Performance | Performance Space New York

BLIND.NESS

blindness

John Del Signore, Gothamist, raves:
‘You’ll go wild for this”
is “dark and steamy”

The globe trotting, discipline-bending, unmistakably downtown WaxFactory presents a stellar female cast on an emotional roller coaster ride across the dark, and ultimately humorous underbelly of love. Part audio-visual installation, part dance-theatre, BLIND.NESS looks at what transpires when love becomes a four-letter word.

Directed by Ivan Talijancic, written by Slovenian playwright Simona Semenic, featuring sublime video by Antonio Giacomin of Italy, architectural design of Minimart, the sounds of electronica duo Random Logic and WaxFactory’s own Erika Latta, this tour-de-force will surely break, mend, and break your heart.

BLIND.NESS is a co-production of Performance Space 122 and Cankarjev Dom (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Past press for WaxFactory includes:
“…She Said’ is a 45 minute visual gem. It was perceptive of Ivan Talijancic to recognize this coldly erotic, deeply ambiguous story as potent foil for their technical wizardry.”
-Jonathan Kalb, The New York Times

Photo courtesy of Tasja Keetman

Presented as part of COIL 2010

Wed, Jan 6 – Tue, Jan 12, 2010
PS122 Premiere Oct 12-Nov 1, 2008

Diptyque

Celebrated choreographer Rachid Ouramdane and director Pascal Rambert’s two pieces comprise a third through the experience of comparing and contrasting these two works, challenging the audience to forge a complete oeuvre from two separate parts.

The Diptyque is created through collaboration between these two leading French artists and a US collaborator, this is a double presentation, in both spaces, of two major works, set in conjunction and contrast with each other. Both are solos engaged in fascinating ways with identity, one in blinding whiteness, the other in blinding blackness.

Without realizing it, the artists often speak to each other. With My Own Hands presents a naked woman, with male genitals on a plinth, each body part microscopically lit. A Standing Boy is a solo performance featuring Rambert surrounded by projections of nature. Gender, presence and the idea of the performer are all thrown into confusion in this dizzy two-bodied free fall.

A Standing Boy is produced by: Production L’A.
Co-produced by: La Menagerie de Verre – Paris, Theatre Bonlieu Scene nationale Annecy, Association
Side One Posthume Theatre
With the support of French ministry of Culture (CNC-Dicream program)

With My Own Hands is produced by: Theatre 2 Gennevilliers.
Coproduced by Association Side One Posthume Theatre, Bonlieu Scene Nationale – Annecy, La Menagerie de Verre.
This text is published by Les Solitaires Intempestifs.

This production is a co-presentation with the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF) as part of Crossing the Line 2008. This production is supported by a grant from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States

For more information please visit https://www.theatre2gennevilliers.com/
and https://www.rachidouramdane.com/

Photo courtesy of Patrick Imbert

Oct 3-4, 2008
Standing Boy: Fri and Sat 7:30pm
With My Own Hands: Fri and Sat 9:00pm

Louder

“Louder stands as an ultimate artistic reflection of modern times, and a voyage through theatre, technology and cultural history which pulls at the nervous system of the world weave.”
-Elin Hoeyland

For their new production, Louder, Verdensteatret went on a long journey to Vietnam and the Mekong-river. By combining robotics, video, sound, music, shadow play, object theatre and new technology, the performance takes the audience on a journey where reason ends and the spectator is drawn into an endless transformation through crossing lines of images and stories.

A telling orchestra is rigged on a rusty wire and a machine, so fragile that it is in constant danger of short-circuiting, throws a tidal wave of pictures and sounds at us. Among a pile of megaphones that hurl sound in all directions and a knot of wires so stretched that they may break at any moment, we glimpse people. People try to interact with this landscape, tugging at strings that are everywhere in the room. The strings hanging from the ceiling form the stage for a mass of figures. A mechanical puppet play takes place here-over the heads of the human figures. Louder is a storytelling orchestra that narrates a multitude of tales through sound and images. Tales from a distant past, tales from our time, about wars, river, the theatre, the nation, music, nature, technology, the journey and about exile. In the midst of this throng, we find a heart of darkness – a long, black barge on the open sea, radiating coldness and stories.

