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The Exponential Festival Presents: The Complaint Society

Barnett Cohen

January 4 - January 7

$20 – $40

The Exponential Festival and The Brick present
THE COMPLAINT SOCIETY
by Barnett Cohen

January 4-7 2023

Contextualized by our era of infinite emergency, The Complaint Society documents and synthesizes a pixelated present of ruined meaning, anxious forces, neurotic tendencies, and looping violence. A range of urgencies–climate grief, state-sanctioned force, reparative justice, reproductive rights, systems of surveillance, the growing fascist theocracy in the US, and the memeification of political mood–appear and reappear in the performance as sirens, propositions for time travel, and calls to action.

Created by Barnett Cohen
with performances by Briana Archer, Deja Bowen, Lena Engelstein & Rachel Rivera
Styling by JenniLee featuring looks by A.Potts & Doc Martens
Stage Management by Cliff Hoitt-Lange
Documentation & Image credits by Suz Murray Sadler & jb
Movement Direction by Lena Engelstein
Lighting Design by Sarai Frazier
Text Design by Tanya Rubbak

Cast in monochromatic lighting on an empty stage, four performers follow a text-based poetic score as they offer thought forms to an audience in the round. Over the course of this hour-long piece, the performers deliver fast-paced and electrifying combinations of monologues, asides, and soliloquies interspersed with highly-stylized choreographed movement. The Complaint Society is as much a dialogue with crisis as it is dialectic with the world of language at large in which we are all immersed.

THE EXPONENTIAL FESTIVAL
JANUARY’S BROOKLYN-BASED THEATRE FESTIVAL
~ A pleasure, a mess, a thrill, and a dream. ~​

Exponential is a month-long January festival dedicated to New York City-based emerging artists working in experimental performance. The participants in this multi-artist, multi-venue festival are committed to ecstatic creativity in the face of commercialism. Exponential is driven by inclusiveness and a diversity of artists, forms, and ideas coupled with utopian resource-sharing, mentoring and the championing of risky, rigorous work in eclectic fields. theexponentialfestival.org

***

Barnett Cohen (he/they) shapeshifts between poet, performance maker, painter, and political activist. Born in South Africa, Cohen grew up in Georgia, and now lives between Los Angeles and New York. Throughout his anti-disciplinary practice, Cohen proposes a kaleidoscopic queer surrealism. He accumulates language and symbols and disorganizes them into alternative logics within his work, materializing shape and sound into absurdist and anarchic non-sense. He has presented work at REDCAT, JOAN, LAXART, 356 Mission, Human Resources, The Box, Institute of Contemporary Art, and LACMA (forthcoming) in Los Angeles, and JDJ, The International Center of Photography, The Center For Performance (forthcoming) in New York. In 2021, Open Space/SFMOMA published a collection of his poems alongside those of artist Simone Forti. He has been in-residence at Skowhegan, MacDowell, and NARS, and was recently nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant. In 2017, Cohen founded the Mutual Aid Immigration Network (MAIN), a trilingual free assistance hotline for people detained in immigration detention centers across the United States. MAIN connects people who call with bond funds and legal services that can accelerate their freedom from incarceration. 

PERFORMERS 

Lena Engelstein is a Brooklyn based choreographer and performer. In the last year, she has co-created and performed a series of duets–the first with LA-based performance artist Magda San Millan; the second with dancer Jo Warren. She has collaborated with and performed in work by director Lisa Fagan since 2017, and is currently the assistant choreographer/performer in the interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, headed by Fagan. Other performance credits include: Third Rail Company’s Bessie award winning immersive theater show Then She Fell (company member, 2019-2020), Brendan Drake (company member, 2017-2020), Falcon Dance (company member, 2018-present). Engelstein has performed on stages across New York City, including: New York Live Arts, Judson Memorial Church, Target Margin Theater, Danspace Project, PS 122, Center for Performance Research, HERE Arts, Gibney, The Brick, Vital Joint and Triskelion. She has taught dance and choreography at SUNY Brockport, Bard College, and The Field Center. Lena holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a minor in Dance from Colorado College. IG: lenaengelstein

Briana Archer (she/her) is an actor, singer, dancer based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch, studying at the Experimental Theatre Wing, and abroad at the International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam. For more information visit www.brianaarcher.com or find her @briearcher.

Rachel Rivera (they/them) is an immersive and interactive theater maker from Los Angeles. After graduating from the UCLA theater program, they built and performed in originally devised immersive productions with Play Collaborative Arts Venue, Montserrat DTLA and Ceaseless Fun Productions. They recently performed at Lenfest Center For the Arts for graduating playwrights Jay Stull and Sam Grabiner. They await the end of the world in Brooklyn with three cats. 

