3LD Offers '3LD 3-FER' For Theater And Video 1/10 -1/17

3LD Art & Technology Center presents 3LD 3-FER: 3-Legged Dog's Fire Island (short), Reid Farrington's The Passion Project and Troika Ranch's Loop Diver (an excerpt) Three-for-one afternoons and evenings of theater, video and performance.

The performances will be taking place at 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street at Rector, NYC 10006 from January 10 - January 17, 2009. Performances will be 3 pm and 9:30 pm.

Tickets cost $10 and are available on www.3ldnyc.org or call 212-352-3101. Ticket price for 3LD 3-FER includes admission at any point from 230 – 430 and 900 – 1100 pm as well as free drinks and snacks.

Afternoon 3LD 3-FER showing is as follows: 300 – 335 pm:  The Passion Project, by Reid Farrington with Shelley Kay, 345 – 405 pm: Loop Diver (excerpt), by Troika Ranch, 415 – 500 pm: Fire Island (short), by 3-Legged Dog.

Late night 3LD 3-FER showing is as follows: 930 – 1005 pm: The Passion Project, by Reid Farrington with Shelley Kay, 1015 – 1035 pm: Loop Diver (excerpt), by Troika Ranch, 1045 – 1130 pm: Fire Island (short), by 3-Legged Dog.

Fire Island, by 3-Legged Dog, explores the many ways which people experience the birth and dissolution of relationships amidst the diverse and fragile ecosystems of this barrier island. Characters include drag queens, a 6-foot tall little girl, freak clown, Japanese bondage junkies, old folks and 50 other
island inhabitants, all dealing with various stages of their relationships.

3-Legged Dog was approached by renowned playwright Charles Mee to premiere his play Fire Island, which Mee created specifically with 3-Legged Dog in mind.  The show premiered in April 2008.

This massive endeavor transforms the performance space into an indoor collaged version of Fire Island, complete with beach chairs and summer drinks. This multidimensional beach party also incorporates the acclaimed 3-D Eyeliner technology. All at once, the viewer will experience a couple falling in love from their perspective, close up, from a distance, as a voyeur peeping through the window, as well as the details of the environment around them (the weathered, salted
boardwalk or the decaying pine needles).

Fire Island involves 108 artists, including the Tuvan throat singer Albert Kuvezin.  Kuvezin's album Re-Covers, which is specified in the script, consists of covers of popular songs (including Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Iron Butterfly's "In a Gadda Da Vida") performed with Tuvan overtone singing and traditional Tuvan instruments. Kuvezin will travel from Tuva to perform in the piece both on video and live. The entire production team also appears live  on stage, many with small speaking roles.

Founded in 1994, 3-Legged Dog has become one of the leading experimental arts groups in New York, performing works in venues including The Kitchen, The Ontological, PS 122, La MaMa,  Signature Theatre and The Venice Biennale (Arsenale). The company has mounted 17 full productions and numerous large-scale interactive installation works. In March 2006, 3LD Art & Technology Center opened the doors on a 12,500 square foot multi-venue art center in Lower Manhattan. In November 2007 the center was selected as one of 50 Essentials by Time Out and 3LD Artistic Director Kevin Cunningham was awarded The American Theater Wing's Henry Hewes Design Award. As of December 2007, the center had already supported the work of approximately 750 artists. 3LD continues to make at least 2 large-scale pieces each year in its new facility.

Loop Driver (excerpt) was conceived and directed by Troika Ranch. At any moment, we may encounter violence. Whether it takes the form of a tangible act of hostility or a subtler, psychological assault, one must move through a state of turbulence, allowing the resonance of
aggression to shake our body and soul, so that we might eventually regain equilibrium. But what happens if you cannot process the information, if you cannot come to terms with the resulting anger, fear, and loss? What if the information is so incomprehensible that you find yourself asking the same questions over and over again? What if you get caught in a never-ending loop? This is the thematic core of Troika Ranch's new work Loop Diver, an evening length dance theater
piece that portrays an encounter with violence, and the attempts of its characters to escape from the resulting prisons of repetition.

