EventsThe New Social Environment#195
A Conversation with Robert Wilson and Willem Dafoe
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific
These free events are produced by The Brooklyn Rail.
Join us for a conversation with artist and experimental theater stage director and playwright Robert Wilson, actor Willem Dafoe, and host Charles Shafaieh. We’ll conclude with a poetry reading by Annabel Lee.
In this Talk
Robert Wilson
Since the late 1960s, Robert Wilson’s productions have decisively shaped the look of theater and opera. Through his signature use of light, his investigations into the structure of a simple movement, and the classical rigor of his scenic and furniture design, Wilson has continuously articulated the force and originality of his vision. Wilson’s close ties and collaborations with leading artists, writers, and musicians continue to fascinate audiences worldwide.
Willem Dafoe
Renowned actor and recipient of multiple accolades, including nominations for four Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He has frequently collaborated with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, and Wes Anderson.
Charles Shafaieh
Editor-at-large for the Brooklyn Rail, Charles Shafaieh’s writing on theatre, visual art, literature, film, and music has appeared in numerous international publications including The New Yorker, Artforum, The Irish Times, and The Weekend Australian Review. Originally from Montana and now based in New York City, he writes regularly on opera for Opera News and on architecture and design for Harvard Design Magazine. His essays have also appeared in multiple books, such as The Touch: Spaces Designed for the Senses (gestalten 2019). With the Brooklyn Public Library, he co-curates Litfilm, an annual film festival focused on writers.
The Rail has a tradition of ending our conversations with a poetry reading, and we're fortunate to have Dao Strom reading.
Dao Strom
Artist Dao Strom works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author of Instrument (Fonograf Editions, 2020) and its musical companion Traveler’s Ode (Antiquated Future Records, 2020); a bilingual poetry-art book, You Will Always Be Someone From Somewhere Else (AJAR Press); a memoir, We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People, and song cycle, East/West; and two books of fiction, The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys and Grass Roof, Tin Roof. Born in Vietnam, Strom grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California and lives in Portland, Oregon. She is co-founder of two collective art projects, She Who Has No Master(s), and De-Canon.
We’d like to thank The Marion Boulton Kippy Stroud Foundation and Teiger Foundation for making these conversations possible, and for their support of our growing archive 🌈✨