Frank Boyd's THE HOLLER SESSIONS Set for PS122's COIL Festival

As part of the eleventh edition of the COIL Festival, Performance Space 122, in partnership with Paradise Factory, present the New York premiere of The Holler Sessions, written and performed by Seattle-based performer Frank Boyd in collaboration with the TEAM. Staged as a live radio show, The Holler Sessions centers around one man's burning obsession for jazz. An explosive Kansas City DJ broadcasts his articulate, profane and impassioned testimony in a music-filled interactive experience. Maniacal rants, razor-sharp insights, and mildly scatological humor are interspersed with extraordinary music and lots of space for listening. The Holler Sessions serves as a jazz primer for the uninitiated, a powerful reminder for jazz fans and an irreverent love letter to the best thing America has ever created.

Boyd is a performer and writer now based in Seattle, best known for his work with Elevator Repair Service and the TEAM. He is currently performing in the West Coast premiere of Young Jean Lee's Straight White Men.

Performances of The Holler Sessions will take place January 6-17 (see schedule above) at Paradise Factory, which is located at 64 East 4th Street in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of January 7. Tickets are $20 ($15 students, seniors) and available online at ps122.org and by phone at 212.352.3101.

The creative team for The Holler Sessions includes Rachel Chavkin (consulting director), Josh Aaseng (consulting director), Eric Southern (lighting & set design), and Matt Hubbs (sound design).

The Holler Sessions premiered in Seattle at On the Boards in January 2015. Early material for The Holler Sessions was developed as part of a work by the TEAM and Sojourn Theatre in 2012. Development of The Holler Sessions was supported by On the Boards and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Repertory Theatre. This project is made possible, in part, by support from the National Performance Network (NPN) Performance Residency Program. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

About the Artists

Frank Boyd (Writer/Performer) is a performer and writer based in Seattle. He is a member of the NYC ensembles Elevator Repair Service and the TEAM. With ERS he performed in Gatz (Public Theater, Sydney Opera House), and The Select / The Sun Also Rises (New York Theatre Workshop). With the TEAM Frank co-wrote and performed in Architecting (Public Theater UtR, Barbican Centre London) and Particularly In the Heartland (PS122). In 2015 Frank has been performing on tour with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company in Straight White Men. Frank recently appeared in the world premieres of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Seattle Times Footlight Award) at Book-It Repertory Theater in Seattle, and Red Speedo by Lucas Hnath at the Studio Theatre in Washington DC. Frank appears in the 2014 independent film Almost Family and he wrote and starred in the 2010 short film B.U.S.T. (Special Jury Prize Dallas International Film Festival).

Rachel Chavkin (Consulting Director) is a director, writer, and Artistic Director of the TEAM. Select freelance credits: Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (New York Times Best of 2012 & 2013); Marco Ramirez's The Royale at the Old Globe; repeat collaborations with playwright/performer/activist Taylor Mac. Awards: 2010 and 2013 Obie Awards (Three Pianos and Great Comet), Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Nominations for Best Direction (Great Comet), and Doris Duke Impact Award Nominee.

Eric Southern (Lighting & Set Design) is an Obie Award winning designer for theater, opera, and dance. New York: Pocatello (Playwrights Horizons), Steve (New Group) The Few, The Correspondent (Rattlestick Theater), Buyer and Cellar (London, CTG, New York, & National Tour); Collected Stories with David Lang (Carnegie Hall). He has also worked extensively with the Obie Award winning 600 Highwaymen.

Josh Aaseng (Consulting Director) is an actor and director based in Seattle. As Book-It Repertory Theatre's literary manager he has helped develop several new works, including his adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five, which he directed in June 2015. Josh is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts

Founded in 2004, the TEAM is an internationally acclaimed Brooklyn-based ensemble. Four-time winners of the Edinburgh Fringe First Award and ranked "Best of 2013?? on 3 continents, the TEAM is dedicated to making new work about the experience of living in America today, crashing American history and mythology into modern stories to illuminate the current moment.

About Paradise Factory

Artistic Director Tom Noonan founded the Paradise Factory in 1983, as a center for theater and film development, bringing the rigor of theatrical discipline to the process of cinematic art, and bringing the intimacy and immediacy of the cinema into theatrical performance art.

The building at 64 East 4th Street was once "The Paradise Ice Cream Factory" - where the ice cream cone was invented, in the 1920s. The building then became a hat factory during the industrial revolution, which then perished in a fire. The condemned building was unoccupied thereafter, until Tom Noonan and Jack Kruger built a theater, rehearsal rooms, and breathed life back into the building. Years later the City of New York and Borough President Scott Stringer would award a grant of five million dollars toward the total renovation of 64E4.

The Paradise Factory Film and Theater is a 501(c)3 non-profit company in the State of New York. http://www.paradisefactory.org/.