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| "Love Winning, Hate Losing! Part
One." is a play in which three women--the Virgin Mary, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa
and German terrorist Gudrun Ensslin--lead the listener through their life stories
in furious outbursts, thoughtful reflections and in dream-like remembrances.
This new play, written and directed by Heidi Riegler, speaks with a fuming voice.
The women, debating their predetermined destinies, converse about love, lust,
loss, and their unbeatable desire to continue life's journey. "Love Winning, Hate Losing! Part One." explores female archetypes and the roles women play in society, with the Virgin Mary as the symbol of mother, Mona Lisa as the wife, and Gudrun Ensslin as the struggle against barriers to dreams and illusions. Riegler states, "The three characters serve as female archetypes, describing the journey for our own identity which is formed and build on our past. As women we play roles our mothers, grand mothers, and great grand mothers played. The work tries to show that as much as our roles are pre-determined, we may take them with us or leave them behind. In our memory however, they will stay with us." The play envisions what would happen if these women burst out of character and took charge of their prescribed fate. It asks, what if Mona Lisa stopped her seductive smile, what if Virgin Mary had refused to be the mother of Christ, and what if Gudrun Ensslin had won her revolution? Playwright/director Heidi Riegler grew up in Austria and supposes that her play came from the experience of re-inventing herself in the U.S. The Mona Lisa and the Virgin Mary were there "from stories she grew up with." Gudrun Ensslin, a leader of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, had also been sensationally omnipresent in her childhood, since Riegler, growing up in Graz, Austria, experienced the flood of press covering Ensslin's conviction in the longest and most expensive trial in German history. (See below for extended bio of Gudrun Ensslin.*) The play is built of interwoven monologues, with the characters fading in and out while music and movement make transitions between the scenes. The staging of each scene is a unique creation of its own, expressing not only the individuality of each woman, but also the differences between their historical, cultural, and social contexts. "Love Winning, Hate Losing! Part One." has been created by Heidi Riegler in collaboration with its performers: Denise Greber, Anna Koehler and Valerie Winborne. Valerie Winborne was a member of Urban Bush Woman and danced with choreographers David Rousseve, Ronald K. Brown and Marlies Yearby, among others. She now works with songwriter/performer Carl Hancock-Rux. Anna Kohler is an associate member of The Wooster Group and has worked with Richard Forman, John Jesurun, and others. Denise Greber has acted at La MaMa, the Ohio Theater, HERE, and other spaces. Heidi Riegler went to University of Vienna and has lived in New York for twelve years, working both as a director and producer. She has been part of the management teams (working in Public Relations and Marketing) of BAM, NJ Performing Arts Center, PS 122, and 651 ARTS. She was Producing Director of Jam Theater, which performed at the Ohio, HERE and the Ontological, among others. In 1994, She directed "The Artifacts" by Stephen Fechter at the Ohio Theater. As Artistic Director of Elysium Theater, she directed that company's plays from 1993 to 1996. Last summer, she directed and produced comedian Emmy Gay in a one-woman show, "Goin' Sane," at Five Miles in Brooklyn. Her original works have been presented in Austria, where five of her plays have been published at the publishing houses Kaiser and Co. and Hans Pero. "Love Winning, Hate Losing. Part One" is presented in part with the support of the Austrian Cultural Institute and the Goethe Institut New York.  |
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