In "Psychic Readings: An Eye on Two Worlds," Madame Rosalie, an empathetic, ironic, edgy psychic, uses her powers to lead the audience on a sensorial journey through a labyrinth of the mind. She conjures up memories, possibilities and subliminal suggestions to respond to the audience's questions about life. When she suddenly loses her ability to communicate with 'the other world', two psychic spirits, the flamboyant Olivia Pasquale and the quick-handed Petyar Kamyar, show up to guide her in unfamiliar territory. Together they are able to bring Rosalie to a tiny but extraordinary revelation, which enables her to advise the audience how to envision the path to the future. The work is created and performed by Amy Guggenheim and directed by Polina Klimovitskaya. Sound design is by Brian Hallas.

"Jack and Shirley" is a concise, surreal, poetic work for two actors and video explores the need for love and the inadequate ways people attempt to capture it, through the violent, tender, sexual relationship between a man and a woman. The piece is written and directed by Amy Guggenheim and performed by Frances Marcus and James Brewster. Sound design is by Brian Hallas.

"Amnesia" explores fantasy and memory in the struggle to create through a woman named Margaret and her two grown twin sons. As Margaret loses her memory in the present, she returns to her earlier life to find what she needs to move on. Imagistic, dark and yet hopeful, "Amnesia" takes the audience on a journey from the real to the imagined. The play is written by Amy Guggenheim and acted by Marla Carlson, Robert Caruso and Meg Chang. Sound design is by Jody Elff.

Amy Guggenheim was a powerful, brooding presence in her solo theater work, "In a Person is a City" (La MaMa, 1999), a disquisition on the heart that was thinly disguised as a murder mystery. She is a writer, performer and teacher whose solo work has been presented in New York at La MaMa, The Dia Art Foundation, HERE, The Knitting Factory, The Sculpture Center, among others, and in cities in the US, Canada and Mexico with the support of The United States Information Agency, The Fulbright Foundation, The American Embassy, The New York State Council on the Arts, and others. She has performed with Ping Chong, Linda Mussman, Elaine Summers, Blondell Cummings, among others. She has taught at Pratt Institute, Lincoln Center Institute, New York University (ADP) and Movement Research as well as privately. She is a Certified Kinetic Awareness Master Teacher and has an MA from NYU. Her solo text, "The Virgin of Want," was published in the Spring '94 issue of American Letters and Commentary. Her solo multimedia piece "JJ: Another Strange Bedfellow (?)" was most recently presented at the "Sensitive Skin Festival" in Nottingham, England. She will be in residence at the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada in early 2003.

REVIEW EXCERPTS:

"In a very short time, Amy Guggenheim has led the audience where she wants them. The audience feels the coldness of the city, the trembling of the perpetuators and victim alike, suffering in the concrete canyons of the high-rises, the hypocrisy of café chit-chat…Guggenheim describes this devilish circle in short, everyday scenes in such a compelling way that one can almost feel the tremors of the woman. It takes about half an hour. Then the knife flashes again. The identity crisis becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A corpse is hardly necessary. Compact. Concentrated. Classy."
-Hannover Times, Germany, 1998

"A haunting multimedia work." Montclair Times, 1998

"Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear" is about-facing the fact that each individual is ultimately responsible for the creation of his or her own life. Her work deals with how our isolated, fragmented selves discover ways to exist both alone and with others, ultimately leading to freedom and joy."
-Nancy David, The Scene, Rochester, N.Y. 1995

"Guggenheim's work depicts the domestic but the content is universal. Love and death, laughter and sorrow, boredom and anger; all are called up. The classic existential world, but she never let's go of her optimism and joi de vivre. We can abandon our skepticism and share her adventurous imagination."

"Guggenheim's bits have charm; a bacchanalian dance over a torn list of chores, the ax murder of an eggplant, and a widow'' prayer vigil with ands encased in her husband'' old shoes...""
-Francine Russo, The Village Voice, NYC 1989

"Although it resembles theater in its cadence and feel, it would be most accurate to call it 'performance' Guggenheim has juxtaposed widely different sequences and events with a sure-handed and sensitive timing that creates an odd atmosphere of confident ambiguity. A beguiling web of cross-references builds a texture of fascinating richness."
-George Russell, Independent Critic, NYC 1988

This production was developed with support from the Mellon Fund, the Puffin Foundation, and Pratt Institute.