PS 122 Presents The COIL Festival 1/6-17
By: Gabrielle Sierra Jan. 11, 2010
14 Companies boasting over 100 artists and collaborators, and spanning theatre, dance, multi-media, gothic storytelling, live art, cinema, glove puppetry, not to mention an interactive self-help focus group will take part in this year's COIL festival at Performance Space 122. This veritable New Year feast of contemporary performing arts presents an exceptional cross-section of N.Y.C., U.S. and international performance taken from past, present and future seasons at PS122.
2010 marks COIL's 5th year and again spotlights a breathtaking spectrum of disciplines, nations, performers and creative artists, in several venues around New York City. Teaming up with a diverse range of partners including Under The Radar, 3LD Art & Technology Center, Abrons Arts Center and the Jewish Community Center., COIL spreads its tentacles far across the city.
Artistic director Vallejo Gantner said of COIL: "The cross-section of performance spotlights an electrifying range of choreographers, directors, playwrights, performers, designers, filmmakers and technical wizards. It is not by any means a complete representation of what we believe is exciting, new and worthy - but COIL provides a tasting menu of ideas and possibility."
The choreographers this season yanked us into a very particular, often confronting reality - engaging with determination and the body, sexual representation, religion, transcendence, and fear. Maria Hassabi (NYC), Morgan Thorson (Minneapolis), Megan Sprenger (NYC), Emily Johnson with Katie Pearl and Lisa D'Amour (NYC / New Orleans / Minneapolis), LeeSaar The Company (NYC, offsite) are all artists whom we are proud to have representing Performance Space 122's contemporary dance contingent.
Performance Space 122 has for 30 years, been and continues to be a key hub for New York live performance and COIL provides a spoke to the best emerging artists and ideas.NYC Players / Richard Maxwell
Ads
60 minutes
Upstairs at Performance Space 122
WORLD PREMIERE | THEATRE
Co-presented with Under The Radar Festival
Wed, Jan 6 at 10pm | Fri, Jan 8 at 7pm | Sun, Jan 10 at 10pm | Tues, Jan 12 at 10pm |
Thu, Jan 14 at 10:30pm | Fri, Jan 15 at 8pm | Sat, Jan 16 at 10:30pm | Sun, Jan 17 at 5:30pm
EXTENDED: Wed, Jan 20 - Sun, Jan 31 / Wed - Sat at 8pm, Sun at 6pm
ADDED LATE SHOWS: Sat, Jan 23 + Sat, Jan 30 at 10pm / NO SHOW: Thu, Jan 21
[Richard Maxwell is] "One of the most innovative and essential artists to emerge from American experimental theater in the past decade." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Ads marks a new departure in the work of celebrated downtown auteur Richard Maxwell and NYC Players. Moving into and beyond traditional video screening, and projecting video into the realm of live performance, Ads stages three-dimensional video recordings in the theater as theatre. Recorded speeches make the appeal for independence, displaying ideas and beliefs held up to be essential. Are we humble? Are we great? Can we begin to claim back space?
In collaboration with photographer/cinematographer Michael Schmelling and Wooster Group technical director Bozkurt Karasu, Maxwell asks these questions and more: Whether theatre is possible without a human presence. Can verisimilitude be enhanced by technology?
And perhaps most importantly: How can we address these questions in a live performance?
Ads is a featured presentation of COIL; Ads is also is a participant in the Under The Radar Festival 2010, a program of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Annual Members Conference, with major funding by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The Festival is produced by Mark Russell and The Public Theater.
Company website: http://www.nycplayers.org/
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Gisèle Vienne/Jonathan Capdeville/Dennis Cooper
Jerk
60 minutes
Downstairs at Performance Space 122
N.Y. PREMIERE | GLOVE-PUPPET THEATRE
Co-presented with Under The Radar Festival
Thu, Jan 7 at 6:30pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 7pm | Sun, Jan 10 at 9:30pm | Mon, Jan 11 at 9:30pm | Thu, Jan 14 at 10pm | Fri, Jan 15 at 7:30pm | Sat, Jan 16 at 10pm | Sun, Jan 17 at 6pm
"Jerk might be unbearable for some. But in our eyes, theatre so wisely woven with reality, however violent, is wholesome." - Les Inrockuptibles, France
Using simple glove puppets, Jerk is an imaginary reconstruction - strange, poetic, funny and somber - of the crimes perpetrated by American serial killer Dean Corll, who with the help of teenagers David Brooks and Wayne Henley, killed more than twenty boys in the state of Texas during the 70s.
