East River Commedia Presents 4th Annual Undergroundzero Festival At PS 122, Ends 7/25

East River Commedia (Paul Bargetto, Artistic Director) announces the 4th annual undergroundzero festival of experimental theatre, featuring over twenty New York City and European theatre companies and artists at the legendary downtown performance venue Performance Space 122, July 6-25.

Founded in 2007, the undergroundzero festival gives Producing Artists a platform where risk-taking and innovation are both encouraged and expected. Artists are invited to bring a production of their choosing to join a flying repertory dedicated to radical play and experimentation. It may be a new work or a past production that deserves another life - whatever best serves the individual or collective artists growth and agenda.

The 2010 festival line-up will include new work from downtown New York companies and artists Performance Lab 115, Doris Mirescu, Leigh Evans, Aztec Economy, Pinchbottom Burlesque, José Zayas, Anna Brenner, Mercedes Murphy, The Shalimar, David Barlow, Saviana Stanescu, Jeff Grow, terraNOVA Collective, and East River Commedia. Also for the first time this year, the festival is expanding its programming internationally. Experimental theater companies Green Hours Theater (Romania), Au Ments (Spain), axis ballymun (Ireland), Compagnia La Fabbricca (Italy) and Theater Bielefeld (Germany) will all be bringing work to the festival for the first time.

On every Tuesday of the festival at 8:00pm (July 6, 13, & 20) special roundtable discussions and presentations will be held at P.S. 122 focusing on the international companies and the coming week's presentations.

East River Commedia artistic director and festival curator Paul Bargetto says "This year we're thrilled to present our most diverse range of artists and work yet. Some of the most exciting artists working in the downtown New York theatre scene and at the forefront of European experimental scene will all be under one roof presenting their boldest new work."

The 2010 festival will also offer playgroundzero, one-time-only showings of works-in-progress followed by feedback sessions with the artists, as well as themed post-performance parties with the artists on every Friday of the festival at 11pm (July 9, 16, & 23). This years playgroundzero artists include Rock Wilk, Ian Rowlands, and Saviana Stanescu.

Tickets ($20) may be purchased online at www.PS122.org or via phone at (212) 352-3101. Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street, New York, New York 10009.

Upstairs at PS 122

Tales of the Body
July 7 & 9 @ 7pm, July 8 @ 9pm, July 11 @ 3pm
Directed by Tomeo Gomila & produced by Au Ments Theater Company, Catalonia, Spain
A fantastical and haunting dance-theater piece from one of Catalonia's most important dance theater companies. Dancer Andrea Cruz's body becomes a mechanical object traversing and being transformed by landscapes of the mind. Seen around the world since its 2006 Catalonian premiere. "A troubling experience. A joy that breaks down barriers of understanding and feeling."

Father of Lies
July 8 @ 7pm, July 9 @ 9pm, July 10 & 11 @ 5pm
Directed & Adapted by José Zayas
An adaptation of avant-horror scribe Brian Evenson's novel of the same title, which offers a chilling look at a priest's obsession with young boys and the institution willing to cover it up. Based on actual cases of the abuse of young boys by Mormon lay clergy.

Half Awake and Falling Through the Sky (Staged Reading)
July 11 @ 7pm
Conceived & Directed by Mercedes Murphy, Written by Mercedes Murphy & Heather Benton
Theatre Trouve presents the first reading of a new play based on found text, misdirected emails, and vengeful blog postings from the world of international law. Follow the email chain of the Tokyo office of "Clinger, Steeme & James" through online suicide clubs, cocaine, cancer, adultery, and public urination as the lawyers and staffers crash into individual and collective crises of doubt.

Are We Here Yet?
July 14 & 16 @ 9pm, July 15 @ 7pm, July 17 & 18 @ 3pm
Directed by Anna Brenner (Winner of the 2009 undergroundzero "Audience Choice" Award)
Enter the American mind: afraid, allergic, associative, contradictory, and forever searching. Five characters created from the interviews, memories, and observations of the ensemble struggle to connect with each other and the intangible, exposing an uncanny American landscape.

Aspettando Nil (Waiting for Nil)
July 14, 16, & 17 @ 7pm, July 15 @ 9pm, July 18 @ 5pm (Italian with English Subtitles)
Conceived & Directed by Fabbiana Iacozilli, Produced by Compagnia La Fabbricca, Italy
A mother and a daughter prepare for the arrival of the daughter's bridegroom. And prepare. And prepare. From one of Italy's premier theatre companies comes a ferocious, hilarious feminist critique of Italian gender attitudes in the age of Berlusconi, inspired by Waiting for Godot. The play has toured throughout Italy and is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards.

The Last Burlesque Show in the World
July 10, 17, & 24 @ 9pm
Presented by Pinchbottom Burlesque
An epic metaphysical journey through the twisted muscle of the human heart, the jagged crevices of the creative mind, the amorphous discord of the libido, and the insouciant profundity of pants-dropping. Starring Pinchbottom co-creator Jonny Porkpie, along with a host of other Pinchbottom favorites, in the ultimate Pinchbottom show.

Creating Illusion
July 17 @ 5pm, July 18 @ 7pm
Written & Performed by Jeff Grow, Directed by Jessi D. Hill
Produced by terraNOVA Collective
Seeing is believing - but perception can be manipulated for beauty or deception. Magician Jeff Grow takes you on a journey where elegant sleight of hand and insight into human behavior collide to dismantle everyday experience and tempts us to question: Why do we choose to believe the unbelievable? Winner of the 2009 Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Solo Performer & Outstanding Performance Art Production.

