Public Announces 2010 'Under the Radar' Line-Up; Featres SITI Company and More

By: Jessica Lewis Nov. 11, 2009

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson), Producer Mark Russell and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Executive Producer) announced the largest and most expansive line-up for UNDER THE RADAR 2010, running January 6-17 at The Public Theater as well as partner venues. This 12-day festival, coinciding with the New York APAP conference, is committed to tracking new theater from across the U.S. and around the world. Tickets are $15 to UNDER THE RADAR shows at The Public and go on-sale on Tuesday, December 1.

Now in its sixth year, UNDER THE RADAR is an explosively diverse kaleidoscope of new theater-examples from around the world and the U.S. that spotlight artists ranging from emerging talents to masters in the field. Located at The Public Theater as well as partner venues, UNDER THE RADAR offers a crash course in theater that is exciting, independent, and experimental, created by some of the most dynamic artists working today.

"Every year Under the Radar provides a dizzying and exhilarating look at the range of theater being created by some of the world's most exciting radical artists," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "This Festival is irreplaceable; it's also a lot of fun."

"This Under the Radar is the most ambitious we've mounted with more presentations in more places than ever before," said Producer Mark Russell. "Just as UTR visual artist MK Guth makes beautiful ropes out of re-purposed clothes, this festival is bound together with themes of youth and aging, theater and film, technology and performance, visual art and puppets, politics and faith, making for a wildly colorful and daringly bold festival that reflects our world and our very complicated times."

The UNDER THE RADAR festival is timed to coincide with the New York City APAP Conference, the world's top forum and marketplace for the performing arts. More than 4,000 performing arts presenters, agents, managers and other industry leaders are expected to attend this year's conference. In addition to UNDER THE RADAR, the conference features more than 1,000 showcase performances staged throughout New York.

"UNDER THE RADAR has become the leading destination for new theater work and continues to raise the visibility and curiosity for new theater with this dynamic festival," said Sandra Gibson, President and CEO, Arts Presenters. "Arts Presenters is thrilled to partner with Mark Russell and The Public Theater throughout the year on both the festival and what is now the Under the Radar Initiative for the creation and dissemination of devised work."

Complete Line-Up for UNDER THE RADAR (January 6 - 17, 2010):

American Document
January 6-17 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
SITI Company and the Martha Graham Company

The Martha Graham Center has invited director Anne Bogart, playwright Charles L. Mee Jr. and the SITI Company to reinvent Martha Graham's American Document using filmed excerpts, written descriptions and Graham's handwritten notes. In several work-in-progress showings, catch a firsthand glimpse at this stirring new theatrical work featuring a ground-breaking collaboration between SITI Company actors and Martha Graham Company dancers. American Document reflects our current cultural concerns by answering the same questions Martha Graham asked over 70 years ago: What is an American? And what is America?

Chautauqua!
January 7-17 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Created by The National Theater of the United States of America

Inspired by the wildly popular lecture circuits of the late 19th century, NTUSA's Chautauqua! weaves lectures on history, culture and capitalism with live music, magic, slapstick, dance and melodrama, as it discovers the place of art and impulse in our changing culture of commerce. Invested with the signature theatrical bravura that earned this company an OBIE award for Design and the Spalding Gray Award for theatrical innovation, each night's Chautauqua! features special guest lecturers, performers and surprises in a celebration of the culture we all share and the moment in which we share it. Chautauqua! is also a featured presentation of Performance Space 122's COIL.

John Cassavetes' Husbands
January 6-17 (Running Time: 180 minutes with intermission)
Dangerous Ground Productions
Conceived, Designed and Directed by Doris Mirescu

Based on John Cassavetes' 1970s film, Husbands depicts three men shaken up by the death of their friend and by their own imminent approach into middle age. They enter a freefall into emptiness and unrest in a four-day bender that follows the funeral. Anarchic and raw, the production is a surprisingly intimate exploration of the mysteries of friendship and masculinity.

Invisible Atom
January 7-17 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
2b theatre company (Canada)

Time freezes and the normally reliable laws of motion and matter dissolve. Poised between life and death, ex-stockbroker Atom contemplates his place in a world propelled towards its destruction by the laws of physics and free market economics. Visually striking and ingeniously minimalist, Invisible Atom is a darkly humorous story that questions the nature and acceleration of human progress.

Must - The Inside Story
January 8-17 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
Clod Ensemble in collaboration with Peggy Shaw / Produced by Fuel (UK)

In collaboration with the celebrated UK-based Clod Ensemble, legendary New York performance artist Peggy Shaw takes the audience on a journey across the landscape of her own body. Renowned for her own gender-bending autobiographical work, she recounts her extraordinary experiences of the medical profession from her current perspective as a 65-year-old lesbian grandmother. Must weaves together the stories of a lifetime - giving birth on the way to Woodstock, her mother's electric shock treatment in 1950s America, the loss of a loved one - with projected microscopic images and live musicians performing a powerful score.