Norway’s Bessie-winning Verdensteatret is one of the most innovative and experimental companies in Norway. Their experimental use of audiovisual technology in a close dialogue with more traditional and historic tools of artistic expression results in complex orchestral works and space-related musical compositions.

Photo courtesy of Asle Nielsen

Verdensteatret is supported by Arts Council Norway and the Royal Norwegian Consulate General and the American-Scandinavian Foundation

Sept 25-28
Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm
Sunday at 5pm

The Passion Project

passion

“One of the most satisfying theatrical experiences I’ve had in ages” writes
Claudia La Rocco after previewing The Passion Project. ” a way of engaging with history and making this historical work contemporary by exploiting the very distance that exists between us and it.”

Using a single live actor, Shelley Kay, and multiple projection surfaces, Reid Farrington explores the intersection of performance and film. He uses Carl Th.Dreyer’s 1928 immortal masterpiece, “The Passion of Joan of Arc” as the main narrative along with the history behind the making of the film, a discussion with a Danish archivist, the story of making this project, and Joan’s story; her trial, torture, and execution.

THE PASSION PROJECT explodes the film into the three dimensions; placing the audience inside the film, sitting next to Joan, subjecting them to the relentless rhythm of 30 mm film projection. This piece vibrates between performance, film and installation.

Developed at and with the support of 3LD Art and Technology Center.
Developed with the assistance of the Digital Performance Institute and Ideal Glass Gallery.
Photo courtesy of Paula Court

Original Run: September 10-20, 2008
Also playing in the COIL 2009 Festival

Southern Promises

southern

” is situation satire with a vengeance, and each situation ups the ante for the audience.”
– Margo Jefferson, New York Times

“IMPRESSIVE! are a wickedly shocking double bill that unapologetically flaunt racial conflict…”
– Time Out New York

When the master of the plantation dies, he wills his slaves to be freed, but his wife doesn’t think that good property should be squandered. Pandemonium ensues. The play is inspired by the true story of Henry Box Brown who escaped to the north by mailing himself in a box. Southern Promises provides a unique portrait of the old south.

Playwright provocateur Thomas Bradshaw ignites the stage yet again in his signature inflammatory style. Following sold out and controversial runs at Performance Space 122, including Prophet and Purity, and elsewhere, including Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist and Cleansed, Bradshaw teams with acclaimed director Jose Zayas (a/d Talk Radio) for an explosive new creation that is not for the faint of heart.
Featuring: Hugh Sinclair*, Lia Aprile*, Erwin Thomas*, Jeff Biehl*, Peter Mccabe*, Sadrina Johnson*, Derrick Sanders*, Matt Huffman.

More Plays by Thomas Bradshaw:

PURITY, PROPHET, CLEANSED and STROM THURMOND IS NOT A RACIST are published by Samuel French, Inc. Learn more about them and get your copies today at https://www.samuelfrench.com

Presented in conjunction with The Immediate Theatre Company and Queens Theater in the Park. Produced in collaboration with the David Schwartz Foundation.

Southern Promises was developed, in part, through IRT Theater’s Artist in Residence Program.
www.irttheater.org

*Appearing courtesy Actors’ Equity. AEA approved showcase.

Photo courtesy of Yi Zhao

Southern Promises is part of Best of Boroughs: as part of our commitment to promoting excellence in the arts in New York City, PS122 partners with esteemed arts organizations from all over the city to present B.O.B., a tour of the brightest local theatre, dance and performance from the five boroughs.

September 7-27, 2008
Wed-Sat 8:30pm
Sun+Mon 7pm
No performance Mon, Sept 15
or Wed, Sept 24
Tickets from $18
$15 (students/seniors)
$10 (PS122 members)