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The Escape Artist

The Escape Artist
John Kelly 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award Winner

“You realize what you’re watching isn’t so much an artist inventing himself as inevitably discovering the true self within.” -The New York Times

While rehearsing a theater piece based on the life of the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, a stressed-out performer has a catastrophic trapeze accident. While stranded on a gurney in a hospital emergency room for 15 hours with a broken neck (‘Alice in Wonderland’ meets ‘The Matrix’), he escapes and finds refuge in the images that flood his mind–the sinners and saints, the prostitutes and gods–that populate Caravaggio’s paintings.

John Kelly is a performance and visual artist whose creative work runs the gamut from mixed media dance theatre works, to vocal concerts, to exhibitions. His work explores the character of creative genius as it occurs in the gradations between the ephemeral and the tangible. Specific works have pondered Egon Schiele, Caravaggio, Antonin Artaud, Joni Mitchell, Barbette, Jean Cocteau; autobiography, the Berlin Wall, the Troubadours, the AIDS epidemic, and Expressionistic Film. These works have been performed at The Kitchen, PS 1, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, The Tate Modern, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Paintings, drawings, photographs and video works have been exhibited in galleries and museums. He has sung the music of John Cage at the San Francisco Symphony, and collaborated and recorded with Laurie Anderson, David Del Tredici, Natalie Merchant and Antony and the Johnsons. He has just completed a collection of original songs in collaboration with Carol Lipnik called “The Escape Artist.”

Writings include an autobiography ‘JOHN KELLY’, published by the 2wice Arts Foundation, in association with Aperture. Acting credits include the Broadway production of “James Joyce’s The Dead”, and films by John Turturro and James Franco. Awards and Fellowships include 2 Bessie Awards, 2 Obie Awards, an Alpert Award, the 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award, a Visual Aids Vanguard Award, 2 NEA American Masterpieces Awards, and an Eliot Norton Award. Fellowships include NYFA, Art Matters, Inc., The Guggenheim Foundation, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, The Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. Archive: www.johnkellyperformance.org

Script & Visual Concept ~ John Kelly
Original Songs ~ John Kelly & Carol Lipnik
Additional Songs ~ Claudio Monteverdi; John Barry
Arrangements, Piano, Accordion, Flute ~ John DiPinto
Co-Direction & Dramaturgy ~ Dudley Saunders
Video Design ~ Jeff Morey
Cello ~ Nioka Workman
Violin ~ Justin Smith

THE ESCAPE ARTIST was developed, in part, by The Sundance Institute Theatre Program with ongoing support from the Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship; the Music Theatre Group’s Here-See Residency Series; the Dixon Place HOT! Festival; The 2wice Arts Foundation; The Civitella Ranieri Center; The Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome; the Armory Artist in Residence Program at the Park Avenue Armory; and a commission from the 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award created by Performance Space 122 and made possible with generous support from the Gesso Foundation

What is The Ethyl Eichelberger Award?
The Ethyl Eichelberger Award is a commissioning award created by Performance Space 122 in 2005 and made possible with the generous support of the Gesso Foundation. The Ethyl Eichelberger Award is given to an artist or group that exemplifies Ethyl’s larger-than-life style and generosity of spirit; who embodies Ethyl’s multi-talented artistic virtuosity, bridging worlds and vitalizing those around them. Recipients include Taylor Mac (2005), Julie Atlas Muz (2006), Justin Bond (2007), Jennifer Miller (2008) and Vaginal Davis (2009). Learn more

WORLD PREMIERE | THEATRE
Friday, April 15 – Saturday, April 30, 2011
Wednesday – Friday at 8PM
Saturdays at 8 + 10PM
$25, $15 (Student / Seniors)

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your Escape Artist program online!

