At the center of the Watergate scandal, brought on and exacerbated by an extensive archive of surveillance audio tapes installed to record President Nixon's conversations in the White House, lies an 18 1/2 minute gap.
Using surreal humor 18 1/2 Minutes explores the historical, technological and political circumstances around this mysterious gap and broader questions of time, silence, and erasure at the center of one the most famous political scandals in modern U.S. political history.
18 1/2 Minutes from Jeremiah Barber on Vimeo.
Sean Donovan is a New York based actor, dancer, and writer. He is a performer with both critically acclaimed Witness Relocation Theatre Company (with whom he has been making work both nationally and abroad for the past ten years), and the Bessie Award winning Jane Comfort and Company. He also collaborates regularly with choreographer Jennie Marytai Liu. In New York, he has performed as an actor and dancer at such places as The Kitchen, PS122, HERE Arts Center, Joyce SoHo, The Duke, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Ontological Hysteric Theatre, The Ohio Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, La MaMa ETC, The Chocolate Factory, Theatre for the New City, Dixon Place, Galapagos Arts Space, and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Recent credits include House/Divided at BAM (NY) along with a national tour, Heaven on Earth at LaMaMa ETC. (NY) and Les Subsistance, Lyon France; Soul Leaves Her Body at HERE Arts Center (NY); Faith Healing at Joyce SoHo (NY) and a national tour; Vicious Dogs on Premises at the Ontological Hysteric Theatre (NY) and a European tour to France, Poland, and Russia; and Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale at the Castleton Opera Festival (VA) conducted by the world-renowned Lorin Maazel. Last year Donovan & Calderón premiered the climate chronicles at Stanford University followed by a NY premiere at the Incubator Arts Project. Other original works include Se Vende, also in collaboration with Sebastián Calderón Bentin at the FAE Festival in Panama; Not Unclear at New York University, and Sublimate at Galapagos Art Space. He received his BFA in Theatre from New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing. He has trained and performed internationally in France, Holland, Romania, Poland, Russia, Panama, Canada, Thailand and Japan working with the highly acclaimed Ildi! Eldi of France and Sankai Juku Butoh company of Japan.
Sebastián Calderón Bentin is an actor, director, and scholar. He has performed with Witness Relocation, Every house has a door, Anna Deavere Smith, John Jesurun, Ann Carlson, Faye Driscoll, Gisela Cardenas, Tim Etchells and Matthew Goulish's Institute of Failure, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, among others. Collaborations with Every house has a door include 9 Beginnings (2012), TESSERACT (2009) and The Midnight Stratum (2008). With Witness Relocation he has performed in In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus (2006), Dancing Vs. The Rat Experiment (2006), the PASSOVER SHOW - in progress (2008) and Schreibstück (2008, 2010). As part of PERFORMA 07, he appeared in Allan Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (Re-doing) directed by André Lepecki at Deitch Studios. In collaboration with Sean Donovan he has conceived and directed the climate chronicles (2011) at the Arts Incubator Project; Se Vende/For Sale (2008) at the FAE Festival in Panama; Not Unclear (2003) at New York University; and Sublimate (2006) and Petri Dish Decorum (2006) at Galapagos Art Space. Mr. Calderón Bentin holds a B.F.A. in Theater from the Experimental Theater Wing and an M.A. in Performance Studies both from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University where he recently directed Gertrude Stein’s Everyday Afternoon (2011).
