtU1WF9R9

NEW YORK, November 13 -- New Stage Theatre Company (www.newstagetheatre.org), under the direction of Ildiko Nemeth, will bring its signature blend of multimedia, inventive choreography and striking visual design to "Near to the Wild Heart," the modernist masterpiece by Clarice Lispector (1920-1977). Adapted and directed by Nemeth from the translation by Alison Entrekin, the production will debut December 5 to January 18 at The New Stage Performance Space, 36 West 106th Street (basement level). This is the English-language premiere and first-ever North American stage adaptation of Lispector's sensational debut novel.

It appears at a time when Lispector is enjoying a widespread surge in popularity. Benjamin Moser, her American biographer, has called her "the most important Jewish writer in the world since Kafka." Irish writer/critic Colm Tóibín called her “one of the hidden geniuses of 20th-century literature.” Others have placed her in the company of Joyce and Beckett.

New Stage Theatre's Ildiko Nemeth has adapted "Near to the Wild Heart" into a multimedia theater piece that evokes a rich, expansive female interior as it dramatizes the life and passions of the book's heroine, Joana. Wandering through the corridors of her mind, Joana sees her memories manifest alongside her imagistic, abstract thoughts. Dwelling amidst the poignancy of a lonely childhood and her own resistance to the concept of conventional marriage and happiness, she strives to embody a version of herself on her own terms.

The production, a many-layered project, gives voice to a distinctly feminine perspective that is at once poetic, mysterious and grounded in concrete moments and relationships that offer a sympathetic handle on Joana’s experience. It combines vivid projection design with music, lighting, and Lispector’s lyrical, sensual prose.

Rather than a conventional plot, "Near to the Wild Heart" offers a stream-of-consciousness portrayal of a woman’s inner life that is as clear and lustrous as any in world literature. Lispector’s prose style, immediate and sensual, often makes most sense when read quickly; in this singularity lies part of Lispector’s mystique. The production’s playscript employs verbatim excerpts of Alison Entrekin’s faithful translation, which captures both the beauty and bluntness of the Portugese original. Director Nemeth has carefully woven theatrical and literary elements to create luminous meditations on consciousness, a thematic interest the company has previously explored in many works.

Clarice Lispector was born "in flight" to a Jewish family fleeing pogroms in Podolia in Western Ukraine. As an infant she moved to Brazil with her family. When she was just 23 years old, "Near to the Wild Heart" was published to stupendous acclaim. It won the prestigious Graça Aranha Prize for the best debut novel of 1943 and was hailed as a transformative addition to the canon of literature in Portuguese. Although her works contain nary a Jewish reference, elements of her style have been attributed to the Jewish mysticism she learned from her father.

The actors are Sarah Lemp (as Joana), Maciej Bartoszewski, Gina Bonati, Theodore Bouloukos, Kaylin Lee Clinton, Olimpia Dior, Fritz Buecker, Lisa Giobbi, Markus Hirnigel, Ken Raboy and Katalin Ruzsik.

Lighting design is by Federico Restrepo. Video design is by Jessica Sofia Mitrani. Costume design is by Jessica Sofia Mitrani and Hailey Desjardins. Sound Design is by Ildiko Nemeth. Original Music is by Muriel Louveau.

ABOUT NEW STAGE THEATRE COMPANY
Ildiko Nemeth is the Founder and Artistic Director of the New Stage Theatre Company (NSTC) and director, producer, and visionary force behind all the company’s premieres. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, she founded NSTC in 2002 after graduating from the Actor’s Studio Drama School. Drawing from her Eastern European theater background and the multi-cultural influences of her collaborators, she premieres foreign writers’ works in New York and creates original pieces. Nemeth’s works are distinguished by their bold visual style and juxtaposition of absurdist and physical humor with dark, difficult material. As a director she often refers to her projects as compositions, which reflects her multidisciplinary approach: all artistic elements, including text, music, movement, and spectacle, are fused into a unified work of art carrying a holistic message.

Under Nemeth’s artistic direction, New Stage has built a name for itself as a “daring experimental group” (Backstage) offering a “unique theatrical vision that creates wonder for mature sophisticated audiences” (New York Theatre Wire). Nemeth’s highly conceptual works have won notice and inspired fascination for their provocative effect. Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post wrote of Nemeth: “The theater artist is second to none in terms of the images she creates and the moods she spins,” resulting in “works of great beauty and heightened theatricality.” Said Jessica Rizzo in the Theatre Times, “New York needs more dauntless directors like her.”

NSTC's productions have been presented by legendary Off-Off-Broadway institutions including La MaMa, Theater for the New City, and Dixon Place. In 2017, Nemeth established the company’s permanent artistic home, The New Stage Performance Space, at 36 West 106th St in Manhattan, where she continues to present boundary-defying works and to support the creation of original, multidisciplinary productions that engage artists from theatre, dance, music, visual art and performance art.

NSTC is a recipient of the prestigious Caffé Cino Fellowship, awarded by the Innovative Theatre awards to a company that consistently produces outstanding work. The company’s latest production, "Electronic City," directed by Nemeth, received the IT awards' Outstanding Performance Art production and Innovative Theatre Design awards. Previous citations from the IT Awards include the 2015 Outstanding Performance Art Production award for the production of "Night" by Charles Mee and numerous nominations, including Outstanding Director, Outstanding Ensemble, and Innovative Stage Design. In 2012, the IT Awards named the 10th anniversary of New Stage Theatre Company a “story of the year,” writing, “For a decade Ildiko Nemeth and [NSTC] have been bringing their unique brand of sophisticated, inspired and startling stage craft to NYC stages.”

This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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Critics are invited December 5, 6 and 7. Press are also welcome to attend shows beyond official press dates.
Photos are available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dwyDXdGjhtU1WF9R9