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Opening to "Stories"By Charles Atlas with John Waters
Created by Charles Atlas, the opening for Stories is a gloss on the classic Masterpiece Theater host introduction. Filmmaker John Waters greets the audience dressed for the part in a checkered smoking jacket and surrounded by his extensive collection of art books in his Baltimore home.
“Good art provokes and inspires,” declares Waters. For Waters, “a strong reaction” is an important measure of success. “Not everyone likes the stories I tell,” Waters modestly remarks.
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Charles Atlas is a filmmaker and video artist who has created numerous works for stage, screen, museum, and television. Atlas is a pioneer in the development of media-dance, a genre in which original performance work is created directly for the camera. Many of Atlas’s works have been collaborations with choreographers, dancers, and performers, including Yvonne Rainer, Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Marina Abramovic, Diamanda Galas, John Kelly, and Leigh Bowery. Atlas acted as Consulting Director for “Art in the Twenty-First Century” (Seasons 2 through 5), creating the original opening programs for each hour-long segment of Season 2, as well as supervising the “Stories,” “Loss and Desire,” “Memory,” “Play,” “Protest,” and “Paradox” episodes.
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