“Immense Joy” is a new work conceived, created and performed by Anna Kohler, also performed by exceptional artists Natalia de Campos, John Hagan and Fabio Tavares. It is inspired by the work of Brazilian writer and icon Clarice Lispector, a woman whose deep understanding of Human nature and way-ahead-of-our-times writing style have been in Anna’s heart and mind for many years. But Covid brought the development of this piece to a grinding halt. This work was supposed to open at The Collapsible Hole theater in January of 2020, but was canceled due to the pandemic and its dire consequences . We persisted and were able to perform a work-in-progress version in September of 2021 at MIT’s Theater building, for students and faculty only. You can see an excerpt of that performance below! Finally, we were so lucky to be invited to bring this piece to The Tank Theater in NYC in January of 2022 for 2 weeks–– but WE NEED YOUR HELP! There are not enough funds left because of the COVID delay to pay the already small fees to the incredible team of performers and technical team that has been working diligently this entire time to keep the project alive. That’s why we ask for your support today, and we will be very grateful for every and any contribution you can make!

The Immense Joy team.

 

About the Piece:

Hi, this is Anna. The work of Clarise Lispector, her honesty and her passion as a person and writer have made me wish to create a piece based on her and her writing for many years already. These past years of difficulty, and sometimes even despair with the world around us made this desire even stronger – just like she questions herself via her characters, I often found myself questioning where and who I am in this world, as a person, as a white woman, as an artist – and this quest somehow found its expression in Clarise’s stories, and especially in her very last one, about a poor typist living and dying in Rio de Janeiro called “The Hour of the Star” .

Her writing style is so masterful, it was hard to attempt to use her words in a piece of theater. Btu the strength of her imagery and her ability to very profoundly look into the hearts of people, particularly victims of life, allowed for so much color to “paint” with in this show, I am very proud of what we have achieved so far, and can’t wait to bring it to New York City this coming winter. I do need to ask for your support at this time – funding has never been harder to obtain than now – and am looking forward to hopefully seeing you at the theater

 

Immense Joy/ H.o.t.S. will run at The Tank Theater 312 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018, Form January 27 through February 6th

 

Enjoy this trailer of our work in progress!