by Rob Hubbard
Pioneer Press
7/13/10

“Ady” is a journey launched by a photograph. Reclining at a picnic are a number of prominent Paris-based artists of the 1920s and ’30s. On the right is a woman naked to the waist and smiling. Who is she?

In Rhiana Yazzie’s play, that question stirs the curiosity of a modern woman and leads to a quest for self-understanding. Like a surrealist and very personal version of “History Detectives,” “Ady” takes audiences to a France in which imagination ran rampant and inhibitions were few, but also to the inner life of a young woman struggling to find peace between her Navajo, African-American and Italian-American bloodlines.

In that regard, the play — receiving its world premiere at Minneapolis’ Playwrights’ Center — is ideal for the mission of Pangea World Theater, a company intent upon finding intercultural connections. Yazzie has created some beautiful writing built around contrast: free spirits vs. damaged ones, some characters obsessed with loss and others with living. With two women portraying 18 characters, it’s an engaging work well worth experiencing.

The woman in the photograph is Ady Fidelin, a Caribbean-born dancer who became the model, muse and lover of Man Ray, a key figure in the dada and surrealist movements. In “Ady,” she also becomes the muse for the present-day Adrienne, who’s bound by social awkwardness and repressed grief.

Avia Bushyhead offers a disarmingly sympathetic portrayal of Adrienne. In her imagined encounters with the

Parisian milieu, she’s as graceless as Ady is fluid, as uncertain as the artists are confident. But she casts Adrienne’s reserved nature aside in a memorable turn as her Italian grandmother. Saddled with the task of painting a dozen vivid characters in 80 minutes, Leah Nelson does so impressively, be she inhabiting the ethereal Ady, the haughty Leonora Carrington or the difficult Pablo Picasso.

While Yazzie sometimes gives the play an overstuffed feel, leaving one to speculate on how some characters fit into the picture, it’s perhaps best experienced like a piece of surrealist art: Don’t try too hard to figure it out, just admire its adventurous spirit.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at rhubbard@pioneerpress.com.

What: Pangea World Theater’s production of “Ady” by Rhiana Yazzie

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays; through July 25

Where: The Playwrights’ Center, 2301 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis

Tickets: $15-$12, available at 800-838-3006 or pangeaworldtheater.org

Capsule: An engaging search for a liberating spirit.

Full article available by clicking here.

by Sheila Regan
TC Daily Planet
July 2, 2010

From July 9-25, Pangea World Theater presents a full production of Navajo playwright Rhiana Yazzie’s play Ady, which has been in development for the past two years. The script, about Adrienne Fidelin—who was Man Ray’s model, lover, and muse—was commissioned by Pangea and has received staged readings at both the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and the Public Theater in New York.

Pangea originally commissioned the script in 2008 as part of its Alternate Visions Festival. The festival involves emerging playwrights spending an extended period of time writing and developing new plays with dramaturgical resources, travel and research funding, and production support. Past readings have included Curiosities by Heid Erdrich and Under the Bridge by A-yia Thoj and Saychay Thor.

Pangea’s artistic director Dipankar Mukherjee said that Yazzie came up with the idea for Ady. “The writer is always the center point of the conversation,” he said. “We try to support them with whatever they need during the development process.”

Mukherjee said that Fidelin was part of a tight circle of surrealist artists that included Pablo Picasso, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, and others. Yet for some reason, Fidelin, who was from the Island of Guadalupe and was the only person of color in the group, has not been written about at all. “Everyone has been written about except besides Ady,” Mukherjee said. “She is completely erased, she’s not mentioned.”

What is known about Fidelin is that she met Man Ray in 1936 in Paris while she was dancing with a French dance troup with ties to Guadelupe, according to the New York Times—which also reports that one of the photographs of her ended up in an issue ofHarper’s Bazaar in 1937. The Times notes that made her the first black model to appear in a major fashion magazine. After splitting with Ray in 1940, Fidelin fled France during the Nazi occupation.

In a press release about the show, Yazzie is quoted as saying that Ady “comes alive through the lens of a contemporary Navajo woman who finds that they share the same face.” She continues: “At last we see modern art through the eyes and perspective of Native America, a culture, like many indigenous traditions around the world that regularly used the vocabulary of surrealism and abstracts in their art and creation stories.”

Yazzie—originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico—was awarded the Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship this year for the second time since 2006. Her work has been produced by SteppingStone Theatre, Teatro del Pueblo, Mixed Blood Theatre, and the La Jolla Playhouse, among other companies. She also also has recently started her own theater company called New Native Theatre—which seeks to nurture Native artists, connect to the community and “heal the wounds in the colonial narrative and in Native America’s personal stories through theatre,” according to its website.

June 28, 2010
For Immediate Release
Pangea contact: Dipankar Mukherjee
612-203-2288 (Mobile) 612-822-0015 (Office)
dipankar@pangeaworldtheater.org

PANGEA WORLD THEATER PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF ADY BY RHIANA YAZZIE

Minneapolis, MN – Pangea World Theater will produce the world premiere play Ady July 9 – 25, 2010 at the Playwrights’ Center. Written by Rhiana Yazzie and directed by Hayley Finn, Ady is a thought provoking story of Adrienne Fidelin (Ady), a dancer from the island of Guadeloupe. The play combines dance and image, history and imagination to bring her story to life. Ady is the final show in Pangea’s Alternate Visions Festival. This Festival has presented readings, works in progress and now this world premiere. It is supported by The Playwrights’ Center, Jerome Foundation, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Exhibition and Publications and Expressive Arts Program made possible through a generous gift from The Ford Foundation and KFAI.

