James Bohnen on Art Trifecta
This spring, Remy Bumppo will present a brand new program as part of our annual benefit. Art Trifecta will be held May 20 at 5:00 pm in the Grand Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For this event, more then a dozen noted Chicago writers will visit the Art Institute and write a five minute piece on a work that inspires them. At the May 20 benefit, those works will be read or performed by Remy Bumppo artistic associates.
We sat down with Artistic Director James Bohnen, to find out more about this intriguing new event:
Where did the idea for Art Trifecta come from?
JAMES: From the 50th Anniversary edition of The Paris Review, where 25 famous writers were asked to go into the apartment of a couple who owned over 300 pieces of framed art showing people reading. Those writers wrote something about one of the pieces. Paris Review printed the written pieces and reproductions of the visual art so that you could see the artistic stimulus for the writing. The writings varied in length and tone. Some were memoir and some were obviously fiction. Some directly described observations while others took off in a whole other direction - the way good writing should.
What exactly is the trifecta in Art Trifecta?
The trifecta is the artwork, the story or writing inspired by that piece of art, and then the performance of the story.
Who will write the pieces for the event?
We’re going after a nice mix of writers: novelists, playwrights, essayists and poets. I am looking for people who are emblematic of Chicago. I want a mix of writing styles, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
The writers that have committed at this time include Richard Powers, Sara Paretsky, Rebecca Gilman, Brett Neveu, Achy Obejas, Stuart Dybek, Ellen Fairey, Calvin Forbes, Alex Kotlowitz, James McManus and Bayo Ojikutu.
When I finished running the concept by Sara Paretsky’s assistant there was this moment of silence and I thought, “Oh, God.” And she said, “What a wonderful idea!”
Who wouldn’t want that assignment? To wander around the Art Institute and when you get a germ of an idea, you go home, sit on it for a month, and then write something. See that’s one of the things that I love about this. Once they start writing, who knows what will come out, and it will just prompt all sorts of other things in your head.
What will happen when the lights dim the night of Art Trifecta?
I think it’s going to be a really exciting opportunity for people to hear new writing performed well, while seeing the image that inspired the writting behind the performer. It’s a wonderful music to play, combining these three art forms together - two of them solitary and one of them public. Art is usually created in isolation, but when you gather an audience in a room and make it into a public event, it just explodes. It won’t be like going to the museum alone. You’re in a group of 200 people and there’s talk. That’s why there will be an intermission half-way through - so people can talk about what they’ve already experienced. I think it’s a way of inviting people to go back into the Art Institute and see things in a different way.
The Art Trifecta seems like something very different for Remy Bumppo. How does it tie into the theater’s other work?
Art Trifecta is an amazing way to showcase Remy Bumppo and its approach to theater. It’s about the stimuli of creativity. It’s intended to get people talking because if people are talking, they have to listen and if they are listening, they have to think and if they are thinking, they are engaged and if they are engaged, they are better citizens. You put ideas in people’s heads, but you don’t have much control over what happens. So you just do as good a job of planting as you can, and they’re left to water themselves.
We sat down with Artistic Director James Bohnen, to find out more about this intriguing new event:
Where did the idea for Art Trifecta come from?
JAMES: From the 50th Anniversary edition of The Paris Review, where 25 famous writers were asked to go into the apartment of a couple who owned over 300 pieces of framed art showing people reading. Those writers wrote something about one of the pieces. Paris Review printed the written pieces and reproductions of the visual art so that you could see the artistic stimulus for the writing. The writings varied in length and tone. Some were memoir and some were obviously fiction. Some directly described observations while others took off in a whole other direction - the way good writing should.
What exactly is the trifecta in Art Trifecta?
The trifecta is the artwork, the story or writing inspired by that piece of art, and then the performance of the story.
Who will write the pieces for the event?
We’re going after a nice mix of writers: novelists, playwrights, essayists and poets. I am looking for people who are emblematic of Chicago. I want a mix of writing styles, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
The writers that have committed at this time include Richard Powers, Sara Paretsky, Rebecca Gilman, Brett Neveu, Achy Obejas, Stuart Dybek, Ellen Fairey, Calvin Forbes, Alex Kotlowitz, James McManus and Bayo Ojikutu.
When I finished running the concept by Sara Paretsky’s assistant there was this moment of silence and I thought, “Oh, God.” And she said, “What a wonderful idea!”
Who wouldn’t want that assignment? To wander around the Art Institute and when you get a germ of an idea, you go home, sit on it for a month, and then write something. See that’s one of the things that I love about this. Once they start writing, who knows what will come out, and it will just prompt all sorts of other things in your head.
What will happen when the lights dim the night of Art Trifecta?
I think it’s going to be a really exciting opportunity for people to hear new writing performed well, while seeing the image that inspired the writting behind the performer. It’s a wonderful music to play, combining these three art forms together - two of them solitary and one of them public. Art is usually created in isolation, but when you gather an audience in a room and make it into a public event, it just explodes. It won’t be like going to the museum alone. You’re in a group of 200 people and there’s talk. That’s why there will be an intermission half-way through - so people can talk about what they’ve already experienced. I think it’s a way of inviting people to go back into the Art Institute and see things in a different way.
The Art Trifecta seems like something very different for Remy Bumppo. How does it tie into the theater’s other work?
Art Trifecta is an amazing way to showcase Remy Bumppo and its approach to theater. It’s about the stimuli of creativity. It’s intended to get people talking because if people are talking, they have to listen and if they are listening, they have to think and if they are thinking, they are engaged and if they are engaged, they are better citizens. You put ideas in people’s heads, but you don’t have much control over what happens. So you just do as good a job of planting as you can, and they’re left to water themselves.