THE MOST IMPORTANT THEATRE FESTIVAL ON EARTH
Written and directed by Art Wallace
Featuring Trav S.D., Heath Kelts, Ursula Cataan, Mike Rutkoski, Adam Swiderski, Devon Hawks Ludlow
A retired modern dancer forbids his daughter to go to her play rehearsal. It is her birthday and he has hired a comedian to perform for her. The director of the play arrives with a baker who bakes the birthday cake. There is a lot of argument concerning the nature of reality culminating in murder and a seance. (45 min)
Sat 6/2 @ 9pm,
Fri 6/8 @ 7pm,
Sat 6/16 @ 5:30pm,
Sat 6/23 @ 2:30pm
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The Brick's irregular performance series returns with an especially pretentious collection of new works. Featuring Mother Is Looking So Well Today, Un film présomptueux et bon d'art de pensée dehors, and some exclusive surprises. (90 min)
Sun 6/3 @ 7pm
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Old Kent Road Theater presents
The Children of Truffaut
Written and directed by Eric Bland
The Children of Truffaut thrusts eight characters drawn from 70's Continental cinema into a game of arousal, angst, bluster, pontification, and whimsy. Godard, Fassbinder, Fellini, and Tarkovsky each provide the atmospheric starting point for a male/female unit. Once the pairs are spawned, though, pretty much anything goes, especially transgression, nostalgia, and love. This ain't yer momma's arthouse—unless your momma is the lovechild of Marcello Mastroianni and Hanna Schygulla. In which case, I'd like to meet her. (75 min)
Tue 6/19 @ 9pm,
Sun 6/24 @ 4:30pm,
Fri 6/29 @ 10:15pm,
Sat 6/30 @ 7pm
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(I Don't Remember the Name of This Show)
Written and performed by Cole Kazdin
The last thing she remembered was standing at the top of a cheerleading pyramid on the set of a low-rent television pilot ... Then hitting the ground ... on her her head. What followed - a trauma that few outside of a soap opera ever experience: Amnesia. Who is she? Where is she? And which one of these smiling men standing in her bedroom is really her boyfriend? The true story of how one non-union acting gig led to six months of forgetting, and trying to learn everything from making mashed potatoes to having sex ... all for the first time. Kind of. The Cole Kazdin Amnesia Project is a new one-woman comedy from the creator of the critically acclaimed solo show, My Year of Porn, which debuted at the Brick Theater's Moral Values Festival. (60 min)
Fri 6/8 @ 8:15pm,
Sat 6/9 @ 4pm
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Commedia dell'Artemisia
Written by Kiran Rikhye
Directed by Jon Stancato
Featuring David Bengali, Layna Fisher, Cameron J. Oro, Liza Wade White
In a daring attempt to rival Moliere's greatest work and single-handedly revive the tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, Stolen Chair presents Commedia dell'Artemisia, a masked farce in rhyming couplets, satirizing the controversial rape trial of Italian Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi. As the teenage virtuosa Artemisia tries to escape the clutches of her miserly father, she becomes entwined with Agostino Tassi, a master painter and criminal who would rather screw than woo. Transforming these complex historical figures into commedia stock characters, Stolen Chair irreverently eviscerates history, hypocrisy, rape, romance, art and artifice. www.stolenchair.org (45 min)
Sun 6/17 @ 2:30pm,
Fri 6/29 @ 7pm
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Compression of a Casualty / Fox(y) Friends
Sponsored By Nobody presents two of their critically-acclaimed “found-text” works together for the first time. "Compression of a Casualty" takes aim at a CNN broadcast on a soldier’s death in Iraq, while "Fox(y) Friends" lines up in its crosshairs the saccharine hosts of the popular Fox News morning show. Grounded in actual broadcast transcripts, Sponsored By Nobody incorporates live video, projected images and an exaggerated sense of physicality into their double-shot of jarring satire. Force fields. Grapefruit. Oral Sex. Legos. Kind of like 60 Minutes on drugs, or the bastard child of The Daily Show and Network. (60 min)
Wed 6/13 @ 7pm,
Sat 6/16 @ 9:45pm,
Sun 6/17 @ 7pm,
Wed 6/20 7pm
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Book and Lyrics by Lisa Ferber
Music by Paul Nelson
Directed by Elizabeth London
Musical Director: Julianne Wick Davis
Featuring Ivanna Cullinan*, Jennifer Houston, Greg LoProto, Erin Blair O'Malley, Baz Snider*, Ryan Stadler*, Moira Stone*
*Member AEA
In this delightful 1930s-style musical screwball comedy, Gramercy Park heiress Kitty La Blintz invites publishing magnate Snerdly Jammybottoms, dance hall girl Rose E. Cheeks, and a variety of other entertaining guests to a dinner and the reading of a will. The surprise visit of an actor masquerading as philosopher Smarmy Von Footnote brings romance, confusion, and even... murder into the hilarious mix. (1 hr 45 min)
Sat 6/2 @ 2:30pm,
Sun 6/3 @ 3pm,
Wed 6/6 @ 7pm,
Sat 6/9 @ 1:30pm
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Directed by Sarah Ashford Hart
Two years after Hurricane Katrina dumped devastation and mass-displacement on the Big Easy, 250 years since the expulsion of the Acadian colony from Nova Scotia sent the first Cajuns to the Louisiana bayous, and half a century since the slave trade began shipping millions of West Africans to the mouth of the Mississippi, the search for home is not over. Our original play, Evangeline, tells the true story of exile in America, through shadow puppetry, African dance, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, and real words from hurricane survivors.
