Undergroundzero Festival Finds New Home To Perform In One Last Time

When the lease on its Tribeca home expires on July 31, 2008, Collective: Unconscious will close its doors for good. This decision comes on the heels of a massive plumbing problem that has rendered its lower level "lobby" and backstage storage area unusable and has forced much of its previously announced UNDERGROUNDZERO FESTIVAL to seek new venues.

Neighboring venues The Flea and Manhattan Children's Theatre as well as Grace Bar & Restaurant have graciously come to the rescue to host productions from the UNDERGROUNDZERO FESTIVAL beginning July 8. Now in its second year, the festival will present over a dozen works by both established and emerging artists.  Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door for all shows except CVR, which is $25. Student and Senior tickets are $10 at the door with id. An all-access festival pass is also available. For tickets call 212-352-3101 or visit www.weird.org

The complete performance schedule for the UNDERGROUNDZERO FESTIVAL -- with updated venue information -- is as follows:

July 8, 9, 10, 11 at 7:30pm
CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (CVR)
One of the most unique and riveting theatrical experiences to ever hit New York returns to Collective: Unconscious for a limited engagement prior to participating in Edinburgh Fringe Festival. CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (CVR) is a live performance documentary derived entirely from the "Black Box" transcripts of real-life airline emergencies. Allowing the audience into the tension-filled cockpits of actual flights in distress, CVR is a fascinating portrait of the psychology of crisis and a testimony to the ability to live to the last second of life. CVR received 2 Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Experience and Outstanding Sound Design and Time Out NY said "No show in town can match it's sheer intensity or artistic hermetic perfection."  This production will remain at  the Collective: Unconscious (279 Church Street at White Street -- accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,Q,W,6,J,M,Z to Canal or 1,9 to Franklin Street) and will be the final public performances at this location.

July 18 & 19 at 10pm, July 20 at 7pm
PINCHBOTTOM DECLARES WAR! (OR, FULL FRONTAL JACKET)
When beleaguered President Porkpie learns that the Pinchbottom Burlesque Organization are stockpiling "Weapons of Ass Destruction", he orders an immediate invasion. In response, the burlesque stars forswear their beloved bump & grind in favor of military maneuvers. When the two armies clash, who will emerge victorious? Featuring:  Nasty Canasta, Jonny Porkpie, Amber Ray, Anita Cookie, Bastard Keith, Clams Casino, Dirty Martini, Doctor Lukki, Naughtia Nice, Pookie Patootie, Scott Rayow, and Tigger. This production will be hosted by The Flea Theater Mainstage (41 White Street between Broadway & Church Streets -- accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,Q,W,6,J,M,Z to Canal or 1 to Franklin Street).

July 18 & 19 at 9pm, July 20 at 5pm
THE TERRIBLE TEMPTATION TO DO GOOD: A BRECHTIAN LOUNGE
Adapted from Bertolt Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle, Performance Lab 115  (winner of Best Overall Production at FringeNYC in 2005 for God's Waiting Room) presents a Brechtian lounge act of epic proportions! Developed during a six month residency with Mabou Mines, this rebuttal to the Broadway musical interweaves found text, original music and inspirations from Brecht. Reconfigured for a more site-specific feel, the production will be hosted by  Grace Bar & Restaurant  (114 Franklin Street Street between West Broadway & Church Streets -- accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,Q,W,6,J,M,Z to Canal or 1 to Franklin Street):

All of the remaining shows will be hosted by Manhattan Children's Theatre (52 White Street between Broadway & Church Streets -- accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,Q,W,6,J,M,Z to Canal or 1 to Franklin Street):

July 12 & 13 at 7:30pm
NIGROMANTIA: A SLIGHT RETURN
Written by Don Nigro
Directed  and performed by John Clancy (cofounder of FringeNYC) & Nancy Walsh, Nigromantia (medieval Latin for "speaking with the dead") pairs two monologues by award-winning playwright Don Nigro: Golgotha and Genesis. Golgatha is either the story of the resurrected Christ or the ramblings of a crazy man in Pittsburgh.  In Genesis, Eve, the mother of us all, tells us her side of the Story.  

July 12 & 13 at 9pm
INFANTA: USER'S GUIDE
Both tragic and hilariously funny, this new drama written by Saviana Stanescu, directed by Vasile Nedelcu and featuring Erika Blaxland-de Lange sensitively mirrors the ups and the downs of our current intellectual and egocentric ineptitude for self-expression. This play encourages us to stop and think about our own faults and prejudices in connection with race, culture and individuality. At the 100 Grad Theater Festival in Berlin, it was hailed as "haunting and energizing", while the Brighton Fringe Review called it "mesmerizing."

