Category: In the News

The New York Times recently blogged about our upcoming COIL festival on their Arts Beat blog. COIL also got a mention in the Times’ Arts Beat piece about our former artistic Director Mark Russel’s Under the Radar Festival, which runs concurrently with COIL.

The $15.1 million renovation that has largely kept Performance Space 122 out of its East Village home since the summer of 2011 is not stopping the adventurous organization from presenting its eighth annual Coil Festival, which will run Jan. 3 to 19, 2013.

Mindy Kaling, writer for The Office and star of her own new show, The Mindy Project, was interviewed on Fresh Air this week. When asked about her how she got the job as a writer on The Office Mindy said her career got started at PS122 with her hit play, Matt & Ben.

I was doing a play called Matt and Ben, that I wrote with my best friend in New York City. And it had been in the New York Fringe Festival, then was transferred to off-off broadway to PS122 which is this incredible theater in the East Village

We don’t like to define ourselves by our proximity to Broadway but we appreciate the kind words and the interview is indeed a good listen. I’ve rarely heard Fresh Air host Terry Gross being so candid. In one section of the interview Terry and Mindy bonded over the passing of their mothers and later Mindy mocked Terry’s backhanded bragging about shopping for petite clothes.

Check out this interesting feature article in The New York Times arts section, “Shock Me if you Can”, on the value of shock in performing and visual arts. The Times spoke with playwrights Adam Rapp and Thomas Bradshaw, filmmaker John Waters and PS122’s Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, among others.
There are a thousand different audiences,” said Vallejo Gantner, the artistic director of Performance Space 122 in the East Village. “At ‘The Book of Mormon’ the shock is all part of the fun. But it’s much harder to shock a downtown theatergoing audience.

What have you seen recently that’s shocking? Do you seek out art and performance that will startle and surprise you? Share your thoughts in the comments here.