The Chairs 1198 copy — Photo credit: Keith Pattison.

David Gordon talks with Valda Setterfield about the 1st accidental appearance and subsequent purposeful utilization in his movement and theater work, since 1974, of the pedestrian metal folding chair.

Gordon and Setterfield chronicle experiment with wooden chairs, rolling desk chairs as well as metal folding chairs from ‘74 through production at BAM Next Wave in 2004 of Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs and during the last 10 years of productions of Aristophanes, William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht and Luigi Pirandello.

Gordon’s scripted thematic association with the chair as iconic prop and partner is part of an annotated “archiveography” to be donated and housed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

AWARDS INCLUDE:
3 Bessies, 2 Obies, 2 Dramalogues, 2 Guggenheims,2 Pew Charitable Trust Grants (Theater & Dance), 3 National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpiece grants, 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

COMMISSIONS FOR DIRECTING &/OR CHOREOGRAPHING INCLUDE:
Actors Studio, American Ballet Theater, American Conservatory Theater, American Music Theater Festival, American Repertory Theater, Barbican (London), BBC Channel 4, UK. British Dance Umbrella, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dance Theater of Harlem, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace, Guthrie Theater, Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, PBS Alive TV, Mark Taper Forum, New York Theater Workshop, On The Boards (Seattle, Wa.), PBS Great Performances, Serious Fun @ Lincoln Center, Spoleto USA, Theater For a New Audience, Walker Art Center, White Oak Dance Project.

FOUNDING DIRECTOR:
Pick Up Performance Co(s)

FOUNDING ARTIST:
Grand Union/Judson Church Performances

CURRENT MEMBER:
Actors Studio

PREVIOUS PANEL &/OR CHAIR:
NYSCA Dance Program, NEA Dance Program

PREVIOUS PERFORMING ARTIST:
Yvonne Rainer Co./James Waring Co

Please RSVP to rsvp@swissinstitute.net.

David Gordan is a writer, director, and choreographer.