PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts is preparing to welcome poet and playwright Court Dorsey, along with Grammy winning cellist Euegene Friesen on Saturday, Jan. 31 for “Poems with Wings,” a collaborative evening of poetry and cello.
The performance in Putney is the second of three planned shows, and will include selections from Dorsey’s poetry collection “Tiger Stripes: Poems of Shadows and Light,” along with a newly released poem by Dorsey, and selections by Pablo Neruda, Billie Collins and William Blake. Dorsey’s poetry performance will be accompanied by improvised cello performances by Friesen, following his recent tour with rock and folk powerhouse Paul Simon.
The Next Stage performance is the second of three, with a final performance taking place on Sunday, Feb. 1 at The Workroom in Northampton, Mass. According to Dorsey and Friesen, the first performance at the Wendell Meetinghouse in Wendell, Mass. on Saturday, Jan. 24 was well received by audiences, and that each performance will be unique.
“Every time we do this feels like opening night, because it is not the kind of thing where we have a bunch of rehearsals or a strict set list. It is very much a creative and spontaneous outburst each time we do it,” said Friesen. “Every time we do this, it will be a surprise for us, as much as the listeners.”
Dorsey’s poetry selections will be accompanied by Friesen’s cello performances, which Friesen said will be improvised based on the flow and feel of each reading.
“[Court Dorsey’s] performance energy really is what informs what I do musically for each performance. Ninety-eight percent of this show is improvised,” said Friesen. “It is just like The Grateful Dead, where you have to go to every show to get the full picture.”
“When we did our first show in Wendell, people were very moved and a lot of people told me that they liked the poems, but hearing them done live and with music addresses a different part of the mind and the soul,” said Dorsey.
“It opens up the heart, and instead of just reading it and having it happen in your mind, hearing it out loud with music adds entirely new dimensions to the experience. It opens up a whole person, so that the connection between the material and the listener is full and whole,” he said.
Dorsey said that his experience as a performer and actor will turn the experience from a standard reading into a deeper artistic experience.
“I’ve done music and theater my whole life, starting early in my performing career. Actors have movements and words that the musicians work off of, so it becomes an integrated whole of music and language and movement.
“I am an actor, and I read with an actor’s body as well as an actor’s voice. The reading and the rhythm of the words are somewhat danced, mostly through gesture but it is still there,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey will have copies of his poetry for sale at the performance, which begins at 2 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $15 in advance at http://www.courtdorsey.com/events and $20 at the door.
For more information, contact Court Dorsey at [email protected] or 413-325-7587.
Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at [email protected]
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.reformer.com ’