Jerk is based on the chilling text of Dennis Cooper, an author deemed "the most dangerous writer in America". Jerk is theatre at its starkest, a harrowing journey into the most hidden corners of the human psyche.
Since 1999, Gisèle Vienne has worked as a choreographer, director and visual artist. Performed by and created in collaboration with Jonathan Capdevielle.
FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY
Co-production of Le Quartz-Scène nationale de Brest, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort in the frame of l'accueil-studio and Centro Paraga-Murcia. The company DACM is supported by the DRAC Rhône-Alpes / Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Region Rhône-Alpes, Conseil général de l'Isère, Ville de Grenoble. This project is supported by Étants Donnés: The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts, a program od FACE and Culturesfrance. Jerk is also is a participant in the Under The Radar Festival 2010, a program of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Annual Members Conference, with major funding by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The Festival is produced by Mark Russell and The Public Theater. Artist website: http://www.g-v.fr/
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Raymond Scannell & Tom Creed
Mimic
75 minutes
Upstairs at Performance Space 122
U.S. PREMIERE | CABARET THEATRE
Fri, Jan 8 at 10pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 7:30pm | Mon, Jan 11 at 10pm | Tue, Jan 12 at 5pm | Thu, Jan 14 at 8pm | Fri, Jan 15 at 10:30pm | Sat, Jan 16 at 8pm | Sun, Jan 17 at 8pm
"A compelling constellation... vertinguous, playful and poignant" - Irish Theatre Magazine
Best Male Performer, Dublin Fringe Festival 2009
Performed at a grand piano by one of Ireland's most exciting new theatrical voices, Mimic is a poetic and extraordinarily prescient solo performance about a culture in economic and spiritual collapse. A dark satire about imitation, authenticity, and what happens to a nation that leaves its heritage behind.
Written, Composed, Performed by Raymond Scannell. Directed and designed by Tom Creed.
Raymond Scannell is currently playing Blake in the Druid world tour of Enda Walsh's acclaimed The Walworth Farce. He has worked extensively as an actor and is currently under commission to Cork Midsummer Festival. Tom Creed is Associate Director of Rough Magic Theatre Company and Theatre and Dance Curator of Kilkenny Arts Festival. His extensive directing credits include an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award nomination in 2007 for Rough Magic's Attempts on her Life. Presented with the support of Culture Ireland.
ROTOZAZA & Ant Hampton
GuruGuru
52 minutes
The Classroom Gallery, PS122 Second Floor
N.Y. PREMIERE | INTERACTIVE SELF-HELP INSTALLATION FOCUS GROUP
Wed, Jan 6 - Tue, Jan 12
Jan 6 - 8, (Wed/Thurs/Fri) at 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm
Jan 9 (Sat) at 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm
Jan 10 (Sun) at 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm
Jan 11 and 12 (Mon and Tues): at 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm
"Hugely entertaining... This smart, mysterious exercise in programmed thinking and collective chaos is strange but exhilarating." - The Times
"You may find yourself frantically looking for yourself again in the moments after the performance has finished." - The Guardian
You have been told what to do every moment of the day, for years on end. The voice in your headphones has understood who you are and gives instructions which mirror what you'd be doing anyway. A life free of dither and uncertainty! In your job, this voice is a career-saver... but the day has come when you need to come 'off the headphones'. You need help.
