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| Iveson, who plays the piano and sings in the
character of Nurse Baby Asparagus, calls the piece "an example of what
happens when Austrian health-care practitioners sit at a grand piano and
no one is around to stop them, or help them, or, in some cases, even watch
them." Asparagus strolls through nine or more largely original songs--some
will be new, others will have been performed sporadically over the past
five years at many venues. Most of the songs were composed by Iveson for
PS 122's "The Lucy Show," a quasi-monthly downtown-theater interview
show co-hosted by Nurse Baby Asparagus and The Factress (also known as Dancenoise's
Lucy Sexton). Iveson promises a "wholesome night, like whipped cream
on cheese." Composer and pianist Mike Iveson is a 2002 Bessie award recipient for Sarah Michelson's Company, for which he has composed the scores of "Group Experience" (2001), Grivdon@ the Grivdon Concrete (2002), The Experts (2002 Commission for Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project), and "Shadowmann" (2003). He has been performing as Nurse Baby Asparagus for seven years in a variety of venues including The Performing Garage, Dixon Place, PS 122, Chashama and Copenhagen International Theater Festival. His collaborations include, among others, performances with Sarah Michelson, Mike Taylor, Dancenoise, Charles Atlas, Yvonne Meier, and Dance Kumikokimoto. Iveson appeared at La MaMa this past December in "Nicky Paraiso and Friends: Christmas 2003." His previous La MaMa productions include Dancenoise shows in The Club. Being both a composer and dancer, he is one of a small number of performers with that unique blend of talents. When he works with Sarah Michelson, typically he composes for shows where he's dancing. Iveson describes himself as "descended from Northern English coal miners." Now 35, he grew up in New Jersey, The Netherlands, Puerto Rico and Texas. He attended Oberlin, where he majored in theater and moved to New York right after college . |
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