FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble Theater to Return in June

FoolsFURY, "one of the brightest stars of the San Francisco experimental theater scene" (San Francisco Arts Monthly), is pleased to announce the program for the sixth FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble Theater, June 14 - 26, 2016.

Since 2005, FURY Factory has presented a cross-section of the field of devised or collaboratively created theater with works by more than 80 companies from around the U.S. and beyond. Initiated by foolsFURY Founder and Co-Artistic Director Ben Yalom, the festival has evolved to encompass a series of Main Stage performances and a series of works-in-progress or "Raw Materials." This year's festival presents eight main stage shows -- including three Bay Area premieres, two West Coast premieres and two world premieres -- and 14 works-in-progress. Packed into two weeks, the festival will occupy the Mission district's Project Artaud arts complex comprising Z Below, the Joe Goode Annex and Theatre of Yugen's NOHspace.

FoolsFURY is proud to present the following ensembles making their FURY Factory debut:Green T Productions, Poor Dog Group, Sokeo Ros and UMO Ensemble. Returning artists include Bandelion, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Hand2Mouth and The Independent Eye.

These main stage groups represent the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and Providence, Rhode Island. Among the works on view will be plays drawing inspiration from literature (Shakespeare and Beckett, to name two); performance with hand-made puppets; experiments with clowning; technique informed by Grotowski, Viewpoints and LeCoq; performance interested in tackling complex social issues; and solo works created within an ensemble context. "Above all," says Yalom, "the festival showcases the endless imagination of ensemble artists making devised theater today. There is no other festival in the U.S. that's shaped quite like this."

FURY Factory also brings a focus to the development of new works through its Raw Materials series. Because staged readings, one of the dominant development tools for mainstream theater, are often not useful in the making of devised works, FURY Factory "provides a rare opportunity for new work to gain critical feedback through performance and audience engagement," says foolsFURY Co-Artistic Director Debórah Eliezer. "And it's great for audiences which get to see multiple artists' creations for a single ticket price."

FURY Factory's "Raw Materials" series features 12 ensembles from the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, as well as Goshen, Indiana. Two of the groups are multinational with members in Canada, the Caribbean and East Africa. The ensembles are13th Floor, Bird on a Wire, Critical Point, foolsFURY, Humdinger, Metzmecatl-Moon Rope,NAKA, Rapid Descent, Square Peg, Theater Novi Most, Uplift Physical Theater andWaypoints. FoolsFURY will make three separate contributions within the series, with solo performances within an ensemble context by Brian Livingston, Michelle Haner and Eliezer.

In addition to the festival's main stage and Raw Materials series, FURY Factory is delighted to offer a number of performance workshops open to professionals and the general public alike, as well as pre- and post-show conversations with the artists. Information about the festival's workshops will be available later this spring at foolsFURY.org. Tickets for FURY Factory are $20 per show, with discounts for packages of three or more. Individuals may purchase tickets online at zspace.org, or by calling 866-811-4111.

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