New Ohio Theatre & IRT to Present Premieres from The Assembly and Blessed Unrest

The Archive Residency, a collaboration between New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater (likeminded neighbors in the historic Archive Building in the West Village), is a unique incubator for New York City's most promising emerging independent theater companies. Now in its third year, the two year residency offers each company that most elusive and invaluable resource, an artistic home, including space, artistic support, and institutional continuity for the development and presentation of a new work, culminating in an exciting world premiere.

The two companies completing their residencies this spring are:

The Assembly, presenting the world premiere of I Will Look Forward to This Later, with text by Kate Benson and Emily Louise Perkins, directed by Jess Chayes, dramaturgy by Stephen Aubrey, and production design by Nick Benacerraf, running April 4 - 23, 2016. Previews begin April 4 for an April 7 opening.

Blessed Unrest, presenting the world premiere of Body: Anatomies of Being, conceived and directed by Jessica Burr, written by Matt Opatrny, created and choreographed by the Blessed Unrest ensemble, running April 30 - May 21, 2016. Previews begin April 30 for a May 1 opening.

Later in the summer The Archive Residency's two first-year resident companies, Our Voices and Piehole, will be presenting works-in-progress in the 2016 Ice Factory Festival, June 29 - August 13. The Archive Residency will invite two additional companies into residency in September 2016.

Shows take place at New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in New York City. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 212-352-3101. For info visit http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org, Like them on Facebook at https://www.Facebook.com/NewOhioTheatre, follow on Instagram at NewOhioTheatre, and on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/NewOhioTheatre.

About the Archive Residency: The first year includes a one-month stay in IRT's 3B Development Series, and a one-week presentation in New Ohio's OBIE Award-winning Ice Factory summer festival. The second year includes additional time at IRT, and culminates with a fully realized, four-week run in the New Ohio's main season. Each fall, two more independent companies are invited into the Archive Residency, bringing the program to full strength with four companies in residence, each cycling through the two-year development process. Archive Residency alumni include Collaboration Town, The Mad Ones, Rady&Bloom and Vampire Cowboys. Membership into the Archive Residency is currently by invitation only.

The Assembly's I Will Look Forward to This Later runs April 4 - 23. Performances are Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm with additional shows on Mon 4/4 at 8pm, Sun 4/17 at 5pm, Tue 4/19 at 8pm and Sat 4/23 at 3pm.

The Great Man is dead. The family of Wyatt Holloway, American novelist, squints into the light where his shadow used to be. What is his legacy, and is it possible to create a new, better order of things? I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO THIS LATER is a bitingly funny and tragic examination of art-making and evolution. Inspired by Kabuki theater and interviews with their mentors, The Assembly and a multigenerational ensemble ponder the mysteries of bourbon, coffee, and what makes a meaningful life.

The cast includes Edward Bauer, Ben Beckley (Dying for It at The Atlantic, Peter and the Starcatcher National Tour), Vinie Burrows (Good Person of Szechwan at the Public, Broadway's The Ponder Heart & Mrs. Patterson), James Himelsbach, Linda Marie Larson (Broadway's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) and Emily Louise Perkins.

The production team includes Christina Watanabe (Lighting Design), Kate Fry (Costume Design), Asa Wember (Sound Design), Katie Rose McLaughlin (Movement Direction), Megan Sprowls (Production Stage Manager), Lucy Jackson (Producer) and Emily Caffery (Associate Producer).

THE ASSEMBLY is a collective of multi-disciplinary performance artists committed to realizing a visceral and intelligent theater for a new generation. Assembly members unite our varied interests in service of wide-reaching, unabashedly theatrical and rigorously researched ensemble performances that address the complexities of our ever-changing world. The company embraces collaboration as the core of the creative process, allowing all the elements of text, action and design to develop side-by-side within the rehearsal environment. The Assembly is dedicated to rooting its artists, audiences, and peers in a profound sense of community.

The Assembly has created seven original works, including HOME/SICK (2011), a New York Times and Backstage Critics' Pick, for which the Times dubbed the company "a cutting-edge young theater collective." The company has performed at venues across New York, such as The Incubator, The Prelude Festival, HERE Arts Center, and The Collapsable Hole, and has toured to Wesleyan University, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. This summer, HOME/SICK will tour to the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. For more info visit http://www.AssemblyTheater.org.

Blessed Unrest's Body: Anatomies of Being runs April 30 - May 21. Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 5pm, and Mondays at 7pm. Warning: Bodies will appear in their natural state.

A trauma surgeon works to repair her patient's internal organs, a painter seeks to expose the raw humanity of his nude model, and a woman journeys back to Chernobyl as she strives to understand the body that is now only partially hers. Body digs into the flesh, organs, bones, systems, and movement of the human body as art and as machine.

The cast includes Natalia Escobar, Catherine Gowl (War Horse Broadway tour, Merchant of Venice Off-Broadway, Hagoromo at BAM), Tatyana Kot (Salome at The Flea), Poppy Liu (Drunk Shakespeare), Sevrin Anne Mason (Broadway's The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney), Darrell Stokes, Sonia Villani (The Event of a Thread at Park Avenue Armory, Comedy Central's "Broad City") Nathan Richard Wagner (After Midnight with Target Margin) and Joshua Wynter.

The production team includes Jay Ryan (Lighting Design), Matt Opatrny (Set Design), Sydney Maresca (Costume Design), Beth Lake (Sound Design) and Darielle Shandler (Production Stage Manager).

Blessed Unrest is in its 15th season of generating original theatre in NYC and touring internationally. They create safe environments where dangerous things can happen, producing dynamic, disciplined, and exuberant new works for the stage with their diverse ensemble. They teach their approach to physical and devised theatre at universities across the country. Among their awards are four NY Innovative Theatre Awards including the Cino Fellowship for Sustained Excellence (twelve total nominations), and the LPTW Lucille Lortel Award. For more info visit http://BlessedUnrest.org.

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning theatre under the leadership of Robert Lyons, Artistic Director, and Marc Stuart Weitz, Producing Director. The New Ohio serves New York's most adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting the boldest, most innovative work of today's vast independent theatre community. They believe the best of this community, the small artist-driven ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of where American theatre is right now and where it's going. New Ohio Theatre nurtures, strengthens, and promotes this community; as they reestablish the West Village as a destination for mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish and profound theatrical endeavors. The theatre is accessible from the #1 train to Christopher St. or A, B, C, D, E, F or M train to West 4th St. For info visit http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org.

IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT's mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. Some of the artists they have supported include Young Jean Lee, Reggie Watts, Mike Daisey and many others. For info visit http://irttheater.org.

Photo by Nick Benacerraf

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