Theater in Asylum, Less Than Rent, Slash Coleman and More Set for Horse Trade Theater Group Season 14

Horse Trade Theater Group announces the fall and early spring lineup for their 14th season, which will include World Premiere productions from Horse Trade's newest resident companies, Theater in Asylum, Less Than Rent, Slash Coleman, and Spookfish Theatre Company and veteran residents Grayce Productions, Dysfunctional Theatre Company, and The Pumpkin Pie Show.

The 2012/2013 season will also include the First Annual New York Storytelling Festival, the Fourth Annual Fire This Time Festival, the Fourth Annual Burlesque Blitz, and the Seventh Annual FRIGID New York Festival, as well as guest artists, CollaborationTown.

Slash Wednesday

From Starving Artist to Thriving Artist One Wednesday at a Time
Hosted by Slash Coleman
First Wednesday of Every Month @ 1pm
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

Slash Wednesday is a wonderfully riveting and irresistibly weird lunchtime talk show for artists hosted by award-winning PBS writer/storyteller Slash Coleman. Infusing NYC's hip east village stage with a distinct blend of southern charm, the show features live music, multi-media, comedy, and inspirational interviews with cutting-edge artists and profound stories of success by cultural change makers.

New. Tricks!

An Evening of Five Short Plays Presented in Three Acts
Written by Ben Clawson, Directed by Artem Yatsunov
Presented by StrangeDog Theatre Company
September 13-29, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

We present for you, this evening, five stories. Comic tragedies. Tragic comedies. Stories of love and loss. Stories of loneliness and heroes. Folk tales, confessions, post-coital confrontations, long awaited opportunities and sudden mourning's. We present for you, five stories.

Revolution In 1

Presented by Theater in Asylum
Conceived & Written by Katie Palmer in collaboration with the cast
Directed by Paul Bedard & Katie Palmer
October 2-23, Tuesdays @ 8pm
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

Revolution in 1 explores the relationship between the two definitions of the word revolution: revolt and revolve. How and why do individuals take a stand? What are the eventual, and potentially inevitable, outcomes of this constant cycle of revolution?

The Pumpkin Pie Show: Halloween All-Stars

Written by Clay McLeod Chapman
October 25-27, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

'Tis the season for The Pumpkin Pie Show. This year, we are offering a 3-night only all-star event, featuring the mono-perversities written by Clay McLeod Chapman-with performances by Chapman, downtown diva Hanna Cheek (Sovereign), Abe Goldfarb (Bastard Keith), and many more guest stars! Jealous ventriloquists, peek-a-booing pedophiles, and pumpkin lovin' are all on the menu for this year's show!

First Annual New York Storytelling Festival

November 1-4
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

Folk music had the 60s in NYC, punk and performance art owned the 70s and 80s, and improv and alternative comedy ruled the 90s and 00s. Today... it's live storytelling. Dozens of story shows take place at big and small theaters around the city, with new ones popping up every month. Horse Trade Theater Group is proud to present the First Annual New York Storytelling Festival; collecting some of the best shows curated and produced by Horse Trade Artistic Director Heidi Grumelot and resident hosts Peter Aguero, Seth Lind and Adam Wade.

Pardon My Willie

Presented by Grayce Productions
Book & Lyrics by Todd Michael, Music by Mary Feinsinger
Directed by Lawrence Lesher
November 8-17, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

Pardon My Willie had been a1930's smash hit Broadway musical based on the life of William Shakespeare. When RKO Pictures purchased the movie rights they retained only the stage musical's title. With brand new songs and a new screenplay the movie became a vehicle for the long-forgotten comedy team of Bud Fields and Mickey Bergen. Pardon My Willie pays homage to the farcical lunacy of the movie musicals of the 1930's.

The ABC's Guide to Getting Famous

Presented by Spookfish Theatre Company
Written by Ming Peiffer, Directed by Kat Yen
November 5-20, Mon & Tue @ 8pm
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

Waiting outside the audition room for the role of a lifetime, ABC (American Born Chinese) feels nothing but certain about her career path. That is, until her true self speaks out and threatens to make her… Or break her.

Desire!

Presented by Less Than Rent
Original Text by Tennessee Williams, Adapted by the Company
Directed by Jenna Grossano
November 29-December 15, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

Liquored-up and down-to-f***, it's Stanley, Blanche, and STELLAHHHHH! They've traded in fried-green melodrama for red-hot dubstep, and when the beat drops the French Quarter will never be the same. A heart stopping, pill popping remix of Tennessee Williams' sexiest play!

Yuletide Yarns of Yore: An All-Inclusive, Non-Denominational, Dysfunctional Holiday Potboiler!

An Evening of Short Plays, Comedy and Songs
Presented by Dysfunctional Theatre Company
December 6-15, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

The Dysfunctional Theatre Classics series presents an evening of theatre guaranteed to be equal parts amusing and offensive to audiences of all religions. Traditional holiday stories and songs share the stage with installments from Dysfunctional's Brew of the Dead and Unlicensed series. If you've ever wondered about Christmas in religious jail or Hanukah after the Zombie Apocalypse, this is the show for you.

