Trey Lyford News

As the Earth crumbles around us and we continue to kill everything in our path, it is time we face the paradoxic integration of evils within ourselves: sterility and garbage, meaninglessness, sexuality as the sin of origin, the contradictory drives of human things. KOSMOS INVERS is the creation of two inverse planets filled with bizarre otherworldly puppets: one, an Edenic parallel of our green earth; and the other, its tentacled pink opposite. Strange fragments of stories coalesce through the contours of different biomes piecing together a patchwork of utopian armageddon and weird psychological metaphors with a green cosmic bent.

Each spring HERE offers a window into the creative process of their nationally recognized HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). For 21 years, this exploration of new work in development, previously known as the Culturemart Festival, has blurred the boundaries between theatre, music, dance, new media, and visual art. The 2020 edition, which runs February 23-March 1, not only features seven daring workshop presentations but a new name that better captures the essence of the experience: HERE RAW / Resident Artist Works.

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS and THE CIVILIANS have announced that the first three premiere albums of The Michael Friedman Collection, will be available for streaming and download today, Friday, October 18. The Great Immensity, The Abominables, and This Beautiful City are all written (or co-written) and directed by Steve Cosson and feature music and lyrics by Michael Friedman.

HERE has announced that applications for the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) are currently open. This multi-year, $100,000 residency program was created in 1999 and serves as a national model. HARP provides commission funds, development support, career planning, fiscal sponsorship, and a full production to recipients, all within a collaborative environment of peers working across artistic disciplines including theatre, dance, music, puppetry, visual art, and new media. HARP provides significant long-term support, as well as up to $50,000 in cash and more than $50,000 in space, equipment, and services over two to three years. Each residency is tailored to the needs of the artist.

HERE has announced its 2019-2020 season, which marks the OBIE-winning institution's 27th year of producing daring new hybrid performances by artists from all disciplines - theatre, opera, music, art, dance, puppetry, and media art.

Quintessence Theatre Group in Mt. Airy is taking a swinging trip to the sixties to close out their 2019-20 season. Richard Bean's ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS comes to the Sedgwick Theatre, running from June 5 through June 30, 2019. Press are invited to the 7:30PM performances on Saturday, June 8 or any performance afterwards.

Pigeonholed presents #yourmemorial, a new play written by Emily Daly and directed by Emily Lyon, from May 9-26, 2019 at HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue, NYC (entrance on Dominick, one block south of Spring). Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1009680 or by calling 212-352-3101. For more information, visit HERE.org.

On May 13, the OBIE-winning HERE will honor MacArthur fellow Taylor Mac and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation ArtsProgram at BLOOM, HERE's annual spring gala. The evening celebrates Mac, a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer and "critical darling of the New York scene" (New York Magazine) who also has been HERE's resident playwright since 2016. Mac's current Broadway debut, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, was commissioned by HERE and written during Mac's residency.

HERE welcomes composer and singer Gelsey Bell, OBIE and Doris Duke award-winning playwright Julia Jarcho, and NAACP-nominated theatre-maker Nia O. Witherspoon as new members of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

The Civilians will present a staged reading on February 1stand 2nd, hosted by the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. The play is based on Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola's groundbreaking book Caught in the Pulpit, Leaving Belief Behind, adapted by Marin Gazzaniga and directed by Steve Cosson.

In 1993, HERE barged into Soho and threw one hell of a party. It's been 25 years and the world has changed, but the OBIE-winning producer and presenter is still HERE.

HERE announces that applications for the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) are currently open. This multi-year, $100,000 residency program was created in 1999 and serves as a national model.

Critically acclaimed Philadelphia-based artist Trey Lyford is preparing to return to the Philly Fringe Festival with his newest work, The Accountant. This highly anticipated production includes a unique audience participation project surrounding the notion of memory, will have an exclusive five performances only run at Old City's Christ Church Neighborhood House, September 6-9, 2018.

HERE's Board of Directors announces that long-time Producing/Executive Director Kim Whitener will step down from HERE Art Center this fall to return to creative producing and consulting with her company KiWi Productions, where she will work with a range of US artists and companies primarily in the contemporary opera-theater and music-theater worlds.

Beginning tomorrow, July 28, designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist will perform in his singular creation, Symphonie Fantastique, during all Saturdayevening performances. The 20th-anniversary production, which has received near universal acclaim and is scheduled to close on September 2, will include Twist on July 28, August 4, 11, 18, 25 and September 1 at 8:30pm. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.

HERE is thrilled to present Cabaret Fantastique, a culminating concert event featuring pianist Christopher O'Riley who performs his haunting solo piano arrangements of songs by Radiohead, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Elliott Smith, Portishead, and Sun Kil Moon. Master puppeteer and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist and company members from Symphonie Fantastique will accompany O'Riley with new puppet work. The one-of-a-kind event will take place on August 19 at 7pm. Known to millions as the host of NPR's From the Top, O'Riley is currently performing live piano accompaniment for Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, which continues performances at HERE until September 2.

HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to announce its 2018-2019 season, which marks the OBIE-winning institution's 26th year of producing of daring new hybrid performance by new artists from all disciplines - theatre, music, art, dance, puppetry, and media art.

Critically acclaimed Philadelphia-based artist Trey Lyford is preparing to return to the Philly Fringe Festival with his newest work, The Accountant. This highly anticipated production includes a unique audience participation project surrounding the notion of memory, will have an exclusive five performances only run at Old City's Christ Church Neighborhood House, September 6-9, 2018.

PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now is pleased to announce programming for the seventh annual festival of fresh opera-theatre & music-theatre running January 5-13, 2019, featuring eight presentations that "shift the whole paradigm of what opera is and can be" (New York Observer).

HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to close their 25th anniversary season with the commissioned world premiere of American Weather, a new work by director and designer Chris Green, a member of the HERE Artist Residency Program since 2016. With a bittersweet verve, American Weather is a visceral work of material performance inspired by daily life in America.