Dennis Cooper | Performance Space New York

Them

Them

Presented in association with the New Museum and tbspMGMT

“One of the most genial survivors of the eighties avant-garde” – The New Yorker

“Mr. Houston-Jones clearly has a strong, sure sense of theater.” – Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

“There’s no knowing if the upper hand is what either really wants.” – Burt Supree, The Village Voice (on Them)

Ishmael Houston-Jones, whose intensely physical improvisations have been a staple of New York’s contemporary dance scene for over three decades, sparked controversy in 1986 at Performance Space 122 with THEM. Made in collaboration with Dennis Cooper (text) and Chris Cochrane (music), this incendiary work addressed some of the many ways men could be with men. After a successful run of the work-in-progress at PS122 in 1985 the creators of THEM felt that the urgency of the AIDS epidemic demanded a presence in this piece about men with men. In the 1986 premier of the full-length version for six male dancers at PS122 Cooper read his own provocative words, and Cochrane played cacophonous electric guitar live; frequently violent and exhausting dance sequences, culminated in a horrific duet between Houston-Jones and an animal carcass on a dusty mattress. The production almost got PS122 shut down.

Through a reconstruction residency at The New Museum, the three creators have recast THEM with a new generation of male performers. Rehearsals of THEM at the New Museum culminate in a series of programs collectively titled THEM AND NOW, exploring the artistic impulses that propelled the creation of this “aggressive and vital” (Village Voice) performance work and its reconstruction 25 years later.

As part of PS122’s 30th Anniversary Season, this ground-breaking piece is back and investigating its continuing relevance to dance and to social discourse in 2010.

2010 Cast: Joey Cannizzaro, Felix Cruz, Jeremy Pheiffer, Niall Noel, Jacob Slominski, Arturo Vidich, Enrico D. Wey
Lighting designer: Joe Levasseur

 

‘Them’ is supported in part by TestPerformanceTest and developed through the RE:NEW RE:PLAY residency series at the New Museum

325 Bowery, New York, NY

Photo courtesy of Dona Ann McAdams

ORIGINAL PREMIERE:
Performance Space 122, 1986
Dance, Theatre | Upstairs

Thursday, October 21 – Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wednesday – Saturday at 8PM,
LATE SHOWS: Saturdays at 10PM
Thursday Night Social: October 21
$20, $15 (students/seniors)

THEM AND NOW
4 special events at the New Museum
leading up to the 2010 premiere of Them

Friday, September 24 at 7
“WINGING IT” IN HIGH HEELS AND A BLINDFOLD

Friday, October 1 at 7
US V THEM: A Showcase of Young Improvisers

Friday, October 8 at 7
SOUND CHECK ’86

Thursday, October 14 at 7
DENNIS AND THE BOYS

THEM TODAY
Open rehearsals of Them
September 22 – October 5
Free with New Museum entry

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your THEM program online!

Jerk

Jerk

Jerk might be unbearable for some. But in our eyes, theater so wisely woven with reality, however violent, is wholesome.” – Les Inrockuptibles, France

Gisèle Vienne’s Jerk is based on the chilling text of Dennis Cooper, an author deemed “the most dangerous writer in America” by the Village Voice. It is a story told from the vantage point of David Brooks, the real life accomplice to Texas serial killer Dean Corll who was responsible for the deaths of more than 25 teenage boys in the early 1970s.

Jerk is theatre at its starkest, a harrowing journey into the most hidden corners of the human psyche.

Performed by and created in collaboration with Jonathan Capdevielle

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY

Under The Radar Festival 2010 is a program of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and is held in conjunction with APAP Conference NYC 2010. Major funding is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The Festival is produced by Mark Russell and The Public Theater. www.undertheradarfestival.com

Co-production of Le Quartz-Scene nationale de Brest, Centre Choregraphique National de Franche-Comte a Belfort in the frame of l’accueil-studio and Centro Paraga-Murcia. The company DACM is supported by the DRAC Rhone-Alpes / Ministere de la culture et de la communication, Region Rhone-Alpes, Conseil general de l’lsere, Ville de Grenoble. This project is supported by Etants Donnes: The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts, a program of FACE and Culturesfrance.

PRESENTED AS PART OF COIL 2010
In association with Under the Radar

60 minutes
Thu, January 7 – 17, 2010
$20, $15 (students/seniors)

All rights reserved by Performance Space New York
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