The Drafts Holiday Show

Presented by The Drafts
December 10 & 11 and 17-20
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

The Drafts Ensemble has commissioned playwright Michael R McGuire to write their first annual holiday show! McGuire's play It Comes From Beyond was featured in the Drafts Reading Series in September 2011 and his short play True Space Romance was featured in Drafts Fest 2012: When Half the Sphere is Visible. The Drafts are really hoping he'll write something about a space monster dressed as Santa Clause (a disguise he uses to annihilate the human race) and of course, deep Elf romance.

The 4th Annual Burlesque Blitz

December 26-31
The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street)

Heat up your holiday with Horse Trade Theater Group's 4th annual Burlesque Blitz featuring some of New York City's hottest burlesque and variety performers!

Horse Trade Encores

January 3-15, 2013
The Kraine (85 East 4th Street)

Our audience is young, diverse, hip, artistic, and most importantly interested. Come see the shows that everyone's been talking about, back by popular demand for a limited time only!

The 2013 Fire This Time Festival

January 21-February 2, 2013
The Kraine & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

The African American experience is not represented solely by one voice or one style. The Fire This Time Festival is a platform for talented early-career playwrights of African and African American descent to explore new voices, styles and challenging new directions for 21st century performing arts, and move beyond common ideas of what's possible in "black theater."

Ole!

Presented by Theater in Asylum
Written & Directed by Paul Bedard
With source material by Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Larca
January 31- February 16, 2013, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

Lorca: poet, romantic, believer. Dali?: painter, modernist, scientist. Their affair began in college and ended with Dali?'s flight to Paris as Spain descended into civil war. ¡Ole?! brings two titans to life to battle again with paint, poetry and flamenco dance.

The 2013 FRIGID New York Festival

The Kraine, The Red Room, & UNDER St. Marks
February 20-March 3, 2013

FRIGID is an open and uncensored theatre festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of theatre on the fringe of the mainstream, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artistS. Boasting over 150 performances and 30 shows over 12 days in 3 theaters, FRIGID New York kicks off the annual North American Fringe Circuit with a bang!

All Girls

Presented by CollaborationTown
Written by Anna Greenfield, Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
March 28-April 13, 2013, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
The Kraine (85 East 4th Street)

All Girls is a play about three teenage girls and one supercilious mother. Trembling on the brink of womanhood, the girls act out with one another and their families in the most outrageous ways imaginable. It's also funny.

Advance Guard

Presented by Spookfish Theatre Company
Written by Ming Peiffer, Directed by Kat Yen
April 4-20, 2013, Thu-Sat @ 8pm
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street)

Art school dropouts, Willy and Milo, find themselves struggling to make ends meet let alone make art. Disillusioned by life, the boys soon find themselves following the gonzo orders of a mysterious artist whose mission is to make more than art.

Words, Razors, and the Wounded Heart

Presented by Less Than Rent
Written by James Presson, Directed by Rachel Buethe
April 11-27, 2013, Thu-Sat @ 7pm
UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place)

A tell-all chronicling adolescence spent in Connecticut-Highschool-Hell, this new spin on the Jacobean Revenge Tragedy is packed with enough sex, violence, and incest to make Game of Thrones look like The Brady Bunch. A play about sacrifice, betrayal, and prom.

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade's Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York – the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.

AMIOS THEATRE COMPANY (an acronym inspired from the Oscar Wilde quote: "we have art and music in our souls") was founded in 2009 by alumni of The National Theatre Conservatory with a simple mission in mind: to constantly create new work. Work that engages the artists in a process that is immediate, inspired, personal, organic, and which injects vitality into this scene we call theatre. Art and music in our souls. www.amiosnyc.org

LESS THAN RENT is based in New York City, the hub of innovation and the arts. We are a young and exuberant group, tied together by our commitment to passionate, humorous, and immersive theatre for new audiences, from new artists. www.lessthanrent.org

SPOOKFISH THEATRE COMPANY was founded NYC by theatre artists Ming Peiffer and Kat Yen in February 2010. The company was recently named Resident Theater Company at Horse Trade Theater Group for their upcoming 14th Annual Season. Original work includes: WABI SABI! Not Wasabi (described by the NY Times as: "AWARE"), RELAX! ALICE, Pornography For The People, and HOMELESS KITTY an ongoing public puppet show aimed at raising awareness in NYC. Our work has been featured in the New York Times, The New York Daily News, Hyphen Magazine, angryasianman.com, as well as various other art and culture blogs across the web. Spookfish Theatre Company is an active member of the Asian American Arts alliance and a Sponsored Artist at The Field. www.spookfishtheatre.org

STRANGEDOG THEATRE COMPANY has performed in cramped cafes, noisy bars, abandoned warehouses, crowded restaurants and some well-known regional playhouses. They have developed a large repertoire of work over these past couple years – from a slew of carefully constructed evenings of short comedies to premieres of full-length plays. StrangeDog has been striving to bring its stories to established theaters with their experienced theatergoers. Yet we also endeavor to expose new audiences to our particular brand of outlandish comedy and biting drama in venues where they would expect it least. Essentially, StrangeDog is creating plays for people who mistakenly think they don't like plays. www.strangedogtheatre.com

THEATER IN ASYLUM (TIA) is a New York-based dance-theater company founded in 2010 by Paul Bedard and Katie Palmer to provide asylum to highly- charged subjects and characters. With thrilling performance, TIA suspends preconceptions, analyzes a subject's origin, and leaves audiences with newfound understanding and empathy. Suspend beliefs, believe again. www.theaterinasylum.com

For more information, visit www.horseTRADE.info.