ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— Award-winning actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini takes inspiration from the natural world in her new theatrical lecture, Link Link Circus, a smart yet comedic look at the links between humans and animals. Rossellini addresses the latest scientific discoveries about animal minds, intelligence, and emotions, and along with her trained dog Pan, transforms herself into Aristotle, Descartes, B. F. Skinner, and Charles Darwin to deliver a vivid monologue about the brilliance of the animal kingdom. Link Link Circus will be performed one night only at the Bard Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater on Saturday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $25 and are available at fishercenter.bard.edu or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900.

“I cannot have on stage all the animals I will talk about in the play,” says Rossellini, “so Pan and I will dress up and interpret several different species. Link Link is in fact, a little circus.” Using puppets, projected drawings and animated videos to illustrate her points, Rossellini is “the best professor you could ever imagine: witty, lovely to watch,” writes New York Magazine.

LINK LINK CIRCUS is written and performed by Rossellini and co-directed by Guido Torlonia.

About the Artist
The multi-faceted artist Isabella Rossellini made her cinematic debut as an actress in 1979 in the Taviani brothers’ film Il Prato (The Meadow) and has appeared in numerous other films, including the American features Blue Velvet, White Nights, Rodger Dodger, Cousins, Death Becomes Her, Fearless, Infamous, Big Night, The Incredibles 2,  Late Bloomers, Enemy, Two Lovers and Joy. She will next be seen in Silent Live, Vita and Virginia. She is also a successful television actress and filmmaker, with a keen interest in animals and wildlife conservation. Her award-winning series of shorts, Green Porno, Seduce Me, and Mammas offer comical and scientifically insightful studies of animal behavior. Her numerous awards and nominations have included The Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, Women in Film Courage Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Nominations. In 2010, she was honored at the Savannah Film Festival for her Outstanding Achievement in Cinema, 2013, she was awarded with the Berlinale Camera from The Berlin Film Festival.
 
She will next be seen on stage in her new theatrical show LINK LINK CIRCUS, which she recently performed earlier this year in New York and Europe. Written and performed by the Golden Globe-nominated actress, Link Link Circus, co-starring a dog named Pan, is at once comic and scientifically informed. Over the course of the performance, Rossellini transforms herself into Aristotle, Descartes, a medieval theologian, B.F. Skinner, and Charles Darwin—discussing the essence of human beings and what distinguishes us from the “brutes.” Darwin, in his theory of evolution, linked humans to non-humans, demonstrating that there is a continuum between animals and humans. For some, this idea is still offensive. While physical continuity is more accepted, cognitive continuity is mostly rejected.
 
Rossellini’s most recent work for television includes Master of Photography, for European broadcaster SKY, and the American series Shut Eye, for Hulu. Additional credits includes The Blacklist, Treme, The Phantom, 30 Rock, Alias, Napoleon, Merlin, Chicago Hope, Crime of the Century. She has written numerous books including Some of Me, In the Name of the Father, the Daughter and the Holy Spirits: Remembering Roberto Rossellini.  Her latest book My Chickens and I was released by Abrams in March 2018. Also in 2016, Rossellini returned to Lancôme as one of their new spokespeople; three decades after she was first hired by the beauty brand.
 
Rossellini is completing a Master’s degree in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College in New York City and has received a PhD Honoris Causa from the Science Faculty at UQAM (University of Quebec at Montreal). Rossellini runs an organic farm in Brookhaven in association with the Peconic Land Trust and the Post Morrow Foundation. She is a mother of two and resides in Bellport, Long Island.

About the Bard Fisher Center

Bard College has distinguished itself as a leader in the field of liberal arts and sciences for more than 150 years by providing a first-rate undergraduate education for its students. The College is known for its pioneering ideas in education, its passionate commitment to the highest standards of artistic inquiry and practice, and for its vigorous advocacy of liberty, citizenship, individual dignity and tolerance of differences.

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by architect Frank Gehry, is the most ambitious capital project in Bard’s history, and illustrates the commitment of the College to bringing performing artists of the highest rank to perform and work with its students, faculty, staff and the public. The Fisher Center creates moments that inspire curiosity, learning, and civic participation. We believe that artists are uniquely able to lead discourse on the most urgent questions of our time, and that substantial, long-term investment in artistic innovation is vital to a well-balanced society. The Center’s programs in opera, dance, theater, music, jazz, and cabaret, along with its world-class facilities, provide an outstanding venue in which to create and learn.
Together these institutions provide an exceptional environment for artists to create and inspire students’ thinking and practice. As a central multi-venue arts platform in our region with a core program of a trailblazing global liberal arts college, the Fisher Center realizes Bard’s commitment to the arts as a cultural and educational right for all.


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