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Toby MacNutt presents new Solo Show

July 16, 2019
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Previewing A Singular They at Lost Nation Theater: New Solos by Toby MacNutt

 

The first preview of new solo work in development by Toby MacNutt, in collaboration with local choreographers Polly Motley, Christal Brown, Nicole Dagesse, and Noah Witke Mele, will be open to the public on July 17 at Lost Nation Theater. The preview will be an informal first look at five short solos developed over the last six months, followed by a facilitated discussion to provide MacNutt & collaborators with feedback.

 

This new collection of solos, working title A Singular They, takes deep introspection into multi-dimensional performance. MacNutt’s experiences as a disabled, nonbinary trans, queer person are translated through their multiple ways of moving: on crutches, along the floor, seated, and with environmental structures.

 

“The pieces’ themes follow change in my life,” says MacNutt, “including change in gender presentation and identity, the fluctuating state of my disability and my different forms of mobility (wheels, crutches, body), change in type and level of pain, changing relationships. Each piece typically captures a brief snapshot of a moment in the flux. Different collaborators help find different components and bring them out with different styles and methods.” 

 

The project’s initial development has been supported by New England Foundation for the Arts’ Dance Fund, and AXIS Dance Company’s Choreo-Lab. Lost Nation Theater is thrilled to support artists from all different walks of life and experience and showcase experiences by those who are often marginalized.  Later this year, MacNutt will be in residency at New England Center for Circus Arts to continue work on choreography and begin design and staging.

 

Recently, MacNutt has performed with Murmurations Dance Company’s Bone Hooks and When Women Were Birds, taken individual solos to the Fresh Meat Festival in San Francisco and Dancing Queerly in Boston,  and developed new choreography with AXIS Dance Company for the 2018 and 2019 Choreo-Labs. They presented an immersive installation piece, Enter the Void, in South Burlington in 2018 and choreographed and produced One, Two in 2014 - described by Jim Lowe at the Times Argus as “a tender odyssey” -  on a cast of local dancers with and without disabilities. One, Two was supported by the Vermont Arts Council and the Flynn Center’s Artist Space Grant, and toured excerpts to New York City and the UK. Toby has also been a presenter at conferences including the National Performance Network, Middlebury’s Clifford Symposium, and Dance/USA, been a guest artist at colleges including University of Michigan and Wesleyan University, and is a facilitator or trainer on accessibility and queer topics for arts and other organizations.

 

A Singular They is MacNutt’s first time focusing on their own experience in solo performance.
“I’m excited to be working on non-narrative self-expression and highlighting my own fluid, variable experiences in dance,” says MacNutt. “I’ve never seen someone quite like me on stage, or a work quite like this. I can’t wait to share these five very different pieces together for the first time, and I’m eager to take home feedback for the work as its continues to grow.”

 

WHEN: July 17, 7pm

ADMISSION: Suggested $10 donation

 

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