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Ain Gordon: A Disaster Begins

Presented by DiverseWorks Art Space at DiverseWorks ArtSpace

October 1-October 3, 2009

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DiverseWorks is proud to partner with Pick Up Performance Co(S.) to present the premiere of award winning writer, director and actor Ain Gordon's A Disaster Begins, a fictional account of a lone woman Muriel Halstead and her unbreakable bond with the devastating Galveston hurricane that decimated the Texas island in 1900, taking the lives of 6,000 in a single night. She appears with little more than a glass and pitcher of water to tell her tale of the storm, and unravels with it the shocking truth behind her experiences of presidential corruption, pubescent despair, patriotic fervor, pre-marital passion, and otherwise unfortunate fits of writer’s block.

A Disaster Begins (formerly titled The Storm Show) was originally scheduled to premiere at Stages in the beginning of May. Due to scheduling conflicts, A Disaster Begins will premiere at DiverseWorks ArtSpace October 1-3, 2009 at 8pm.

While browsing at a flea market one day in 2004, Ain Gordon discovered The Galveston Flood, a book by M. Halstead published in 1900. He became fascinated with the “disaster book,” a literary genre which sensationally covered large and small disasters in early 20th Century America. These massively popular books covered everything from The Great Chicago Fire (1871) and the San Francisco earthquake (1906) to the sinking of the Lusitania (1915).

 A Disaster Begins imagines the one woman in this male-dominated field, and tells the story from her prospective, privileged in position, as well as disappointed in middle age, a once-popular artist in a culture devoted to youth and forgetting.

“DiverseWorks committed to presenting this show in February of 2008, thinking that this show had a great potential to resonate with our audiences. Little did we know then how personal the resonance would become,” stated Co-Executive Director Sixto Wagan. “The play is not just about the loss and devastation one feels after a hurricane, but also about the great change that was happening in the turn of the century – change that seems awfully similar to this moment in US history.”

ABOUT AIN GORDON
Gordon has been writing and directing since 1984. He is a three-time Obie Award-winner, a two-time NYFA Fellow; and a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in Playwriting. His most recent play, In This Place …, was produced in NYC by 651ARTS, opening their 20th anniversary season. His work has been commissioned and or presented by diverse venues including the Mark Taper Forum (CA), Performance Space 122 (NYC), George Street Playhouse (NJ), New York Theater Workshop (NYC), The Krannert Center (IL), Dance Place (DC), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), and Soho Rep. (NYC) to name a few.

Gordon also appeared in the Off-Broadway run of Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell, and has written for NBC’s “Will & Grace.” Gordon is a Core Writer of the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, Artist-In-Residence at the Center for Creative Research, and Co-Director of the Pick Up Performance Co(S.) since 1992.

ABOUT VEANNE COX
Veanne Cox plays the part of Muriel Halstead in Ain Gordon’s A Disaster Begins. She is a Tony nominated and an Obie Award winning actress. She has appeared on Broadway in Caroline, or Change; The Dinner Party; Company (Tony, Drama Desk nominations); Smile, Off-Broadway: 2008 Obie for Sustained Excellence; Damn Yankees (Encores!); Paradise Park (Signature); Spain, The Wooden Breeks, Last Easter (MCC); The Altruists, The Waiting Room, The Batting Cage, Flora, the Red Menace (Vineyard); House and Garden, Labor Day (MTC); A Question of Mercy (NYTW); Freedomland (Playwrights Horizons); The Vagina Monologues, The Food Chain, A Mother, a Daughter and a Gun. Regional: The Prisoner of Second Avenue (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Twelfth Night (Shakespeare DC); Private Lives (Guthrie); The Way of the World, The Beaux’ Stratagem (STC); Ahmanson, Yale Rep, Old Globe, Long Wharf, Bay Street, La Jolla, Pasadena Playhouse, Paper Mill, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Goodspeed. TV: Royal Pains, Law & Order, Boston Legal, Seinfeld, Cinderella, Joan of Arcadia, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Film: Sex and the City; Erin Brockovich, Big Eden, Beethoven’s 4th, Marci X, Two Weeks Notice, You’ve Got Mail, Henry Fool.

ABOUT DIVERSEWORKS Known for its groundbreaking artistic and education programs, DiverseWorks is one of the premiere contemporary arts centers in the United States. DiverseWorks has been a hub for the presentation of daring and innovative work, a commissioner of major artistic projects in all disciplines, and an advocate for artists worldwide. Founded by artists for artists, DiverseWorks continues its commitment to bold artistic exploration, creative risk-taking, and building audiences for contemporary art.

About The Pick Up Performance Co(S.) Founded in 1971 and incorporated in 1978 (as the Pick Up Performance Co., Inc.) to facilitate projects by director/choreographer David Gordon, the company was expanded in 1992 to include projects by Ain Gordon and subsequently renamed The Pick Up Performance Co(S.) in recognition of the company’s plural artistic leadership with individual yearly projects. Alyce Dissette has been the Pick Up Co.’s producer since 2001 and has worked with Ain Gordon and David Gordon for over 25 years.

Pictured:  detail Galveston Disaster – In the Path of Ruin Stereoscope image, circa 1900 Image courtesy of the artist.