DEEP SLEEP(1986), WHITE WATER(1986), BLACK MARIA(1987)

DEEP SLEEP,WHITE WATER AND BLACK MARIA FORM A MEDIA TRILOGY EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF FILM AND TELEVISION.

DEEP SLEEP WAS WRITTEN AND EDITED FOR FIVE LIVE ACTORS,FIVE SCREEN ACTORS AND TWO SYNCED FILMS RUNNING SIMULTANEOUSLY.

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DEEP SLEEP- 1986

Text, direction, design and film by John Jesurun

La Mama, New York

Cast: Steve Buscemi, Valerie Charles, Larry Tighe, Michael Tighe, Black-Eyed Susan, John Hagan, Robyn Hatcher, Anne Labois

Production Stage Manager: Brad W. Philips

Light designer:Jeffrey nash

Technical Director: Jim Coleman

Puppet: Jane Stein

Film Sights: Richard Connors/Curt Rosen

Sound: Jim Coleman/Carol Anne Ruthberg

Edit: John Jesurun, Francis Zuccarello

Post Production Sound Mix: Andy Lasky

Internationales Somertheater Festival, Hamburg, West Germany 1989

Mickery Theater, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1989

Eurokaz International Theater Festival, Zagreb, Yugoslavia 1989

NEW YORK TIMES

THEATER: 'DEEP SLEEP' BY JESURUN AT LA MAMA

By MEL GUSSOW

Published: February 7, 1986, Friday

In Woody Allen's ''Purple Rose of Cairo,'' the leading man in a movie steps off the screen and into life and, conversely, the leading lady in life is magnetically attracted to the glamorous world on screen. John Jesurun's new play, ''Deep Sleep'' (at La Mama Annex), takes an alternative look at the crosscurrents of truth and cinematic illusion. His devious - and exceedingly clever - play considers the nature of the reel thing. Mr. Jesurun, who is an experimental film maker as well as playwright, wonders if people are not the auteurs of their own imaginary movie of life, and if, on the other hand, movie characters cannot achieve a greater reality in fiction. As a play, ''Deep Sleep'' is at least half on film, but such is the artfulness of the exercise that the two forms merge in mid-screen. Characters, live and on film, answer one another, interrupt action and, in several cases, change places, as the cinematic figures try to convince their rivals on stage that ''up is better than down.''For the purposes of Mr. Jesurun's movie-play, the tennis court size Annex stage has been ''twinned.'' At either end of the theater is a movie screen. The audience sits on the sidelines as at a sporting event and watches both screens as well as live actors stationed at separate tables on the broad, ground-level stage.There is much audience head-swiveling as it tracks the concurrent images. In time, one picks up the jump-cut rhythm. We can sense when one cinematic figure will respond to another on the opposite screen, but it is usually something of a surprise when a live character issues his own pre-emptory challenge. To a great extent, the people on screen assume authority; the other actors become smaller than life. Theatergoers act as film editors, splicing images they catch on the wing.

The play begins with badinage on film, a dialogue that is more influenced by vaudeville than by Pirandello. The play's protagonist, a man named Whitey, tries to determine -and keeps losing - his identity. He confuses himself with a young boy named Sparky, who is on stage looking up. Before reaching a point of satiation with the amusing who's-on-first style comedy routine, Mr. Jesurun spins his play into its own split-screen orbit. The author is not one to be tied down to a sequential plot, but ''Deep Sleep'' is less elliptical than his previous ''Red House.'' Though the show is shorter than ''Purple Rose of Cairo,'' it runs on a bit too long and after a menacing moment on film, the ending on stage is pallid. However, this does not substantially detract from the ingenuity of the evening. On a technical level, the production is to be admired, a credit to Mr. Jesurun's direction and to his lighting, sound and film crew, which manage to synchronize all disparate elements. For the live actors, the play is a mine field as they play to, and with, those images on screen. If cues are missed, it is not evident to the audience. Steve Buscemi and Michael Tighe play leading roles with an appropriate feeling of disorientation, while, locked into celluloid, Black-Eyed Susan and John Hagan are prominent among those who eye the events on stage with baleful condescension.

