apexart :: Paul Zaloom :: The Mother of All Enemies

apexart presents:
Paul Zaloom:

THE MOTHER
OF ALL ENEMIES

March 30 - April 9

12 off site performances*
Tickets: $15 or $12 students/seniors with ID

Read about it in: New York Times, Time Out NY, Downtown Express, Village Voice, and NYTheatre.com

As part of Neo-Sincerity: The Difference Between the Comic and the Cosmic is a Single Letter
curated by Amei Wallach

WHAT? A mutation of the traditional Middle Eastern Karagoz shadow puppet play (famous in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and Syria) about the consequences of being on the fringes of society…EVERY society. Periodically the show is interrupted by cantastoria, or picture performance, an age-old story telling technique; employing his weird and amusing drawings, Zaloom recounts the U.S. Marines repeated efforts to recruit him (he’s sorta old for the Marines: 54. He’s also gay…etc.) It’s all comedy, needless to say.

HUNH? The shadow show tells the twisted story of an Arab, secular humanist / Quaker / Buddhist / agnostic / political refugee / immigrant / queer / artist / weirdo’s adventures while being comically pursued by various enemies: Syrian Secret Service, Israeli border guards, Al Qaeda, Homeland Security, the Statue of Liberty, Christian “Ex Gay” activists, and U.S. immigration vigilantes the Minutemen. The idiot savant Karagoz foils their evil plans, dispatching them one by one with subterfuge, obfuscation, and cheap puppet gimmicks. They all fail; he triumphs. Zaloom jiggles his puppets, recounts absurd emails with Marine recruiters, creates the entire soundscape with his voice, and uses drawings to illuminate the perverse workings of our “civilization” with a frontal comic assault.

WHY? This performance is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Neo-Sincerity: The Difference Between the Comic and the Cosmic is a Single Letter, at apexart Feb 22 - April 8, 2006, curated by Amei Wallach. Please join us.

WHEN?

Thurs, March 30, 7:30 pm Thurs, April 6, 7:30 pm
Fri, March 31, 7:30 pm Fri, April 7, 7:30 pm
Sat, April 1, 3pm and 7:30 pm Sat, April 8, 3pm and 7:30 pm
Sun, April 2, 3pm and 7:30 pm Sun, April 9, 3pm and 7:30 pm

*WHERE? Collective: Unconscious, 279 Church Street (between White and Franklin), one block south of apexart.

HOW? Buy tickets online at www.theatermania.com or call Theatermania at (212) 352-3101. Tickets purchased at the Collective: Unconscious box office are cash only, and may be purchased only on the day of show, up to 30 minutes before the show.

WHO? LA artist Paul Zaloom started with Bread and Puppet in ‘71, and went on to create 12 solo puppet shows, including Fruit of Zaloom and Zaloominations. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, OBIE, BESSIE, LA Weekly Theater Award, NEA grants, etc. He is currently working on the toy theater, high def, feature length puppet film of Dante’s Inferno starring James Cromwell and Dermot Mulroney.

QUOTE? “One of the most original and talented political satirists working in the theater.” --New York Times