Old Kent Road Closes EMANCIPATORY POLITICS, 12/11

Emancipatory Politics: A Romantic Tragedy flings a large ensemble into a traumatic struggle to create an opening for sprawling thought and intimate embraces.  Committed to the comedy of desire, the physicality of loss, and the potential for new spaces, this total-theater, contemporary ecstasy rejects the notion that ours is a post-ideological/post-historical age devoid of generative aesthetic vision and expansive social purpose; confronts the cruel ironies and certain failures of this world; and searches for the inextinguishable kernel of the radical-possible. 

EP: ART takes its cue from contemporary philosophical tracts, recent movements in leftist politics, and the very real search for meaning surfacing in the lives of 20 and 30-something contemporary New Yorkers.  The flow of the piece is collage-like, but relationships run through it throughout.  Its form is open and sprawling but energy is focused on the creation of a movement forward, connectivity, and a sense of journey.  Amid the societal struggle comes the romantic tragedy.  Amid the struggle love emerges.  
 
Old Kent Road Theater situates idiosyncratic ensemble pieces against the chaos and concrete of New York City, seeking authentic, evocative performance committed to the comedy of desire, the physicality of loss, and the possibility of new open spaces.  Founded in 2005 by Eric Bland and Scott Eckert, the OKRT has been invited to perform at various downtown theaters including The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, The Brick, Dixon Place, and The Bushwick Starr.  Driven by the idea that performance might reinvigorate life within the viewer and the performer reminding both of the complexity and overwhelm of being human, the OKRT strives to create work that might serve as a well-spring urging one to 'keep going' or as a frame within and through which we challenge, weather, and change our lives and our world. 

Recent shows include Are We Bourgeois, Mon Amour? (A Psycho's Analysis) (part of The Bushwick Starr's 3rd Annual Bushwhack Series), Jeannine's Abortion: A Play in One Trimester (part of The Brick's 'Too Soon Festival'), Make it Work! Keep Going! (part of Dixon Place's Puppet Blok! Series), I Stand for Nothing (part of the Ontological Incubator's 2009 Summer Series), The Protestants (part of The Brick Theater's 2008-09 Inaugural Main-Stage Season), Death at Film Forum & The Children of Truffaut (both at The Brick), and In Big Cities We Are Sentimental & Love Song 1: Faces like Stalinist Apartment Complexes in Czechoslovakia or Poland, Faces Born Under a Fear of Communism in the 80's (both at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater).
More information on the company: www.oldkentroadtheater.com       
      More information on the lead art designer:  www.web.me.com/abernathybland
 
About Incubator Arts Project
The Incubator Arts Project supports independent, experimental performing artists through a series of programs aimed at offering production opportunities and guidance with long-term growth and artistic sustainability. Its programs primarily support world premieres of original work and also include a concert series, work in progress opportunities and artist salons and roundtables.

The Incubator Arts Project grew out of the Incubator, a project of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater. In 2010, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater announced that it would leave its permanent home, St. Mark's Church, and that the Incubator would take over the space and operate year-round.

Beginning in 1993, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, in addition to its primary support of the work of Richard Foreman, opened its doors to emerging, independent artists. Since 1993 the emerging artists program at the Ontological took many forms, including the Obie-winning Blueprint Series for emerging directors. In 2005, the OHT reorganized the programs under the name INCUBATOR, creating a series of linked programs to provide young theater artists with resources and support to develop process-oriented, original theatrical productions. By 2010, the program had quadrupled in size, involving a range of artists and increased support. The programs included the centerpiece Residency program for premieres, two annual music festivals, a regular concert series, a serial work-in-progress program called Short Form, and roundtables and salons aimed at keeping Incubator artists involved year-round. In May, 2010, the Incubator received an OBIE grant.
 

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