(60 min)Fri 6/22 @ 7pm,
Sat 6/23 @ 5:30pm,
Sun 6/24 @ 3pm,
Tue 6/26 @ 7pm
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A distillation of the essence of theatre
Conceived, Cultivated, Written, Directed and Presented by Robert Honeywell
In collaboration with Numerous Playwrights Throughout History and Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree and Moira Stone
What are the core themes, or drivers, if you will, the primary colors, of theatre? Its essence? Downtown theatre director, writer, actor, producer, visionary, auteur and co-artistic director, president, treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of The Brick Theater, Inc. (a non-profit corporation) and global time-and-space traveler Robert Honeywell and his collaborators Audrey, Lynn and Moira deliver a stunning lecture with live scenes, surveying the history of theatre, from early man (who was the first actor? the first director?) to the present and even the future, and distilling it into four extraordinary, but deceptively simple, core themes. Attend this lecture, and you'll never have to attend another play again. (90 min)
Fri 6/22 @ 8:30pm,
Sun 6/24 @ 6:15pm,
Sat 6/30 @ 5pm,
Sun 7/1 @ 3pm
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Ian W. Hill's Hamlet
Directed and designed by Ian W. Hill
Written by William Shakespeare
Gemini CollisionWorks has spent a decade trying to make exciting, beautiful, moving, intelligent, entertaining, experimental ensemble theatre for the masses, and has only a valuable, but small, cult reputation in Indie Theater, the respect of its peers, a handful of rave reviews, and a massive amount of debt . . . so isn't it time that artistic director Ian W. Hill is allowed to get egotistical and pretentious on your ass? Now, downtown's rapidly-aging enfant terrible designs, directs and stars in Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, his 50th production, 10 years to the month after his first! Hill guides a cast of eighteen through a ruthlessly and idiosyncratically cut version of the play, being faithful to an idea of the play, while having no respect for the tradition around it -- setting it in a class-driven 20th Century American landscape, where the actions of the Prince are just one distraction in a fragile society heading towards collapse. Violent, creepy, funny, and unsettling, Ian W. Hill's Hamlet is a pretentious idea of popularizing Shakespeare. The auteur blogs about his creative process at http://collisionwork.livejournal.com. (2 hrs 30 min)
Tue 6/12 @ 8:30pm,
Fri 6/15 @ 8:30pm,
Tue 6/26 @ 8:30pm,
Thu 6/28 @ 8:30pm
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Curated by Michael Gardner
The New York community of theater bloggers blog about themselves as a theatrical event, live, at the theater, while blogging on their laptops. All blogs are projected onto a large blog screen. Audience bloggers are encouraged to comment on the commentators' commentary and blog about it afterwards. (60 min)
Sun 6/3 @ 9pm
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Blue Coyote Theatre Group presents
Interview With the Author
Written and performed by Matthew Freeman
Directed by Kyle Ancowitz
Celebrated upstart playwright Matthew Freeman presents an intimate live interview with Matthew Freeman, illuminating the audience with his views on matters of enormous consequence: his Art, his Life, and the Blogs he has loved and left behind. matthewfreeman.blogspot.com (60 min)
Sun 6/3 @ 5:15pm,
Sun 6/10 @ 6:30pm,
Fri 6/15 @ 7pm
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Ivory Tower or Sagan?
