ANDREW ONDREJCAK

An opera

YOU US WE ALL is a contemporary and irreverent take on an 18th century court masque, featuring musical scenes, allegorical characters and heightened theatrical style.

The performance is a series of episodes in which the characters DEATH, LOVE, VIRTUE, HOPE and TIME reflect on their own aptitude for inciting meaning within their lives. As the characters perform the masque, TIME slowly and insistently destroys everything, stripping away the layers of pomp and artifice that had given them shape. Pruned of their clothes, roles, and story, the opera turns radically inward.

Commissioned by DeSingel of Antwerp, Belgium
Co-produced by Kampnagel of Hamburg, Germany
Text by Andrew Ondrejcak
Music by Shara Worden
Performed by BOX Baroque Orchestration X
Stage direction and stage design by Andrew Ondrejcak
Co-Costume designer Zane Philstrom
HOPE        Shara Worden
LOVE        Martin Gherke
VIRTUE     Helga Davis
DEATH      Bernhard Landauer
TIME          Carlos Soto

A play

FEAST is a retelling of the ancient biblical story of The Writing on the Wall, in which the last meal of an era is prepared just before the collapse of the great Babylonian empire.

During the FEAST, a King and his Concubines are haunted by Handel’s baroque operetta, Belshazzar's Feast, while anxiously devouring everything possible on the banquet table. Despite impending doom, the court persists (“first course first of course”), sparing no expense as the city burns in the distance. As the stolid King considers how to make sense of history and rebuild a failing civilization, the world of the banquet slips further and further from its noble intents.

The language of FEAST focuses on the formal qualities of words and the inherent rhythms and phonetic qualities of language. Engaging the implicit violence and intimacy of eating together, the tragic celebrants circle the void by never saying exactly what they mean.

Presented at Incubator Arts Project at St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery
Written and Directed by Andrew Ondrejcak
Music to Belshazzar (1744) by George Frideric Handel
Libretto to Belshazzar by Charles Jennens
Costumes by Adam Selman
Lighting Design by Scott Bolman
Sound Design by Kristin Worrall
Stage Design by Leong Leong Architecture
Assistant Stage Design by Amanda Shin
Jewelry by Fenton/Fallon
Set Build by Composition Workshop
Technical Direction by Brendan Regimbal
Videography by David Pym
Production Assistants Lucy Liu, Stephen Woodall, Anna Oliver
Stage Management by Bettina Warshaw
Photography by Marek Berry and Georgia Nerheim
THE KING Okwui Okpokwasili
THE CONCUBINES Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa, Jason Robert Winfield
THE BUTCHER Peter Cullen

A play

A Dialogue Between the Eater and the Eaten is a short play written for the inaugural publication of White Zinfandel, an art/culture magazine. White Zinfandel assigned each contributor a dish to interpret freely. A Dialogue Between the Eater and the Eaten is a theatrical allegory based on the dish Baked Marrow Bones.

READ:
A Dialogue Between The Eater and The Eaten

A biannual publication by W/— Project Space in collaboration with Leong Leong Architecture, White Zinfandel is devoted to the visual manifestation of food and culture produced within the lives of creative individuals. White Zinfindel is a celebration of food and art in which creative individuals are paired with dishes from a unique or historic menu to inspire original work.

Edited by Jiminie Ha, Dominic Leong, Chris Leong
Project Management by Brandy Carstens
Design by Jiminie Ha
whitezinf.org

A performance installation

Leading up to the death of his father in 2010, Ondrejcak devised Veneration #1: The Young Heir Takes Possession of The Master's Effects, in which he isolates and observes his body's process of physical weakening (and eventual failure) by performing a repeated sequence of athletic actions until physical failure. The action takes place behind a one-way mirror; the audience can see the action while Ondrejcak can only see his reflection as his body adjusts to the tasks. In front of the mirror is a clear glass dumbbell. Markings on the mirror correspond to the proportions of an idealized man, both acknowledging and challenging the notion of the Ideal Man. His heavy breathing slowly drowns out the sound of a baroque minuet for harpsichord.

Presented by The Guggenheim Museum, Works and Process 2011
Performed as part of QUINTET, five new performances curated by Robert Wilson (website)
Created and performed by Andrew Ondrejcak
Music written by Michael Galasso for Les Fables de la Fontaine at Comedie Francaise, 2005
Harpsichord performed by Andrew Ondrejcak
Recorded by Devin Greenwood at Astor Courts, Rhinebeck, New York. Special thanks to the Astor estate.

A performance installation

VENERATION #2: The House Not Meant To Stand is the second in a series of visual poems responding to a particular passing or exodus in the life of the artist. Performed by members of the SCAD community, the performance took place between twin altars modeled on the 15th century altarpiece of Ghent. While one rests in shadow and light, the other becomes a sculptural canvas for a chorus of moving mouths, creating a mosaic of contemporary language within an ancient liturgy - a memorial to the ephemeral nature of body, mind, and memory.

