My Favorite Person
My Favorite Person
The How and Culture Lab LIC Present:
My Favorite Person
A movement piece
Directed by Polina Ionina
Assistant Director and Stage Design: Weronika Helena Wozniak
Sound Design: Polina Ionina
Lighting Design: Guillermo Laporta
Devised by the ensemble
Featuring Tana Sirois and David Glover
Dates: October 22, 23, 29, 30 @7pm
My Favorite Person is a two person theater movement piece exploring relationship dynamics between a man and woman using space, shape, and sound. In this piece we will look at cyclical, performative, perhaps even manipulative patterns that develop knowingly or instinctively during a partnership. We start at the beginning of the end. A couple shares an abstract liminal space--the confines of an apartment, where everything seems to be out of place. The subjects too seem to be out of place, though they cling to routine and seek to rekindle their love. Is it love for the other, or for the self that they are looking for?
My Favorite Person
A note from the director, Polina Ionina:
My Favorite Person is a piece born out of love, out of loss, out of curiosity. It is a collage of emotions, images and movements. I am extremely grateful to my team for following me into this cold pool of bathwater. I am extremely grateful to everyone in our lives who had contributed to the piece with their voice, with their music, with their support—family, chosen family, friends, lovers. This piece could not have been done without truly digging into the self, looking inward, and excavating memories and emotions. This process has been beautiful, and in parts scary, mostly because it is frightening to go there. But we must go there eventually, mustn’t we?
A deep thank you to Culture Lab for constantly providing space for artists and art to the community. A deep thank you to City Artist Corps who has made this project possible. And a deep thank you to you, dear audience, for supporting artists and going just a little into something unknown and perhaps uncomfortable. Because this is how we grow.
All my love,
-P
Sound
We asked our family, chosen family, friends, and lovers to answer some questions about love, about loss, about their darkest moments, and the self. Their voices make up the soundscape of this piece. We are eternally grateful for their collaboration.
Voices: David Glover, Tana Sirois, Luke Bergstedt (voice and piano), Anais Maviel (Bath sequence sound and voice), Oliver Renaud, Helen Foster, Jolanta Wozniak, Whit Hertford, Polina Ionina, Rand Faris, Irina Ionina, Rosalee DeHuff, Julia Vlasenko, Sarah Heywood, Akmal Rakhimov.
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Thank you to everyone who made this project possible
Culture Lab LIC is a (501(c)(3) organization with two goals: to support local artists of all disciplines, and to provide high-quality arts programming to our community, for free. We operate out of a 12,000 square foot converted waterfront warehouse and an 18,000 square foot outdoor stage in LIC, donated by Plaxall Inc. Over the past four and a half years, we have built a strong brand in our community, covering fine art, performance, and community events. This has been an exceptionally difficult time for the artistic community of NYC, and Culture Lab LIC exists to keep art alive, making western Queens a destination for culture. Learn more at www.culturelablic.org.
City Artist Corps Grants was launched in June 2021 by NYFA and DCLA with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre. It supports NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. With New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) as lead partner working with more than a dozen re-grant and art services organizations.
New York City Artist Corps represents an historic investment in artists by the City of New York. The $25 million program supports artists who live and work in NYC, while giving New Yorkers opportunities to experience cultural programming across the city starting this summer. As New York emerges from the pandemic, art and culture are an essential component of the city’s recovery. City Artist Corps will make sure working artists are supported in their own right, and are empowered to participate fully in the overall recovery of the City.