Calypso returns to The Bushwick Starr July 13-14, 2012 at 8:00 PMTickets: $10 in advance; $15 at...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:03:00 -0400

July 13-14, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Tickets: $10 in advance; $15 at the door
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/255991

The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street (btwn Wyckoff and Irving)
L Train to Jefferson Ave

Following a sold out four-night run in May, Calypso returns to The Bushwick Starr on July 13 - 14, 2012 for what Bushwick Daily calls an “exceptional literary experience”.

Brooklyn duo Paul Rome and Roarke Menzies take the stage once again with an intimate performance that “sparkle[s] with intelligence, clever writing, sharp satire and an often hilarious send-up of the classics of our canon” (Volume 1 Brooklyn).

Taking cues from audio storytellers like Ira Glass and Garrison Keillor, as well as innovative monologists like Joe Frank and Spalding Gray, Calypso finds Rome reading the classics, narrating irreverent retellings of Homer and Virgil from the perspective of a disgruntled but faithful wife Penelope, and the Western world’s original heartbreaker: Aeneas.

Meanwhile, Menzies delivers “the character we love to hate to be” (Hyperallergic), relating a confessional tale of young love sparked over Haruki Murakami, vintage Calypso records and a fateful tandem bicycle ride through Manhattan’s West Village.

Penned by Rome, the stories “glisten with sophistication and wit” (Volume 1 Brooklyn), while Menzies’ soundtrack accompanies like a bard’s lyre, “plac[ing] the viewer exactly where the authors want her to be: deeply immersed in the story” (Bushwick Daily).

Writes Paul Cox for Hyperallergic: “It’s striking how [Menzies’] score, along with Rome’s measured sentences, captivates and immerses the auditory cortex. […] And the catharsis feels so good.”

Calypso - a literary performance by Paul Rome and Roarke...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:16:00 -0400

Calypso - a literary performance by Paul Rome and Roarke Menzies

May 9-12, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Tickets: $10 in advance; $15 at the door
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/237333

The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street (btwn Wyckoff and Irving)
L Train to Jefferson Ave.

Brooklyn writer Paul Rome and performer-composer Roarke Menzies return to The Bushwick Starr on May 9 – 12, 2012 with their latest collaboration: Calypso.

Penned in what Bushwick BK calls Rome’s “endearingly neurotic” prose and accompanied by Menzies’ “haunting” (T-Rex NYC) soundtrack, Calypso pairs a personal account of a 21st century Manhattan romance with irreverent retellings of two of Western literature’s most iconic epics: Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid.

A pair of 20-somethings embarks on a fateful tandem ride through the West Village after hitting it off over a shared love of Haruki Murakami and 1970’s Calypso records. Meanwhile back in Ithaca, Penelope’s patience wears thin as her long-distance relationship is tested by temptation and an unbearable mother-in-law. And on Mount Olympus, Aeneas relives his most conflicted decision: deserting the one woman he ever truly loved.

In Spring 2011, a one-act version of Calypso had Storefront Gallery in Bushwick “packed to the rainy threshold and glow[ing] with laughter” (Bushwick BK). The work has now been expanded into an evening-length production designed for the black box theatre.

Taking cues from innovative monologists like Joe Frank and Spalding Gray, and audio storytellers like Ira Glass and Garrison Keillor, the alternating narratives are read aloud by Rome and Menzies in a vibrant back-and-forth between ancient and current, mythic and commonplace, academic dissertation and bar room confessional. The show’s spare physical presentation gives way to a consuming aural environment wherein storytelling takes the foreground.

About Paul Rome and Roarke Menzies:

Longtime neighbors, Rome and Menzies live and work in Bushwick, Brooklyn where Rome manages the Wyckoff Starr coffee shop. Their most recent collaboration, a studio recording entitled The You Trilogy, was applauded by The Faster Times as “writing that dazzles” delivered “in Rome’s unassuming and quiet, yet commanding monotone.”

Calypso is the latest in Rome’s explorations of audio-centric fiction. The Paris Review Daily cited him as one of the authors using online sound sharing tools in “amazing” ways. Jacob Grimfeld, a twenty-minute boombox-accompanied monologue with “suspense in each sentence” (Bushwick BK), premiered as part of The Bushwhack Series 2011 produced by Bushwick Starr Presents. And once again, a two-act ‘radio’ play featuring a cast of four and live on-stage sound effects, sold out The Bushwick Starr for an “engrossing” (Bushwick BK) single-night performance in Spring 2010.

A frequent collaborator on music, audio and stage works, Menzies recently scored Two Alike, a solo performance by choreographer Jack Ferver that premiered in September 2011 as a co-presentation of Diverse Works and the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston and will be presented in 2012 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and The Kitchen in NYC. Match Box Dances, a short dancefilm choreographed by Adam H Weinert with music and sound design by Menzies, was selected as Editor’s Pick by Dance Magazine in May 2011 and included in a feature article about making dances for camera in its April 2012 issue. Snag, a duet choreographed by Adam Barruch with music by Menzies, was commissioned for the Reverb Choreographic Project at SUNY Purchase in 2010 and presented at Jacob’s Pillow in 2011.

Rome and Menzies are planning their next audio release, a studio recording of Jacob Grimfeld, for Summer 2012.

(Read the full press kit here.)