AUTOMATA presents:
Relics of the Hypnotist War
Created by Ryan Grifith
November 1st-10th, 2019
At Automata
504 Chung King Court in Chinatown
Los Angles, CA 90012
LOS ANGELES, CA – AUTOMATA
Automata presents Relics of the Hypnotist War. This quietly stunning work by master storyteller, Ryan Griffith, evokes one of the most tragic epochs in human history: the hypnotist invasion and subsequent sleep epidemic that ravaged civilization. In this singular narrative experience—part museum, part micro-theatre, fifteen participants will be given rare access to the collection of relics from the epoch, led by a curator, whose speaking dream conjures back all that was lost during this sad and terrible time.
‘Relics’ is definitely a metaphor for the world losing consciousness and conscience. Although the narrative itself is not grounded in any time, there’s a huge argument to be made that we are still in the midst of hypnotists and we are still being put to sleep.”
-Ryan Griffith
“Relics of the Hypnotist War” asks what could happen if we have all our senses, perhaps even our consciousness, shut off? This turns what initially seems like a curio shop escape room into an allegory or political fable.
– Beth Accomando, Nicholas McVicker, KPBS
Video, Images for Press, Press and further info at: relicsofthehypnotistwar.com
Credits:
Ryan Griffith, Writer and Creator
Scott Gist, Director
Mark Simon, In the role of the The Curator
Max Daily, Artistic Collaborator
Tane Kawasaki, The Doorwoman
Ryan Griffith, Writer and Creator. Ryan was the resident storyteller for The Lounge on KPBS radio, San Diego’s NPR affiliate, where he read from his acclaimed series The Midnight Pharmacy. In 2015-2016, his narrative installation Missingwas featured at the Halka Gallery in Istanbul and the Bonnafont Gallery in San Francisco. Relics of the Hypnotist War, his most recent work, has been running in San Diego since 2017.
Scott Gist, Director. Scott studied theater directing at Cal State LA, film directing at LACC, and screenwriting at UCLA. He directed Macbeth at Cal State LA’s Intimate Theater, starred in Strindberg’s The Father at SMC, co-wrote the award-winning short film Hello Mom, and directed the short puppet film Horse on Fire, which recently screened at the Almeria Western Film Festival in Spain. He has also been an artistic collaborator on Relics of the Hypnotist War in San Francisco and San Diego.
Tane Kawasaki, The Doorwoman, (SAG/AFTRA, AEA eligible) is an LA-based theatre artist and educator. Recent credits include: Cleo, Theo & Wu (Theatre of Note); Wood Boy Dog Fish (Rogue Artists Ensemble); Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin (Rogue Artists Ensemble in association with East West Players); Sound House (Automata) a task-oriented meditation on the physical shaping of sound, minutemen, and bricks; company player with Chamber Shakespeare. She has a MFA in Acting from CalArts.
Mark Simon, The Curator. Mark has appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of Measure for Measureand Henry V with Meryl Streep and William Hurt, The American Pig with Henry Winkler, Hagar’s Children, and Naked Lunch. On film he played The Man Who Doesn’t in the Academy Award-winning short Don’t. Mark performs with The Boyfriend, a cabaret trio who sprang fully blown from the hip of Ms. Vaginal Davis.
Max Daily, Artistic Collaborator. Max is a San Diego based artist working in visual art and performance, incorporating media ranging from drawing and sculpture to puppetry and mime. A butcher by trade, Daily is also the proprietor of Oslo Sardine Bar, currently on national tour. He was the 2018 San Diego artist of the year and his latest work Signal was performed at the Old Globe’s New Voices festival.
AUTOMATA is dedicated to the creation, incubation, and presentation of experimental puppet theater, experimental film, installation, music and other definition-defying events. Founded in 2004 by artists Susan Simpson and Janie Geiser, AUTOMATA seeks to radically redefine and re-contextualize the notion of object performance, locating it at the intersection of contemporary performance, media, visual art, sound art and experimental writing. AUTOMATA has garnered a national reputation as one of the critical sites for work that expands the definition of puppet theater.
WHERE:
Automata, 504 Chung King Ct,
Los Angeles, 90012
WHEN:
Friday, November 1st: 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 2nd: 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 3rd: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Friday, November 8th: 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 9th: 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 10th: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
ADMISSION:
$25 general, $20 students, seniors and members
Tickets available at:
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/19122
