In Association with the Transversal Theater, on Friday, October 29, 2021 at 7:00pm, and Saturday, October 30 and Sunday, 31, 2021 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm Laurie Sefton Creates will present a shared evening about the life and work of Madame Marie Skłodowska Curie. The program will feature two vastly different works: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, choreographed and directed by Laurie Sefton, along with Curie, Curie, written and directed by UCI faculty member, Bryan Reynolds with choreography by Kayla Emerson. The work is also sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles The performances will take place in the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL) located on the campus of the University of California, Irvine. Admission is FREE.

Sefton is the Founder, Artistic Director, and Choreographer of Laurie Sefton Creates. Her most recent work, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, includes a live original music score by Bryan Curt Kostors and visual projections by Shaoyu Su. Kostors is a composer of diverse and evocative American music for orchestra, band, choir, chamber groups, soloists, film, multimedia, and dance; and Su is a new media artist, cinematographer and curator based in Los Angeles.

"Women, Fire and Dangerous Things" choreography by Laurie Sefton - Dancer: Leah Hamel - Photo by Laurie Sefton

“Women, Fire and Dangerous Things” choreography by Laurie Sefton – Dancer: Leah Hamel – Photo by Laurie Sefton

According to the press release Sefton “has created a multi-layered work about Madame Curie as a working female. It examines the process of her work, the campaign led by U.S. women to fund her further research on radium, how she maintained her professional life, female identity, and the elements she is most closely associated with; Radium, Polonium and Curium.”

Curie, Curie amalgamates new intermedial theater technologies with live bodies in a multimedia dance, music, and video performance of the beautifully romantic and fiercely scientific life of two-time Nobel Prize-winner Marie Skłodowska Curie, discoverer of radioactivity and warrior for humankind.

Both Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things and Curie, Curie were created while the artists were in residence at the University of California, Irvine, Claire Trevor Contemporary Arts Center in the xMPL, a state-of-the-art black box theatre that include a projection room, live media performance space and reconfigurable seating which allows viewing from several vantage points.

"Women, Fire and Dangerous Things" choreography by Laurie Sefton - Featured L-R: Leah Hartley, Ellen Akashi, Megan Pulfer - Photo by Jesus Lopez

“Women, Fire and Dangerous Things” choreography by Laurie Sefton – Featured L-R: Leah Hartley, Ellen Akashi, Megan Pulfer – Photo by Jesus Lopez

Sefton is said to see a variety of social issues through an emotional lens which has allowed her to create a repertoire of diverse works. “The music for Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things deals with the idea of decaying sounds from analog instruments, while the visual projections examine the unseen qualities of the elements M. Curie discovered, creating a dynamic world in which we see into imagined reactions that are unseen with the naked eye.” Sefton Creates press release.

The creation of Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things has been supported in part by individual donors, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation.

Performances will take place at the xMPL on October 29, 30 and 31 at 7:00pm and October 30 and 31 at 2:00pm. The University has COVID-19 protocols in place which will be strictly adhered to during all rehearsals and performances.

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WHAT: Laurie Sefton Creates Present: For Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by Laurie Sefton and Curie, Curie by Bryan Reynolds

WHEN: Friday, October 29, 2021 at 7:00pm, and Saturday, October 30 and Sunday, 31, 2021 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.

WHERE: Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL) on the campus of University of California, Irvine, 101 Mesa Arts Building, Irvine, Ca 92617

TICKETS: Admission is Free.

Limited space available. Attendees must wear masks.

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To learn more about Laurie Sefton Creates please visit the website.

To visit the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL) website, click HERE.

To read more about the Transversal Theater, click HERE.


Written and compiled by Jeff Slayton from Laurie Sefton Creates press release October 7, 2021.

Featured image: Megan Pulfer in Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by Laurie Sefton – Photo by Jesús Lopez.