Performance Artist Cynthia Hopkins Brings New One-Woman Show to Bard

Cynthia Hopkins (photo Jeff Sugg)

Cynthia Hopkins (photo Jeff Sugg)

(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – Performance artist Cynthia Hopkins brings her newest work, “A Living Documentary,” to the LUMA Theater in the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College on Friday, February 20, and Saturday, February 21, 2015, at 7:30 pm.

“A Living Documentary” is a hilarious and searing reflection on the trials and tribulations of earning a living as a professional theater artist in the 21st century. Intertwining elements of musical comedy, documentary, and fiction, the show intersperses autobiographical storytelling with portrayals of semi-fictional comedic characters, all the while asking myriad questions about the realities of artistic life in New York City.

A departure from Hopkins’s past works, “A Living Documentary” is a stripped-down, one-woman-show in which Hopkins plays herself and an eclectic cast of characters, and featuring several of Hopkins’s original musical compositions.

Cynthia Hopkins has produced six performance works and eight albums of original music. Her work has been honored with many awards, including the 2007 Alpert Award in Theater and a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Hopkins most recently premiered “A Living Documentary,” an experimental piece exploring the challenges of earning one’s living as a performing artist in the 21st century (performed in 2014 at New York Live Arts, Mt. Tremper Arts, and PICA; and scheduled for multiple additional performances in 2015).

Hopkins also works as a performer and composer for hire, most recently appearing at BAM in the Big Dance Theater piece Alan Smithee Directed This Play. She is currently at work on several new projects (an experimental lecture demonstration about alcoholism whose working title is the Alcoholic Movie Musical; a memorial service for her large-scale works in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia tentatively titled Memorabilia; and a piece exploring the trials and tribulations of social media) while continuing to work as a performer, composer, voice over artist, and musician for many other folks.

“When she wraps her big, rich, soulful voice around an anthem to the beauty of the natural world, or the folly of our disregard for it, the show transcends,” writes the New York Times.

Tickets are $25, $10 for students, and can be ordered online at Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900.

The program contains nudity.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.