The movement, sonic and visual material for Loop Diver emerges from a complex, computer mediated looping process. Our process is to record choreographed movement and spoken language sequences, and to let the computer generate loops from this material. The performers then attempt to learn the computer-generated material, a task that is daunting but critical to conveying the essence of the piece. These strict, unrelenting loops serve as a powerful metaphor for the loops of the mind, the prisons of repetition that are the cornerstone of this work. By imposing the computerized looped material onto the dancers and pitting it against their inability to precisely perform the loops, the situation itself causes a "violent" reverberation out of which they must dive and transcend.

Troika Ranch is under the Artistic Direction of Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello. Loop Diver features choreography by Dawn Stoppiello in collaboration with the performers, music & video by Mark Coniglio, Dramatrugy by Peter C von Salis, set by Colin Kilian, lighting by David Tirosh, costumes by Dawn Stoppiello, and performances by JJ Kovacevich and Hank Hansted. Loop Diver has been commissioned by the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska; it will premiere at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in October 2009. For more info visit www.troikaranch.org.

The Passion Project was conceived and directed by Reid Farrington. Reid Farrington's performance installation The Passion Project is spun from the reels of the last great silent film, Carl Th. Dreyer's 1928 masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc. Dreyer tells his story through the eyes of Joan, using close ups and fast cuts to communicate the severity of her situation. It remains one of the most fascinating portraits of emotion ever captured on film. With support from the Danish film Institute and The University of Copenhagen, this performance installation includes every frame Dreyer shot in relationship to the film, including the reels that -- like Joan herself -- were lost to fire.

The Passion Project explodes the film into the three dimensions; placing the audience inside the film, sitting next Joan, subjecting them to her interrogators and the relentless rhythm of 30mm film projection.  Using a single live actor and multiple projection surfaces, The Passion Project explores the intersection of performance and film. It uses Dreyer's classic film 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.

Directed by Reid Farrington, the workshop production includes costumes by Sara Jeanne Asselin, set by Janet D. Clancy, software design by Austin Guest and dramaturgy / technical assistance by Stephen O'Connell. The piece had its initial workshop production at the PS/K2 Festival, last November  in Copenhagen, Denmark. It had its official premiere at Performance Space122 in September 2008.

Reid Farrington has been employed as a video artist for the Wooster Group for the past seven years. He has designed video and created hardware and software systems for the play back of video and sound for To You the Birdie!, Brace Up!, Poor Theater, House/Lights, Who's Your Dada and Hamlet. He has toured productions to Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Brussels, and Athens. He has edited has authored interactive DVDs of The Wooster Group's performances, Brace Up! and House/Lights.  In addition to being a video artist, he is a director, set, light, and costume designer for various theater and dance companies in NYC. For more information, visit www.reidfarrington.com

About 3LD Art & Technology Center: In 2006, the company inaugurated the 3LD Art & Technology Center at 80 Greenwich Street south of the World Trade Center site.  3LD Art & Technology Center is an artist-run production studio with one goal, to create a culture of risk taking, experimentation, independence and ambition with a cooperative international community of artists centered in New York.  3LD's facility and programs offer an arena in which residents simultaneously increase knowledge, streamline production processes and realize their creative visions.  3LD's resident programs are designed to create a stable, savvy, self-sufficient experimental arts community with access to resources and professional development that leads to better quality work, high production values, and new ways of engaging the public, here and abroad.  With 3LD's resources and the time to really dig into their work, residents have the opportunity to test the limits of their
materials and expand their artistic imaginations. Over the last two years, the company has supported the work of nearly 1000 artists including Laurie Anderson, Charles Mee, New Georges, Hourglass Group, Here, The Team, Troika Ranch, Trick Saddle, Ripe Time, Reid Farrington, and many others.  For more information visit www.3ldnyc.org.