DIRECTOR
PLAYWRIGHT
AGAINST THE GRAIN:
THE LIFE & TIMES OF LEVI FISHER AMES
1 W, 2 M & 4-6 dancers
By Edward Morgan & John Kishline
Conceived by Edward Morgan
Levi Fisher Ames was a self-taught woodcarver, a Civil War vet who carved a menagerie of real and mythical animals and took his show on the road. This interdisciplinary piece imagines Levi on his final day, his memories, family, showmanship and his fantastical relationship with the creatures he created. Comic and tragic, poetic and bizarre, AGAINST THE GRAIN explores an artist’s world, a family, mortality and old-time popular entertainment.
PRODUCTIONS
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Danceworks & Theatre MXT, Milwaukee, WI (2018)
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J.M. Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (2018)
SEE MORE PHOTOS ON THE DIRECTING PAGE HERE
REVIEWS
“Against the Grain is a Dream-Like Peek into the Mind of an Artist. Dance, theatre and film meet in … a play in which memories, fantasies and reality are intertwined. ….John Kishline is brilliant as a dying, delirious Levi Fisher Ames. …The dances are unique and striking…The script truly shines.”
- Shepherd Express
“The inspiration may be the life and home-carved menagerie of a largely unknown Wisconsin 19th century woodcarver …but Edward Morgan and John Kishline looked deeper. . . . (It is) illuminated by Kym McDaniel’s rear screen projections in an almost mystical focus-change filtering of words, historic images and modern dance moments. . . . Wherever we look intrigues us. Kishline’s intensity becomes a valuable anchoring presence as Ames confronts the demons of living and dying. Choreographer Kuepper, also Danceworks’ artistic director, has concocted a sinewy individualized world of movement and interrupted arabesques, creating group movement but distinctive personalities, with a little clog dancing thrown in.”
- Urban Milwaukee