In Mr. Jesurun's case, form is content, but there is sense within the apparent nonsense, and there is always room for commentary. Playfully he suggests that while life will end, films will go on forever - or at least as long as there is someone to operate the projector. Truth and the Movies DEEP SLEEP, written, staged and directed by John Jesurun; production manager and stage manager, Brad W. Philips; light designer, Jeffrey Nash; technical director, Jim Coleman; light board operator, Chris Davis. Presented by La Mama E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street WITH: Steve Buscemi, Valerie Charles, Larry Tighe, Michael Tighe and Sanghi Wagner. On Film: Black-Eyed Susan, John Hagan, Robyn Hatcher and Annie Labois

White Water-1986

4 channels of video and performance -

Sound design by Christian Marclay

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston 1986

The Kitchen, New York, NY 1986

Cast: Larry Tighe, Valerie Charles, Michael Tighe

Mickery Theatre, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1986

German version

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

Theater Am Turm, Frankfurt, West Germany 1989

Theatre Film Video Institute, Frankfurt, West Germany 1989

Spanish version

Mexico City, Mexico 2001

THEATER: JOHN JESURUN'S 'WHITE WATER ' AT the KITCHEN

By MEL GUSSOW

Published: October 28, 1986

TALKING heads talk back in John Jesurun's ''White Water,'' the latest in a cycle of high-technology theatrical expeditions conducted by the author-director. Drawing upon his own experience in television production, Mr. Jesurun freely mixes electronic action and live performance - last season with ''Deep Sleep,'' a movie on stage, currently with ''White Water,'' a videodrome drama at the Kitchen.

From a stylistic perspective, Mr. Jesurun's art is on the cutting edge of technology, but this time the narrative elements of his play act at cross-purposes. At half its length, ''White Water'' might be twice as interesting. There are moments when one wishes it were possible to change channels.

Approached strictly as an exercise in the theatrical application of video techniques, the show is explorative and perhaps even trend-setting. The theater has been turned into an electronic environment, the equivalent of a television studio. On a severely raked stage, three actors are arranged as if they are about to face the camera. Over their heads is a battery of video monitors tuned to closed-circuit channels.

Images flash on those monitors -pastoral scenes as well as faces of the actors. The live performers have dialogues with themselves on screen and with other actors. Each plays a number of roles, which, for one thing, considerably expands the cast of characters. The play appears to be larger than it actually is.

''White Water'' begins as an on-the-spot television news event, with an investigative reporter (Valerie Charles) interviewing a young man (Larry Tighe) who has apparently had a psychic experience. He says he has seen an unearthly creature, a woman without female features. After the initial interview, he is cross-examined by a team of lawyers, doctors and clergymen (played by Michael Tighe as well as by the other two actors) expressing skepticism. One refers to the boy's vision as an ''unaffiliated apparition.''

Playfully, the author weighs truth against illusion, hallucination against revelation, as his characters search for ''the Alpha, the Omega and the Betamax'' of the case. Mr. Jesurun keeps his timely sense of humor but, as a playwright, he courts familiarity and the dialogue gathers moss. Steadily, we keep our eyes on the television sideshow, as Mr. Jesurun saves one ingenious twist for his conclusion: The talking heads assume control of the drama and the live actors fade to black.

In performance, ''White Water'' has a split-second synchronicity for which one must credit the actors, the sound design of Christian Marclay and the lighting of Jeffrey Nash as well as the electronic orchestration of Mr. Jesurun himself. BLACK LIGHT WHITE WATER, written and directed by John Jesurun; lighting by Jeffrey Nash; sound design by Christian Marclay; production and stage manager, Brad W. Phillips; technical director, Jim Coleman; stage construction, Jun Maeda. At the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street.