Five participants enter a brightly lit room, there are five chairs positioned around a TV. A session begins, and as each audience member follows different instructions via headphones, they begin to understand 'who they are'. Proceedings are led by an on-screen, animated character - whose twin roles of marketing and spiritual Guru are confused by his reliance on untested and accident-prone technologies. The overproduced, digital sheen of our focus-group world cracks open into a colourful volcano of boiling absurdity. A hilarious chaos develops, exposing today's consumer-mad inability to distinguish between what we want, and what we need.
A Rotozaza Production; By Ant Hampton, with Joji Koyama and Isambard Khroustaliov. Commissioned by Fusebox Festival, Texas Produced by ArtsAgenda. Presented with the support of The British Council.
Single tickets $10
A Brian Barnhart, Axis Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd. production
East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House
50 minutes
Downstairs at Performance Space 122
SOLO PERFORMANCE
Wed, Jan 6 at 9:30pm | Thu, Jan 7 at 9:30pm | Sat, Jan 9 at Midnight | Sun, Jan 10 at 4:30pm | Mon, Jan 11 at 7pm | Tue, Jan 12 at 7pm | Thu, Jan 14 at 7:30pm | Fri, Jan 15 at 10pm |
Sat, Jan 16 at 7:30pm | Sun, Jan 17 at 8:30pm
New York theatre-icon Edgar Oliver was once the receptionist at Performance Space 122. Decades later - and direct from a sell-out Off-Broadway season, not to mention a recently celebrated featured film role in "Gentlemen Broncos" (from Jared Hess, director of Napolean Dynamite) - Edgar returns. In legendary, inimitable, neo-Gothic style.
He takes us upon a fantastic voyage through the strange rooms of the bizarre boarding house where he has lived since his first years in 1970's New York and wherein lie the secrets of his family and the unbelievable odyssey that brought him there. Inhabiting the dark, mysterious halls are a dwarf Cabalist, a possible Nazi, the landlord's former wet nurse who apparently lives in a nest of rags, and all too many others,
"As I was walking in front of this old, decayed townhouse, I happened to look up just in time to see a gnarled hand reach through the Venetian blinds and tape this beat-up old paper bag to the inside of the parlor floor window. On the paper bag was scrawled in pencil, in this kind of horror handwriting - Room For Rent. So I ran up the front steps, and I rang the doorbell. The room was very small. But it had a big, beautiful window looking out onto the trees of Tenth Street."
There is no storyteller in the world like Edgar Oliver, whose manner of tales exist in a world that meanders purposelessly, effortlessly and absolutely compellingly across truth, lies, fiction and document leaving us ultimately with a figure both strange and inspiring.
Written and Performed by Edgar Oliver. Directed by Randall Sharp. Lighting Design by David Zeffren. A Brian Barnhart, Axis Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd. production presented in association with Performance Space 122.
Morgan Thorson and Low
Heaven
50 minutes
Upstairs at Performance Space 122
DANCE | LIVE MUSIC
Thu, Jan 7 at 5pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 5pm | Sun, Jan 10 at 5pm | Mon, Jan 11 at 7:30pm | Tue, Jan 12 at 7:30pm
Morgan Thorson returns to PS122 with the sublime slowcore band LOW in pursuit of corporeal perfection in a real-time performance ritual. This reverential spectacle transfers the myth of perfection from the religious to the Theatre World as a roving chorus of performers undertakes angelic choral singing and Thorson's uniquely dynamic choreography.
Temporary Distortion
Americana Kamikaze
60 minutes
Upstairs at Performance Space 122
CINEMA-THEATRE
Fri, Jan 8 at Midnight | Sat, Jan 9 at 10pm | Sun, Jan 10 at 7:30pm | Mon, Jan 11 at 5pm
"Go to the theatre to see death performed live to really test your limits."- The New York Times
Following a critically acclaimed run at PS122 in November 2009, Americana Kamikaze re-conjures vengeful spirits, impossible physical manipulations, elliptical storylines, creepy sound designs, equally creepy cinematography, and bizarrely happy endings. Performers are doubled by video doppelgangers in this East-meets-West psychological horror story that fractures reality and narrative beyond existence.
