Half Straddle to Host ANCIENT LIVES Benefit Gala at The Kitchen, 10/5

On Sunday, October 5th, Tina Satter and Obie Award-winning theater company Half Straddle will host a benefit gala at The Kitchen to support the company's upcoming world premiere of ANCIENT LIVES (Jan. 2015 at The Kitchen). The party runs from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., Sunday, October 5, at The Kitchen, 12 West 19th Street (b/w 10 and 11 Ave.) Kimberly Clark, Bushwick's drag queen DJ with the mostess, emcees and plays throughout the evening.

With performances by...

Adrienne Truscott! // antics from a Doris Duke Impact Award Recipient

Yackez! // the world's most loveable hip hop duo

Gold Dime! // new music from Andrya Ambo (Talk Normal)

Erin Markey! // Time Out New York's 2013 'Best Offbeat Diva Who's About To Blow Up'

Lucy Taylor! // Elevator Repair Service's Gatz and The Select

Half Straddle Songs! // by members of the company

The event also features a Silent Auction with items from NARS, Estee Lauder, the ceramics studio Recreation Center, 53rd St. Press, dealer-donated art, and more. Cocktails, beer, wine, and snacks provided by Flatbush Farm and Baked by Melissa.

Location + Directions: The Kitchen, 12 West 19th Street (b/w 10 and 11 Ave); A/C/E train to 14th Street. Tickets: $100 Special Guest Ticket: pre-party cocktail hour with the company, tote bag, 53rd State Press gift package and more; $50 General Ticket: performances open bar and food and access to the silent auction; $50 Artist Sponsor Ticket: can't make to the party but want to sponsor an artist? This is the ticket for you. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.halfstraddle.com/benefit.

About ANCIENT LIVES - The world premiere of Half Straddle's seventh full-length work, ANCIENT LIVES will open at The Kitchen in New York in January 2015. ANCIENT LIVES is a play about coming of age and self-creation. A teacher leads three students away from society. The group starts an alternative TV station in the woods and meets a young witch who alters the group dynamic, as their fragile new family begins to fray. With an original choral score, a video landscape to create the strange forest hideout, and an at-once humorous and poignant narrative, the ensemble delves into the contemporary American reality of how we make meaning -- for ourselves and for our communities. Half Straddle company members Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent, Emily Davis and Julia Sirna-Frest are joined by Lucy Taylor (ERS), with a live musical score performed by Half Straddle composer Chris Giarmo, and video design by Ilan Bachrach (Nature Theater of Oklahoma).

About Half Straddle - Half Straddle is an Obie Award-winning Brooklyn-based ensemble of performers and designers who make plays, performances, videos and music, written and directed by Tina Satter. The company began in 2008, has toured in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and has produced several New York Times Critic's Picks. In 2013, Half Straddle won the Obie Award for emerging theater company. Artistic Director Tina Satter was named a 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award winner and was nominated for the prestigious European ZKB Patronage Prize for her most recent show, House of Dance.

The company is also producing its first TV miniseries, Gardens of the Deep, written and produced by company members in collaboration with screenwriter Micah Bloomberg (Creative Control, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors). The series features Becca Blackwell (OUTTAKES, Jack in a Box), and company members Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent, Emily Davis and Erin Markey.

About Tina Satter - Half Straddle Artistic Director Tina Satter's work has been curated into seasons at The Kitchen, PS122, Incubator Arts Project, the Bushwick Starr, Prelude Festival, and Ice Factory Festival. Tina was named a "2011 Off-Off Broadway Innovator to Watch" by Time Out New York, was a 2013 Kitchen L.A.B. resident, and featured director at Culture Project's 2011 Women Center Stage Festival. She has been a guest artist and teacher at Princeton University, Reed College, and Fordham University. Tina attended Mac Wellman's graduate playwriting program at Brooklyn College and received a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Reed College.