Directed and Choreographed by Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva
Developed during a 2008 Artistic Residency at Colby College, “The One That Gets Slapped” marked the genesis of the the aesthetic and pedagogical concerns which would give rise to AnomalousCo. Syssoyeva led an inter-departmental collaboration with students from Theatre, Dance, Music, Slavic Studies, and Athletics. Together, they devised a circus-drama-cabaret on the basis of Leonid Andreyev’s 1915 symbolist melodrama, The One That Gets Slapped (тот, кто получает пощечины, my own translation). Synthesizing the aesthetics of the Russian modernist avant-garde with recent developments in New Circus and New Vaudeville, this production incorporated live, original music (composed and arranged by the students), clowning, and aerial acrobatics. Preparation involved extensive visual, historical, and performance research, film screenings, movement training, presentations by student dramaturgs, small group devising, peer teaching, and workshops and presentations by guest artists and speakers.