Company website: http://www.temporarydistortion.com/
Lisa D'Amour & Katie Pearl with Emily Johnson
Terrible Things
60 minutes
Downstairs at Performance Space 122
THEATRE | DANCE
Fri, Jan 8 at 6:30pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 9:30pm | Sun, Jan 10 at 7pm | Tue, Jan 12 at 4:30pm
"Next time D'Amour and Pearl bring their enchanting work to town be sure to take it in." - John del Signore, The Gothamist
Science Tuesday meets Oklahoma angst as Lisa D'Amour and Katie Pearl return to PS122 and get up close and in between molecules, quarks and memories. Have you ever wondered if all those lives you've imagined yourself living are actually happening in a parallel world(s)? Terrible Things takes audiences on a T-R-I-P inside the many lives of Katie Pearl and her action-figure literary mom.
Artist website: http://pearldamour.com/
Megan V. Sprenger / mvworks
...within us.
60 minutes
Downstairs at Performance Space 122
DANCE | INSTALLATION
Wed, Jan 6 at 6:30pm | Fri, Jan 8 at 9:30pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 4:30pm
"It is both striking and antiseptic. You think of office spaces, study halls, waiting rooms; the places in between the action." - Claudia LaRocco, The New York Times
Set in a 360 degree hyper-intimate environment with audience members integrated among the performers ...within us. examines the human instincts that lay at the core of physical & emotional conflict and continues mvworks' investigation of kinetic transfer through movement.
Artist website: http://mvworks.org/
The following are presented as part of COIL off-site in association with and at the following venues:
The National Theater of the United States of America
CHAUTAUQUA!
75 minutes
Co-presented with Under The Radar Festival
Offsite* at The Public Theater
THEATRE
Thu, Jan 7 at 9:30pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 7pm | Tues, Jan 12 at 9:30pm | Thu, Jan 14 at 9:30pm |
Fri, Jan 15 at 9:30pm | Sat, Jan 16 at 9:30pm | Sun, Jan 17 at 3pm
Winners of the 2007 Spalding Gray Award, NTUSA returns to NYC to channel the form and style of the original Chautauqua Lectures through their own inimitable aesthetic and theatrical rhythm. CHAUTAUQUA! combines lecture, debate, scientific demonstration and tales of explorers with more traditional forms of entertainment such as dance, dramatic recital, feats of strength, and joke telling. The company examines their own role as "entertainers" as well as "artists" and question whether or not the convergence of art and commerce is possible, sustainable, or even good for either party.
*offsite - Tickets available through The Public Theater as part of the Under The Radar Festival
Company website: http://ntusa.org/
Gin & "It"
90 minutes
Co-presented with Under The Radar Festival in association with 3LD Art & Technology Center
Offsite* at 3LD Art & Technology Center
THEATRE | MULTI-MEDIA
Thu, Jan 7 - Sat, Jan 9 and Thu, Jan 14 - Sat, Jan 16 at 9pm (not open for REVIEW)
OFFICIAL NY PREMIERE: Performance Space 122 April 2010
"What beauty there is in Mr. Farrington's work." - Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times
For his next work Gin & "It", Reid Farrington's principle source is a film from the Master of
Suspense. Again Farrington collaborates with film historians and archivists to bring a classic film to the stage with his own boundary-pushing melding of projected imagery and live drama. The original movie's director attempted to transfer the compressed drama of a one-set play into a suspenseful film through the illusion of being shot in one uninterrupted film take. Farrington explores the making of this technical tour-de-force. His video theater work will mirror the technical feats of this daring film experiment.
* Tickets available through 3LD Art & Technology Center
Artist website: http://reidfarrington.com/
LeeSaar The Company
Prima
55 minutes
Offsite* at the Jewish Community Center
DANCE
Thu, Jan 7 at 8pm | Sat, Jan 9 at 8pm | Sun, Jan 10 at 3pm
"LeeSaar's dances always require unwavering attention" - Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
In Prima, four arresting performers explore a world of pure sensation and energy. Teasing out the feminine and the virile, they are alternately playful and bashful as they navigate sexuality and temptation. Featuring music by political activist DJ Filastine.
The company's process and technique is influenced by the Gaga training of Ohad Naharin. Lee and Saar are recipients of the Six Point Fellowship 2007-2009, the Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography for 2008, and the New York Foundation for the Art Fellowship for 2008.
* Tickets available through the JCC
Company website: http://www.leesaar.com/
WaxFactory
BLIND.NESS (Love is a Four-Letter Word)
60 minutes
Offsite* at Abrons Arts Center
DANCE, THEATRE
Wed, Jan 6 - Tue, Jan 12 at 8pm
"You'll go wild for this" - John Del Signore, Gothamist
The globe trotting, discipline-bending, unmistakably downtown WaxFactory presents a stellar female cast on an emotional roller coaster ride across the dark, and ultimately humorous underbelly of love. Part audio-visual installation, part dance-theatre, BLIND.NESS looks at what transpires when love becomes a four-letter word.
Directed by Ivan Talijancic, written by Slovenian playwright Simona Semenic, featuring sublime video by Antonio Giacomin of Italy, architectural design of Minimart, the sounds of electronica duo Random Logic and WaxFactory's own Erika Latta, this tour-de-force will surely break, mend, and break your heart.
*Tickets available through the Abrons Arts Center
Company website: http://www.waxfactory.org/
Maria Hassabi
SoloShow
60 minutes
Note - in the original press release, she was listed with Solo; we are now presenting SoloShow
Private Studio - address and reservation by reservation only; this encore presentation is not open for review.
DANCE | INSTALLATION
Jan 11 at 4:30pm | Jan 12 at 4:30pm | Jan 12 at 9:30pm
"Gazing at this exquisitely designed living sculpture, you also feel your own body straining with Hassabi, and in the slow friction between these two views, mysterious emotions ignite." - Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
"Ms. Hassabi's body is astounding." - Gia Kourlas, The New York Times
Hassabi continues her rigorous exploration of representations of the female body - embedded within art history, pop culture, and the performance of daily life - dissolving into the physicality of contemporary dance. Artist website: www.mariahassabi.com
SPECIAL COIL EVENT
Sunday, January 10th : FREE | Our traditional COIL late-night bash, at The LuEsther Lounge at The Public. From 10:30PM (following presentations of Ads and Jerk) into the wee hours.
COIL-AT-A-GLANCE
14 companies. 12 days.
See Calendar At: http://www.ps122.org/downloads/COIL_presenter_info.pdf
ON SITE AT PS122, Premiere Presentations:
Gisèle Vienne/Jonathan Capdeville/Dennis Cooper
Jerk
N. Y. Premiere | Theatre, Puppet Theatre
NYC Players / Richard Maxwell
Ads
World Premiere | Theatre / Multi-Media
Tom Creed & Raymond Scannell
Mimic
U.S. Premiere | Theatre, Cabaret
Rotozaza
GuruGuru
N.Y. Premiere | Interactive Self-Help Installation Focus Group
East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House
PS122 Premiere | Solo Theatre / Gothic Storytelling
Returning to PS122
Morgan Thorson and Low: Heaven
Dance / Live Music
Temporary Distortion: Americana Kamikaze
Cinema-Theatre / Performance Installation
Lisa D'Amour & Katie Pearl with Emily Johnson: Terrible Things
Theatre, Dance
Megan V. Sprenger/mvworks: ...within us.
Dance, Installation
OFFSITE PS122 Co-Presentations:
The National Theater of the United States of America - CHAUTAUQUA!
LeeSaar The Company - Prima
WaxFactory - BLIND.NESS
Reid Farrington - Gin & "It" - NOTE: NOT OPEN FOR REVIEW (Officially premieres at PS122 in Spring)
Maria Hassabi - SoloShow - NOT FOR REVIEW
TICKETS AND PASSPORTSTICKETS ARE from $20 except where otherwise noted.
PASSPORTS are $55 and include 5 tickets that can be used in ANY combination to ONSITE performances at PS122 (including GuruGuru).
Tickets and Passports are available via www.ps122.org and by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101 and at the Box Office, located at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street (open from 4PM to curtain on performance-days).
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