….and if you just happen to be in Warsaw this coming week, check out the Zero Budget Festival hosted by the Grotowski Center Warsaw and organized by the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (Italy). Workcenter will be performing two projects I am America and Electric Party Songs entirely based on Ginsberg’s poems.
Check Zero Budget Festival’s website for schedules. It’s all in Polish, but pretty easy to figure out. As for the description, you might need this English version:
Based on the works of Allen Ginsberg, I Am America is a stream of dramatic structures featuring song, rhythm, dance, poetry and action. I Am America explores this terr
ain through the personification of America. She speaks of herself, of hope, of contradictions, desires and failures; she is a goddess with many faces. Her offspring are those who give body to her impulses, each one according to his or her own unpredictable paths. America is a mother with many children.
The Open Program team of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards presents Electric Party Songs, a flow of songs and actions based on the poetry of American poet Allen Ginsberg. The members of Open Program elaborated and composed all of the songs, approaching the meaning, rhythms and sounds of the spoken poetical texts as the seeds of musical and dramatic creation. Their varied backgrounds generate a stylistically diverse body of music, drawing inspiration from blues, rock, pop, opera, punk, and traditional sources.