Performance | Performance Space New York

AGA Spring 2010

“Orchestrated mayhem and the excitement that ensues are the only predictable variables…Try as it may to maintain theatrical composure, always ends up degenerating, or exploding, into an all-out party.” – Flavorpill

Sources confirm that The Wooster Group is excited to guest curate Performance Space 122’s longest-running multi-disciplinary mini-festival and that this spring’s Avant-Garde-Arama! will feature artists who the Group calls upon, in their own words, “sometimes late at night, sometimes when we haven’t seen them in a while, sometimes lonely, sometimes drunk, and sometimes when we’ve just got nothing better to do.”

FRIDAY:

MC: Eric Dyer of Radiohole’s “Outrageous” New Yorker ‘Whatever, Heaven Allows’
Stiven Luka & Jean Coleman
Cynthia Hopkins
Daniel Pettrow
Esra Chelen
Andrew Schneider
Live Music by: Light Asylum

SATURDAY:

MC: Jibz Cameron/Dynasty Handbag the “Crackpot genius” Village Voice
Yvan Greenberg’s Laboratory Theater
Enver Chakartash
Jamie Poskin & Daniel Jackson’s Haptic Response Team
Maurina Lioce
Jim Findlay
Live music by: Kelley McRae

Installation by Shaun Irons & Lauren Petty

*Line up subject to change
Line producer: Mashinka Firunts

With The Wooster Group curating the latest installment of Avant-Garde-Arama! one can expect two evenings of performance shorts and a nightly party that will “simulate the effects of a finely graded hallucinogen on a hyper-intelligent brain” – Ben Brantley The New York Times (on The Wooster Group). Each evening, of course, will be meta-framed by A.G.A! co-founder Salley May’s customary extravagant introduction and welcome.

Founded in 1976, The Wooster Group is an ensemble of artists who, under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, make work for theatre, dance, and media. The many young people who intern there and sometimes move into positions in the company have long been their lifeblood. They are often artists in their own right who go on to make their own work. The Wooster Group’s Booty Call Avant-Garde-Arama! will feature some of these folks, people who have been drawn to the Group and in some sense share its artistic spirit.

Friday, April 16 + Saturday, April 17, 2010
Doors open at 8PM

One of Our Ain

“From the moment she stepped onstage, Sandra had the first night audience eating out of her hand. She shocked them, she made them laugh, and brought them close to tears as she recreated her family life.” – Glasgow Evening Times

“Humorous…harrowing…heartstopping.” – Janey Godley, writer and comedienne

“I was totally captivated – it’s mindblowing” – Carol Laula, award winning Scottish singer/songwriter

A powerful personal testimony, “One of our Ain” is based on true events. The award winning Sandra Brown OBE and former Scotswoman of the Year tells her amazing story of growing up in the small 1950’s Scottish town of Coatbridge- a community profoundly affected by the disappearance of a little girl, Moira Anderson.

In what has been described as groundbreaking theatre, in a unique performance Sandra shares with the audience a superbly evoked portrayal of her childhood, and the pain of confronting her father’s behaviour. Derived from her UK and European bestseller “Where There is Evil” Sandra’s story of how she came to be convinced of her own father’s part in a child’s abduction and murder cannot fail to touch all who see it. The one woman play hurtles from glimpses of humour which are typically Scottish, to gutwrenching revelations that bring gasps.

PRAISE FOR SANDRA’S BOOK “WHERE THERE IS EVIL”:
“Explosive, and evocative. A remarkable story that climbs into your mind and stays there” – Scotland Online

“Sandra Brown’s past has come back to haunt her in an extraordinary way… it rocks many fondly held assumptions about the warmth of working class culture in the 1950’s ” – Sunday Times, UK

Photo by John McGill

https://www.moiraanderson.org/

US PREMIERE

THEATRE

Thursday, April 8 – Sunday, April 18, 2010

Cinderella Toe Jam 2

Royal Pink explores restriction through the body, resulting in a dance that reveals an unusual and unexpected beauty – the transformation of body, lives, movement. The piece’s choreography stylizes the extreme concepts of corporeal perfection that dancers contend with, questioning the motivation and vulnerable psychology of the female performing body. MEI-BE WHATever is a New York City based dance ensemble fusing media technologies with contemporary movement. Exploring relationships between the body and technology, investigations culminate in the staging of multi-media events. Current work focuses on the simultaneity of the performance with its own live reproduction. This work was developed during the 2006-2007 Artist- in -Residency Program at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, NYC, with a commissioned from the American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program.

