Art House Announces its 19-20 Season

Art House Productions (Meredith Burns, Executive Director and Andrea McKenna, Gallery Director) is proud to announce the 2019-2020 season of bold theatrical productions, exciting gallery exhibitions, and the return of Jersey City's favorite festivals-including Your Move Modern Dance Festival, JC Fridays, and the Jersey City Comedy Festival (formally 6BCF). "Whether you have been part of the Art House family for the past 18 years or are brand new to us, we are thrilled to share our diverse season of theater, visual arts, dance, comedy, music, and spectacular fundraising events," says Art House Executive Director, Meredith Burns. All ticket information can be found at www.arthouseproductions.org.

The season kicks off simultaneously with the Jersey City Art and Studio Tour (JCAST), where Art House will present "Lost, Then Found", a group exhibition evoking the literal and figurative meaning of having been lost and then found from the self or from another source, from October 4th-27th. Also running during JCAST in the Art House Theater will be Dominique Salerno's THE BOX SHOW, a one-woman show that takes place all inside of a box. Described by The New York Times as "the most purely delicious production", this piece is now making its Jersey City premiere as an Art House Mainstage Co-Production. October will conclude with a presentation of Artemisia's Intent, a startling portrait of a woman caught at the intersection of power, assault, and art, created and performed by The Anthropologists.

November will mark the 10th anniversary of Your Move, New Jersey's jete award-winning annual modern dance festival, designed to support inventive choreographers from New Jersey, New York, and beyond at the Landmark Loew's Theater in Journal Square. This year's festival will feature the pieces of 13 choreographers over the course of five days. In November, the gallery will showcase the work of Geraldine Neuwirth and Emannuel Werthenschlag in an exhibition that dives into their worlds of circus, theater and visual incarnation. Kathleen Jones' Everyone in This Play is Dying!, a solo show about how having cystic fibrosis ruined a performing career will play in the Art House Theater for a brief engagement at the end of the month.

Art House will give the gift of art this season with festivities all month long throughout December. "The Affordable Art Show" will return to the gallery with all pieces priced under $500. In the theater, Art House will ring in the holidays with a reimagined production of the classic A Christmas Carol, created and directed by Reid Farrington & Foxy Films. A live mash-up of every nearly every movie version of A Christmas Carol ever made, this theatrical version conjures up over 100 years of film history through Dickens' classic tale. Fast-paced, funny and moving, this multimedia experience is both a contemporary spin on a classic tale and a nostalgic journey for all ages. Perfect for kids and adults. Originally premiered at Abrons Arts Center 10 years ago in NYC, now presented as an Art House Mainstage Co-Production. Frank Boudreaux of American Theatre Magazine raves: "This take on Dickens's cultural touchstone feels like necessary innovation. By making the narrative's pervasiveness the subtext and its past versions the characters, Farrington's Carol revives the meaning of Dickens's enduring message, jolting familiar audience members back to the edge of his seat while creating a singular piece of wonder for the uninitiated."

The 14th Annual Snowball Gala, Art House's biggest fundraiser, will kick off 2020. This year's theme will be The Wizard of Oz, where guests will be invited to follow the yellow brick road and discover that there's no place like Art House. Snowball is a creative black tie, immersive gala experience featuring live music, light fare, open bar, silent and live auctions, and a festive, arts-friendly crowd! Don't miss Jersey City's event of the year. Tickets on sale in mid- November.

Artist Lane O'Shea will have a solo exhibition in the Art House gallery in February, which will explore the enduring power of connection. Simultaneously, the Art House theater will feature three workshop presentations of Little Wing, a startling theatrical exploration of survival and self-preservation adapted from Octavia E. Butler's final novel, "Fledgling". Combining found text, objects, 70s Blaxploitation films Blacula (1972) and Ganja & Hess (1973), and movement, Little Wing is an existential vampire dramedy pushing the limits of what it means to be human and just how far one is willing to go to completely purge oneself of ignorance and confusion. Christopher Rashee-Stevenson of Theatre of War adapts this presentation and will direct.

The season continues with the Jersey City debut of When We Went Electric by Caitlin Saylor Stephens, following its premiere at The Tank in New York City last year. Two Made in the USA, American Apparel models attempt to retrace their vodka-seltzer-soaked steps of the prior evening. Through a series of provocative poses and electro-pop beats, the girls connect the dot-dot-dots and the memory they find is much more horrifying than an ellipses. Meghan Finn directs and the production is presented in musical collaboration with Sarah Frances Cagianese. This month, the Art House Gallery will also celebrate beloved, local artist Hamlet Manzueta, commemorating the one-year anniversary of his death in a solo exhibit entitled "One Year After: Works by Hamlet Manzueta".

April will bring the artwork of painter Danielle Frankenthal and Fiber artist Deborah Morris to the gallery in this two-person exhibit. Frankenthal's exhibition, "The Tone Poems" will feature paintings based on music eliciting an inner landscape through sound and association. Morris's repurposes found materials focusing on texture, color and form that become suspended sculptures reminiscent of celestial bodies.

Spring at Art House will mark the return of The 2nd Annual INKubator New Play Festival, a three-day marathon festival that serves as the culmination of the year-long INKubator residency made up of 6 playwrights. Audiences who attend the festival will also have the opportunity to participate in conversations with the writers, directors, and actors following each performance. Alex Tobey serves as the director for the residency. Alongside this new play festival, artwork by Diana Schmertz will be on display in the gallery. Diana's work tells the everyday story of the political and social hostilities that surround us. Her practice stresses the importance of positive social agreements. Painted imagery of the body expresses emotional understanding which is then laser cut into transforming the work into an object that is made out of the words form legal documents and social contracts.

The 2020 season will bring an exciting change to Art House's annual comedy festival-a new name! The Jersey City Comedy Festival (formally known as the 6th Borough Comedy Festival). The fest will be held in Downtown Jersey City with over 130 performers featuring Stand Up, Sketch, Improv, Comedy Podcasts and more. Art House's comedy fest puts a premium on diversity and inclusion in comedy.

In addition to the full season of visual and performing arts experiences, Art House Productions will continue to host JC Fridays, a quarterly arts festival that provides free art activities across the city. JC Fridays will take place on December 6th, March 6th, and June 6th. The June festival will mark the return of Access JC Fridays, which will showcase a variety of happenings including visual exhibitions, live music, performance acts and educational demonstrations, all showing work from artists with disabilities or offering accessible participation options. All events are free and open to the public.

Art House Productions is generously supported by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, MACK-CALI Realty, SILVERMAN, Manhattan Building Company, CoolVines, and Congressman Frank Guarini.

Art House Productions is committed to accessibility and inclusivity in all the public programming presented by our organization at our newly constructed performance venue.

Art House Productions produces work with a shrewd sense of social responsibility and challenges the idea of "universal" mind and "universal" body in each artistic endeavor.