Photo Flash: First Look at Incubator Arts Project's LOVE MACHINE

What do a small town girl flirting with a satellite, a robot giving a lecture about transhumanism, and a man uploading his consciousness into the digital ether all have in common? Love. Love Machine is created to reflect the current trend of the way humans have come to rely on technology. Below, BroadwayWorld has a first look at the piece, debuting at Incubator Arts Project on May 10!

Continuing a long collaboration between theater and technology, the Love Machine team uses interactive, commercially available technologies, combined with improvisation and character-based writing techniques, to create a live experience blasting forward into the future and asking the questions of tomorrow.

In Part 1, the team explores the 1974 launch and abandonment of the space station Skylab through the loving eyes of Cindy, a lonely girl with no date to prom. Enter Skylab: a man-made satellite, strangely reminiscent of Fred Astaire. Together they embark on a musical journey through outer space.

Part 2 takes us to the year 2050 for a guest lecture on Transhumanism, a movement focused on furthering the human condition by means of science and technology. The talk is led by the robotically preserved consciousness of a transgender scientist and is followed by an audience Q & A.

Part 3 is a high tech interactive dance piece that asks the simple question: how does a disembodied consciousness find love?

Delving into the boom in interactive technology infiltrating live theater, Love Machine belongs to this new wave of work dedicated to broadening the medium's relevance and engaging the shifting tastes and expanding expectations of the modern-day theater going audience. These tools bring communication and responsiveness closer to the authentic moment of the present and are directly in line with the objectives of live performance and the pursuit of audience engagement. The Love Machine team is working to create a 21st century toolbox and, by utilizing the capabilities of today's technology in unexpected ways, allowing us to imagine the stories of tomorrow.

Directed by Andrew Scoville with Producer/Company Manager: Karina Martins, Produced in association with Imaginary Media and FGPNYC. Interactive Technology Design: Dave Tennent, IMA. Projection Design: Kate Freer, IMA & Alex Koch, IMA. Original Score and Sound Design: James Harrison Monaco and Jerome Ellis. Set Design: Gabriel Evansohn. Costume Design: Emily Peterson. Lighting Design: Joe Cantalupo. Choreographic Consultant: Sam Pinkleton. Performers: Nikki Calonge, James Harrison Monaco, Sean Roshman, Lynne Rosenberg* & Bina48. Written and developed by the cast and creative team. *Actors Equity Association Approved showcase

*Join us on May 10th and 11th immediately following the show as the team of Love Machine host a special talk back featuring the social

Incubator Arts Project cultivates and presents a multi-generational community of artists who challenge the conventions of live performance by producing original work at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. IAP programs provide access to a fully equipped venue along with personalized career support and strategic investment of resources individually tailored to the needs of each artist.

Core programs include the New Performance Series, Other Forces, Music and Short Form. Incubator Arts Project is fiscally managed by Performing Artservices Inc., a New York based non-profit arts organization, and is artistically led by a team of curators who collectively make programmatic, artistic and organizational decisions.

Since 2006, Incubator Arts Project has presented award-winning work by artists including: Alec Duffy, Banana Bag & Bodice, Bluemouth Inc., Debate Society, Daniel Fish, Half-Straddle, Karinne Keithley, Object Collection, Vampire Cowboys, and Witness Relocation.

Tickets $18 General, $14 Students / Purchase in advance at incubatorarts.org, or call TheaterMania at 212-352-3101. Performances May 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 / 8pm. Incubator Arts Project inside St. Mark's Church, 131 East 10th Street, at Second Avenue. L to First or Third Avenue; R, W to Broadway/8th Street; 6 to Astor Place; N, Q, 4, 5 to Union Square.