Performance Space 122 Announces Adjustments in Fall Lineup

Performance Space 122 has announced some adjustments and additions to their fall lineup:

Playwright provocateur Thomas Bradshaw ignites the stage yet again in one of his signature inflammatory satires. Following sold out and controversial runs at Performance Space 122, including 'Prophet' and 'Purity,' and elsewhere, including 'Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist' and 'Cleansed,' Bradshaw teams with acclaimed director Jose Zayas (a/d 'Talk Radio') for an explosive new creation that is not for the faint of heart.

When the master of the plantation dies, he wills his slaves to be freed, but his wife doesn't think that good property should be squandered. Pandemonium ensues. The play pulls from the true stories of slave narratives from 'The Great Escapes' including that of Henry Box Brown, a 19th century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom by arranging to have himself mailed to Philadelphia abolitionists in a dry goods container. Southern Promises provides a unique portrait of the old south.

'Southern Promises' is presented by Performance Space 122 in conjunction with The Immediate Theatre Company and Queens Theatre in the Park as part of B.O.B., PS 122's Best of Boroughs Program Commission. B.O.B. is a program that unites artists and institutions from all five boroughs to create opportunities for diverse collaboration and audience development. 'Southern Promises' was developed in part through IRT Theater's artist-in-residence program.

The cast of 'Southern Promises' is Lia Aprile, Jeff Biehl, Matt Huffman, Sadrina Johnson, Peter Mccabe, Derrick Sanders, Hugh Sinclair, and Erwin Thomas.

Thomas Bradshaw's play entitled 'Purity' was produced at Performance Space 122 in January 2007 and his plays 'Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist' and 'Cleansed' were produced on a double bill at The Brick Theatre in February '07. His plays 'Prophet,' 'Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist,' 'Cleansed,' and 'Purity' are all published by Samuel French, Inc. 'Strom'/'Cleansed' were nominated for Outstanding Original Full Length Script by the 2007 New York Innovative Theater Awards. He has been featured as one of Time Out New York's ten playwrights to watch, as one of Paper Magazine's 2006 Beautiful People, and Best Provocative Playwright by the Village Voice in 2007. His play entitled 'Prophet' was presented at PS 122 in December 2005 and 'Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist' won The American Theater Coop's 2005 National Playwriting Contest. His was a fellow at New York Theater Workshop in 06-07' and is now a Usual Suspect. 'Cleansed' will also be published in Plays and Playwrights 2008. He has been a member of Soho Rep's writer/Director lab as well as Lincoln Center's. He performed in the premiere of Richard Maxwell's 'The End Of Reality' at The Kitchen in January 2006 and he performed in Young Jean Lee's Pullman, WA at PS 122 in March 2005. He performed throughout Europe with 'The End Of Reality' in the fall of 06'. He received his MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program and is a Professor at Brooklyn College and Medgar Evers College. Thomas is also the recipient of a 2006 Jerome Foundation Grant. 'Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist' was produced in Los Angeles in June 08' and Thomas's play 'Dawn' will receive a workshop with New York Theater Workshop at Dartmouth College in August. 'Dawn' will also be translated into German and be presented at Theater Bielefeld in Germany in October. His play 'Purity' was published by Theaterheute in Germany in April and his play 'Dawn' will be published by Theater Der Zeit in October. He is currently working on an adaptation of 'The Book Of Job' which has been commissioned by Soho Rep. He is also Soho Rep's 2008-2009 Streslin Fellow. He is also a Playwriting Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center.

Jose Zayas is the artistic director of The Immediate Theater Company. Recent work includes: 'Okay' by Taylor Mac, 'Vengeance Can Wait' by Yukiko Motoya (PS122), 'Again and Against' by Betty Shamieh (The Lark), 'The Past Is Not a Foreign Country (Very) Personal Maps of Seattle' by Mallery Avidon (Soho Rep), 'Nowhere on the Border' by Carlos Lacamara (Repertorio Espanol, 5 ACE Awards), 'The Wasps' by Ken Urban (Target Margin), 'Strom Thurmond is Not a Racist' by Thomas Bradshaw (Brick Theater, 4 New York Innovative Theater Award Nominations) and 'Devil Land' by Desi Moreno-Penson (Summer Play Festival). He is the 2008 Marathon Literary Manager at Ensemble Studio Theater and was one of nytheatre.com's 2007 People of the Year. Drama League Fellow, Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Phil Killian Fellowship, Soho Rep Writer/Director's Lab. BA: Harvard University. MFA: Carnegie Mellon University.

Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and cross-media. Founded in 1979, Performance Space 122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists whose work challenges the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance. Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, PS 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view.

'Southern Promises' runs Sunday, September 7 - Saturday, September 27 on the following schedule: Wednesday - Saturday at 8:30pm and Sunday - Monday at 7:00pm. No performance on Monday, September 15 or Wednesday, September 24. Tickets: $18 each, $15 (students/seniors), $10 (P.S. 122 members). Tickets may be purchased online at www.ps122.org or via phone at (212) 352-3101. Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street, New York, New York 10009.

On September 25-28, Verdensteatret's 'Louder' premieres at Performance Space 122.  A telling orchestra is rigged on a rusty wire and a machine, so fragile that it is in constant danger of short-circuiting, throws a tidal wave of pictures and sounds at us. Among a pile of megaphones that hurl sound in all directions and a knot of wires so stretched that they may break at any moment, we glimpse people. People try to interact with this landscape, tugging at strings that are everywhere in the room. The strings hanging from the ceiling form the stage for a mass of figures. A mechanical puppet play takes place here, over the heads of the human figures. 'Louder' is a storytelling orchestra that narrates a multitude of tales through sound and images. Tales from a distant past, tales from our time, about wars, river, the theatre, the nation, music, nature, technology, the journey and about exile. In the midst of this throng, we find a heart of darkness - a long, black barge on the open sea, radiating coldness and stories.

Combining robotics, video, sound, music, shadow play, object theatre, and new technology, Norway's Bessie-award winning performance collective conjures an intense and other-worldly voyage through the Mekong delta. Reason ends as the spectator is engulfed by a vast and visual soundscape, encountering cycles of transformation and the layering of tales from the past and present.

Verdensteatret is one of the most innovative and experimental companies in Norway. Their experimental use of audiovisual technology in a close dialogue with more traditional and historic tools of artistic expression results in complex orchestral works and space-related musical compositions. They received the Bessie Award 2006 in New York for 'Concert for Greenland' in the category Performance, Installation, and New Media which made its U.S. premiere at P.S. 122.

'Louder' runs Thursday, September 25 - Sunday, September 28 on the following schedule: Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm/Sunday at 5:00pm. Tickets from $25, $15 (students/seniors), $10 (P.S. 122 members). Tickets may be purchased online at www.ps122.org or via phone at (212) 352-3101. Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street, New York, New York 10009.

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