New York Film Academy Directing Instructor, Paul Warner is directing a new contemporary multi-media dance theatre opera with a group of iconographic international performers at The Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City. WOMEN: THE WAR WITHIN will be a Princess Grace Foundation-USA Works-in-Progress residency that will culminate in work-in-progress showings on: June 26th at 2pm, June 27th at 6:30pm and June 28th at 3pm.
Warner has directed more than fifty stage productions and numerous films, including the award-winning short In the Name of the Father, as well as the feature, Fall Time (Lionsgate/Artisan) starring Mickey Rourke, Stephen Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, David Arquette, and Jason London, which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival (and subsequently, Outfest) where it was nominated for The Grand Jury Prize.
His newest project, Women: The War Within poses these questions: How does a woman in love wield her power? How does a woman in power balance her love for another with her responsibilities to her people? Can female rulers alter history’s cycle of testosterone-driven destruction? Women: The War Within will dramatize the parallel stories of four of history’s most influential women: two from the distant past, who seduced and murdered their way to absolute power, and two contemporary women who have chosen to lead on a non-violent path to political revolution. These female icons are: Wu Zetian, the first Empress of China, Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning opposition leader of Myanmar, and Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State of the United States. Women’s journey explores an evolution and rise of female consciousness in the pursuit of power, starting with the use of sex as a strategic weapon in campaigns of violence, and ends with the arrival of a non-sexual, non-violent wielding of might. The climax erupts in a display of awakenings through song, dance, text, and swirling projections that propel all four women to the precipice of spiritual transcendence.
Colloborating with Warner are a team of talented professionals, including: Wendy Whelan (New York City Ballet, who is considered the premiere ballerina in The United States), Stephen Petronio, the choreographer, Matthew Maguire, the obie winning librettist, and the composer, Du Yun, who is one of the most famous young new Chinese composers. Not only that, New York Film Academy graduate and current Producing Instructor, Dorottya Mathe, is on board as producer.
Developmental Residency begins May 13th-15th, followed by June 3rd-28th, 2013. Presentations will be held on June 26th, 27th, and 28th, 2013.
For more information visit: http://www.bacnyc.org/residencies/resident/paul-warner.