Dec. ‘07: Anne, in Nellie Tinder’s (Julia Jonas) The Penitent Hours at the Bushwick Starr.
(Photo credit: Brett Beyer. Performers include Nellie Tinder, myself, and Jenny Seastone Stern.)
Sept. ‘07: “FAME Menswear Washington,” in Yehuda Duenyas’ One Million Forgotten Moments Sept. 11th project (solo dance theater piece with a 0:07 Dancers cameo)
- “[this] art installation-street theater hybrid… had the extemporaneous feel of a happening… visually arresting moment came when there were performers of the sidewalk in front of the space, on the median in the middle of the street and in front of City Hall Park across the street. As they wove their way to the theater, dancing and singing through traffic and pedestrians, it did look like a kind of poetry.” New York Times
- “an amazingly brilliant project… the project-OMFM combined dance, singing, theatre, art, a history of New York and so much more into an hour-and-fifteen-minute performance… before you have time to really take in the seriousness, you laugh until your spleen is about to burst-all culminating in a realization about the unique appeal of New York… OMFM was a fabulous contribution to art in the city.” Fordham Observer
Feb. ‘07–Jane, in workshop of a new play by Aaron Landsman for CATCH Series, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY.
Oct. ‘06—Medea, Glauce by Croft Vaughn at Greenspace, Long Island City, Queens, NY.
Sept. ‘06—Dancer/Collaborator, AGORA II by Noemie Lafrance at McCarren Pool, Williamsburg Brooklyn.
- “The mood shifts back and forth from tension and fear to communal ease… It’s festive, it’s fun, and you can hang around long after the performance per se is over.” danceviewtimes.com
- “Set within the 50,000 square foot McCarren pool… Agora II wrestles images of daily life out from their context and using a cast of 60… with lessons learned from the German dancers Pina Bausch and Sasha Walz, Le France tackles the chaos of mass communications… The spectacle became one big happy party and the lines between performer and audience vanished.” artcritical.com
Dec ‘05 – Sugar Plum Fairy, Belle, Dancer, ‘Twas created and directed by Ken Nintzel, PS 122, NYC.
- “the Sugar Plum Fairies wore shiny plastic strips for tutus and moved with modern, jerky movements that made fun of the stuffy British onlookers. Dancers in The Twelve Days of Xmas moved across the set divide to dance at Scrooge’s nephew Fred’s Christmas dinner. They did a tango for Fred’s guests and then went back to their side of the set.” newyorkcool.com
- “The title and the East Village locale are reason enough to suspect Mr. Nintzel of rampant yuletide cynicism, but he pleads innocent of any such motivation. “It’s not sendup,” he said. “It’s not cliché. We’re taking it very seriously. The ‘Christmas Carol’ actors and ‘Nutcracker’ actors need to be fully committed to what they’re doing. My job is to throw that in the blender. But it’s not done in any ironic way. We want to get to the truth of all those stories and what is underneath them that makes people love them so much. Why are they dragged out year after year?” New York Times
- “an endearingly lo-fi extravaganza that in its best moment makes a potent hash of its revered and shopworn sources.” Newsday
May ‘05 – God dancer Out of Time: Puppet Spectacle by Chris Skeens and David Rabig at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
May ‘04 – ‘Dancer’ I cancan 2 (original duet created by Johanna Meyer) at The Kitchen’s Work-In-Progress Series
- “I cancan 2 is the second work by Johanna S. Meyer to explore the origins of cancan, stripping, and carnival dancing, and their influences on 19th and 20th century attitudes toward women and independence. Drawing from sources such as Jean Renoir’s film, French Cancan, and Susan Meiselas’ photo series, Carnival Strippers, Meyer and Beth Kurkjian perform with edgy humor, restrained chaos, and precise, erotic glamour.” rhizome.org
Aug. ‘03 – ‘Emma’ Horsefingers (a short film by Kirsten Kearse)
Mar. ‘03 – ‘Ensemble’ Le Esprit de Wendyloo (original piece by Wendy Luker) at WAX’s The Bridge Series
Nov. ‘02 – ‘Ensemble’ Lapse (original piece by Ken Nintzel) at PS 122, NYC.
