St. Mary Majak’s
HISTORY of Majaks (Pronounced May-jax). [written March 13, 2017]
Born from the desire to find a creative community of artists, performers, writers, and cinema-goers
The seeds were planted in college, where Josh Stover (of New Orleans) and Chris Givens (of Monroe, LA) were the kind of movie-crazed film students who would watch whatever they could get their hands on, always plunging further back in time, farther across the globe, and into the deepest depths of genre. Having been to L.A. and NYC, Paris and Prague, they were keenly aware of how underserved they were as filmgoers. There were few theaters taking any chances on much of anything in the city. So rather than move, they did something about it.
Over the course of six years, maintaining their constant film-watching habit all the while, they accumulated the tools (projector and sound system) and then finally the space to fill for themselves the gap in repertory and alternative film programming they’d always felt in New Orleans.
In Winter of 2014, the inhabitants and originators of Majaks began a program of weekly screenings in their open floor planned shotgun in Lower Garden District. They began formalizing monthly schedules, inviting friends into the space, and leaving cryptic messages across the city, signals to draw other real-deal film-heads to their cine-sanctuary. This spawned the first iteration of Majaks, a cine-club of a dozen or so members, drinking wide and deep, particularly buzzed on the French, Japanese and American New Waves.
In the months and years to follow this project of engaged cinema and investigation would produce an assemblage of people from diverse backgrounds and interests resulting in an ongoing effort to produce original performances in the fields of theater, music, and dance as well as the creation of immersive installations and collaborative works that combine all of these things.
To date, Majaks has screened over 200 films, produced 6 theatrical pieces, 4 large-scale installations, and hosted innumerable solo and group musical acts and performance artists, in addition to providing rehearsal and work space for many more artists.
MISSION
We actively promote a culture of engaged cinema in New Orleans by facilitating discussions of contemporary, historically-important, culturally relevant, and unjustly forgotten and maligned films from all eras, genres, and regions.
We believe film has almost religious value. They show us how to be, how not to be. They encourage compassion and understanding. They reflect a century-long history, for the countries fortunate enough to have engendered a film culture, giving us a crucial wide view of how these societies have viewed themselves and their place in the world and how those views have evolved over a considerable amount of time.
We create supplementary reading for enhanced engagement, which has evolved to members facilitating discussion for films of their chosen series or special screening, amounting to over 200 held so far.
We provide space for artists of all stripes to hone their craft and to put on shows with minimal limitations. Visual artists, musicians, painters, playwrights, and dancers have all been brought together under our roof to practice what they’re best at and stretch beyond their comfort zones and try something different.
SCREENING SERIES and PRINTED MATERIALS
Majaks’ outreach methods have always been in the context of framing the experience of cinema as an on-going dialogue and chance for further exploration among the multiplicity of perspectives we encounter daily. Our promo materials emphasized a serious commitment to the art of film by including personal writings of encounters with the work which are meant to intrigue audiences and introduce films with brief but specific points of interest that motivated our choices in programming. It’s our hope that the first encounter with our cinema project through the marketing opens our belief in the potentially enriching experience of a communal film experience rooted in active engagement with the content.
Click any of the sample programs below to download or view the PDFs.
Brief Chronology of Selected Werks at Majaks:
2015 Boxer. (immersive art installation and concert, artist)
Constructed an immersive site specific cave-like environment using rope, zip-ties and found cardboard. Open for two nights, the show included the premiering of original musical pieces by an orchestral ensemble and band as well as live video projection. Visitors were encouraged to leave behind messages on the walls of the cave.
2015 Waiting for the Sun. (Short play, 19 minutes. designer, producer)
Produced and designed the set and costumes for this two-act play inspired by the work of William Blake and Nicolaus Copernicus, about a small community on another planet navigating a dream-like reality where the sun rises only once every 100 years. The play's premier performances took place at St. Mary Majaks in New Orleans, LA on November 6 & 7, 2015. Written by Blake Bertuccelli.
2015 Leaves. (art installation, performance piece)
A collaborative project developed with visual artist Dan Miller, dance choreographer Pilar Poeschl and music composer Jeff Pagano.
2016 Splash sponge dark and hidden away. (Short play, 15 minutes. actor, director)
Directed and acted in this absurd existential piece wherein three bodies awake in bathtubs on a stage. They must decipher their surroundings and acclimatize to their senses to discover their place and purpose. Performed at Mary Majak’s April 1-3, 8-10 & The Fortress of Lushington April 15th & 16th 2016!
From The Gambit Magazine. April 25, 2016:
“In Splash Sponge Dark and Hidden Away at Fortress of Lushington, three bodies lie in white bathtubs. Two are naked and submerged in water, while the other is dressed in a business suit and dry. The three slowly come into the world and into awareness. It is not clear if the three characters (Justin Rolling, Timothy Adams, Christopher Givens) have just been born or transported from another dimension. They also try to figure out where they are and how they can function, attempting to define themselves while splashing water at each other. Adams wrote the experimental piece and gave a solid performance. Dialogue recalls modernist poets, such as Gertrude Stein, and the wordplay made Sponge strange but evocative.”
2017 Thieves Playing Pool. (Play, 72 minutes. designer, director, producer)
The premiere of Tim Adam’s full length play
Synopsis: Three thieves will lay their hands on a map, will put their palms on the felt of a pool table, will wrap their fingers around a glass of whisky. Remember the sensation: you're just about to fall asleep and everything is becoming clearer and clearer, and soon you've segued into a dream so crystal clear you can peer right through it to the other side of sleep, where you wake again. Later, deja vu: she wonders if these moments have already taken place? Thieves’ plays in the absurd logic of night within an uncanny ‘barroom’ as a bank robbery is thoughtfully planned. Language and LOOT are the unattainable objects of desire the thieves won’t sleep until they possess.
2015 - 2018 Producer of new works at Majak’s on St. Mary:
Eraserhead Live (orchestral performance of original compositions to David Lynch’s cult film). Five Times (a one-act showcase).
Leaves (art installation, dance performance, concert).
Strict/Split (art installation, performance piece).
Dreamers (a one-act showcase).
April ’17 (a one-act showcase).
About ST MARY MAJAK’S:
The artistic community which passes in and out of MJKS was born from the desire for a new creative assemblage of artists, performers, writers, and cine-philes from diverse backgrounds interested in producing original performances in the fields of theater, music, and dance as well as immersive installations and collaborative works that combine them all. To date, Majaks has produced six theatrical pieces, four large-scale installations, and innumerable solo and group musical acts and performance artists, in addition to providing rehearsal and work space for many more artists.!
We strive to promote a culture of engaged cinema in New Orleans by facilitating discussions of contemporary, historically-important, culturally relevant, and unjustly forgotten and maligned films from all eras, genres, and regions. We create supplementary reading for enhanced engagement, which has evolved to members facilitating discussion for films of their chosen series or special screening, amounting to over 200 held so far in the LGD space. Visual artists, musicians, painters, playwrights, and dancers have all been brought together under our roof to practice what they’re best at and stretch beyond their comfort zones and try something different.