Radioplay

Reggie Watts & Tommy Smith
RADIO PLAY

“Radio Play is meant to be listened to more than seen, which is why much of it occurs in the dark. Inspired by a media that is now virtually extinct, it features songs, stories and even commercials in the model of an old-time radio program. But these aren’t your grandma’s stories…”- The Wall St. Journal

“This freewheeling, beat-boxing, musical-comedy madman blows minds and steals hearts whether he’s opening for Conan O’Brian, appearing on Comedy Central in his own special or doing ten minutes in a Williamsburg bar.” – Time Out NY

“Nakedly entertaining! Watts, with his cloud of black hair and surprisingly beautiful voice, is loads of fun to watch”
– Variety

“Expect a nonlinear, surreal spin of songs, stories, and soundscapes that play with the politics of pop culture. Embrace the retro-fueled fun with your eyes closed and ears open.” – The Village Voice

Modeled after radio programs of yesteryear, RADIO PLAY gathers a group of actors, musicians and sound-effects artists to create a surreal sonic entertainment. Songs, stories and soundscapes collide in a comedic mash-up of non-temporal quasi-political pop-cultural tropes.

Reggie Watts (co-creator, performer, composer, musician, writer) and Tommy Smith (co-creator, writer) create absurd experimental comedic theatricals for modern performance spaces. TRANSITION played at The Under The Radar Festival at The Public Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Time Based Art Festival and On The Boards (Seattle); it was also the winner of the MAP Fund Award and Creative Capital award. Their previous theater piece DISINFORMATION was seen at the UTR Festival, PICA: TBA, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), and ICA (Boston). DUTCH A/V, a live environmental film performance and winner of the MAP Fund Award, was workshopped at IRT Theatre (New York) and premiered at the 2011 Under The Radar festival. When not collaborating together, Reggie and Tommy work on their “A-Side” careers, which can be seen at www.reggiewatts.com and smithsmith.wordpress.com, respectively.

Written by Reggie Watts & Tommy Smith. Directed by Kip Fagan. Performed by Reggie Watts, with H.I. Bonner, Beth Hoyt, Mary Jane Gibson, Marshall York, and Jen Rondeau on the Theremin. Lights by Seth Reiser. Additional writing by Mary Jane Gibson.

Made possible with commissioning support from Performance Space 122 and the Jerome Foundation.

COMEDY, AUDIO, THEATRE
Friday May 6 – Saturday May 28, 2011
Wednesday – Saturday at 8PM, Sun at 6PM
Late shows at 10PM:
Saturday, May 14 / Saturday, May 21 / Friday, May 27 / Saturday, May 28

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your Radio Play program online!

Edgar Oliver

Edgar Oliver
East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House

… a judiciously austere production… sweet and sinister… (Oliver is) a living work of theater all by himself.”
– Ben Brantley, New York Times

“…an outlandish cast, worthy of Dostoyevsky… creepy and droll beyond words… a pitch-perfect delivery… profoundly affecting.”
– New York Press

As I was walking in front of this old, decayed townhouse, I happened to look up just in time to see a gnarled hand reach through the Venetian blinds and tape this beat-up old paper bag to the inside of the parlor floor window. On the paper bag was scrawled in pencil, in this kind of horror handwriting – Room For Rent. So I ran up the front steps, and I rang the doorbell. The room was very small. But it had a big, beautiful window looking out onto the trees of Tenth Street.

Legendary New York theater-icon Edgar Oliver weaves a fantastical and hilarious voyage through the dark and strange rooms of his East Village tenement building; in-habited by a dwarf cabalist, possible Nazi, the landlord’s former wet nurse, – and wherein lie the secrets of his family and the unbelievable odyssey that brought him there.

Presented in 2010 at PS122 as part of COIL in association with Brian Barnhart, Axis Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd

Written & Performed by Edgar Oliver
Directed by Randy Sharp
Lighting Design by David Zeffren
Sound Design by Steve Fontaine

Photo: Paula Court

Extended:
Fri, Mar 18 – Sat, Apr 9, 2011
Fri at 8PM, Sat at 10PM

Supernormal

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Supernormal
Tom Shillue “laugh-out-loud funny… charming, heartwarming and delivered with vivid details.”

