John Kelly News

Griffin Theatre Company is pleased to announce casting for its two powerful tales of war, presented in rotating repertory. GHOSTS OF WAR details a young soldier's tour of duty in Iraq following 9/11, based on Ryan Smithson's best-selling autobiographical novel, adapted for the stage by Artistic Director Bill Massolia (In To America) and directed by Jason Gerace (Great Expectations, Last Train to Nibroc). Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Griffin's LETTERS HOME puts the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq front and center by bringing to life actual letters written by soldiers serving in the Middle East. Written and directed by Bill Massolia, the critically acclaimed production returns home to Chicago after touring the U.S. for more than a decade. 

Morphing identity, bending gender, mapping space through gesture and singing the song of suffering so exquisite that its high notes touch the exultant limits of transcendence, for over three decades it is fair to say that Kelly has been a foundational figure of the downtown stage. Now, John allows us to see his concurrent practice as a visual artist-more modest and ancillary to his career in hybrid theatrics-but just as central to his aesthetic core, quieter and suffused with a fragile melancholia, and just as revelatory.

Performance Space New York kicks off its East Village Series, contemplating the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood, with Welcome to Lenapehoking (February 17, 4pm, Free), a partnership with the The Lenape Center, and Avant-Garde-Arama, the extravaganza of experimentation that's also the organization's longest-running program (February 18, 6pm, Free). Performance Space New York's Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka steps into her new curatorial role with these events honoring the neighborhood's original caretakers and the organization's own trailblazing roots, as springboards into an exhilarating new chapter.

OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) incubator for local and emerging artists, presents Queer Heartache February 9 and 10, 2018 at OBERON, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge. Created and performed by award-winning, queer, trans, Asian-American poet from Hawaii, Kit Yan anddirected by Jessi Hill, Queer Heartache returns to A.R.T. after an acclaimed run during the 2016/17 I.D. Festival at OBERON.

The acclaimed performance artist John Kelly, a Bessie and Obie Award winner, will debut his newest work when La MaMa (66 E. 4 St.) presents the world-premiere of TIME NO LINE, with previews beginning February 22 prior to an official press opening on February 26, it has been announced by Mia Yoo, La MaMa's artistic director.

By the time you read this, another year's edition of PROTOTYPE--New York's two-week festival of new opera-theatre/music-theatre works different from most anything you've ever seen before--will be gone and it was another to be grateful for. The last event on my list was a totally original and stunning, immersive piece called THE ECHO DRIFT, with a scintillating score composed by Mikael Karlsson, and a brilliant environmental production by Elle Kunnos de Voss in their first collaboration.

Howl! Happening is pleased to present a rare look into the heart and art of a consummate creator: John Kelly's Sideways into the Shadows. Resonating and in conversation with Kelly's major new performance work Time No Line at La MaMa (February 22 March 11, 2018), Sideways into the Shadows is a journey through Kelly's creative life that exposes both the unfolding of his artistic process and the generational rupture and emotional cost of the AIDS pandemic.

Unexpectedly befriended by a moth (John Kelly) with an offer of freedom, convicted murderer Walker Loats (Blythe Gaissert) must choose between paying her dues or taking a shortcut that offers to rig the game in her favor in the new experimental opera from composer Mikael Karlsson and librettists Kathryn Walat and Elle Kunnos de Voss that explores the freewheeling nature of the mind when it is robbed of external stimuli and asks is it possible to act in a way that goes against one's nature? Duration 75 minutes

Performance Space New York (formerly Performance Space 122) presents the East Village Series, its first semi-annual themed series, and the first program curated by the institution's new Executive Artistic Director, Jenny Schlenzka. This presentation of works from some of today's most radical performers and multidisciplinary artists resituates the institution in newly revamped spaces, designed by Deborah Berke Partners, in 122 Community Center (150 First Avenue, at East 9th Street), where Performance Space 122 was founded, and where it operated until it moved out in 2011 for the building renovation. The series contemplates the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood.

Performance Space 122, the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today, returns to its legendary home in the East Village, under the leadership of new Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, after nearly six years presenting new works in partnership with venues across New York City. The institution will welcome the public to its newly renovated, column-free facilities at 150 1st Avenue - custom-designed by Deborah Berke Partners for interdisciplinary performance - with its 2018 Coil Festival (January 10 February 4, 2018).

Queer Art, the NYC incubator for LGBTQ artists, is pleased to announce the Winter/Spring 2018 season of Queer Art Film at IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue at West 3rd St.), January 8-April 9. Curated by filmmakers Ira Sachs and Adam Baran, the season consists of four films not to be missed, presented by NYC performers and filmmakers, as well as a special presentation by the Queer Media Database Canada-Qu bec. Queer Art Film charts a uniquely queer cultural lineage through cinema to other artistic disciplines by inviting LGBTQ artists to present and discuss films that have inspired them. All screenings begin at 8pm.

Below, check out quotables from 'THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON from December 11 - December 15

The French Institute Alliance Fran aise (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, and Da Camera of Houston Productions present the New York Premiere of A Proust Sonata, Wednesday through Friday, January 10 12 at 7:30pm in FIAF's Florence Gould Hall.

Performance Space 122, the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today, returns to its legendary home in the East Village, under the leadership of new Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, after nearly six years presenting new works in partnership with venues across New York City. The institution will welcome the public to its newly renovated, column-free facilities at 150 1st Avenue - custom-designed by Deborah Berke Partners for interdisciplinary performance - with its 2018 Coil Festival (January 10 February 4, 2018).

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) announces their spring 2018 season in the New York area, all following the theme of celebrating composer relationships, both past and future.

Afterglow Festival and OBERON continues its collaborative series Glowberon at the American Repertory Theater's second stage and club theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, OBERON.

OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) incubator for local and emerging artists, presents The Fever, to be performed by New York-based 600 HIGHWAYMEN in complete collaboration with the audience November 15 19, 2017 at The Ex (located in the Loeb Drama Center), 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge.

On the page, Harmon so beautifully expresses the nuances of shifting friendships and the fear of being left behind by those one holds dear, and he also nails so completely the complex neuroses that come with dating, loneliness, and being lost in one's own head. Director Keira Fromm and an outstanding local cast bring Harmon's expertly crafted words to life, finding both maximum amounts of humor and gut-wrenching emotion in the piece.

Excalibur IV is the widely anticipated fourth NEW STUDIO ALBUM in the Celtic Rock Opera series, following on from the GOLD and PLATINUM selling original trilogy. EXCALIBUR IV was played live in its entirety to 12 ARENAS in Germany in December 2016 and will be touring again in 2018.

In partnership with Hijinx theatre, the pioneering integrated circus company Extraordinary Bodies, will be running free inclusive workshops in Cardiff.