SORRY ROBOT
Mike Iveson (NYC)
Mike Iveson makes his debut as a playwright with SORRY ROBOT, a satirical, sentimental, song-studded spaz opera. Four performers and a piano create a haunting world where robots long to feel the same things that their embarrassing and sort-of-pathetic human masters feel, at a hotel that doubles as a software development facility in the dystopian state of Florida in the near future.
Beloved downtown performer and 2013 Ethyl Eichelberger Award winner Mike Iveson leads the charge with nine original perverse pop songs which provide a window into the hidden hankerings of robots and humans alike -and which just may convert every human in the room into a metallic automaton.
No robots were harmed in the making of this piece.
Writer and Composer: Mike Iveson
Director: Will Davis
Producer: Ariana Smart Truman
Stage Manager: Maurina Lioce
Set & Costume Design: Parker Lutz
Lighting Design: Lucrecia Briceno
Featuring Performances by Anthony R. Brown, Mike Iveson, Nicky Paraiso and Tanya Selvaratnam.
Mike Iveson is one “of Downtown’s ever shining lights” – Paper Magazine
“At the center of it all is Mike Iveson, whose Herculean performance … is a work of effortless charisma.” – Variety
90 minutes
Co-presented with The New Ohio Theatre
Jan 6, 7 – 7pm
Jan 8 – 7pm*
Jan 9 – 10pm
Jan 10 – 6pm
Jan 11 – 2pm
Jan 12 – 5pm
Jan 14, 15, 16 – 8:30pm
Jan 17 – 2pm & 8:30pm
New Ohio Theatre
154 Christopher St., Manhattan
$20 / $15 students, seniors
*Jan 8 Benefit Tix on sale at mikeiveson.com
▸▸ Pass Holders Log in to redeem
Mike Iveson has written music for the plays DOT by Kate E. Ryan (Clubbed Thumb/Ohio Theatre), POTATOES OF AUGUST by Sibyl Kempson (Dixon Place, Red Eye Theater/MN), and YOU FOR ME FOR YOU by Mia Chung (Woolly Mammoth), and is currently composing music for Kempson’s FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND (Elevator Repair Service) and his own upcoming productions SORRY ROBOT (PS122/New Ohio Theatre) and THE TEAR DRINKERS (The Kitchen) to premiere in 2015. He has also composed music for many of choreographer Sarah Michelson’s dances, including commissions for France’s Lyon Opera Ballet (LOVE IS EVERYTHING) and for Mikhail Baryshnikov & the White Oak Dance Project (THE EXPERTS), as well as for many Michelson shows in venues ranging from PS122 (GROUP EXPERIENCE, for which he won a Bessie Award for music composition; SHADOWMANN; DAYLIGHT) to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (DOGS). As a performer he has appeared in many plays with Elevator Repair Service (ARGUENDO; THE SELECT; GATZ), in a number of Michelson’s dances, and with such artists as Richard Maxwell/NYC Players, Dancenoise, Charles Atlas, Aaron Landsman, Erin Courtney, Yvonne Meier, Kate Benson, Tom Murrin/Jack Bump, Mike Taylor, and many others.
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. From our new home on Christopher Street, 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. Follow us online at newohiotheatre.org and on Twitter at @NewOhioTheatre.
The New Ohio Theatre 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
SORRY ROBOT was commissioned by PS122, the Jerome Foundation, in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts-Art Works, and the Ethyl Eichelberger Award with funding generously provided by the Gesso Foundation. SORRY ROBOT was developed, in part, with assistance from The Orchard Project, a program of The Exchange (www.exchangenyc.org), and made possible with the support of Collapsable Giraffe.