Commissioned by SCAD Museum of Art, 2013
Created by Andrew Ondrejcak
Production Management by Jenn Dees
Technical Direction by George Doles
Audio/Visual by Kaufman-Heinz
Associated Stage Design by Kevin Petersen
Stage Management by Andrew Flores Chaliotis
PERFORMERS Jorge Jose Bolanos, Andrew Florez Chaliotis, Jeanne Dews, Steven G. Diehl, Zhou Fang, Martine Fleurisma, Candace Kitchens, Karla Knudsen

A play

WONDER/LUST follows the quest for the unseen that has inspired artists, scientists and explorers for centuries. The iconic 1933 film King Kong presents the story of a man on a journey to find the elusive and terrifying monster, Kong. WONDER/LUST is a meditation on his journey as well as the making of the film itself. As a group of actors screen test, rehearse, and perform scenes from King Kong on a soundstage, the film’s plot is intertwined with contemporary reflections on dreams, fear, human limitations, and the power of the unknown. The result is a kaleidoscopic view of wonder and the human thirst for it.

Presented by HERE Arts Center, Soho, New York City, July 2009.
Conceived, Directed and Designed by Andrew Ondrejcak 
Production Dramaturgy by Anne Seiwerath 
Music and Sound by Konstantin Fritz
Costume and Styling by Mary Catherine Muir 
Hair Design by Miki Mori
Make-Up design by Jun Funahashi
Photographs by Georgia Nerheim
Production Management by Lydia Andersen-Tarnell

The cast is as follows:
RED-FACED MAN WITH GIN ON HIS BREATH Doug Barron
MAN WHO NEVER SMILES Manuel Fihman
SMALL WOMAN WITH A VERY LARGE HEADEACHE Jenn Dees
WOMAN WITH AN EXTREMELY LONG NECK Nicole D'Amico
MAN WITH BIG SHOULDERS Jason Winfield
WOMAN WITH GINORMOUS EYES Yuki Kawahisa
BAD GIRL GONE GOOD Rosebud Baker

WONDER/LUST was originally workshopped at the CSV Cultural Center, New York City, January 2009. Production Management by Tom Palmer Projects. The creative team was the same as above. The cast was as follows:
Charles Chemin
Nicole D'Amico
Jenn Dees
Tammuz Frankel
Yuki Kawahisa
Christopher James Raynor
Jennifer Soo

A play

Text by Andrew Ondrejcak 
Music by Shara Worden

The Kings of Macedonia is a collection of moments from everyday life, in which the simplest action underscores a wealth of humanity.  Conceived as a modern telling of The Canterbury Tales, ten characters search for meaning while en route to destinations they cannot quite pinpoint.  Each individual is both the center of the world and part of something they cannot comprehend, and they each look to the impulses within (and the vast unknown above) in the search for meaning.  The episodes are decidedly common: someone drinks a beer alone at a bar as a child experiences fear of the dark, a woman combs her hair while a teenage boy tries to stop smoking. Individually, they reflect on their own aptitude for inciting meaning within their lives and the lives of others; collectively, they ask: How can someone so insignificant care for the soul of another?  

The performance for 10 singers and a brass quartet.

Development at The Kitchen, May 2012, directed by Andrew Ondrejcak, with the following cast:

Frank Boudreaux
Shara Worden
Jess Barbagello
Marcelle Davies
Jenn Dees
Meg Harper
Jason Winfield
Brian Mendes
Paul Ketchum
Yuki Kawahisa
Ibanda Ruhumbika
Tim Albright
David Byrd-Marrow
CJ Camerieri
Brian Wolfe
Jake Hart
Rebecca Warner
Denise Ondrejcak
Karen Harvey
Rayna Hickman
Jess Dessner
Gelsey Bell
Dave Malloy
Lantie Tom
Colin Summers

Further development at Prelude Festival 2012, directed by Andrew Ondrejcak, with the following cast:

Jenn Dees
Meg Harper
Shara Worden
Paul Ketchum
Yuki Kawahisa
Laurena Allan 
Tunde Adebimpe
Helga Davis 
Brock Gloor
Jake Hart
Ibanda Ruhumbika
Michael Seltzer
R.J. Kelley 
CJ Camerieri
Ted Poor
Khorikos Chorus
Denise Ondrejcak
Jessica Dessner

REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA

The Muses envisions the nine classical figures as goddesses in contemporary Los Angeles. A suite of dances is woven with spoken text combining the myth of Sappho on a beach in Lesbos with musings on a life lived on a beach in Malibu. The work was supported generously by GuestHaus Residency.

New Original Works Festival 2019

Curated by Edgar Miramontes

Produced by Safety Third Productions with Caroline Haydon

Supported by GuestHaus Residency (curated by Chloe Flores) and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Written and Direction by Andrew Ondrejcak

Choreography by Katherine Helen Fisher

Music by Helado Negro

Costumes by Andrew Ondrejcak, Erica Sabatini with help from the Los Angeles Opera

Associate Choreographer Nathan Kim

Backdrop painted by Andrew Ondrejcak

Performed by:

Cade Danieli

Shauna Davis

Jessica Gadzinski

Sebastian Hernandez

Tess Hewlett

Samantha Movhr

Kim Thompson

Devika Wickremesinghe

Lara Wilson