Not a moment too soon: A Merce Cunningham Centennial Event

I met Trevor Carlson in Australia in October 2007, during the Melbourne Festival. I was performing as an actor with the company of Teatre Lliure from Barcelona, and he was presenting a number of events in the same festival with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. My first image of Trevor was of a tall man with a dazzling smile, poised behind Merce Cunningham’s wheelchair. I haven’t separated from him since. 

Thanks to my relationship with Trevor, I was privileged to observe from a cautious distance some of the work that Merce was able to realise during his last years, alongside Trevor, who would also never separate from Merce’s side. Through my somewhat nomadic presence following the Company’s tours and passing quite a bit of time in New York City, I came to know more about Merce’s character, including more personal moments: dinners in his apartment where Trevor cooked for him on an almost daily basis or, on a couple of occasions, going shopping with him at the Whole Foods store. I learned later that the trip to Whole Foods was meant as a type of diversion for Merce between the studio and home, and it also allowed Merce and I to get to know one another in a different environment. Merce would try to communicate with me, but at that time, I did not know enough English to understand what he was saying and regretted missing the opportunity to really talk with him.

Trevor’s role with Merce, beyond being the Executive Director of his Company during the last years of his life, took on an intimate purpose. I confess that at the beginning it wasn’t easy to understand the relationship between the two of them. Trevor’s life was not only subject from morning to night to the rhythms and necessities of the management of the Company, but also to Merce. These two men related to each other, doing things together beyond just work which were small acts of great importance for someone like Merce who lived principally for and through his work. They shared jokes, laughter and confidences and they were there for one another in more difficult times. Little by little, I began to understand that Trevor’s approach centred on finding the best way to overcome different obstacles that Merce confronted with his Company, with his health, and even emotionally, so that Merce could find a way to continue moving forward. It was a kind of unspoken pact in which these friends knew that by making Merce’s work possible, in facilitating this continuity, it would be assured that Merce could go on. Once, Trevor told me how he couldn’t avoid thinking that maybe one day Merce would die just after taking his last bow on stage. I don’t know if perhaps he had a dream about it.
 

After the closure of the Company following Merce’s death, Trevor chose to join me in Barcelona. He was no longer traveling at Merce’s side, I was no longer the nomadic observer. In encounters with friends it became almost inevitable that Trevor would be encouraged to do something with the fabulous stories of his time with Merce. A book didn’t seem to be the right format for Trevor, so I proposed that we would film a series of interviews in which we could collect some of these experiences, and decide what to do with them later.

At every turn the process became more complex, and we have discovered step-by-step a world of particular and personal connections, accompanied by emotions and symbols that we feel inclined to continue exploring. I invited my friend Albert Tola, a dramaturg I have previously collaborated with, to join the project and take part in these investigations. The focus of his work is related to identity, memory and the passage of time, and he has a great deal of experience working with non-actors to gather, put in order, and rewrite their words, providing the means to present them in a theatrical setting.

I had the impression that the material we had in hand was interesting enough to propose to Trevor that we go further with this exploration. It occurred to me that Trevor could be on stage: without doubt, he was the right person to tell his own story. And so we continue, without any interest in making an autobiography but rather in using the poetics of Trevor’s memory to conceive a new landscape, or possibly a tribute.

© Ferran Carvajal, 2019

Trevor Carlson
Performer and Text
Trevor Carlson is regarded as a leader in the field of arts management, and throughout a career of over twenty years he has supported numerous artists, most notably the dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. In the final years of Merce Cunningham’s life and artistic career, he served as Executive Director of the Cunningham Dance Foundation during which time he initiated the creation of the Legacy Plan, a precedent-setting strategic planning initiative to confront, in accordance with the artist’s wishes, the organisation’s transition to a post-founder existence. The Legacy Plan included an $8 million fundraising campaign to support the Company in a two-year farewell world tour, technology-driven preservation initiatives, and career transition packages for all artists and staff. Trevor Carlson graduated from The Juilliard School in New York City with a BFA in Dance. He appears in Tacita Dean’s film Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS (in three movements) to John Cage’s composition 4’33 with Trevor Carlson, New York City, 28 April 2007 (six performances; six films),  2008 (in addition to instigating their subsequent collaboration Craneway Event). Trevor Carlson forged and curated major collaborations between Cunningham and other artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Ernesto Neto, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Richard Hamilton, Olafur Eliasson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Romeo Gigli, and Darren Almond among others. He now serves as a Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust as well as the John Cage Trust. From his home in Barcelona, he co-founded Thorus Arts in 2012 with Ferran Carvajal, which is committed to producing theatre, dance, and film works.

Ferran Carvajal 
Director, Choreographer and Text
Ferran Carvajal is a multidisciplinary artist who works as director, choreographer and performer. Carvajal produced, directed, choreographed and performed in Goldberg, presented at Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona and in Vesalii Icones by Peter Maxwell Davies. Choreography includes the operas Der fligende Holländer Anna Bolena at the Gran Teatre del Liceu; and Simon Boccanegra at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Grand Theatre of Gèneve, and Teatro Real in Madrid; The President at Teatre Nacional de Catalunya; and Tragèdia at Teatre Grec in Barcelona. He has also choreographed and staged Saint Joan of the Stockyards, Cancionero de Palacio, and Julius Caesar, all directed by Àlex Rigola and presented internationally. As a film director Carvajal co-created the series Pindoles Isocràtiques. Carvajal studied acting with Txiki Berraondo and Manuel Lillo, scenic dramaturgy with Rafael Spregerburg and Jorge Sánchez in Buenos Aires and dance/movement at Movement Research in New York, physical theatre with Lloyd Newson and Lyan Styl of DV8 Physical Theatre in London, and contemporary dance with Àngels Margarit, Joan Palau, Jeremy Nelson, and Jennifer Monson, among others. Ferran also works as an actor in film, television, and theatre. TV includes El Enigma Giacomo, El caso de la novia dividida, Infidels, and he was a lead role in El cor de la Ciutat for over seven years, winning his first Especial APEI Catalunya award. Acting on stage includes: The Stranger, Our Class, European House, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Some Explicit Polaroids, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Caligula; and, with the company La Fura dels Baus, Le martyre de Saint Sébastien and La Atlántida. He recently completed a two-year run as Detective Trotter in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at the Apolo Theatre in Barcelona, directed by Victor Conde.
 
