An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk
Phil Soltanoff with Joe Diebes & Rob Rameriz (USA)
Through meticulously cataloguing and remixing everything William Shatner ever said on the original Star Trek series, Phil Soltanoff creates a dynamic video oracle of the lead commander on the USS Enterprise – expanding our universe on contemporary arts and science as only Captain Kirk can.
Concept & Director Phil Soltanoff
Writer Joe Diebes
Systems Designer Rob Ramirez
Performer Mari Akita
Lighting Designer Steve Brady
Costume Designer Katherine Donahue
“a rich thought piece unafraid to tackle large philosophical questions while also gently mocking its own attempts to unravel them. Underneath all of the layers of technology lies a very human frustration with the inarticulateness of language and the vagaries of defining the human existence.” – CultureMap
60 minutes
Co-presented with The New Ohio Theatre
Jan 9, 10 9pm
Jan 10, 11 7pm
Jan 11 3pm
Jan 12 2pm
New Ohio Theatre:
154 Christopher St., Manhattan
$20 / $15 students, seniors
▸▸ Pass Holders Log in to redeem
Phil Soltanoff is devoted to creating innovative, hybrid, work in which the arts collide in compelling ways. He challenges familiar forms, builds links among seemingly incompatible media and materials and employs new technologies in surprising and human ways.
Phil Soltanoff premiered AN EVENING WITH WILLIAM SHATNER ASTERISK at Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas. Other recent projects include SITSTANDWALKLIEDOWN on Governors Island (SITELINES) and The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Soltanoff/Findlay Project commissioned by the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, and I/O created in collaboration with sound artist Joe Diebes and Rob Ramirez. LA Party, premiered at PRELUDE09 was featured in UNDER THE RADAR, FUSEBOX, THE HOPKINS CENTER, THE COLLAPSABLE HOLE and the FLYNN CENTER among others. Mr. Soltanoff has created two works in collaboration with Aurelien Bory and CIE111(Toulouse, France). PLAN B and MORE OR LESS, INFINITY have performed around the world including Kampnagel (Hamburg), Eurokaz Festival (Zagreb), Trafo (Budapest), Vidy Theatre (Lausanne), Centro Belem(Lisbon), Pina Bauschʼs NRW International Dance Festival (Dusseldorf), Maison de la Danse (Lyon), Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), BITEF-42 (Belgrade) and the New Victory Theatre (NYC) among others. In addition, he collaborated with Ron Berry and Scott Wilcox to create an installation, The 12nineteen Library for the Austin Museum of Art which received a 2009 Austin Critics Table Award. Mr. Soltanoff was nominated for a Moliere Award in 2007.
Joe Diebes has collaborated with Phil Soltanoff numerous times over the years including the sound-theater work I/O (also with Rob Ramirez), TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, and the upcoming opera HYPATIA with libretto by Mac Wellman. He has exhibited internationally his sound installations, video, and works on paper for art galleries, museums, and public spaces including Paul Rodgers/9W (New York), The ’06 Olympics (Torino, Italy), Yuanfen Gallery (Beijing), Prix Ars Electronica (Honorary Mention 2009, Linz Austria) and the Liverpool Biennial. From 1996-2003 he was a core member as well as the musical force behind the hybrid arts group GAle GAtes et al. described by The New York Times as “an adventurous troupe with one foot in the world of postmodern art and the other in downtown performance.” Since then he has continued to create performance work that fuses sound, visual media, and the human voice into a unique form of contemporary opera. His opera environment, STRANGE BIRDS, received its U.K. premiere in 2005 at Tramway (Glasgow), and he is currently developing a new opera WOW with director David Levine and poet Christian Hawkey in residency at BRIC Media Arts. His broken-word opera BOTCH premieres at HERE in November 2013.
Rob Ramirez is a DJ, computer programmer, and multimedia artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Since moving from Asheville, North Carolina to Brooklyn in 2004, he has collaborated with several artists, musicians, filmmakers, and performers, developing interactive media applications for performance or installation, as well as sound, video, and 3D graphic design. Collaborators include performance artists Phil Soltanoff and Joe Diebes at the Novelum Festival (Toulouse, France), XI recording artist David Watson, sound and video artist Kurt Hentschlager, and dancer / choreographer Koosil-Ja. As a member of the NYC based performance group Immediate Medium since 2007, he has co-created five shows. Recently, Rob and Phil Soltanoff created An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk (Fusebox Festival 2012, Prelude Festival 2012). Rob holds a Graduate Certificate in Interactive Arts from Brooklyn College, and a M.S. in Integrated Digital Media from Brooklyn Polytechnic University. He is currently employed by the software company Cycling ’74, developing future versions of the Max graphical programming environment.
New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning performance venue that serves the vast independent theatre community of New York and the adventurous audiences who love them. As a small, downtown, artist-run organization (with a 20+ year history as a beacon for bold and inventive work), we know the challenges and rewards of producing and presenting alternative, non-commercial theatre. In any given year, there are over 500 independent theatre companies working for opportunities to develop and present their work. We believe the best of this community operates at the core of the contemporary aesthetic conversation (in terms of both content and form) and acts collectively to expand the boundaries of the public imagination. With the opening of our new space, we aim to establish a professional, high-profile platform that reestablishes the West Village as a destination for mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish, and profound theatrical endeavors.
The New Ohio Theater is located in Greenwich Village, Manhattan and is accessible by the 1, A, C, E, B, D, F, M subways. This famous region on the west side of Manhattan is home to Washington Square Park, New York University, Cooper Union, St. Marks Place and a host of independent film houses and Off-Broadway theaters. The New Ohio Theater sits one block from Hudson River Park, close to Hudson Street where audiences can pick from a plethora of restaurants scattered between the New Ohio and Bleeker Street. Christopher Park is three blocks from the theater, surrounded by a variety of bars hosting live music every evening.
Aside from untold numbers of shopping and dining options, there are plenty of neighborly activities…for recreation-seekers without memberships to the area’s multiple gyms, the Hudson River and its well-traveled waterside trails are a short walk away. – The New York Times
An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk was supported by The MAP Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with a creation residency from the Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas.