PS 122 Presents THE WOOSTER GROUP'S BOOTY CALL AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA! 4/16

Sources confirm that The Wooster Group is excited to guest curate Performance Space 122's longest-running multi-disciplinary mini-festival and that this spring's Avant-Garde-Arama! will feature artists who the Group calls upon, in their own words, "sometimes late at night, sometimes when we haven't seen them in a while, sometimes lonely, sometimes drunk, and sometimes we when we've just got nothing better to do."

Founded in 1976, The Wooster Group is an ensemble of artists who, under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, make work for theatre, dance, and media. The many young people who intern there and sometimes move into positions in the company have long been their lifeblood. They are often artists in their own right who go on to make their own work.

"The Wooster Group's Booty Call Avant-Garde-Arama!" will feature some of these folks, people who for some unknown reason are drawn to experimental theatre. Radiohole's Eric Dyer, of the "Outrageous" (The New Yorker) "Whatever, Heaven Allows", and Jibz Cameron, "Crackpot genius" (Village Voice), emcee each evening. Featured performers include Cynthia Hopkins, Daniel Pettrow, Yvan Greenberg, Andrew Schneider, Kaneza Schaal, and Jamie Poskin & Daniel Jackson's Haptic Response Team and an installation by Shaun Irons & Lauren Petty.

With The Wooster Group curating the latest installment of Avant-Garde-Arama! one can expect two evenings of performance shorts and a nightly party that will "simulate the effects of a finely gradEd Hallucinogen on a hyper-intelligent brain" - Ben Brantley The New York Times (on The Wooster Group). Each evening, of course, will be meta-framed by A.G.A! co-founder Salley May's customary extravagant introduction and welcome.

SELECTED PERFORMER BIOS:

ERIC DYER (MC) is a performer, designer and technician and founding member of Radiohole. He most recently appeared as part of Radiohole (2009 Spalding Gray Award Winner) in Whatever, Heaven Allows presented by Performance Space 122. He has performed with Young Jean Lee, Ken Nintzel, Ann deMare, and the Collapsable Giraffe among others. His design credits include Young Jean Lee's THE APPEAL, SONGS OF THE DRAGONS FLYING TO HEAVEN, and CHURCH as well as Richard Maxwell's END OF REALITY and CAVEMAN. He has been a technical director for The Wooster Group, Richard Foreman and the Builders Association. He is a current Wooster Group associate.

JIBZ CAMERON (MC) (Dynasty Handbag) is a performance/video artist and actor who lives and works in New York. She is 35. She is from California. She has written many performances both large and small. She has won some awards. She taught at NYU. She has released a record and is working on a new one now, due out in the summer. She has a commission at Dixon Place this July for a new show. www.dynastyhandbag.com

CYNTHIA HOPKINS is the recipient of the 2007 Alpert Award in Theater, honoring her work as a writer, composer, performer, multi-instrumentalist, and theater artist. With her ensemble company Accinosco (www.accinosco.com) she has created the acclaimed Accidental Trilogy, a series of works featuring her band Gloria Deluxe (www.gloriadeluxe.com). Ms. Hopkins is currently at work on The Truth: A Tragedy, scheduled to open at Soho Rep in May 2010.

ANDREW SCHNEIDER is a multimedia designer and performer. His work attempts to critically investigate our everyday emotional, physical, and psychological dependence on technology. His solo performance work has been seen at PS122, The Chocolate Factory, The Prelude Festival, and The Tank. His multimedia devices have been featured in Wired, TimeOut NY, Make, SIGGRAPH, DorkbotNYC, Sony Tech Wonder Labs and at the Center Pompidou in Paris. Andrew's latest projects include Experimental Devices for Performance (.com) and Acting Stranger (.com). He currently makes video and performs with The Wooster Group and Fischerspooner and teaches a course on technology and theatre at NYU.

DANIEL PETTROW is an associate actor with The Wooster Group, having performed in HAMLET and WHO'S YOUR DADA? He is also an associate with Bluemouth Inc where he recently presented DANCE MARATHON at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Daniel has acted in over 60 productions at National and International theaters. He works closely with French Director Arthur Naucyziel (BLACK BATTLES WITH DOGS, ROBERTO ZUCCO, JULIUS CAESAR.) Film: "The Cult of Sincerity," "The Last Adam," "Psychopathia Sexualis."

YVAN GREENBERG founded Brooklyn-based experimental ensemble Laboratory Theater in 2001 and has since directed the company in ten original pieces. His work has been presented by HERE Arts Center, The Brick Theater, PS122, Dixon Place, and chashama, among others. Greenberg was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship in 2006, and has also choreographed works by composer Corey Dargel (Thirteen Near-Death Experiences, 2009 and Removable Parts, 2008.) Laboratory Theater premieres GIT ALONG LIL DOGGIES this fall 2010.

HAPTIC RESPONSE TEAM continues the misadventures of two young executives, Daniel Jackson and Jamie Poskin, and their deceased boss, Bernie Lomax. In the original Haptic Response Team, Jamie and Daniel were forced to create the illusion that Bernie was still alive in
order to avoid being killed. In the sequel, Bernie is partially revived in a botched voodoo ceremony and made to walk toward the hidden treasure he buried whenever he hears music. Daniel and Jamie are also on the run from the mob, as well as two flunkies of the voodoo lady, and a representative from the insurance company sent to recover the embezzled two million. "I've never seen [anything like] Haptic Response Team's work." - Scott Shepherd, The Wooster Group

The Wooster Group collaborates using a distinctive developmental process in which texts and technology are interwoven to tell stories in new ways. The company has played a pivotal role in bringing technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film, and video into the realm of contemporary theater, and in the process has influenced a generation of theater artists nationally and internationally.

The Group creates its work at The Performing Garage in Soho. All pieces in The Group's award-winning repertory have toured widely in the US and Europe, as well as to Asia, Australia, Canada, and South America. www.thewoostergroup.org

Performance Space 122 is one of New York's ultimate destinations for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media. PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance; PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs. www.ps122.org

"THE WOOSTER GROUP'S BOOTY CALL AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA!" runs Friday, April 16 at 8pm and Saturday, April 17 at 8pm.

Tickets: $20 and $15 (students/seniors). Tickets and P.S. 122 Passports are now on sale and available at www.ps122.org by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101, and at the Box Office in Performance Space 122.

Note: The P.S. 122 Passport is a bundle of 5 tickets for only $55 that can be used in ANY combination to the Spring 2010 season performances.

Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue @ E. 9th Street, NY, NY 10009

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