Albert Tola 
Dramaturg and Text
Albert Tola is a playwright, writer, teacher and translator; with six authored and published dramatic texts (Ediciones El Astillero and Editions la Diputació de Barcelona) and a collection of dramatic work which includes Granddaughter Olivia (Editorial Verbum) as well as 32 other works, and plans to release a screen version of a recent script. Albert Tola has worked on adaptations and dramas from German and Italian to Spanish and has worked as dramaturg and translator in those languages as well. His work has been presented in theatres nationally in Spain and internationally in Switzerland, Germany, France and Portugal. He has significant experience in dance-theatre and is particularly interested in memory, identity and the passage of time, which are constant themes in his own literary work as well as in Not a moment too soon. 

Miquel Àngel Raió 
Video Artist
Miquel Àngel Raió is a filmmaker, theatrical video artist, theatre director, playwright and screenwriter. He co-founded the company The Aviator for which he has written and directed four works. Raió has collaborated on 13 audio visual projects presented nationally in addition to producing in alternative theatres in Spain and Germany. As a filmmaker, he has directed three documentaries, three short films and four experimental pieces. He specialises in audio-visual works developed for live dance, video-dance and dance-theatre. His in-depth knowledge of dance and documentary-style projects brings an intuitive fusion of the archival images by Merce Cunningham and the aesthetic landscape of Not a moment too soon.

Jaume Manresa 
Composer
Jaume Manresa was a member of the pop band Antonia Font from 1997 until 2013. He trained in acting, as well as dance and movement with Tomeu Verges, María Muñoz, Pep Ramis, Oliver Mariantònia, Philippe Gaulier and Eric de Bont. His work as composer and sound designer includes The Crucible, Medea, From Berlin, and Le Malentendu, all directed by Andrés Lima; The Balcony, directed by Rafel Duran; Hedda Gabler 2015, directed by José Martret; Fit 2015, directed by Mariantònia Oliver; O 2014, directed by Joan Fullana; Subtalk 2011, directed by Catalina Carrasco Gabriela; Stream Project, directed by Margarita Grimalt Lluqui Herrero; La Vida Didicil by Carles Pujol, and Les aventures d’en Tres i Mig, directed by Frederic Roda.

Max Glaenzel 
Set Designer
Creator of more than a hundred theatrical designs, Max Glaenzel studied Art and Design in the Massana School of Barcelona. He began working as a theatre set designer in 1993. His works have been performed regularly in venues such as Sala Beckett, Teatre Lliure and the National Theatre of Catalonia. He has worked with directors including Sergi Belbel, Carlos Alfaro, Alex Rigola Gerardo Vera, Josep Maria Mestres or Carlota Subirós, among others.

Alejandro Andújar 
Costume Designer
Alejandro Andújar has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and also studied Set Design at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Drama, and Research Proficiency at the ETS Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He currently works as a set and costume designer in Spain and internationally with directors including Alfredo Sanzol at the Teatro Abadía, Guillermo Amaya at the Teatro de la Zarzuela Madrid, Jose Luis Gomez at the National Classical Theatre Company, Gerardo Vera at the Teatro de la Abadia, Lluis Pascual at the Teatre Lliure, Juan Carlos Martel for the Grec Festival, Cesc Gay at the Teatre Romea, Juan Mayorga at the Teatro Valdes Aviles, Josep Maria Flotats at the Teatre Lliure, and Helena Pimenta at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. This is his first collaboration with Thorus Arts and with Ferran Carvajal.

María Domènech 
Lighting Designer
A theatrical lighting designer who studied Art History at the University of Barcelona  and at the School of Dramatic Art, l’Institut del Theatre de Barcelona, María Domenèch has designed lighting for the theatre over the past two decades. She has worked with distinguished artists including Carme Portaceli and Alex Rigola. Her work has been presented in a variety of festivals and she conducts masterclasses internationally. She has been Professor at l’Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, l’Institut Europeu de Disseny and l’Escola de Disseny Artidi. She won AECID’s Best Lighting Design in 2004 for Barcelona mapa d’ombres and in 2006 for Festen. In 2009 she received Best Lighting Design from ADE for La Casa de Bernarda Alba. Her designs have appeared in a number of museums and exhibitions including James Joyce’s Dublin for which she received the FAD Design Award in Temporary Spaces.

Casey Curran
Visual Artist
Casey Curran is a visual artist, who has won eight awards for his seven solo exhibitions and 29 distinct collaborations in the form of spatial or artistic interventions for theatre works, performance pieces and exhibitions. At the heart of his collaborative work is an authenticity that not only meets the show’s dramaturgical needs while always valuing the integrity of his own work and its place in these theatrical environments. His participation in Not a moment too soon echoes the Merce Cunningham Dance Company tradition to invite collaborators from the visual art world.