Theater for the New City Sets Its Second Dream Up Festival 8/14-9/4

From August 14 to September 4, Theater for the New City (TNC), under the direction of Crystal Field, Artistic Director, will present its second "Dream Up Festival," a festival of experimental theater and dance featuring new works from across the country and abroad. The theater's Literary Manager, Michael Scott-Price continues as curator.

With its Dream Up Festival, Theater for the New City (TNC) opens itself up to theater from the country at large and to artists from overseas. Its founders, Crystal Field and Michael Scott-Price, feel this is especially needed now in a time of declining donations to the arts, grants not being awarded due to market conditions, and arts funding cuts on almost every level all across the country and abroad.

Dream Up 2011 maintains the festival's commitment to new works. There will be 22 productions, of which 17 are world premieres, two are US premieres and three are NY premieres. There are two shows from Europe and one from Puerto Rico. Two of the productions are Dance and one is Dance Theater.

TNC has consistently been the most inexpensive theater of its caliber and it continues its commitment to affordable tickets with this festival. Dream Up Festival tickets are $12-$15 for the participating productions. All of the productions will be staged at least five times. Performances are entirely at Theater for New City, 155 First Avenue.

For an alphabetical listing of the productions, go to www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2011_alphabetical.htm.

For a day-by-day schedule of productions, please see: www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2011_day-by-day.htm.

The festival's website is www.dreamupfestival.org.

The Dream Up Festival staff includes TNC's Executive Director, Crystal Field; the Festival Director/Curator, Michael Scott-Price; TNC's Administrator, Jonathan Weber and Festival Coordinator, Lori Mannette.

Michael Scott-Price (Festival Director/Curator of Dream Up Festival) has directed in New York City at venues including Chashama, Dixon Place and Collective Unconscious. He has written and directed productions that were presented nationally as well as in Canada, Ireland, and England. Currently, he is also Curator of TNC's "New City, New Blood" reading series and "Scratch Night" (works-in-progress). He is Artistic Director of an experimental theatre company, Asteroid B612 Theatre Company, which made its debut in the 17th Annual HERE American Living Room Series in August 2006. He has studied at the School of Physical Theatre in London, England, at the Odin Teatret in Hostelbro, Denmark and in the International School Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) in Wroclaw, Poland with Eugenio Barba and company. He is a member of Lincoln Center Theater Director's Lab.

TNC maintains a distinctive commitment to high artistic values and community service. In an effort to make theater accessible to all, TNC presents an assortment of distinct, exceptional events each year, including the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, which celebrates the artistic and cultural diversity of TNC's Lower East Side community; an annual Village Halloween Ball and an annual summer Street Theater tour that presents a free, live, original musical in thirteen neighborhoods in all five boroughs. Most of these are free of charge to the public.

Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Avenue, at the corner of East Tenth Street, in the heart of Manhattan's East Village. For more info see: www.theaterforthenewcity.net.