Ok Radio

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with performance artist/theater maker Daniel Alexander Jones, and also with his alter-ego, the uber-glamorous “soulsonic superstar” - Jomama Jones. A conversation that touches on character, imagination, creativity, realness, possibility, and growth - in all its marvelous and weedy aspects - and the everyday work we do to tend that garden.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Natalia Koliada of the Belarus Free Theatre about the challenges of making art in a police state where people are regularly kidnapped, killed and tortured. We’ve blabbed a lot in this podcast about the difficulties of making theater even working in the best possible circumstances – so how does this ambitious company company manage to keep itself going in the face of real physical threat and displacement? (The leadership of the company, including Natalia, are currently in London living in exile, while the majority of their actors and collaborators remain in Belarus). How does it work when rehearsals are conducted over skype and performances are streamed live via internet from London for audiences in Belarus? Can we learn anything from their resourcefulness and perseverance? (Yes.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks again with the venerable comedian, musician, magpie - Reggie Watts.  A conversation about self-image, self-care, imitation and actualization.  How does an artist become an original, and what does that even mean?  How can we build into this idea of “image” the potential and even mandate to change and grow into the future? And how can we safeguard for ourselves the joy we have in making the work?  

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Joeri Smet, Karolien De Bleser, and Angelo Tijssens of the Ghent-based company, Ontroerend Goed in our first ever podcast recorded in front of a live audience in Vooruit.  Join us as we consider whether or not the audience changes anything about the way we work.  When we work in front of an audience do we always somehow want it to go well?  Would it be better if we in fact created a little less community and a little more unrest? Or should we just shut up already and watch some football? (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with writer, professor and researcher in cultural anthropology, Rik Pinxten of the University of Ghent, about such wide-ranging topics as creativity, animals, intuition, art, religion, science, culture, language, mathematics and finally our potential (and Rik feels there is a potential) to still change the world we live in. (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Eva Verity and Hazel Venzon of the Canadian company Mammalian Diving Reflex – all about “art” as a category of human activity. Both of our companies make work which falls under this dubious moniker “art,” but the activity may be in each case very different in scope, location, participants, and intent.  So, what makes “art” – well – “art”? Or is this all-inclusive category even meaningful?  Is it something (much like Pavol’s moustache) that we should at last just stop touching and leave well enough alone? (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with researcher and activist Barbara Van Dyck, who has been in the news recently in Belgium for her activity against a field of experimental genetically modified potatoes. From Barbara we learned a lot in just one short hour about the scientific concerns surrounding genetic modification of agriculture – and also enjoyed some hot discussion with her about art, activism, progress, the future and “the social good”. (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with American dancer/choreographer/artist Andros Zins-Browne about his journey from the world of classical ballet through Chris Burden and Jackass, into modern dance and out again into his current work: Welcome to the Jungle. Join us for a conversation in which we reflect on more than a few personal experiences of reinvention, investigation, discovery, and evolution. (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Belgian artist Sarah Vanhee about her recent project Lecture for Everyone for which she is invited by various groups to speak (always unannounced) in a location where an audience is already gathered for an entirely different situation or event. What does it mean to come into a public situation as an outsider or stranger? Who is the guest and who is the host in such a performance – in any performance? And just what do we invite when we intervene? (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Barbara Raes, artistic director of Vooruit in Ghent.  Vooruit, originally the festival center of the Ghent labor movement, and a symbol of the socialist movement, is today a busy arts center and hub of cultural innovation.  The name “vooruit” translates in English to “forward, ” but are we capable curators of our own idealism?  Why does today’s passion for radical change always seem to become tomorrow’s collective burnout?  Should we strategize more and hope less? Is there such a thing as sustainable revolution? (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures Festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with artists Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort from the company L’Amicale de Production about finding a productive balance between collaboration and antagonism, both when we make work together as a duo or a team, and also in regard to our relationship with the audience, with whom we also work and work against in various ways.  Are there any rules to live by? Are we fundamentalists? What’s a Bible humper? And more importantly – when are these guys coming to perform in New York? (This podcast was recorded as part of the Possible Futures festival for Vooruit in Ghent.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with playwright Jeffrey M. Jones (aka Jeff Jones) about death, politics and money. A podcast in which we dare to ask the question: who IS the President of the United States?  And what does the answer potentially imply about my mental competence? (Plus – added bonus! – we all imagine a future television series we would make based on life in the New York theater – something along the lines of Dallas, but with far less cash and fewer horses.)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks to Philip Bither, Senior Curator of Performing Arts at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, about ego, humility, and identity.  Is it an arrogant act to program work (or make work) that you may personally feel is important -- for an audience who may not want that kind of challenge?  What is the grass roots work a good curator has to do to find and foster public interest (as populist as we can make it) in these so-called “difficult” works?

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with artist/choreographers Heine Avdal and Yukiko Shinozaki about performances in and out of the theater space.  Yukiko and Heine have made performances in their hotel room, in rented offices, shopping centers; Nature Theater has also worked inside and outside the traditional theater building - but why do we do it?  What uncomfortable questions does off-site work provoke about audience and our interaction and relationship with them?   

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Lebanese visual and performing artist Rabih Mroué - about so many things! - but mainly about difference and similarity, self and community, solo and group, inside and outside, original and imitation.  Though we both make performance and theater, we come from very different backgrounds and environments, and even different working situations.  What are the influences that make us who and what we are and what we make?  And what has been his particular experience growing up and making art in Beirut?

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Sean Patten & Bastian Trost of the Berlin-based group Gob Squad about the social relations, work ethics - and just plain ethics - of collective art-making.  How do we negotiate making group work and – quite frankly - DOES the group work?  How do we come together and how do we stay together and most importantly – how do we keep this very economically precarious idea of group work going?

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with painter, sculptor, performing artist and German enfant terrible Jonathan Meese – all about art and ideology, insider and outsider, and risk and responsibility.  Do artists need to remain playful, irresponsible, provocative – even untrustworthy– to make our best work?  How does one reconcile one's desire to please one's mother with a desire to make art that includes simulating oral sex on an extraterrestrial?  Some time well spent with one of our most inspiring guests ever.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks today with the extremely inspirational artist – and comedian – and musician – Reggie Watts.  All about stuff and nonsense, conscious and unconscious, perception, and improvisation – not just in performance but as philosophy, as a way of living and being in the world.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Oskar Eustis, director of The Public Theater in New York City about leadership, ethics, and idealism.  How does Oskar navigate the economic disparity he encounters every day – running an arts institution that has to both market itself to wealthy backers and nurture an often very impoverished community of working artists?  What are the possibilities he sees in the future toward making a better, more sustainable working environment – and ultimately better art – in the American theater?

Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with writer Lucy Alibar (whose film Beasts of the Southern Wild was just nominated for four Academy Awards), about how she straddles the worlds of both stage and film.  Also, how has it been to negotiate that success with its looming opposite: failure?  When you have a big move forward in your artistic career, how do you manage the fear that sometimes follows, and the pressure to make another immediate hit?  (All this and more about story, land, race, history, religion, and the future.)