OK Radio

Nature Theater of Oklahoma directors Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska talk to artists, curators and people around the world -- from New York to Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, et. al. These are long form conversations in the spirit of the radio conversations of John Cage and Morton Feldman. Nothing is off limits. (Note: for photos of our guests and more information about the show, please be sure to visit the show website at www.okradio.org)

Daniel Alexander Jones - OK Radio Episode 85 12/23/2013

Daniel Alexander Jones - OK Radio Episode 85 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. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2605758

Natalia Koliada (Belarus Free Theatre) - OK Radio Episode 84 11/24/2013

Natalia Koliada (Belarus Free Theatre) - OK Radio Episode 84 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2565217

Reggie Watts (No. 2) - OK Radio Episode 83 11/03/2013

Reggie Watts (No. 2) - OK Radio Episode 83 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? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2534709

Ontroerend Goed - OK Radio Episode 82 10/18/2013

Ontroerend Goed - OK Radio Episode 82 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2513931

Rik Pinxten - OK Radio Episode 81 10/15/2013

Rik Pinxten - OK Radio Episode 81 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2510020

Mammalian Diving Reflex (Eva Verity, Hazel Venzon) - OK Radio Episode 80 10/15/2013

Mammalian Diving Reflex (Eva Verity, Hazel Venzon) - OK Radio Episode 80 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2509831

Barbara Van Dyck - OK Radio Episode 79 10/14/2013

Barbara Van Dyck - OK Radio Episode 79 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2508216

Andros Zins-Browne - OK Radio Episode 78 10/13/2013

Andros Zins-Browne - OK Radio Episode 78 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2507527

Sarah Vanhee - OK Radio Episode 77 10/12/2013

Sarah Vanhee - OK Radio Episode 77 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2506654

Barbara Raes - OK Radio Episode 76 10/12/2013

Barbara Raes - OK Radio Episode 76 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2506620

Halory Goerger & Antoine Defoort (L’Amicale de Production) - OK Radio Episode 75 10/11/2013

Halory Goerger & Antoine Defoort (L’Amicale de Production) - OK Radio Episode 75 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2505099

Jeffrey M. Jones - OK Radio Episode 74 09/24/2013

Jeffrey M. Jones - OK Radio Episode 74 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2484019

Philip Bither - OK Radio Episode 73 09/09/2013

Philip Bither - OK Radio Episode 73 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? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2464688

Avdal & Shinozaki - OK Radio Episode 72 08/30/2013

Avdal & Shinozaki - OK Radio Episode 72 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? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2453491

Rabih Mroué - OK Radio Episode 71 08/16/2013

Rabih Mroué - OK Radio Episode 71 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? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2437574

Gob Squad - OK Radio Episode 70 08/09/2013

Gob Squad - OK Radio Episode 70 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? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2428629

Jonathan Meese - OK Radio Episode 69 07/21/2013

Jonathan Meese - OK Radio Episode 69 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. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2407137

Reggie Watts - OK Radio Episode 68 06/29/2013

Reggie Watts - OK Radio Episode 68 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. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2378360

Oskar Eustis - OK Radio Episode 67 06/18/2013

Oskar Eustis - OK Radio Episode 67 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? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2364107

Lucy Alibar - OK Radio Episode 66 06/13/2013

Lucy Alibar - OK Radio Episode 66 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.) /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2356768

Lenore Manderson - OK Radio Episode 65 06/08/2013

Lenore Manderson - OK Radio Episode 65 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Lenore Manderson, writer, researcher and medical anthropologist at Monash University in Australia about our mutual fascination with the human body. Join us as we discuss the body in practice and in performance, as signifier of vulnerability, power, visibility, ability, disability – and difference. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2351587

Robyn Archer - OK Radio Episode 64 06/02/2013

Robyn Archer - OK Radio Episode 64 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Australian arts advocate, festival director, and world-renowned singer and performance artist Robyn Archer about building a life for herself in the theater – what about the resistance she’s faced along the way? How do we continually track that resistance and disturbance in our lives and work (and curatorial choices) in order to avoid complacency? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2345152

Erica Meyer - OK Radio Episode 63 05/31/2013

Erica Meyer - OK Radio Episode 63 /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2342262

Lundhal & Seitl - OK Radio Episode 62 05/19/2013

Lundhal & Seitl - OK Radio Episode 62 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with artists Christer Lundhal & Martina Seitl about shared practice and crossed disciplines. How do we open up new possibilities in perception, and create room for ambiguity and playful slippage in roles, in context, and in life. Do we have to go all the way to the moon – or Mars even – just to get a change in perspective? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2328846

Gunilla Heilborn - OK Radio Episode 61 05/17/2013

Gunilla Heilborn - OK Radio Episode 61 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Swedish choreographer and filmmaker Gunilla Heilborn about levels of commitment. Do we always need to push it 200%? What about we just try 80% and call it a day? Join us as we examine our minimalist and maximalist tendencies and trace the influence of these habits and preferences on our work. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2327689

Mattias Andersson - OK Radio Episode 60 05/15/2013

Mattias Andersson - OK Radio Episode 60 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with Swedish playwright and director Mattias Andersson of Backa Teater in Göteborg about local and global art. What does it mean to have a theater and to make work in the city where you grew up, to be in dialogue with a city of intimates? How do we make the personal public – or is it vice versa? /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2324036

Tom Sellar - OK Radio Episode 59 05/13/2013

Tom Sellar - OK Radio Episode 59 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with writer, editor, and theater thinker Tom Sellar about surrender and control – physical, mental, and structural. Join us as we clear the air – talking about artists and critics, and the whole interdependency and strangeness around that relationship. We rely on critics to write about the work, but what do we care about really? Do we want intelligent writing or just positive gush? Do critics appreciate that they are just seeing one performance and it all may be going horribly wrong? All this and even more thoughts about social practice, multi-media, durational performance, art brut, and political theater. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2320390

Aaron Landsman - OK Radio Episode 58 05/03/2013

Aaron Landsman - OK Radio Episode 58 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with theater-maker Aaron Landsman about our mutual time together growing up in NY theater in the 1990s. We examine how and why we are still here – still doing this. Join us as we talk with Aaron, too, about his new work, City Council Meeting, and probe the intersection of faith, life, art and committed “social practice". /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2309299

Richard Foreman (No. 2) - OK Radio Episode 57 04/27/2013

Richard Foreman (No. 2) - OK Radio Episode 57 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks again with New York avant-garde legend Richard Foreman about sardines, and (reluctantly) also about theater. We discuss his new play, Old-Fashioned Prostitutes, which opens next week at The Public Theater, and also his critically-acclaimed film Once Every Day, which was recently screened at the Berlin Film Festival and at Anthology Film Archives in New York. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2302816

David Garland - OK Radio Episode 56 04/23/2013

David Garland - OK Radio Episode 56 Nature Theater of Oklahoma talks with David Garland, composer and creator of the music program Spinning on Air on WNYC in New York City – about host and guest, yin and yang, creative and receptive, intent and effect. David also plays two of his own musical compositions, made with some very unconventional instruments, live for us in the closet. /episode/index/show/oktheater/id/2298294

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