Bobbi Jene Smith: Broken Theater

Directed by Bobbi Jene Smith

Performed by Mikael Darmanie, Julia Eichten, Vinson Fraley, Jonathan Fredrickson, Keir GoGwilt, Coleman Itzkoff, Jesse Kovarsky, Yiannis Logothetis, Or Schraiber, Bobbi Jene Smith, Mouna Soualem, and Stephanie Troyak

Broken Theater is an AMOC* production and has been co-commissioned by La MaMa, Mass MoCA, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), and New Dialect.

Bobbi Jene Smith is a director, choreographer, and dancer, who makes work for both live theater and film. Her work explores affect and apathy, domestic politics, and the rhythmic and formal connections between music and movement. She danced for the Batsheva Company from 2005-2014. Since then she has choreographed original work for the Paris Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Los Angeles Dance Project, VAIL Dance Festival, The Royal Danish Ballet, the Batsheva Dance Company, and others. Her dance and music theater works have been presented and supported by the American Repertory Theater, PS 122, La MaMa Experimental Theater, Stanford Live, Carolina Performing Arts, Kaufman Hall at the 92nd st Y, Luminato Festival, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Batsheva Dance Company and others. Additionally, she has starred in or choreographed films including Elvira Lind's Bobbi Jene, Georgia Parris's Mari, Boaz Yakin's AVIVA and Alex Garland's Annihilation. She has directed her own dance films including Broken Theater and Gallop Apace. She has been an Artist in Residence at Baryshnikov Arts Center (2019) and was awarded the Harkness Promise Award and the Martha Duffy Resident Artist. In 2020 she was an Artist in Residence at MassMOCA and La MaMa Experimental Theater. Since 2022 Bobbi has been an Artist in Residence at Los Angeles Dance Project.

The mission of AMOC, founded in 2017 by Matthew Aucoin and Zack Winokur, is to build and share a body of collaborative work. As a group of dancers, singers, musicians, writers, directors, composers, choreographers, and producers united by a core set of values, AMOC artists pool their resources to create new pathways that connect creators and audiences in surprising and visceral ways. Most recently, AMOC served as Music Director for the 2022 Ojai Music Festival–the second ensemble and first explicitly interdisciplinary company to hold the position in OMF's 75-year history. Over the Festival's four days, AMOC offered 18 performances, eight world premieres, and six new theatrical productions. This season, AMOC* premiered a new production of Harawi, an affecting interpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle that breaks open its explorations of love and death into a newly physicalized and theatrical dimension. It made its world premiere at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and will continue a tour to Europe, performing at DeSingel, Elbphilharmonie and Leverkusen in May 2023.  AMOC*’s 2022-2023 season will also see the world premiere of Bobbi Jene Smith’s Broken Theater, presented in partnership with New Dialect, Carolina Performing Arts and La MaMa, as well as the New York premieres of Carolyn Chen’s How to Fall Apart at Baryshnikov Arts Center and Anthony Cheung’s the echoing of tenses at the 92^nd St. Y. The company has appeared at the 92nd Street Y, Big Ears Festival, the Caramoor Festival, National Sawdust, The Clark Art Institute, and the San Diego Symphony. AMOC has been in residence at the Park Avenue Armory and Harvard University.