Annie Okay
“Premiere:
Hammer Museum, Westwood, CA
October 15, 2010
Written and directed by Asher Hartman
Assistant directed by Haruko Tanaka
Created in collaboration with Franc Baliton, Claire Cronin, Rochelle Fabb, Corey Fogel, Simone Gad, Jason Golday, Seema Kapur, Dawn Kasper, Patrick Kennelly, Zuty Lorz, Max Markowitz, Devin McNulty, Michael Morrissey, Jasmine Orpilla, Eliezer Ortiz, Paul Outlaw, Miggie Wong, John Wood and John Wu
Creative Team: Mirabelle Ang, Chris Candelaria, Claire Cronin, Kristina Faragher, Curt LeMieux, Jay Lizo, McCarty & Marchionno, Carol McDowell, Devin McNulty, Max Markowitz, Maritza Mazariego, Prumsodun Ok, Jasmine Orpilla, Haruko Tanaka and Marianne Williams
ANNIE OKAY was performed as part of Machine Project’s Public Engagement Artist in Residence (A.I.R.) at the Hammer Museum.”
Annie Okay is inspired by the unintentional colonialist subtext in two of America’s most beloved musicals, Annie Get Your Gun and The King and I. Anne Okay revisits the musical form to look at what our entertainments say about our struggle with race, identity, colonialist politics and the American tryst with violence. Poetic, dense, funny, and complicated, Annie Okay challenges and surprises audiences as they are led through the Hammer Museum’s expansive lobby and marble terraces following a conceptual narrative performed by Los Angeles-based performance artists and actors. Annie Okay moves between abstract theater, comedy and relational components that allow audiences to enter into dialogue drawn from the piece’s mix of ragged humor, violence and sexuality.