The Public Theater Announces UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL, 1/4-15

By: BWW News Desk Jan. 04, 2012

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Joey Parnes, Interim Executive Director), Producer Mark Russell, and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP President and CEO Mario Garcia Durham) announced the exciting line-up today for the eighth annual UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL, running January 4-15, 2012 at The Public Theater as well as at partner venues around the city. This highly acclaimed 12-day festival is committed to tracking new theater from across the U.S. and around the world and, this year, will feature new shows from nine countries, including Argentina, Italy, Japan, and Poland.

All single tickets to UNDER THE RADAR shows at The Public Theater are $20; Member tickets are $15. Tickets to UNDER THE RADAR shows at partner venues are $20-25. This year the UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL will introduce the "UTR Pak," which grants admission to any five UNDER THE RADAR shows (except The Plot is the Revolution and Feel) at any venue for only $75. Tickets are on sale now to Public Theater members and go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, December 6. The "UTR Pak" is on sale now to both members and the general public.

Tickets may be purchased at The Public Theater Box Office at 425 Lafayette Street; online at www.publictheater.org or by phone at 212-967-7555. Tickets for partner venue events should be purchased directly from the venue.

COMPLETE LINE-UP FOR UNDER THE RADAR (JANUARY 4 – 15, 2012):

AT The Public Theater

(Single tickets $20; Member tickets $15)

GOODBAR
January 4-15 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Created by Bambï and Waterwell (New York)

Based on Looking for Mr. Goodbar by Judith Rossner
Music by Jimmie Marlowe, Lyrics by Kevin Townley

Directed by Arian Moayed and Tom Ridgely

Featuring Bambï: Hanna Cheek, Cara Jeiven, Jimmie Marlowe, Tobi Parks and Kevin Townley

$20 Tickets: publictheater.org or 212-967-7555

Waterwell, one of the Village Voice’s Best Arguments for Devised Theater (2010) and creators of #9 and The|King|Operetta, present their latest drop, the live concept album, GOODBAR. Created in collaboration with NYC glam-punk band, Bambï, GOODBAR blurs the boundaries between music and theatre while tackling one of the most controversial cult artifacts of the '70s: Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Riffing wildly on the novel by Judith Rossner, Bambï & Waterwell crank the amps up to 10 and launch a full frontal assault on modern myths of sex, independence, and persona. GOODBAR also integrates video performances by Ira Glass, Moby, Bobby Cannavale, and many others.

SONTAG: REBORN
January 4-15 (Running Time: 80 minutes)

Based on the book by Susan Sontag and edited by David Reiff
The Builders Association (New York)

$20 Tickets: publictheater.org or 212-967-7555

SONTAG: REBORN draws from cultural critic Susan Sontag’s journals, tracing her academic and personal journey from the age of 14 to her emergence as a singular public intellectual. In SONTAG: REBORN, performer Moe Angelo’s actions and words are magnified and transformed using a richly visual media environment to depict the workings of Sontag’s prismatic mind. SONTAG: REBORN creates an elegant portrait of a magnetic personality under careful construction.

Formed in 1994 and led by director Marianne Weems, The Builders Association creates original theater works about life in the 21^st century. Previous works include Jet Lag, Alladeen, Super Vision, Continuous City, and House/Divided.

Super Night Shot

January 5-8 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
Gob Squad Arts Collective (Germany/UK)

$20 Tickets: publictheater.org or 212-967-7555

Thurs. Jan 5^th 9pm| Fri. Jan 6^th 9pm| Sun. Jan 8^th 9pm

Precisely one hour before you arrive, Super Night Shot begins. In a military-style brief, Gob Squad declares a “War on Anonymity” and takes to New York City streets armed with video cameras, embarking on a set of comic and surreal adventures that celebrate unexpected encounters with strangers. You give them a rousing hero’s welcome as they return to the theater, and the footage of the fantastical mission is mixed live into a four-channel widescreen film.

This is Gob Squad’s second consecutive appearance at UTR after last year’s very successful Kitchen (You’ve Never Had it So Good). Their contemporary take on Andy Warhol’s experimental films of the ‘60s, Kitchen... will return immediately following the festival for a three-week run at The Public Theater, January 19-February 5, 2012.

