G^2: King Lear In The Forest

The Center at West Park is a home for arts, culture, and community in the landmark West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. The Center is a secular not-for-profit organization that offers a diverse range of programs for artists, audiences, and the neighborhood; manages the building’s venues; and stewards the restoration of its historic exterior.

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King Lear In The Forest is a multi-disciplinary performance unraveling the perceived, known, and yet to be known identities of duo G^2.

King Lear In The Forest (KLIF) is a multi-disciplinary performance unraveling the perceived, known, and yet to be known identities of the duoship G^2 through the lens of race, gender, age, and sexuality.This piece is for those who get caught between labels and identities. Individuals who skirt the fence of belonging to either or. KLIF is about taking on and shedding identity constructs imposed by society today while surfacing the erotic desires, both pleasant and unpleasant, that arise with being human.Created &amp; Performed by G^2Lighting Design by Sarah LurieABOUT THE ARTISTSG^2 stems from artistic dialogue between John Maria Gutierrez, a NYC-born, 1st generation Dominican-American, and Beth Graczyk, a Seattle-born 3rd generation Polish-American. G^2 manifests material by collaging diverse improvisational concepts, post-modern, modern, hip-hop, and contemporary dance, theater, acting, poetry, and music into a multi-dimensional and imaginative worlds.Beth and John have primarily independent performance histories, and have launched G^2 as a collaborative platform for them to explore co-teaching, and co-directing dance-theater works together that draw from their experience of queerness, gender, age, ethnicity, and these labels’ shortcomings. In their process they aim to generate work that speaks to ways in which their rigorous physical expressions counter, challenge and blend with one another. In the more subtle and complex space of their bodies, John and Beth explore both identity and post-identity, where the individual labels that are afforded or placed on either of them, have the potential to become blurred with each other and the audience, even for a moment. JOHN MARIA GUTIERREZ is an actor, dancer, creator who performs on screen and stage nationally and internationally. Originally from a small island presently called NYC, John’s works combine bboy and postmodern aesthetics, original music, singing, and experimental theater to unwind a complex urban disparity brought on by social and systemic failings. Since graduating from NYU Tisch’s Experimental Theater Wing, John has performed with companies such as Miguel Gutierrez, Big Dance Theater, Pilobolus, Gesel Mason, Raja Feather Kelly, BAIRA, Full Circle Souljahs, Jeanette Stoner and Dancers. He is a graduate of the Terry Knickerbocker Studio and faculty at Peridance Center. John is a proud member of the Great Jones Rep Company of La Mama and G^2, an ongoing collaboration with Beth Graczyk which recently presented work at Judson Church and the Shanghai Tower in China. John is also a 2020-21 Artist in Residence at La Mama as well as a BAAD/Pepatian Dance Your Futures artist.BETH GRACZYK is a Brooklyn-based dance artist and scientist who aims to spark creative dialogue through performance, teaching, and contemporary dance-based projects with a focus on LGBTQIA+ and disability inclusion. Graczyk has performed throughout the United States and internationally in Japan, Ecuador, France, China and India for the past 18 years. In NYC, her solo works have been presented by Gibney, La MaMa, Judson Church, JACK, Triskelion, CPR, Movement Research, Oye Group, Kraine Theater, Chez Bushwick, and through Pioneers Goes East Collective. She has collaborative partnerships with John Gutierrez (G^2), BAIRA in Detroit, is a resident choreographer for Pioneers Go East Collective, and is on Faculty at Peridance Contemporary Dance Center. Concurrently, she is an author on 10 science publications in the field of cancer research and a Research Specialist at Rockefeller University. She co-directed the performance company Salt Horse in Seattle from 2008-2016.

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G^2: King Lear In The Forest

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G^2: King Lear In The Forest

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