Written, Choreographed, and Performed by
Jenna Riegel

Sound and Music Design by
Jenna Riegel including compositions by Ace of Base, Nikolai Foregger, Vladimir Kasyanov, Velimir Khlebnikov, Jenna Riegel, and Varvara Stepanova

Original scenic and costume designs, textiles, poetry, and artwork by
Varvara Stepanova

Original photography by
Alexander Rodchenko 

Set Design/Reconstruction by
Gary Orlinsky

Costume Design by
Jenna Riegel

Costume Construction by
Emily Hoem

Lighting Designer
Kate Karaskaiewicz

Stage Manager
Claire Michels

Description
Varvara is a response to Alexander Rodchenko’s photograph “Performing Furniture” (1922) which features his artistic collaborator and life partner, Varvara Stepanova, and to Stepanova's life and work as well. One of the prominent Russian Constructivist artists, Stepanova's work ranged from textiles and visual poetry to costume and set designs. Konstantin Rudnitsky, a Soviet theater critic of their time, wrote, “The human body was perceived as a machine: man had to learn to control that machine. It was the theater’s function to demonstrate the fine tuning of the human ‘mechanisms.’” Varvara draws on Stepanova's artwork as inspiration for movement making and responds to this Constructivist view of theater's function by exploring the body’s reaction to moving it and considering it as a mechanization versus perceiving and allowing it to be its own unruly, chaotic mess of expression.