Silver Stars
January 8-16 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
Written by Seán Millar
Directed by Brokentalkers (Ireland)

Featuring a community chorus of gay men, Silver Stars is a moving and eloquent song cycle which tells the truly remarkable real-life stories of ordinary men in search of happiness and fulfillment, in a country that was challenged by their very existence. Based on celebrated singer/songwriter Seán Millar's interviews with gay men from Dublin to New York, these songs capture tales of love, loss, family, spirituality, defiance and joy.

Space Panorama
January 7-17 (Running Time: 30 minutes)
Created and Performed by Andrew Dawson (UK)
Presented with support from Broadway Across America

Acclaimed British director and performer Andrew Dawson recreates a documentary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing using only his hands and a black-draped table. Accompanied by Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 and a dramatic, lively narration, Dawson takes audiences from Houston to the moon and returns them safely to Earth, conveying the colossal distances and the risks involved simply through his skilled hand movements and wry facial expressions. Dawson has performed Space Panorama at theaters and theater festivals throughout the world, most recently at the Kennedy Center to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Apollo 11.

The Word Begins
January 8-16 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Written and Performed by Sekou tha Misfit and Steve Connell
Developed and Directed By Robert Egan

Nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards, The Word Begins is an exciting journey with two young men as they struggle to come to terms with belief and morality in America today. Taking on race relations, religion, sexuality, and the power of mass communication --- among other great American issues, they travel from the inner city to the malls to the heartland of our country. Blending spoken word, comedy and hip hop, Steve Connell and Sekou tha Misfit travel rapidly through the chaotic and confusing world of what the national landscape of politics looks like to a young white man and a young black man.

Versus - In the Jungle of Cities
January 6-17 (Running Time: 80 minutes)
Produced by Teatr Nowy (Poland)
Directed by Radek Rychcik

In this exhilarating adaptation of Brecht's In the Jungle of Cities, Versus traces a figurative wrestling match that arises inexplicably between two men in the big city. With only four actors, rising Polish directing star Rychcik reinvents the epic clash with pop music and explosive choreography. Presented in Polish with English subtitles.

UNDER THE RADAR PARTNER VENUES

L'Effet de Serge
January 7-16 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Vivarium Studio (France)
Conceived, Directed and Designed by Philippe Quesne
3LD Art & Technology Center 80 Greenwich @ Rector, NYC
$15 tickets at 3LDnyc.org or 212-352-3101

On Sunday afternoons, in his living room and for a very small audience, Serge performs 1-3 numbers with low-tech special effects. Serge's focused concentration on his own universe highlights the implicit futility in our daily rituals and at the same time exposes the pleasure and necessity of these routines. L'Effet de Serge is drama on a small scale, void of traditional thematic breadth and complex intrigues, and shows us a man who finds the sublime in the trivial.

Gin and "It"
January 7-16 (Running Time: 80 minutes)
Directed by Reid Farrington
3LD Art & Technology Center 80 Greenwich @ Rector, NYC
Co-presented by Performance Space 122 as part of COIL.
$15 tickets at 3LDnyc.org or 212-352-3101

In Farrington's Gin and "It," his video theater work mirrors the technical feats of Hitchcock's daring film experiment in "Rope" with its own boundary-pushing melding of projected imagery and live drama. With his background as The Wooster Group's video designer, Reid Farrington's innovative approach to integrating sophisticated videoscapes into live theater will find instant favor among fans of ensembles like The Builders Association and Big Art Group.

This Fable Is Intended For You: A Work-Energy Principle
January 9-12 (Running Time: 90 minutes)
MK Guth
Arts World Financial Center Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street
Free Admission

Sat. Jan 9th 2- 3:30pm | Sun. Jan 10th 2- 3:30pm | Mon. Jan 11th 12:30- 2pm | Tues. Jan 12th 12:30- 2pm |

This Fable Is Intended For You: A Work-Energy Principle is a public project that amplifies the human presence and connections of the people living and working in Lower Manhattan. The project involves a public residency, a working exhibition and a series of performances. The residency and the exhibition act as animated sites of production as well as social sites of interaction. Material contributions by audience members will shift and affect the outcome of the work being created. The residency and exhibition culminate in a series of performances at the World Financial Center Winter Garden where the objects made at these sites become the materials that intertwine 24 people in an evolving set of temporary geometric sculptural shapes.

Chekhov Lizardbrain
January 7-17 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
Conceived, Developed and Created by Pig Iron Theater Company
CSV Cultural Center (107 Suffolk Street)
$20-$35 tickets: pigiron.org

Sat. Jan 16th 2pm & 8pm | Sun. Jan 17th 7pm |

Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre Company returns to New York with their OBIE Award-winning concoction of neuroscience and maladroit Russian melodrama. A lonely, Aspergian botanist conjures up a parade of unsettling and comic recollections in an attempt to shape his fractured memories into a comforting fiction. Pig Iron's virtuosic physical performers spin a dizzying and poignant web of memory, vaudeville, and stories that won't stay straight.

