Peter Rose Brings Cleansing the Senses to P.S. 122 in May

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Peter Rose, who with Charles Moulton, Tim Miller, and Charles Dennis, helped to found Performance Space 122, will take that theatre's stage for his one-man show Cleansing the Senses. The evening will be presented from May 18th through May 28th.

Twenty-seven years ago, Moulton, Miller, Dennis and Rose, who were heavily influenced by the teachings of Jerzy Grotowski, "would start holding workshops, classes and performances in the abandoned school building on First Avenue and E. 9th St., laying the groundwork for what would become Performance Space 122," according to press notes. "Drawing on his commitment to Open Movement and ecstatic dance, Rose employs movement, monologue and song to tell the story of his peripatetic wanderings in search of ecstasy, transcendence and self-knowledge."

"With Yiddish song, American spirituals and love songs, a Shakespeare sonnet, the invocation from Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, a love poem by Bertolt Brecht, sections from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot plus Rose's monologues set in Berlin, Joshua Tree, Vilnius, Lithuania, Santa Monica and a popular Polish restaurant in NYC, Rose traces a mythical journey of self-discovery and in so doing invites the audience to experience this process through the actor's presence. Through the thematic frame of prayer, creation, love and forgiveness, he calls upon the audience to be present, attentive, still, to 'cleanse the senses,' to live and create more fully."

Since his involvement with Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre and his co-founding of P.S. 22, Rose has written and performed Over the Wall Stories, Berlin Zoo (later produced for television) and Loyaltown, USA! at venues across the country. His work has also been presented at the Frankfurt Opera and on stages in Munich, Hamburg, Hannover, Erlangen and West Berlin. He moved to Santa Monica, California in 1987. The L.A. Dialogues, written and performed by Lin Osterhage and Peter Rose was presented at venues in L.A. from 1987-1989. Since 1995, he has lived in Berlin and directs a studio for language and cultural practice. He premiered test traveler/polar star in 1999 at P.S. 122 and in 2000 at Friends of the Italian Opera in Berlin. Several performances in cultural venues in Germany and the Czech Republic came the following year.

The show's performance schedule is: Wednesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m. P.S.122 is located at 150 First Avenue at E. 9th Street. Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 students/seniors, $10 P.S.122 Members and may be purchased by calling Theatermania at 212.352.3101 or online at www.theatermania.com. For information, call P.S.122 at 212-477-5288 or visit www.ps122.org.