Word Becomes Flesh
January 5-15 (Running Time: 80 minutes)

Presented in Association with 651 ARTS
Conceived and Directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph / The Living Word Project (Oakland)

$20 Tickets: publictheater.org or 212-967-7555

Presented as a series of letters to an unborn son, Word Becomes Flesh confronts fatherhood in urban communities and the mythology of the black male body – from cotton field to athletic field and all the spaces in between. Marc Bamuthi Joseph reinvents his 2003 solo performance for a new generation with an ensemble cast, using spoken word, music, and contemporary and hip-hop dance.

Word Becomes Flesh was one of the first performances seen at the original Under the Radar 2005, performed as a dynamic solo by Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The show returns to UTR transformed into a five-man ensemble work directed by Joseph.

Camille O’Sullivan: Feel

One Night Only: Friday, January 6 (Running Time: 90 minutes)
Camille O’Sullivan (Ireland)

Tickets are free but extremely limited due to seating capacity.

Free Tickets: publictheater.org or 212-539-8650

Fri. Jan 6^th 7:30pm/UTR Special Event

An award-winning actress, architect and painter, Irish/French chanteuse Camille O’Sullivan is one of Ireland’s most unique artists. With five-star sell-out seasons in London, New York, Sydney Opera House, and Edinburgh, this charismatic performer presents the work of Nick Cave, Jacques Brel, David Bowie, Tom Waits, and many others in her very own distinctively theatrical style. Presented in collaboration with Culture Ireland.

El pasado es un animal grotesco (The past is a grotesque animal)
January 7-15 (Running Time: 110 minutes)

Co-presented by The Public’s Under The Radar Festival and Performance Space 122’s COIL Festival

Written and Directed by Mariano Pensotti (Argentina)
$20 Tickets: publictheater.org or 212-967-7555

In Spanish with English supertitles.

Epic and cinematic in scope, with a slowly revolving stage, El pasado… tracks the lives of four young Argentinians in a bittersweet fragmentary chronicle of a decade (1999-2009). What began as a story pieced together from damaged photographs left behind in a photolab evolves into a fast-paced record of the past, both true and imaginary.

AT UNDER THE RADAR PARTNER VENUES

Alexis. A Greek Tragedy
January 4-14 (Running Time: 70 minutes)
Co-presented by The Public’s Under The Radar Festival and La MaMa

Motus (Italy)

Directed by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò

La MaMa: 74A East 4th Street

$20 Tickets: lamama.org or 212-475-7710

Performed in Italian with English supertitles.

In 2008, 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos became an icon of youthful rebellion after he was shot by a policeman, triggering an unprecedented storm of protests against the corrupted political system in Greece. In their continued search for a modern Antigone in present-day resistance, Motus emerges with this documentary theatre piece of uncompromising theatricality. Alexis is their poetic call to action.

Hailed by The New York Times as “fresh and ferocious,” UTR welcomes back Motus – one of Italy’s most adventurous companies – after their sold-out performances of Too Late! (antigone) contest #2 in UTR 2011.

The Plot is the Revolution
One Night Only: January 9 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
Co-presented by The Public’s Under The Radar Festival and La MaMa

Motus (Italy)

Directed by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò

With Silvia Calderoni and Judith Malina (The Living Theatre)

La MaMa: 74A East 4th Street

$20 Tickets: lamama.org or 212-475-7710

Performed in Italian with English supertitles.

Mon. Jan 9^th 7:30pm/UTR Special Event

The Living Theatre’s Judith Malina and Motus’ Silvia Calderoni create an encounter between two Antigones – spanning generations and experiences – united in the belief that theater can incite political transformation.

LICK BUT DON’T SWALLOW!
January 4-15 (Running Time: 75 minutes)

Co-presented by The Public’s Under The Radar Festival and La MaMa
biriken & Ayça Damgac? (Turkey)

Directed by biriken (Melis Tezkan-Okan Urun)

Written by Özen Yula

La MaMa: 66 East 4th Street

$20 Tickets: lamama.org or 212-475-7710

Performed in Turkish with English supertitles.

An angel comes down from heaven but finds herself in the body of a porn star. The clock is ticking – who can she save? Or is it just a dream of a porn star to save herself and the world? A hybrid of comedy, video, and existential inquiry, LICK BUT DON’T SWALLOW! was only performed once in Istanbul, due to protests by a fundamentalist newspaper.