Created and performed by Adrian Jevicki, Rebecca Ketchum, Elodie Escarmelle, Nathan Kosla, Gabriel Forestieri
Come spend a cosmic nano-second and watch billions and
billions of poly-dimensional vibrations interact in
impossibly complex patterns and weave themselves into
the fabric of the universe. And we get our freak on! (45 min)
Tue 6/12 @ 7pm,
Sat 6/16 @ 8:30pm,
Thu @ 6/21 7pm
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Piper McKenzie presents
Macbeth Without Words
Directed by Jeff Lewonczyk
Created with and performed by Fred Backus, Katie Brack, Hope Cartelli, Bryan Enk, Stacia French, Robert Pinnock, Robin Reed, Iracel Rivero
Soundscape by Ryan Holsopple
Traditionally inferior to their British brethren in the presentation of Shakespeare, how can American actors approach the grandeur of the Bard? Easy: by removing the all of that difficult, unnecessary language. The latest installment of Piper McKenzie’s Bizarre Science Fantasy physical-theatre series, Macbeth Without Words presumes to improve upon the classic story about the original social climbers with an all-movement version inspired by silent film, modern dance and comic books – with extra emphasis on the gore, the ghosts, and the supernatural. www.pipermckenzie.com (90 min)
Wed 6/27 @ 7pm,
Fri 6/29 @ 8:15pm,
Sat 6/30 @ 3pm,
Sun 7/1 @ 5pm
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The Mercury Menifesto
Created by John Del Signore
Co-starring Jeff Seal, with puppetry by Mary Kate Rix, sound design by John Turner and video by Mikella Millen
Ever wonder what drives a man to paint himself silver and stand still in the subway for spare change? For four shows only, the untold story of The Mercury Men – New York's iconic silver performers – will be brought to vivid life. The acclaimed Masters of Doing Nothing, who the Times likened to an "android Noel Coward", have mesmerized crowds (and infuriated cops) for years with their preternatural talent for standing. The Mercury Menifesto divulges their secrets in a fast-paced motivational seminar for aspiring stationary artists eager to step inside the unitard and start making a stand for change. (60 min)
Sun 6/10 @ 8pm,
Sun 6/17 @ 8:30pm,
Fri 6/22 @ 10:30pm,
Sat 6/23 @ 4pm
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Cardium Mechanicum presents
Mother Is Looking So Well Today:
A Grand Opera in 1 Page
Music by Craig Lenzi
Book and lyrics by Ed Valentine
Co-created with Robin Reed
Betrayal! Murder! Greed! Incest! A string trio! And a chorus of thousands! (...or, as many as we can fit onstage.) Cardium Mechanicum presents a one-time-only happening: "Mother Is Looking So Well Today: A Grand Opera in 1 Page.” It’s everything you ever wanted from Opera - but in 10 minutes or less. Synopsis: Ruby and Victor (and their innumerable brothers and sisters) await Mother’s arrival at the top of the grand staircase…but when the party goes horribly awry, their lives will never be the same. www.cardium.org (Performed as part of Brick-a-Brac)
Sun 6/3 @ 7pm
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Nihils
Written and performed by Trav S.D.
Downtown raconteur and iconoclast Trav S.D. steps out of character to star as Nihils -- pretentious-most of the pretentious -- a relentless and hilarious send up of performance art, poetry readings, experimental theater, and deconstructionism (and a thousand other isms). With punk and free jazz supplied by his band the Nihilistics. If you miss this show, you're a part of the problem. (60 min)
Sat 6/16 @ 7pm,
Sun 6/17 @ 4pm,
Sun 6/24 @ 8:15pm,
Thu 6/28 @ 7pm
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Nothing
Created by Michael Gardner
An experience of existential crisis embodied in a representational happening of theatrical circumstance. Nothing is free. (30 min)
Fri 6/8 @ 9:45pm,
Sun 6/10 @ 9:30pm,
Sun 6/24 @ 2pm
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The Pretentious Awards Ceremony and Closing Night Soiree
Featuring the debut of the Pretentious Awards: Most Pretentious, Least Understood, Most Misunderstood, Keenest Contempt for the Audience, and so on. Fancy dress required. If you have to ask you can't afford it. Don't join any club that would accept you as a member. Step on the little people.
