MANO A MANO: an operatic monodrama – February 12-22

ABOUT

Plucked from the tradition of the medieval storytelling bard,  MANO A MANO is an operatic monodrama about toxic masculinity, needling Anglo-Saxon epics with personal anecdote, pseudo-history, Antonio Banderas movies, tangents about the Romans, boxing, and stories about New Jersey.

Writer/performer Paul Pinto embodies all the characters across a five-octave range of timbres: sweet, throaty and viscerally guttural. Posing the question “what if Sir Gawain and Beowulf were fighting over killing the same dragon?” he answers with ninety minutes of virtuosic chants, rants, song and spectacle, as he bobs and weaves between passages of puckishly quick verbiage and aching melancholia. Director Kristin Marting stages it in the round with the audience immersed in the action, surrounded by a mix of wild saxophone and percussion improvisation.

CREDITS

Written, Composed and Performed by Paul Pinto

Developed with and Directed by Kristin Marting 

Lighting and Projection Design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew 

Sound Design and Mixing by Philip White

Associate Lighting Design by Alex deNevers

Performed with Erin Rogers (sax), Zach Herchen (sax), and Dennis Sullivan (percussion)

Line Produced by Amanda+James 

Production Managed by Erica Schnitzer 

Technical Directed by Ben Elling

Stage Managed by Katie Scibelli

BIO

Paul is the composer, singer and orchestrator of MANO A MANO. He’s a Jersey City based opera-sermonizer and multi-disciplinary dabbler who makes music, new media, micro-theatres, video art and durational performance. 

He has performed and collaborated with his bands thingNY and Varispeed, as well as Meredith Monk, Robert Ashley, Kameron Neal, Joan La Barbara, Long Beach Opera, Dave Malloy, Yarn/Wire, The Rhythm Method and Quince. His music has been a part of The Industry, Perelman Arts Center, Prototype Festival, Big Ears Festival, The Fisher Center, American Opera Projects, Opera America, LaMaMa, WNET ALLARTS, Media Art Xchange, the Monheim Festival, and Louth Contemporary. Born in Queens, he lives in Jersey City with his wife, child, and vegetable garden.

 

Kristin is an award winning director & creative producer based in NYC. She has constructed 37 world premieres (15 hybrid, 9 opera/music-theatre, 9 adaptations of novels & 5 classics). 

Selected premieres: BAM, HERE, Ohio Theatre, Soho Rep. Selected touring: 7 Stages, Berkshire Festival, Brown, MCA, New World, Painted Bride, UMass, Moscow Art Theatre, Oslo. Selected workshops: Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theatre, Target Margin.  

Recipient of an Obie award for Lifetime Achievement and Proclamation from the NY State Assembly for steadfast leadership, two prestigious MAP Fund awards, a nytheatre.com Person of the Decade for outstanding contribution, a Leader to Watch by Art Table, and a BAX10 Award.

She is the Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of HERE and co-founded/co-curated 13 editions of PROTOTYPE festival. 

 

With development support from Ancram Center for the Arts, ComPeung AiR, Con Vivo Music, Eastern Mennonite University, HERE, James Madison University, Mana Contemporary, Mount Tremper Arts, NACL, and Resonant Bodies Festival

Marketing support from American Opera Projects, Experiments in Opera, and Opera on Tap

MANO A MANO is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The project is also supported by New Music USA and Opera America.