Deja Bowen (she/her) is an actor, model, and performer based between New York & Los Angeles. A graduate of AMDA College & Conservatory, she has previously collaborated with Barnett Cohen on SOMETHINNNGISALWAYSSSWRONGGG (JOAN, Los Angeles, 2019), MOUTHBRAIN at JDJ in New York, and the west coast premiere of MOUTHBRAIN at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (2021 & 2022.) IG: @ohhappydej_ dejabowen.com

MOVEMENT DIRECTION 

Lena Engelstein 

SOUND

Barnett Cohen & Cliff Hoitt-Lange

LOOKS

Aaron Potts is a Detroit born and raised Brooklynite who grew up loving award shows, Wonder Woman, Soul Train and sitcoms. He discovered his love for fashion as a kid watching the folks decked out at church and while shopping with his mama who loved pretty dresses, the color red and beautiful flowers in her hair. He discovered the fashion industry when he was in a high school fashion design class which ignited his love for fashion magazines, runway shows and Antonio Lopez fashion illustrations. He went on to attend Parsons School of Design (The New School) in NYC. While there, he interned with Marc Jacobs at Perry Ellis and with Donna Karan at DKNY. After graduation, he went on to design for Emanuel Ungaro, Anne Klein, Victoria’s Secret, Escada (Munich, Germany), Badgley Mischka, Ellen Tracy, Kaufmanfranco and Tamara Mellon. He lives in Brooklyn and spends time in the Catskills and Detroit…all great hubs of art, creativity and inspiration. An avid reader, he loves hiking in Woodstock, prides himself on being Whitney Houston’s #1 fan, dreaming of dressing Whoopi Goldberg, and is seriously trying to meditate more and LOVES to laugh. 

STYLING 

JenniLee has previously collaborated with Barnett Cohen on SOMETHINNNGISALWAYSSSWRONGGG at JOAN (Los Angeles, 2019), approach gesture response at REDCAT (Los Angeles, 2020), MOUTHBRAIN at JDJ (New York, 2021), and most recently on MOUTHBRAIN at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, 2022.) When not styling performances, she specializes in modern and refined styling for celebrity and fashion magazine editorials, brands, and private clients. Specifically, helping female-identified entrepreneurs to use fashion to experience self-love, explore their creativity, and align their personal style with their brand identity. She has worked with internationally renowned brands such as Harper’s Bazaar, Heineken, Blooming dale’s, Diesel, Atlantic Records, and Sony. She has lent her fluid sensibility to celebrities as varied as Lana Condor, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Lauryn Hill, Mos Def, Death Cab for Cutie, and Paramore. In addition, she has collaborated with top-tier photographers and creative directors for television, advertising, print, and online media. @jennileestylist

LIGHTING DESIGN

Sarai Frazier (Lighting Designer) is a NYC-based lighting and props designer working in performance art, theatre and film. She is currently working as the Derek Lloyd Production Fellow at Performance Space New York. Sarai is interested in lighting design as its own medium to view, engage and interact with. She has recently made her international lighting design debut at HAU in Germany. A recent graduate from Brooklyn College’s BFA program in design, her most recent work as an LD includes All things under dog: where two things are always true (Performance Space New York) ILE (122 Community Center) , Gi-60 International Festival (The Tank) and INVISIBLE TRAIL (PSNY)

STAGE MANAGEMENT 

Cliff Hoitt-Lange is a queer performer-theater-maker, writer, and experimental violist. You may find them screeching the horse-hair bow on weathered strings in the woods, or tampering with a tape machine. This is their second year as a co-curator with Exponential Festival, bringing them joy every January. Recent stage managing and assisting credits: The Emus (Yeujia Low/Exponential Festival), mɔːnɪŋ (Gelsey Bell/HERE RAW), Bloodshot (underlords/Exponential Festival). Performing: The Infinite Hotel (Michael McQuilken/Prototype Festival), Crave (Cati Kalinoski), Twelve Angry Men (Jenny Beth Snyder). Cliff strives to unlearn their own racism and disrupt systemic inequities in theater, food systems, and their community. They are currently working on a play that dives into the icky-sticky dreams and realities of U.S. rape culture and childhood. 

DOCUMENTATION 

Suz Murray Sadler is a Brooklyn based video artist and filmmaker. Their focus is building non-hierarchical film sets and finding more ethical and sustain-able ways to make films and video art. Suz Murray’s recent work includes: Director for Infinite Loop Visual Mixtape by Lou Tides (2022), Director for Lou Tides – Sense of Touching Live (2022), Director of Photography for Whale Fall by mayfield brooks (2021). @suzmurraysadpants

GRATITUDES

Special thanks to Theresa Buchheister, Jesse Dorris, Ryan William Downey, Summer Guthery, Devon Wade Granmo, Nola Latty, Lexa Safran, Theresa Sterner, Jack Woods, Agentry PR.

In consideration for the health and safety or our staff members, artists, and audiences, The Brick remains committed to maintaining vaccination requirements and mask mandates for our in-person presentations for the foreseeable future. We ask that all audience members remain masked. All staff and performers will be vaccinated; performers may not be masked. Audience can provide proof of vaccination with a government issued I.D. along with a physical copy or picture of your COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card, the NYC COVID Safe App or the New York State Excelsior Pass. Please be patient with staff.

 

Details

Date:
January 5, 2023
Time:
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Cost:
$20 – $40
Event Category:
Website:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/122/production/1141998

Venue

Brick Theater
579 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, 11211 United States
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