Sun 7/1 @ 9pm
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The Pretentious Opening Night Cabaret
A free sneak preview of some of the earth-shattering work that will be presented over the coming weeks under the auspices of The Pretentious Festival. (90 min)
Fri 6/1 @ 7pm
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Dillon/Liebman/Schafer in association with New World Theatre Company present
Q1: The Bad Hamlet
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Cynthia Dillon
Fight Director: Al Foote III
Performed by Anthony Bagnetto, Robert Josef*, Jason Liebman*, Kevin Lind*,
Alyssa Mann, Thomas Poarch*, Gabriele Schafer*
*member AEA
It could be an early draft by the bard or it could be a blatant rip-off, but throughout history it has been called the bad quarto. This fast-paced, action-packed production proves that it aint necessarily so! Half the length of the better-known play, this version crystallizes the famous story of murder, madness, love and betrayal. It is performed by an agile ensemble of 7 actors playing multiple roles, including the actress playing Hamlets mother doubling as a butoh inspired Ghost of Hamlet's father. Performed uncut, this is a great version of one of the greatest of plays! badhamlet.blogspot.com (2 hrs 15 min)
Wed 6/20 @ 8:30pm,
Thu 6/21 @ 8:30pm,
Sat 6/23 @ 7:30pm,
Wed 6/27 @ 9pm
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Jollyship the Whiz-Bang presents
Rockberry: The Last One Man Show (a play)
Written by Nick Jones
Directed by Peter J. Cook
Somewhere in New Hampshire, a seemingly ordinary artist, venturing beyond his art colony's security fence, encounters a mysterious creature. This creature brings important news from the future: he will write a one man show, and it will be brilliant! Speaking to the artist in a form of telepathic French, the creature helps him discover his true voice, even as the other artists at the colony begin to meet bizarre and untimely ends... Rockberry: The Last One Man Show or The Infinity Within is a paranoid philosophical thriller about the importance of art, Destiny, and the superiority of monologue over dialogue, dramatized in the mode of a summer camp slasher flick. With French supertitles, gratuitous video, and dangerous revelations about the poet John Ashbery. (75 min)
Sat 6/9 @ 10:15pm,
Thu 6/14 @ 8:30,
Sat 6/23 @ 9:45pm
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The Sophisticates
Written by John DeVore
Directed by RJ Tolan
Two self important bloggers with literary aspirations patiently await the arrival of a hot shot book agent in this scathing satire on big city media -- where the competition is vicious because the stakes are so low. (90 min)
Fri 6/1 @ 11pm,
Sat 6/2 @ 5pm
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This Is the New American Theatre
Written by Danny Bowes and Tom X. Chao
Directed by Danny Bowes
Featuring Danny Bowes, Tom X. Chao, Melissa Roth, Karen Sours
Two egomaniacal writer-performers named Danny Bowes and Tom X. Chao (played by Danny Bowes and Tom X. Chao) devise a revolutionary plan to redefine the medium of theater: having actresses appear nude onstage to distract the audience while they subliminally propagandize the audience with aesthetic memes and their own idiosyncratic preoccupations. However, once the actresses are cast, Bowes and Chao find to their horror and surprise that . . . women have minds of their own. This is the New American Theatre contains extensive nudity and foul language, and truly obscene levels of self-absorption. Children under 18 discouraged from attending. (90 min)
Sat 6/2 @ 7pm,
Thu 6/7 @ 8:15pm,
Sun 6/10 @ 3pm,
Wed 6/13 @ 8:30pm
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Three Angels Dancing on a Needle
Written by Assurbanipal Babilla
Directed by Michael Yawney
Three Angels Dancing on a Needle is a comedy about pure love, pure lust, and all the impure thoughts in between. Three characters play out absurd fantasies of sex and revenge as they look for paradise in all the wrong places. Written by exiled Iranian playwright Assurbanipal Babilla, the piece makes outrageous comedy out of a collision of the spiritual and sexual. (60 min)
Tue 6/5 @ 7pm,
Wed 6/6 @ 9:15pm,
Sat 6/9 @ 7:30pm,
Sun @ 6/10 5pm
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Tunnel Vision
Written and performed by C. Stangenberg
Directed by Mercedes Murphy
Video/Image Master Katurah Hutcheson
Tunnel Vision takes five characters on a bumpy ride through the cacophony of external input on New York City’s subway system. The conductor drives them to meet their glairing destiny. Boldly directed by the Mercedes Murphy, Tunnel Vision will have you looking for the light yourself. (60 min)
Thu 6/14 @ 7pm,
Sun 6/17 @ 5:30pm
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Un film présomptueux et bon d'art de pensée dehors
By Video Augmentalist Jonathan Latiano
The alpha, the omega, the greatest film you'll ever see. (Performed as part of Brick-a-Brac)
Sun 6/3 @ 7pm
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Yudkowski Returns! (The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Dr. Eliezer Yudkowski)
Written and Directed by Bob Saietta
In a seemingly deserted island, Dr. Eliezer Yudkowski and his artificial intelligence drones and cohorts wage a war to keep their circular narrative from ending. Their only weapon? The hope that humanity can finally evolve. (90 min)
Sat 6/30 @ 8:45pm,
Sun 7/1 @ 1pm,
Sun 7/1 @ 7pm
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