The jumping off place for this play is a Lee Miller photograph of surrealist artists including Ady, who is naked to the waist. Ady was a dancer from the island of Guadeloupe who dated surrealist photographer, Man Ray in the late 1930’s through 1941 when they were eventually separated by WWII.  The two of them were surrounded by the great artists of their time including Picasso, Lee Miller, Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, among others.  Although the other women in this surrealist circle have stories with a beginning middle and end, pieced together by historians and art critics over the years, Ady’s story was lost in the narratives that made those around her great.  “She comes alive through the lens of a contemporary Navajo woman who finds that they share the same face,” says playwright Rhiana Yazzie.  “At last we see modern art through the eyes and perspective of Native America, a culture, like many indigenous traditions around the world that regularly used the vocabulary of surrealism and abstracts in their art and creation stories. I’ve had the opportunity to recently develop Ady not only through Pangea but also at the New York Public Theater’s New Work Now! and the Playwrights’ Center’s Ruth Easton play lab.”

“We are pleased to present the world premiere of Ady by Rhiana Yazzie,” commented Pangea’s Artistic Director Dipankar Mukherjee. “Pangea commissioned and supported the evolution of this original piece over the past two years. Rhiana’s craft and precision in creating this relevant literature is artistically rich and complex and politically relevant.” He continued, “Pangea’s   commitment to Native Artists through presentation of local, national and international artists has enriched the cultural scene in the Twin Cities.”

The cast includes: Leah Nelson and Avia Bushyhead. The artistic staff includes: Rhiana Yazzie (playwright), Hayley Finn (director), Emily Johnson (Choreographer), Mike Wangen (lighting designer), Carolyn Lee Anderson (set design), Pramila Vasudevan (Media Artist), Jeffrey Stolz (Costume Designer) and Phyllis (Mel) Thorne (stage manager).

Rhiana Yazzie is a Navajo playwright originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This year Rhiana is a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow for the second time since 2006. She is also a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer and has been jointly commissioned by the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the NY Public Theater to write a play for American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle. Rhiana’s plays have been seen on the stages of SteppingStone Theatre for Youth Development, Teatro del Pueblo, and Mixed Blood Theatre. She is also an award-winning writer of plays for radio and for youth. Her most recent Theatre for Young Audiences play produced by La Jolla Playhouse, Chile Pod, toured to 17,500 children in Southern California. Her play Ady has also been developed through the New York Public Theater’s New Work Now! and the Playwrights’ Center Ruth Easton Lab.  Her website is www.rhianayazzie.com.

Hayley Finn is the Resident Director and Lab Producer at the Playwrights’ Center where she works with some of the nation’s leading and emerging playwrights. Directing credits in the Twin Cities include Hiding In The Open by Kira Obolensky (The History Theatre), Permanence Collection by Kira Obolensky and Ed Bok Lee (Walker Art Center) and Doe by Trista Baldwin (Workhaus Collective). She has directed the New York premieres of works by Sheila Callaghan including Katecrackernuts (The Flea Theater), Scab (Greenwich Street Theater), and Metal (Here Arts Center), Gary Winter’s The Lake (The Flea Theater), Golem and Dead Reckoning (both at Cherry Lane Theatre), Randal David Cook’s Fate’s Imagination (Gotham Stage Company), Rona Munro’s Bold Girls (Urban Stages), The Shoe Box at Ebbets Field by Ross Berger (Cherry Lane Theatre), Kendra Levin’s Double Sophia (Cherry Lane Theatre), and The Apology which she co-adapted with actor Yusef Bulos (The Flea Theater). Additional credits include work by Mac Wellman such as Bellagio (the Playwrights’ Center), Fnu Lnu (Theatre Outlet), and The Bad Infinity (Mac Wellman Festival), and Caryl Churchill’s Not, Not, Not, Not, Not Enough Oxygen (Drama League). She is the director and co-creator of such projects as Jigsaw Nation (Relentless Theatre) which has toured across the country (South Coast Repertory, The Curious Theater, Ellis Island) and Hysteria: Silence in Stills (Women Center Stage Festival at the Culture Project). She has assistant directed numerous plays on and Off Broadway including the Tony Award-winning productions of A View From The Bridge and Side Man. She has been a directing resident at The Flea Theater and has directed workshops and readings for such organizations as The Public Theater, New Dramatists, The New Group, and The Kitchen. Currently an Affiliated Artist at New Georges, Hayley is the recipient of the Ruth Easton Directing Fellowship, The Drama League Directing Fellowship, the TCG New Generations Future Leader Grant. She holds both a B.A. and M.A. from Brown University.

Pangea World Theater illuminates the human condition, celebrates cultural differences, and promotes human rights by creating and presenting international, multi-disciplinary theater.

Pangea is a progressive space that brings artists from very diverse backgrounds and ethnicities together to create art for a multiracial audience. As we create work at this particular time in history, when demographics are rapidly shifting, Pangea offers itself as a place where a mutual respect for differences amongst our artistic collaborators exists, not merely a tolerance for diversity. This is a core value of our artistic vision. Since 1995, Pangea has worked to create and present new possibilities and new aesthetic realities for an increasingly diverse audience. Pangea’s artistic direction evolves out of relevant shifts in the social, cultural and political pulse of the communities in which we live and work. We bring artists together to confront stereotypes, push the boundaries of their art forms and challenge audiences with diverse perspectives and aesthetic. Each season Pangea produces, commissions and presents artistic, innovative and genre-crossing works, challenging the expectations of our artists and audiences.

Ady

Produced by Pangea World Theater as a part of their Alternate Visions Festival
Written by Rhiana Yazzie and directed by Hayley Finn

July 9-25 2010, Thursday – Sunday
7:30 PM
Post play discussions following Friday and Saturday performances

$15 General Admission
$12 Students and Seniors

Performed at The Playwrights’ Center
2301 East Franklin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Click here for more information!