Thu, Apr 2 – Sun, Apr 5, 2010
Thursday – Saturday 8p
Sunday 6:30p
Tickets from $20
$15 (students/seniors)
$10 (P.S. 122 members)

The Talking Show

4 STARS “As long as Murrin’s willing to talk, there’s reason to listen. – Paul Menard, Time Out New York

“Perhaps a sequel is in order. Anticipate another Alien invasion.” – Alexis Soloski, The Village Voice

“His performances explode like Rube Goldberg contraptions or car accidents…you can’t take your eyes off his chaotic energy. The performances are exhilarating and unsettling, like a walk down Broadway. They’re about the risk of running into drama – possibly coherent, possibly fragmented – as soon as you put your foot out the door.” – Laurie Stone, Vogue

“Each performance is an electrifying frenzy of information as Murrin scrambles through a maze of carefully positioned props and costumes. . . . His rapid-fire delivery riddles the audience with a barrage of entertaining social commentary so mesmerizing and playful that the unsuspecting hordes may not even realize the full impact of his message.” – Paper (G. Ray & Carlo McCormick)

Fairy godfather of downtown performance Tom Murrin (aka Alien Comic) takes us on a talking tour of his life – and of his travels though avant garde theatre in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s! Murrin has been there from the beginning and lived to tell the tale. Speaking with wild-eyed excitement, Murrin hits you with history, hilarity, and his extraordinary generosity of spirit and innocence. It must be seen and heard to be believed.

Written & performed by Tom Murrin. Directed by Lucy Sexton.
Produced by Lori E. Seid. Lighting Design by Melissa J. Mendez.
Featuring: Kate Benson; Laurie Berg and Heidi Dorow.
Special guests: Mike Iveson (feb 18-28); Salley May and Mimi Goese (Mar 4-7)

WORLD PREMIERE | SOLO PERFORMANCE
Thu, Febuary 18 – Sun, March 7, 2010
Thu – Sat at 7:30pm
Sun at 5:30pm
85 minutes
Free Post-Show Celebrations & Events
for ticket-holders:
THURSDAY NIGHT SOCIAL: Feb 18
OPENING NIGHT PARTY: Sun, Feb 21
THURSDAY NIGHT SOCIAL: Feb 25 + Annual Spalding Gray Award Party
ARTIST TALKBACKS: Sunday, February 28 and Thursday, March 4

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your Talking Show Program online!

Whew! Age

assisted living

“Funny and humorous” – Wired
“Anything but stupid.” – The New York Times

While no audience participation is required, Marisa Olson will invoke the familiar persona of the self-help “guru” in encouraging viewers to think about the role of mindfulness and positive thinking in their interactions with the environment. Her message is ultimately to stop freaking and start chilling out. Expect kitsch and giggles as much as tranquility and a reawakening of your bodily senses.

Marisa Olson is an admitted internet junky and a serious bookworm. This performance is both a product and a trace of her research into fluke epistemologies, the vernacular of digital visual culture, and the intersecting histories of science and superstition, new ageism and DIY/homebrew computing culture.

If you’ll allow her to mix metaphors about body heat, global warming, and other things “hot,” she’ll reward you with a sundry selection of funny videos, chakra realigning musical jams, and the words to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Marisa Olson’s work combines performance, video, drawing & installation to address the cultural history of technology, the politics of participation in pop culture & the aesthetics of failure.

WORLD PREMIERE
SOLO PERFORMANCE, VIDEO

February 12 – 14, 2010
Fri at 7:30PM, Sat at 7:30 + 10pm, Sun at 5:30PM
50 minutes
$20, $15 (students/seniors)

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your WHEW! AGE Program online!