Concert/Performance Schedule Updated

Dear all:

I have recently updated my concert schedule and am pleased to have added upcoming performances of Rajni Shah's Dinner With America, which is currently in previews throughout the United Kingdom.

I first met Ms. Shah in August 2007 through Jean-Marie Mauclet after the Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting and was both humbled and pleased to have been asked to do an interview for this production.

"Dinner with America is the second in a trilogy of performances addressing the complexities of cultural identity in the 21st century. Where the first piece in the trilogy, Mr Quiver, explored and problematised Indian and English stereotypes, this piece pushes our thinking about what ‘America’ means to us. As the performance space shifts and transforms, it gently uncovers sub-themes of consumerism, rights, ownership, voices, hopes, harvest and division in a visually compelling and unusual piece of work."

“I’m fascinated by the notion that in this day and age everyone carries a small piece of ‘America’ inside them, a tiny concept or visual reference, often involuntary. And I’m at once repulsed and delighted at just how easily I feel connected with those ideas, which are often linked to capitalist ideals, of freedom, saturation, desire, individuality. So this is a piece about the ideas and images that we call ‘American’ and, for me, about a complicated personal attachment to both the land and ideas of the United States.” – Rajni Shah

Soundtrack features: interviews with Alice Lovelace, Bailey Barash, Ben Bryson, Bradley Kimball, Carrie Elzey, Chip Epsten, Deshantell Singleton, Eleanor Brownfield, Grady Harris, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Imani Davis, James Gough, Jan Smith, Jean-Marie Mauclet, Jeff Mather, Jerry Cullum, Katy Malone, Lily Trapkin, Linda Norton, Lucille Schmidt, Madison Trapkin, Nicholas B. Schmidt, Philip Trapkin, Priscilla Smith, Ruth Laxson, Samuel Thompson, Stevens and Ronnog Seaberg, Tia Davis, Tim Habeger, Toby Schmidt and Zion Davis. A specially commissioned work by The Mountain Goats.

For more information on Rajni Shah, please visit www.rajnishah.com.