Emerging Los Angeles Company Premiering Multi-Disciplinary Arts Festival

By Living Out Loud Staff on December 6, 2013

The Imaginese Arts Festival starts on Saturday, December 7, 2013 at The Attic Theater. (Courtesy of Imaginese Arts Festival)

Imaginese Productions, LA’s exciting new arts cooperative–cultivating new and original work– is presenting the Imaginese Arts Festival, a series of theatrical performances, children’s shows, feature and short length films, and visual art productions, premiering Saturday, December 7th for a limited run through December 21st. Keeping with the company’s mission to break down barriers between artistic disciplines and produce works from several different mediums, this festival offers something for everyone, including Clown work from acclaimed Four Clowns Jr., indie film premieres, original plays, photography exhibitions, along with innovative dance, poetry, and animation.

Imaginese, which prides itself as a cooperative, makes it a point to offer every collaborator a voice, “This is for you, this is for me, this is for us; its a reason, an outlet, a platform to stop waiting for permission and create what we want to see.” Typically working in an ongoing workshop setting, Imaginese offers a space for artists to cultivate their voice while creating unique works out of stories that are often left untold. Premiering at The Attic Theatre at 5420 W. Washington Blvd, Imaginese Arts Festival brings these fresh voices to the public eye.

“Art punctures through to the soul, that’s why its such a powerful means for social transformation. We are telling stories that reveal our connection to each other and the world. ‘Cracking Zeus’ uses Greek mythology and the 1980’s crack epidemic to strike a cord for social change. Four Clown Jr’s ‘Somewhere Like Earth’ teaches kids about the importance of sustainability for the environment… but they are laughing as they learn. That’s the point, to tell stories that are not just informative and entertaining, but inspire empathy, make people care, and incite action. We attach a charity of relating theme to every production we do; so the audience gets a self-altering idea from our work, and then goes into lobby where they can find an organization who are already doing something about it. It’s no longer just an idea,” said Jameelah Nuriddin, Executive Producer of the Imaginese Arts Festival; Co-Artistic Director of Imaginese Productions.

The Imaginese Arts festival includes some of them most exciting up and coming artist in Los Angeles. Four Clowns has been widely recognized as a comic force to be reckoned with by everyone from the Hollywood Fringe and Los Angeles Stage Alliance to Bitter Lemons and Flavorpill. The Four Clowns team reads like a faculty list from the acclaimed Clown School of Los Angeles. Cracking Zeus holds a lineup of faces to watch.

Writer/director Christopher Hampton has worked with top L.A. theater companies including: The Theater at Boston Court, Critical Mass Performance Group, LA Performance Practice, Early Morning Opera and The Independent Shakespeare Company — all in the three years since graduating from Calarts. Amari Cheatom, star of new cult sensation “Newlyweds” stars with a cast of Calarts actors in a highly original mindbender of a play.

The Imaginese Scene Night is a bevy of new material, an amalgam of the arts with over seven different mediums, all in the format of swift snippets– the order chosen randomly by audience participation. A variable roulette of the arts featuring talented Imaginese artists who collectively hold an echelon of awards: Ovation, Emmy, and NAACP Theatre Awards.

The Imaginese Film Night honors the collective’s efforts behind-the-camera as a world premiere of the company’s eight minute short Belief is screened. Also showing: the indie feature Lowlands, produced in Association with Imaginese Productions. Lowlands follows a narrative through the nebulous streets of Los Angeles, weaving eight stories together in search of that ever-elusive ‘center’ of Los Angeles. Each short is in the style of dèrive, a French situationist practice literally meaning ‘drift’ — to take an unplanned and unexplained exploration through one’s own city, using its character as a guide. Produced and directed by LA natives Russell Sadeghpour and Parker Laramie, this film succeeds in capturing the intangible essence of LA city life.

Mae Koo’s Photography Exhibit has been described as haunting, ethereal, and radical. Koo’s innovative technique evokes an 16th century Italian Renaissance style, kindred to paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci; she uses controlled lighting to create photo images that defy reality. Koo is a graduate of the Pasadena Art Center, and this is the first major exhibition of her work.

All activities will be held at the Attic Theatre at 5420 W. Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles,

Tickets for Imaginese Arts Festival are available on http://imaginesefestival.bpt.me

The average cost of attending an event is $10, but an all-festival pass is available for only $42. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Young Storyteller’s Foundation, which develops literacy through the art of storytelling.