marzipanik presents

the portrait

Give us the means or we will take it. Go ahead. Dare us. Deny us. Suppress us. Blame us. Lock us an umbral orbit. The idea of “sun” burns so much hotter.

We choose dare because there is no truth.

COME PLAY.

The Portrait is a new story told through text, movement, song, and design. We are calling for artists to start collaborative development this fall. Our world is a beautiful, strange, difficult place. Let’s be kind to ourselves, each other and make great art.

actors/dancers/singers

We are currently looking for performers to build The Portrait, a story told through words, movement, music. Characters will be built around your strengths and interests. Especially seeking a performer of color (race & gender-inclusive) for a lead role.

All performers will be paid $30/hour. We will be mounting the piece in stages.

  • Stage 1. Winter 2023 with a showing in February 2024

    • Development of a few segments to show to funders. Up to 30 hours for three lead performers and up to 12 hours for full cast.

  • Stage 2. Spring 2024 with a showing in fall 2024

    • Main development phase. About 100 hours for all performers.

  • Stage 3. Rehearsals. Pulling all elements together in fall 2024.

  • Stage 4. Public performances happening in winter 2024/25.

We don’t need a time commitment right now. You will be paid for the time you work. Rehearsals and showings will be based on the ensemble’s availability.

We’re going to create something cool, delightfully fun, likely strange, definitely memorable.

More about us and the story below. If you have any questions, shoot us an email.

musicians/designers/visual artists/digital creators

marzipanik is building a network of artists to manufacture our strange new worlds and bust some shit up.

Our work is known for surprising design, intense visuals and soundscapes. Design is its own character and takes its own space to tell the story in ways words can’t.

  • Set Design & Construction. We realize a production’s physical world that sets, subverts, and explodes the story.

  • Costumes. Extremely stylized. Surprisingly crafted. Sublimely absurd.

  • Music & Soundscape. The carrier wave of the story. Sometimes fully-formed compositions with live performance, other times a ragged crash of drones and on-stage percussion. Full-bandwidth.

  • Masks, Puppets and Props. Allowing space for objects to do the storytelling. Literally with puppets and masks or quietly with unique objects or cleverly-built contraptions.

  • Online Worlds. Performances are temporal. Over time, most people will experience a live play through it’s online bones. We create online art inspired by and expanding on the themes and fever dreams of the story.

All artists are always paid.

More about us and the story below. If you have any questions, shoot us an email.

The portrait shall compel visions of majestic, uncompromised beauty.

The story of The Portrait is the seething undercurrents and raging overtones of power, social control and revolution. Who takes power? Who gives it? A well-poised and hyper-quaffed Lady is having her portrait painted by the Artist. The Artist exists solely at her allowance, like her retinue of Servants scurrying around. But who will history remember and how? What triggers the masses?

We cast no shadow because we are the sun.

marzipanik was founded in 2013 in Oakland, CA by former Sandbox Theatre (MN) founding artistic director Ryan Hill to produce new performance art. This work includes live performances (Woodland Creature Series, word/move Oakland, The Siege), long-form project development (This Time Only, Once Again), and digital storytelling.

From 2004 to 2013 Ryan led Sandbox’s creative process in developing dozens of original ensemble-created work and training programs. Before then, he worked in New York, including a period with famed director Robert Wilson. Before New York, he spent a year on a Fulbright Scholarship working on experimental theatre in Berlin, Germany.

Mid-pandemic, Ryan left California and came back to the Twin Cities. He - and whatever marzipanik becomes - is plotting how to generate stories and performances that are socially additive, internally inspiring, and personally rewarding for creators, performers, and audiences.

We are here to create and play and build community.