PRESS Release: The New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC

For Immediate Release Contact: Barbara Neri

Khoros, Inc. presents Barbara Neri in the NY premiere of

Directions to The Mazer Theater:
SUBWAY: F to East Broadway
BUS: M22 Madison St. & Rutger St. - M9 East Broadway & Rutger St.
PARKING: Municipal Parking Essex St. - Between Delancey & Rivington St.

The New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC
A Production of The Present Company
August 12th - 28th
All Tickets: $15. For tickets visit www.FringeNYC.org or call
In New York: (212) 279-4488 or Outside New York: 1888-FringeNYC.

Upon awakening from a mysterious dream in 1995, contemporary artist Barbara Neri began reading the poetry and researching the life of Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861) and the rest is a remarkable story. She embarked upon what she eventually called The EBB Project and in 2002 her multimedia performance portrait of Elizabeth premiered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Called The Consolation of Poetry (Becoming Elizabeth Barrett Browning) it will have its NY premiere as part of the 2005 NY International Fringe Festival, August 12 - 28.

In this original work Neri begins as herself and becomes the poet in a detailed and nuanced performance of self and other. The performance is a cross between the self-examination of the late Spalding Gray, the poetic lyricism of Tennessee Williams later 'Ghost plays' and the multimedia socially conscious performance art of Rachel Rosenthal. A major theme in the work is what Elizabeth has to say to us about Love in her 44 Sonnets from the Portuguese-the work for which she is most known and most neglected. Neri liberates Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese from the shelf of the 'already-been-read' and presents them in her performance as love sonnets for all lovers, including those in same-sex relationships. EBB is not the chaste Victorian we think she is and the many voices speaking across time in monologue and dialogue both as video and live personas reveal there is much to be considered. Audiences will see rare images of the poet and her manuscripts gleaned from various collections.

Assisted by a dresser, played by Lynn Vela, Neri is adorned in beautiful, carefully researched reproductions of Elizabeth's 1858 garments. Click here to go to EBB's Garments. Ms. Neri's end-noted script was published in the fall 2003 issue of The Drama Review and is held in high regard by scholars of EBB's work. Neri became a published scholar herself in order to establish the critical ground upon which she built her performance. Click here to go to the Performance page of Ms. Neri's website where you can see more images from the performance and read the introduction to the script and program credits.

Khoros Inc., the presenting non-profit organization, was formed in 1982 and Ms. Neri's work as a choreographer in the 1980s and early 1990s was produced under its auspices. Besides the current performance, two screenplays and another stage play are in development.

Quotes for Barbara Neri in
The Consolation of Poetry
(Becoming Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

"Neri mines, resists, and transmutes the popular fables of EBB's identity as a romantic heroine, reconstructing her "closet autobiography" from her garments and other artifacts, while dialogically recontextualizing the Sonnets from the Portuguese in a multi-media, layered collage of new and old contexts: philosophical, postmodern, poetical, popular-from Plato and Boethius to the risque representations of Victorian stereo-cards to poststructuralist theory." (Dr. Marjorie Stone, Victorian Poetry, fall 2004)

Rachel Rosenthal has said of Neri's work: "Her creative work is inspired . . . . She engages [the audience] with unique imagery and a compelling, dramatic style."

"Neri will make a serious contribution to the history of avant garde performance." (Dr. James Hart, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mi. Author of The Will to Theater. )

Click here to go to read more Press and find 300 dpi images.

Click here for Ms. Neri's bio.

Click here to go to Cast and Crew bios

Click here to go Neri's FringeNYC blurb.