One-Eighth Theatre, The Drunkard's Wife Tapped for New Ohio & IRT's 2017-19 Archive Residency

New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theatre have announced that One-Eighth Theatre and The Drunkard's Wife, two NYC-based performance ensembles, will be their Archive Residents for 2017 - 2019.

New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theatre (neighbors in the historic Archive Building on Christopher Street) founded the Archive Residency in 2012 as a new developing and presenting initiative designed to help sustain independent theatre companies in downtown Manhattan. The program offers select companies a two-year commitment of space, artistic support, administrative resources, and institutional continuity for the development and presentation of a new work.

One-Eighth Theatre - co-artistic directors Daniel Irizarry and Laura Butler Rivera - will develop Numbness, a visceral, highly-stylized, unforgiving tragicomedy that explores the physical and psychological state of feeling numb. What is it to be numb? Why are we numb? And how can we break free from it, if at all?

The Drunkard's Wife - co-artistic directors Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin - will develop Madame Lynch, a new spectacle with music based on the true story of Eliza Lynch, an Irish prostitute who became the de facto "Empress of Paraguay." We follow her doomed project of bringing European high culture to the inhabitants of a country that neither understood nor desired what she offered.

One-Eighth Theatre and The Drunkard's Wife join our current resident companies Built for Collapse and anecdota, who presented work-in-progress at our Ice Factory festival in 2017. Full productions will follow in Spring 2018.

New Ohio Artistic Director Robert Lyons commented: "We're excited to welcome these bold, adventurous companies into the Archive Residency orbit. Their work is rigorous, entertaining, and idiosyncratic, exactly the kind of artists we like to support. Both companies are well positioned to advance their organizational and creative ambitions."

The Archive Residency offers New York independent theatre companies a two-year commitment of space, artistic support, and institutional continuity for the development and presentation of a new work. We founded the Archive Residency program in 2012 in collaboration with IRT Theater, our third-floor neighbors in the Archive Building. First-year resident companies are provided a month of development at IRT Theater, and a workshop presentation as part of Ice Factory (our Obie Award-winning summer festival of new work now in its 24th year). The second year includes another month of development at IRT, and culminates in a four-week presentation of a World Premiere production in our main stage season. Membership into the Archive Residency is by invitation only. For more information visit newohiotheatre.org/archiveresidency.htm. Archive Residency alumni include: Piehole, Our Voices Theater, Blessed Unrest, The Assembly, Vampire Cowboys, Rady&Bloom, CollaborationTown, and The Mad Ones.

Founded in 2008 by Artistic Directors Daniel Irizarry and Laura Butler Rivera, One-Eighth Theatre is inspired by Hemingway's Iceberg Theory - the alluring idea that some things are better left unexplained or open to interpretation. The tip of an iceberg is only one-eighth of what's there, so much more lies beneath the surface. This idea of abstract possibilities is applied to all things One-Eighth. One-Eighth currently had a four-year long residency at INTAR Theatre. From participating in soloNOVA's theater festival to performing at IRT, from two Mabou Mines residencies to creating an original piece at Bilkent University with Turkish actors, One-Eighth is constantly pushing theatrical boundaries. Poland, Japan, United Kingdom, Lithuania, Germany, Turkey, Romania, Korea, Puerto Rico, New York City-One-Eighth also travels the world offering workshops and 'breaking the ice,' sharing their theatrical pieces.

The Drunkard's Wife is a no-wave mountain music band/theater troupe from Brooklyn. Their original works often incorporate raucous, no-wave inflected music and a generous, maximalist design sense. Helmed by Normandy Sherwood (The National Theater of the United States of America) and Craig Flanagin (God is My Co-Pilot and ½ Japanese), their plays and spectacles have been seen at Rubulad (Tiny Hornets) Brick Theater (Permanent Caterpillar), New Ohio Theatre (Feather Gatherers), as well as block parties and bars and parades all over New York City. Their 2013 album, I Saw the Evil One, is available at thedrunkardswife.bandcamp.com

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning presenting venue that serves Manhattan's adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting the boldest, most innovative work of today's vast independent theatre community. We 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 we reestablish the West Village as a destination for mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish, and profound theatrical endeavors. For more information, visit 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 information, visit irttheater.org.

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