LICK BUT DON’T SWALLOW! was directed by biriken (an interdisciplinary arts collective based in Istanbul and Paris), in collaboration with Ayça Damgac? (actress and screenwriter of Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando) and written by leading Turkish playwright Özen Yula.

The Table
January 5-8 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
Co-presented by The Public’s Under The Radar Festival and La MaMa

Blind Summit (UK)

La MaMa: 66 East 4th Street

$20 Tickets: lamama.org or 212-475-7710

Thurs. Jan 5^th 9:30pm| Fri. Jan 6^th 8:30pm| Sat. Jan 7^th 4:30pm & 8:30pm| Sun. Jan 8^th 2:30pm

A cantankerous puppet Moses trapped on a table! Some disembodied heads at a romantic dinner! A tank salesman! All unfolding in a visual journey inspired by Beckett, the Bible, and Ikea.

From the artists who created innovative puppets for Simon McBurney’s A Dog’s Heart and Anthony Minghella’s Madam Butterfly, 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Award winners Blind Summit go back to their roots with their new show, The Table, which concentrates on sweaty, improvised, ground-breaking puppetry.

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields
January 5-14 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Co-presented by The Public’s Under The Radar Festival and La MaMa

Stefan Zeromski Theatre

Directed by Rados?aw Rychcik (Poland)
La MaMa: 66 East 4th Street

$20 Tickets: lamama.org or 212-475-7710

Performed in Polish with English supertitles.

All songs are about love, and they're all like wolves. Backed by live music from the Polish cult band Natural Born Chillers, this interpretation of late French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès’s In the Solitude of Cotton Fields imagines a raw encounter between a Dealer and a Client with the swagger of an Eastern European punk-rock concert.

Last seen at UTR 2010 with Versus, Rychcik is emerging as one of the young directors to watch in international theater for his use of an intense acting technique and simple yet specific stage design.

Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech
January 5-14 (Running Time: 65 minutes)
Presented by Japan Society as part of The Public’s Under The Radar Festival

chelfitsch Theater Company (Japan)

Written and Directed by Toshiki Okada

Japan Society: 333 East 47^th Street

$22 Tickets: japansociety.org or 212-715-1258

Performed in Japanese with English supertitles.

Thurs. Jan 12^th 8pm| Fri. Jan 13^th 8pm| Sat. Jan 14^th 9pm

chelfitsch Theater Company returns to New York to perform Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech, the quirky triptych created by the internationally acclaimed playwright/director Toshiki Okada. Hot Pepper… captures the empty and ungrounded nature of Generation Y in Japan today through three humorously absurd scenes set in a corporate break room. Characterized by a seemingly insubstantial narrative accompanied by exaggerated gestures-turned-choreography, the groundbreaking works of chelfitsch (Five Days in March and Enjoy) have drawn global recognition, making them a leading theater company in Japan and abroad.

THE BEE

January 5-15 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Presented by Japan Society as part of The Public’s Under The Radar Festival

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre / Soho Theatre, London / Noda Map

Co-written & Directed by Hideki Noda (Japan)

Japan Society: 333 East 47^th Street

$25 Tickets: japansociety.org or 212-715-1258

Thurs. Jan 5^th 8:45pm| Fri. Jan 6^th 7pm| Sat. Jan 7^th 7pm| Sun. Jan 8^th 2:30pm| Mon. Jan 9^th 7:45pm

Wed. Jan 11^th 7:45pm| Thurs. Jan 12^th 7:45pm| Fri. Jan 13^th 7:45pm| Sat. Jan 14^th 7pm|
Sun. Jan 15^th 2:30pm

Manga comic strip-like frenzy turns into a thought-provoking nightmare in Hideki Noda's THE BEE, co-written by Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan and inspired by a story by Yasutaka Tsutsui. This gripping production tells the tale of an ordinary Japanese businessman who turns savage after returning home to discover that his wife and son have been taken hostage. Within a minimalist set and an eerily beautiful soundtrack, the cast, composed of four members, including the director himself and Olivier Award winner Kathryn Hunter, seamlessly shifts between characters.

Chimera
January 5-15 (Running Time: 70 minutes)
Presented by HERE as part of The Public’s Under The Radar Festival

Suli Holum and Deborah Stein (New York)

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