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Letters You Wrote

Presented by Dancepatheatre at Magnolia Ballroom (Magnolia Brewery Building)

March 18, 2010

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Dancepatheatre premieres Letters you Wrote in a very special performance at The Magnolia Ballroom, 715 Franklin Street in downtown Houston. Collaborative partner Foundation for Modern Music provides improvisational musical accompaniment for the new work choregraphed by Sara Draper, Artistic Director of Dancepatheatre.

The new work is based on letters written in the Baby Boom years, postwar 1945-1965, that were saved by their families and recently collected by Draper for this work. Draper says, "With the art of writing letters nearly lost from our present age, simply reading a letter becomes a nostalgic act. These Baby Boom letters reveal bits of lost attitudes, of passe' discoveries, of our collective history, and of a time when lifestyles were simpler but relationships were not."

"The idea for the piece came when I discovered I'd inherited some clothing from the fifties and early sixties about the same time that I was lamenting the fact that people don't write letters anymore. I remember when letters were really a big deal, when long distance phone calls were still expensive, before email and texting and cell phones, " Draper says. "Letters had such importance in people's lives for so long, and then almost overnight they have nearly disappeared. The two ideas came together...to collect letters written during the Baby Boom years that had been treasured and saved by their families, and to wear vintage clothing while dancing to the letters."

Allison Truax, Patricia Solorzano, and Cassandra Shaffer join Draper in performing the new work of mostly solo dances. In some cases a dancer portrays the writer of the letter, and in others, the reader. In every case, a personality from the past is brough back to life through dance.

Post-war occupation, Lyndon Johnson's election, caring for the old family cook, a middle aged newly wed, a New Orleans family, and contributions to the Baby Boom by a minister and his wife...these are some of the topics that pop up in these letters. Vintage clothing as costumes and sensuous, surprising movement spiced with humor bring new life to these old letters.

HIGHLIGHTS:
* Based on collected letters written in the Baby Boom years, postwar 1945-1965, and saved by family members

* Improvisational music accompaniment by FMM violinist Nicholas Leh Baker and clarinetist Maiko Sasaki

* Collaboration with Foundation for Modern Music

* Readings of the letters by actors Richard Jason Lyders and Whitney Adkins while dancers perform

* Elegant setting in Houston's Historic Magnolia Ballroom

* Dancepatheatre dancers Allison Truax, Patricia Solorzano, Cassandra Shaffer, and Sara Draper perform new choreography by Draper

* Vintage clothing and a touch of nostalgia

8:00pm performance, 7:30pm cash bar, reception immediately following performance. $20 ($15 students/ seniors). Reception with cash bar included with tickets. The Magnolia Ballroom, 715 Franklin Street at Milam.

Letters You Wrote, a Dancepatheatre Arts Project, is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.