L.A. Party
January 8-10 (Running Time: 40 minutes)
Conceived and Directed by Phil Soltanoff
Written by David Barlow
Presented by HERE Arts Center
HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave., between Spring and Broome)
$15 tickets: www.here.org/laparty or 212-352-3101

Fri. Jan 8th 4pm & 9pm | Sat. Jan 9th 4pm & 9pm | Sun. Jan 10th 4pm & 9pm |

A fanatical vegan slides off the wagon one night, falling head-first into a wild L.A. bender. The story narrated by David Barlow collides with live video in which six performers produce a compelling composite human being. A charming soupçon from the celebrated Phil Soltanoff whose collaborations with France's CIE 111 have produced playful meldings of theatre, visual art, dance and new cirque.

The Devil You Know
January 6-24 (Running Time: 75 minutes)
La MaMa ETC In Association With Ping Chong and Company and Phantom Limb Company
Written and Directed by Ping Chong
LaMaMa (74A E. 4th Street)
$30 Tickets: lamama.org or 212-475-7710

Theater wizard Ping Chong and Phantom Limb's Erik Sanko and Jessica Grindstaff join forces in The Devil You Know, a tantalizing tale of desperate deals, second chances and democracy's eternal promise of renewal. The classic American Faust fable, The Devil and Daniel Webster, is gleefully transformed with the help of dozens of finely-crafted marionettes, dazzling video projections, an original score by Sanko, and ingenious revolving stages. A haunting meditation on lost souls and fool's gold, The Devil You Know is theater magic as only Ping Chong and Phantom Limb can conjure it.

Once and For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen
January 8-17 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
Ontroerend Goed, KOPERGIETERY (Belgium) and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd (UK)
Presented by The New Victory Theater at The Duke (229 W. 42 Street)
$25 Tickets ($17.50 for New Victory Members) NewVictory.org or 646-223-3010

With razor-sharp direction and an indie theater vibe, Once and For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen is a mind-blowing look at adolescence through the eyes of thirteen astoundingly talented teenagers.

The Windup Bird Chronicle
January 12-30 (Running Time: 105 minutes)
Based on the novel by Haruki Murakami

Directed by Stephen Earnhart
Ohio Theatre 66 Wooster Street
$18 Tickets: windupbc.com or 212-352-3101

Interdisciplinary, multimedia theatrical performance based on the international best-selling novel by Haruki Murakami combining live performance and puppetry with video projections and hypnotic soundscapes.

Ads
January 6-31 (Running Time: 60 minutes)
NYC Players/ Richard Maxwell
Co-presented by Performance Space 122 as part of COIL.
Performance Space 122 (150 First Ave. E. 9th Street)
$15 Tickets with code UTR: ps122.org, 212-352-3101 or at PS122 box office

Ads marks a departure in the work of celebrated downtown auteur Richard Maxwell and NYC Players. Moving beyond the traditional video screening into the realm of live performance, Ads stages three-dimensional video recordings in the theater. 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?

Jerk
January 7 - 17 (Running Time: 55 minutes)
Directed by Gisèle Vienne (France)
Text and dramaturgy by Dennis Cooper
Performed by and created in collaboration with Jonathan Capdevielle
Performance Space 122 (150 First Ave. E. 9th Street)
$15 Tickets with code UTR: ps122.org, 212-352-3101 or at PS122 box office

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 also a featured presentation of P.S. 122's COIL.

THE PUBLIC THEATER (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 42 Tony Awards, 149 Obies, 40 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

Mark RusselL (Producer) is an independent producer/curator working in New York City. He was also the guest Artistic Director for the Portland (Oregon) Institute of Contemporary Art - Time Based Arts Festival for 2006, 2007. From 1983-2004, Russell was the Executive Artistic Director of Performance Space 122 (P.S. 122).

THE ASSOCIATION OF PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTERS (Executive Producer), based in Washington DC, is the national service organization for the field of arts presenting, with nearly 2,000 organizational members and more than 5,000 registered individuals. Members range from the nation's leading performing arts centers, to civic and university performance facilities, to the full spectrum of artist agencies, managers, national consulting practices that servIce The field, and a growing roster of self-presenting artists. A non-profit 501(c)3 organization governed by a volunteer board of directors, Arts Presenters is led by its CEO Sandra Gibson, now in her eighth year. In addition to presenting the annual APAP Conference NYC - the world's leading forum and marketplace for the performing arts (January 9-13, 2009) -- Arts Presenters also provides a broad array of professional development programs.

Tickets: $15 single tickets for UNDER THE RADAR shows at The Public Theater go on-sale on Tuesday, December 1 at The Public Theater box office (425 Lafayette Street); online at www.publictheater.org or by phone at 212-967-7555. Seating for all UTR shows at The Public is general admission. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Box office hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1:00 pm to 7:30 pm, and Sunday and Monday from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

For more information, visit www.publictheater.org

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