– Time Out NYTom’s stories about his life in New York and of growing up in suburban Massachusetts have been gathering a cult following at live venues, on the internet, and on satellite radio. Join him for an evening of stories so normal, they’re radical.The magazine Time Out New York labeled Tom “Professionally Clever”, and the title fits. Tom has gained a world-wide following with his highly praised Comedy Central specials and his top-selling CD, “Tom Shillue: Overconfident,” which the Boston Globe named one of the Top 10 Comedy Albums of 2007. A former correspondent on The Daily Show, Tom has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and in the feature film Mystery Team. SUPERNORMAL was developed at 45 Bleecker Street and is now making it’s official NY Premiere.

The New York Times called him “Inspired”, and the New York Post said, simply, “Brilliant”. Backstage named him the Top New York Comic, saying “There isn’t anything Shillue can’t do”, and fans on Comedy Central’s website voted Tom one of the top ten comedians in the country in their 2008 showdown. He was recently awarded best One Man Show at the ECNY awards for his show “SUPERNORMAL” at The Green Room, in which Time Out NY said he “really as a performer and a wit.”

Recently, he has expanded his audience as one of New York’s most well-known storytellers with the launch of his own monthly comedy/storytelling show at Comix, TELL: WORLD’S COLLIDE as well as regular performances at the Moth’s Mainstage and Risk! at Joe’s Pub.

Photo: Seth Olenick

Extended:
Wednesday, March 16 – Saturday, April 9, 2011
Wed, Thu, Sat at 8PM
Fri at 10PM
$20, $15 (students / seniors)

SWAN

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Jack Ferver’s QWAN Company
SWAN!!!A sexy, scary, spectacular, salacious, stunning, startling werk from Jack Ferver’s QWAN (Quality Without a Name) Company.

The same people who brought the smashing success NOTES!!! (their incredibly dramatic parodied reading of Notes on a Scandal) returns with SWAN!!! (their even more incredibly dramatic parodied reading of this years dance away smash: Black Swan).

Nina (Jenn Harris) is freaking out. She is freaking out because she really wants to play the Swan Queen in the new production of Swan Lake. She is also freaking out because she is crazy. And so is her mother (Randy Harrison). And so is the choreographer (Christian Coulson) she works under, and we mean works under. And so is the former prima ballerina Winona Ryder, we mean Beth (Matthew Wilkas).

The pressure is a lot and she finds a little release, and we mean release, when she meets hot new bad ballet girl in town, Lily (Jack Ferver). However she gets a little more than nervous when it seems Lily may want her part. Things boil up and over and there is self-mutilation and violence towards MOM and cunnilingus and jetés.

Jack Ferver’s Rumble Ghost recently premiered at PS122, and was brought back for their COIL Festival in 2011. His A Movie Star Needs A Movie was commissioned by The New Museum in 2009. It was also presented in American Realness at Abrons Art Center and at Theatre de Vanves in 2010. He was the first choreographer to be presented at The New Museum with I Am Trying to Hear Myself in 2008. He remounted the work at PS122 in 2009. In 2009 he also premiered his evening length work Death is Certain to sold out audiences at Danspace Project. Death is Certain was workshopped through the Dance Theater Workshop space grant, Studio Series. Ferver was also an artist in residence from 2008-2009 at Chez Bushwick. In 2008 Ferver premiered MEAT, his second Mondo Cane! commission from Dixon Place. Ferver’s first Mondo Cane! commission was in 2007 for his first full length work: When We Were Young And Filled With Fear. Shorter and solo works have been presented at Dance New Amsterdam (NYC), LaMaMa E.T.C. (NYC), The Culture Project (NYC), and Envoy Gallery (NYC). As an actor, credits include Strangers With Candy (Comedy Central), Christopher Durang’s Betty’s Summer Vacation (Off-Broadway), and numerous other film and theatre projects. His writing was recently published in the magazine Novembre.

Photo by Christian Coulson

WORLD PREMIERE | THEATRE
Thursday – Saturday, March 10-12, 2011
Thu + Fri at 8, Sat at 7:30 & 10

Tickets: $15