The Parting Glass
July 21, 23, & 24 @ 7pm, July 22 @ 9pm, July 25 @ 2pm
Produced by axis ballymun, Ireland, in association with terraNOVA Collective, Written by Dermot Bolger
Three friends all pushing 50 gather in the Stade de France on November 18, 2009 to cheer on Ireland in the World Cup play-off only to see their hopes of a championship dashed by French soccer star Thierry Henry's left hand. With caustic wit, acclaimed Irish playwright Dermot Bolger gives sharp insights into the last two decades of Irish history through these stories.

From Dawn till Night (The Earth is Uninhabitable Like the Moon)
July 21 & 23 @ 9pm, July 22 @ 7pm, July 24 & 25 @ 5pm
Directed by Doris Mirescu & Produced by Dangerous Ground Productions (winner of the 2009 undergroundzero "Best Production" Award)
As the past closes in and the quest for humanity becomes increasingly difficult, a woman revaluates her place in the world. A multimedia experiment based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1978 film In A Year With 13 Moons and Dangerous Ground's third Fassbinder adaptation.

AutoMotive (American Trilogy part 1) Work-in-Progress
July 24 @ 2pm, July 25 @ 7:30pm
Directed by Paul Bargetto & Produced by East River Commedia
East River Commedia presents the first draft of their trilogy exploring American Identity. The search begins in the ubiquitous American machine - the automobile - with appearances by Henry Miller, James Dean, Jayne Mansfield, Curtis Turner and Dwight Eisenhower.

Downstairs at PS 122

The Ring: Inside the Squared Circle, Part 1
July 7, 8, & 9 @ 9:30pm, July 10 @ 7:30pm, July 11 @ 2:30pm
Directed by Dave Dalton & Produced by Performance Lab 115
The award-winning company Performance Lab 115 re-imagines Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle with no music and in the idiom of WWF wrestling and other 1980s American iconography, exposing our own decade's unchecked hubris and greed.

L.A. Party
July 7, 8, 9, & 11 @ 7:30pm, July 10 @ 9:30pm
Written by David Barlow & Directed by Phil Soltanoff
A fanatical vegan slides off the wagon one night, falling headfirst into a wild L.A. bender. Barlow's narration collides with live video of six performers to produce a compelling composite human being. An audience favorite at the Public's 2010 Under The Radar Festival and Austin's Fusebox Festival.

The National Diet of Japan
July 10 & 11 @ 5:30pm
Directed by Cole Wimpee & Produced by Aztec Economy
Seven actors endure ecstatic torment and sublime debasement when they confront the transience of organic life while traveling a course based on zen garden arrangements and the human digestive system. A piece that brings together ideas from hot national lotteries, dual brain theory, ritual cleansing, old school Nintendo games, parliamentary debate, and wind chimes.

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer
July 10 & 11 @ 12pm, July 12 @ 8pm, July 13 @ 9:30pm
Created & Performed by Tim Watts, Australia
Produced by terraNOVA Collective
A multi award-winning one-man micro-epic puppet show that melds technology and multimedia into a touching story of enduring love and the end of the world. Alvin Sputnik is Earth's last hope. He must venture to the bottom of the ocean to find his wife's lost soul and save humanity.

Quiet To Departure
July 13, 14, 16, 17, & 18 @ 7:30pm, July 15 @ 9:30pm
Choreographed & Performed by Leigh Evans
Acclaimed performance artist Leigh Evans' new work is an inquiry into perceptions of the self and other and the illusory nature of form using Butoh dance, voice, and video. Reflection, refraction, and shadow reveal simultaneous transparency and visibility in this journey of self and memory.

The Concretes (after Vladimir Sorokin)
July 15 @ 7:30pm, July 14 & 16 @ 9:30pm, July 17 & 18 @ 5:30pm
Directed by Alexandru Mihaescu & Produced by Green Hours Theater, Bucharest, Romania
In a Moscow of the future, pseudo-anarchist youth gorge mindlessly on a classical literature virtual reality game. A multi-media theater adaptation of Vladimir Sorokin's science fiction novel Le Concretes that skewers globalization, the future, and the political apathy of the young.

La Voix Humaine
July 17 & 24 @ 9:30pm, July 18 @ 3:30pm, July 25 @ 5:30pm
Written by Francis Poulenc, Directed by Shoshana Currier, Produced by Shoshana Currier & Kristina Wilson
A desperate woman, played by Kristina Wilson, attempts to confront her lover as he leaves her - over the phone. In this version of Francis Poulenc's solo opera; based on the play by Jean Cocteau, we are in close proximity - yet voyeurs - to the stark realities of loss.

Blue Dress Reduction
July 20, 21, 23, & 24 @ 7:30pm, July 22 @ 9:30pm
Written by Eliza Bent
A wedding weekend in the English countryside reunites three childhood friends in an odyssey of modern female friendship.... and a hunt for "wedding weed." Storytelling, video, song, and dance intertwine to reveal the weekend's discoveries and mishaps.

Forever Art
(German with English Subtitles)
July 21 & 23 @ 9:30pm, July 22 @ 7:30pm, July 24 @ 5:30pm, July 25 @ 3:30pm
Directed by Johanna Zielinski & Produced by Theater Bielefeld, Germany
Actor John Wesley Zielmann channels Andy Warhol in a solo show that imagines the master-of-pop-art's thoughts on the uniqueness and permanence of art.

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