- “Set in the hospital room of a comatose woman, Lapse features the frantic attempts of candy stripers to keep the room’s decor seasonally current. As the woman lies motionless, the loudspeaker blares and a swarm of volunteers swirl about her. In pink aprons and sensible shoes, they shout rhymes, perform B-squad cheerleader moves, and ensure that once the leprechaun cutouts come down, the chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs go up immediately. Stat!” Village Voice
Sept. ‘02—‘Star Two’ 
Saint Latrice (directed and written by Juliana Francis) at PS 122, NYC.
- “three-guardian angel Stars—Jesse Hawley, Beth Kurkjian, and Lisa Quintela—hideously superconfident sex dolls in the Britney Spears tradition. […] For so sad and twisted a tale, [Juliana] Francis’s quirky theatricality leaves one feeling oddly uplifted.” TimeOut New York
- Latrice (Emily McDonnell) “falls into the net of a trio of singing dancing pop star vixens (Jesse Hawley, Beth Kurkjian and Lisa Quintela) who become variously and among other things, guidance counselors, prophets, and in action figure style, crusaders. […] The three pop star girls… are filled with energy and terrific. They execute Johanna Meyer’s fun choreography flawlessly.” curtainup.com
May ‘02 – ‘Ensemble’ Lapse (original piece by Ken Nintzel) at Whitney Museum/Philip Morris series
Dec. ‘01 – ‘Ensemble’ Lapse (original piece by Ken Nintzel) at Galapagos Art Space’s Phat Tuesdays
Aug./Sept. ‘01 – an understudy for Shunkin (original piece by Big Dance Theater) at The Kitchen
Jan. ‘01 – ‘Madonna 1’ Backstage at Pageant (original piece by Ken Nintzel) at HERE’s Culturemart
Jul. ’00 – ‘Madonna 1’ Pageant 
(original piece by Ken Nintzel) at The Ontological Theater
- “Mr. Nintzel’s bold conceit is to present three contestants vying to incarnate the single most represented female figure in Western art. In the largely wordless ‘’Pageant,'’ which runs through this weekend, these women (played by Stacy Dawson, Jesse Hawley and Beth Kurkjian) take turns assuming poses that embody phases of the Virgin’s life, from the Annunciation to the Assumption.” New York Times
- “Contestant 1 tries on a pair of prosthetic breasts; contestant 2 polishes her toenails while sipping a Tab; contestant 3 sets her hair in hot rollers and thumbs a copy of Family Life. […] In Pageant, Ken Nintzel’s splendid dance-theater piece, these young women compete not for Miss Teen USA, but for the title of “Most Blessed Among Women. […] Hail Mary, and her first and second runners-up as well.” Village Voice
Aug. ’99 – ‘Madonna 1’ Pageant (original piece by Ken Nintzel) at HERE Theater’s American Living Room Series and at The Ontological Theater
Winter ‘98/9 – ‘Ensemble’ Tilly Losch (original piece by Michael Counts) at GAle GAtes et al, DUMBO, Brooklyn.
- “In one of the scenes in Tilly Losch, Michael Counts’ latest creation at his company’s wonderful 40,000 sq ft space in DUMBO, Brooklyn, a greatly enlarged replica of [Andrew Wyeth’s] Christina’s World appears against the rear wall of Count’s stage. This one is three- dimensional and animated; it includes sounds of crickets, birds chirping, and the wind whistling on this barren hill. Here, the young crippled woman, played by Beth Kurkjian, drags herself painfully toward the house. She seems eager to get to a balloon floating across the sky behind the house but she only gets so far. An airplane flying overhead distracts her; stops her in her tracks as it were.” nytheatre-wire.com
Jul. ’98 – ‘Ensemble’ The Deep (original piece by Brian Cronin) at The Ontological Theater’s Blueprint Series
Winter ‘97/8 – ‘Ensemble’ The Field of Mars (original piece by Michael Counts) at GAle GAtes et al, DUMBO, Brooklyn.
- “a cascade of images conjured the conscious and subconscious, and with the question of how pictures framed in the mind’s eye make their way into everything. […] It’s a spectacular example of playing with perspective.” New York Times
- “power theater, loaded with highly visible metaphoric effects. […] GAle GAtes is entirely suited to the information age. The era of an extended artist’s theater is upon us.” Art in America
