Quick Center for the Arts | Quick Books 2023-24

Welcome to our Bookstore!

DIVE IN! We invite you to take a deep dive into the Quick Center’s productions and exhibitions through the world of books The Quick Center’s 2023-24 season is a wide-reaching exploration of diverse performance, some global and some local, some more intimate and some expansive.

In curating this book list, I have tried to follow an equally inclusive approach in my selection of recommended texts, liberally combining scholarly monographs, edited collections and critical histories alongside a novel, a children’s book, a genre-defying compendium, and even a hybrid culinary history/cookbook. As a new member of The Fairfield Faculty, I am particularly invigorated by the Quick Center’s commitment to transformation— transformation of performance into knowledge, transformation of how we live, see and engage with the world, and transformation committed to building a better, kinder community. As we near the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century we face myriad crises, but I hope that in our time at the Quick we can all find a few hours of respite and enjoyment as well as a renewed, active arts-driven commitment to go into the world, be kind, and do good. Happy reading.

Sean F. Edgecomb, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Theatre

CIRCUS Agathe et Adrien N.Ormes In this dynamic, new, edited collection, editor Franziska Trapp curates three thematic sections around the topics of “aesthetic, practice, and culture.” By providing a muchneeded alternative history of contemporary circus performance, these essays encourage us to read the circus as a microcosm of the larger society. Just as Agathe and Adrien harmoniously combine their bodily limitations and advanced skills to create art, Trapp and others gesture to ways that the circus can help us to imagine a more diverse and equitable world beyond the tent or stage.

360° Circus: Meaning. Practice. Culture

By Franziska Trapp, ed.

(London & New York: Routledge, 2023).

DANCE&LIVE CHOIR Gregory Maqoma Featuring Connecticut Chamber Choir Broken Chord Working from the provocation that states of oppression can elicit ethical responses via cultural expression, the author considers how periods of coloniality, Apartheid, and post-coloniality in South Africa have been rich with cultural activism.

Demonstrating how many artists have pulled from a variety of global sources to create a new South African identity, Saint’s work is a particularly helpful model in unpacking the rich, multilayered tapestry that is Maqoma’s choreographic and political approach to contemporary dance in South African and the diaspora.

Black Cultural Life in South Africa: Reception, Apartheid and Ethics

By Lily Saint (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018)

CHAMBER MUSIC The Howard and Katherine Aibel Memorial Concert Young Concert Artists on Tour Fri, Nov 3 | 8 p.m.

Seize the Beat: The Evolution of American Music

By Brian Q. Torff (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2023)

LIVE MUSIC Ranky Tanky with very special guest, Lisa Fischer Fri, Nov 10 | 8 p.m.

Twitty’s culinary exploration of the American South, provides an alternate history of American identity through the tasteful exploration of cuisine and traditions that have become established as part of our national ethos. With particular attention given to the Gullah Geechee culture of South Carolina’s Low Country, this book helps to provide a more expansive view of Ranky Tanky’s dynamic work in a socio-cultural context.

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South (New York: Amistad, 2017) By Michael W. Twitty

Michael Keegan-Dolan Teaċ Daṁsa MáM Fri, Nov 17 | 8 p.m.

Sat, Nov 18 | 8 p.m.

Fantasy, myths and the melancholy ghosts of Ireland’s ancient past have always been key to the creation and aesthetic ethics of Michael KeeganDolan’s imaginative choreography. I invite people of all ages to immerse themselves in this world of fairies and giants, beautifully brought to life by Leavy’s prose and Field’s captivating illustrations. Moreover, as we engage with Keegan-Dolan’s work at a wellrespected Jesuit institution, I further encourage audience members to consider how that blurring of Pagan and Roman Catholic Christian ideas has been so central to the formation of Irish and IrishAmerican identity formation.

The O’Brien Book of Irish Fairy Tales and Legends

By Una Leavy and Susan Field (Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 2012)

DANCE A.I.M by Kyle Abraham Fri, Jan 26 | 7:30 p.m.

In counterpoint to Michael W. Twitty’s study of African American heritage in The Cooking Gene (also a part of this curated list), the authors of this vital book begin with the query “What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?”

Liberally juxtaposing a cultural feast of essays, poems, tweets, receipts, recipes, photographs, visual arts and more, Drew and Wortham radically project their perspective forward, envisioning an expansive and hopeful Black future that relies on entrancing rhythms and radical kinesis, like Kyle Abraham’s visionary approach to contemporary dance.

Black Futures

By Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham (New York: One World, 2020)

MUSIC Drum Tao Sun, Feb 4 | 4 p.m.

Just as Drum Tao’s performance represents a harmonious merging of ancient and contemporary Japanese culture, Mogi’s study, grounded in neuro-science, reveals how a distinctly Japanese, Zen-driven approach to life encourages balance (or nagomi) over selfimprovement. For thousands of years drums have played a vital role in Japan’s national identity, and Drum Tao’s performance style invites us to pause, be present, and take in the power of the rhythm as a positive force that is simultaneously personal and cosmic.

The Way of Nagomi: The Japanese Philosophy of Finding Balance and Peace in Everything You Do. By: Ken Mogi (New York: The Experiment, 2023)

CHAMBER MUSIC Orin Grossman and Giulia Contaldo An Afternoon in Paris Sciolino’s deeply personal memoir, invites us on a brief sojourn to the City of Lights, capturing a moment in time that celebrates the idiosyncrasies, joys, and distinctly Parisian traditions of her favorite street in the city, the Rue des Martyrs. Steeped in cultural history—this is the very place that French Jesuit brothers first took their vows—the author calls for the importance of inclusive tradition in the face of a rapidly changing, hyper-capitalist world. Also celebrating the importance of pause, Grossman and Contaldo invite us to escape our lives for a few hours immersed in the music of the city of Proust and pain-auchocolate.

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs

By Elaine Sciolino (New York: W.W. Norton, 2016)

Global Theatre

April 9 – This program doesn’t have a title yet as the playwright, Melanie Hoopes is still creating the work, but will be centered around loneliness.

This charming children’s story about a forgotten and then rediscovered book feels especially poignant in an ongoing Covid world that has enforced states of isolation previously unfamiliar to most of us. Hoopes reminds of the importance of collective spaces like the theatre, and this vividly illustrated book expand upon those themes, highlighting the essential importance of empathy, generosity of spirit and the nearly limitless power of community.

The Lonely Book

By Kate Bernheimer (Toronto: Schwartz & Wade, 2012)

CIRCUS FLIP Fabrique Sun&Mon, April 14&15 | 7 p.m.

A seminal study, Cirque Global focuses on the vibrant, worldmaking circus practice that has blossomed in Quebec, Canada over the past thirty years. The success of companies, like the delightful FLIP Fabrique corroborates the province’s importance as a global circus hub, introducing innovative approaches that merge traditional skills and tropes with a vision for social change. This hybrid model, merging European, North American and other non-Western forms, is shaking up the circus as a creative, cultural and entrepreneurial presence across the globe. Leroux and Batson’s volume also contains particularly beautiful photos that help bring these distinct performances life.

Cirque Global: Quebec’s Expanding Circus Boundaries

By Louis Patrick Leroux and Charles R. Batson (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016)