July 16, 23, 30 at 7:30pm
FEEDER: A LOVE STORY
Jesse is a 703-pound Gainer who consumes 15,000 calories per day. Noel is her Feeder. Both share in a world of passion, obsession and desserts. Developed by terraNOVA Collective, this new play is written by James Carter and directed by David Anzuelo and features Jennifer Conley Darling & Kevin Cristaldi.

July 17, 18, 19 @ 7:30pm
THE EVENT
The Event is a comic examination of the act of theater.  What starts as a straightforward dismantling of the "one-man show" transforms into an honest attempt at communion with those gathered.   Dealing directly and bluntly with the technician, the stage manager, the playwright, director and critics, the actor moves quickly into dangerous and slippery territory.  Armed only with his memorized words, can an actor say something else? Written and Directed by John Clancy (cofounder of FringeNYC), performed by Matt Oberg.
 
July 24, 25, 26 at 7:30pm
THE PROPOSAL, BASED ON AN OLD FARCE
Downtown director Daniel Irizarry has a proposal. Anton Chekhov, deceased, cannot refuse. Daniel is down on one knee, and Anton, giggling like a schoolgirl, puts another flower in his hair. A mangy dog puts his head in your lap, and, for some reason, you're looking at the stage. Shadowy pirouettes sputter into quiet sobs. Irizarry collapses, drunk, and theatergoers take their seats. In a moment, he will crackle like a roman candle, spreading desire like butter, mouthing the hopes and dreams of old Russia.

July 24, 25, 27 at 9pm
PRAY, MANTID
This new play by Steven Gaultney is about a man and a woman dealing with love, sex, violence and death. The entire course of a relationship is boiled down to the fulfillment of a contractual agreement. Directed by Onur Karaoglu and featuring Meera Kumbhani and Jason Martin.

July 26 & 27 at 5pm, July 27 at 3pm
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN THE RABBIT
Far in the desert in the depths of his cave, John, a drug crazed, sex starved rabbit and harbinger of doom lapses into a hallucination. An albino blues guitar wizard and a talking lamb lead him into a world of harlots and beasts, horned monsters and monstrous men. In this intricate shadow puppet show, the sky really is falling, and it's going to take more than a paranoid bunny to save the world from total destruction. This 2007 Burning Man Festival hit written & directed by Freddi Price and makes its NYC Premiere. Presented by East River Commedia.

July 31, August 1 & 2 at 7:30pm
CLOWN AXIOMS AND THE BITTER POET (double bill)
In Clown Axioms, Kendall Cornell and her troupe of women clowns take a cold, hard clown look at gothic romance and gory fairy tales.  Afterwards, The Bitter Poet goes searching for love in all the wrong black box performance spaces, basement bars, Portland strip clubs, naked-in-public anxiety dreams, impulsive road trips to hook-up with ex-lovers and fantasies of poetry publishing stardom.

July 31 & August 1 at 9pm & August 2 at 10pm
tales from bordertown (vol. II) Conceived, Written, Directed and Performed by Eric Dean Scott, this solo show follows a trail of dreams, beat poetry, jazz recollection and tales from true life through South American border towns, Peruvian mountain villages, the Amazon River and on past the Strait of Magellan. It is a mysterious journey into the silent heart of the existential question.

undergroundzero Festival was founded by Collective:Unconscious, a longtime presenter of cutting edge performance and curated by Paul Bargetto, the artistic director of East River Commedia.  Seeking to create new opportunities outside the traditional curatorial venue system, this festival was created to promote new theatrical work in progress chosen by and for artists.  The goal is to create an ongoing series of festivals that will establish an alternative system of presentation for Independent Theater.

The mission of  COLLECTIVE: UNCONSCIOUS is to foster an inclusive, creative
community in Lower Manhattan that serves as an incubator and launching pad
for emerging artists. Founded in 1995 by a group of multi-disciplined artists, Collective: Unconscious was conceived both to perform unique experimental theater and to administer a space that would serve as a community resource and laboratory for the performing arts.

UNDERGROUNDZERO FESTIVAL Festival is made possible, in part, by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, with support from The September 11th Fund; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Collective: Unconscious board of
directors and many generous individuals.

For more information on the UNDERGROUNDZERO FESTIVAL visit www.weird.org.