Multi-Media | Performance Space New York

Symphony n.1

For Performa 2009, the Italian collective Alterazioni Video and Ragnar Kjartansson (currently representing Iceland at the Venice Biennale with “The End”, a non-stop performance which began on June 5th) will present “Symphony n.1”, a live and multimedia piece based on joy, infinite profound joy. With the structure of a symphony it is a set of actions repeated in loops mixed chaos, synchronicity and digital found material on one hand, and the theatricality and endurance aspect of performance on the other.

In 2007, Alterazioni Video held a solo show at the Chelsea Art Museum, New York and participated in “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind”, at the 2007 Venice Biennial, curated by Robert Storr. In 2008, they took part to the European Biennial of Contemporary Arts Manifesta 7. They are represented in Italy by Prometeo Gallery.

Curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Caroline Corbetta. Co-presented by Performa and Performance Space 122. Produced by Performa. Supported by Luhring Augustine, New York and Prometeo Gallery, Milan.

Mon, November 2, 2009
8:00 pm
Free
On

Whatever, Heaven Allows

WINNER OF THE 2009 SPALDING GRAY AWARD
NY PREMIERE | THEATRE

“INSPIRED” – NY Times
“OUTRAGEOUS” – The New Yorker
“MARVELOUS” – Voice
“BOISTEROUS” – Flavorpill

Excerpts from Ben Brantley’s review in The New York Times:
“I enjoyed it“… “‘Whatever’ includes some funny video sequences (love that chain-smoking deer!), clunky karaoke-style musical numbers (the Jane Wyman stand-in sings ‘I Am Woman’) and one inspired routine involving haka, a traditional Maori dance form…

But you have to admit that Radiohole is a great leveler. It makes Milton sound like a Brill Building songwriter, and Sirk seem as on-the-surface as ‘Melrose Place.’ Culture don’t get no respect from Radiohole, which may not be enlightening, but for a generation that’s so over postmodernism, it is kind of liberating.”
Enjoy the full review

” turns out effervescent, anarchic work… cultivates an eccentric acting style and makes familiar text creepily bizarre.” -Time Out

Known for its radical and reckless theatricality, avant-garde New York troupe Radiohole’s newest work is a star-spangled American meta-melodrama inspired by film director Douglas Sirk’s 1950s potboilers and Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. Our heroine is an all- American “Eve” who must save her home from an evil-doer while struggling to find fulfillment in a lasting relationship with a supposedly good man who looks like god. Radiohole’s newest synthesis of cultural flotsam is sure to be bawdy, silly, possibly transcendent, and a touch disturbed.

The Spalding Gray Award supports gifted writer/performers who fully realize both aspects of Spalding’s legacy, who are fearless innovators of theatrical form, who reach into daily experience and create resonant, transcendent work that makes us all bigger, wider, wiser and, somehow, more than we were when we entered the theater. The award is a special commission created in Spalding Gray’s honor by Performance Space 122 in New York , UCLA Live, University of California, Los Angeles’ public performing arts program,The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

This performance was supported by a Commission Grant from the Jerome Foundation

RADIOHOLE EXTENDED! Added shows!

Saturday, February 20 – Sunday, March 21
Thu – Sat at 8PM, Sun at 6PM
Late Shows: Saturdays at 10:30PM:
Feb 27/Mar 6/Mar 13/Mar 20
Spalding Gray Award Celebration + Thursday Night Social: Feb 25

Help PS122 Go Green by viewing your Whatever, Heaven Allows Program online!

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

Whisper

whisper whisper

WHISPER is a visually decadent, aurally immersive performance that asks the audience to question ‘what is real’ in a world of increasing technological sophistication. Each audience member is given a set of headphones through which they hear the voices of three live performers narrating a fictional walk through a fictional city. Obscured behind a cinematic screen, the performers are seen as shadows, silhouettes or in stark clarity, creating a fully immersive sound environment to accompany their narration.

Directed and Written by Peter S. Petralia
Performed by Alice Booth, Gillian Lees, and Andrew Westerside
Music and Sound Design by Philip Reeder. Lighting by Rebecca M.K. Makus

www.proto-type.org
running time: 50 minutes

July 9 – 13, 2008
Wed – Sat at 8:00 pm
Sunday at 7:00 pm
$15 (students/seniors),
$10 (P.S. 122 members)

Opera Francais

operafrancais

Mephisto Project is the Faust legend viewed through the eyes of the devil – the original pact, the seduction of Marguerite, the damnation of Faust, and Marguerite’s redemption.

Mephisto Project is an examination of the devil persona in French opera – the quintessence of evil in Gounod’s Faust, the cynic in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, and the rogue in Hervé’s Le Petit Faust.

Mephisto Project is a meditation on the devil in all of us.

Inspired by the myriad expressions of the devil in French opera, the Mephisto Project is an experimental work combining opera, modern dance, theatre and videography.

In a musical and literary journey through the 19th and 20th centuries, a histrionic Mephisto (based on Gounod’s Faust) tries to convince the audience that he is the ultimate incarnation of the Prince of Darkness. But he is constantly interrupted by competing manifestations of the demonic spirit: first by a cynical Mephistopheles adapted from Berlioz’s légende dramatique, then by a cross-gender devil out of Hervé’s opéra bouffe. Our Mephisto is reminded that he may not be evil incarnate, but rather one of its many faces. The real goal of the evening appears not to be Mephisto’s claim to Faust’s soul, but a competition between demonic rivals for the title of true Master of Hell.

Conceived for two basses, mezzo-soprano, pianist and dancer, the performance combines operatic sequences from Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Gounod’s Faust, Hervé’s Le Petit Faust, solo piano works by Liszt and Ravel, and theatrical monologues from Marlowe, Goethe and Stein. Video and film excerpts (including Marcel Carné’s Les Visiteurs du soir) provide a cinematic backdrop to the performance.

The Cast
MEPHISTO #1 – Daniel Mobbs, bass-baritone

MEPHISTO #2 – Keith Miller, bass

MEPHISTO #3 and MARGUERITE – Jennifer Rivera, mezzo-soprano

FAUST – Bénédicte Jourdois

MARGUERITE’S SOUL – Marjorie Folkman, dancer/choreographer

Conceived and staged by Jean-Philippe Clarac & Olivier Deloeuil

Duration: 70 minutes

About Opéra Français de New York

Now in its 19th season, Opéra Français de New York’s commitment to presenting works from the French operatic repertoire has made the company an integral part of the cultural life of the city. From the French Baroque period through contemporary opera, OFNY offers New York audiences the opportunity to see and hear rare French works in often provocative and innovative productions. https://ofny.org/

June 19 and 20, 2008

at 8:00 pm

Tickets from $30

$20 (for under 25’s and PS122 members)