Emily Johnson News

Performance Space New York kicks off its second themed season of performances and events-the Posthuman Series-with the world premiere of Annie Dorsen's The Slow Room (September 27-29). Dorsen has taken the idea of technological theater further than most artists.

Performance Space New York announces the Posthuman Series, its second themed season of performances and events, beginning Fall 2018. Following the conclusion of its East Village Series, which looked inward to contemplate the past, present and future of Performance Space New York and its immediate neighborhood, Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka now gathers artists who've taken an active approach to addressing nothing smaller than the morphing state of "humanity." Inspired by thinkers like Donna Haraway ("A Cyborg Manifesto") and Rosi Braidotti (The Posthuman), the Posthuman Series continues the legacy of Performance Space New York to defy categorization and broaden the meaning of "performance," through works that simultaneously seek to question and expand the very definition of "human."

Beginning August 9, Central Arkansas' audiences will be treated to hilarity and hijinks aboard the SS American as Anything Goes begins its run at The Royal Theatre, and sponsored by W.W. & Anne Jones Trust. With songs and lyrics by Cole Porter, captivating choreography, and a stellar cast, Royal Players' production of Anything Goes delivers summertime fun.

In 1893, social work and public health pioneer Lillian Wald (1867-1940) founded Henry Street Settlement on Manhattan's Lower East Side to serve New York City's most vulnerable people through social service, healthcare, and arts programs. Since that day, Henry Street Settlement has been a crucial force for progressive reform and a leading advocate for social change, serving 60,000 New Yorkers each year. 

Performance Space New York closes out its by-turns pensive, provocative, and radically festive East Village Series with The Independence Day Ball, a Kiki ball from the organization's neighbors at Alliance for Positive Change (June 29).

Performance Space New York's East Village Series, the first themed series under the leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, has reexamined the audacious origins of the organization and the communities that formed around it. In 1986, choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones, composer/guitarist Chris Cochrane, writer Dennis Cooper, and an ensemble of dancers performed the first full version of THEM, an unblinking interdisciplinary work of scored improvisational dance, spoken text, and guitar, at what was then Performance Space 122.

Performance Space New York continues its East Village Series' examination of the history, assessment of the present, and radical gaze into the future of the neighborhood in which it was founded and has boldly returned this season. Autonomous, anti-capitalist, gender self-determining collective BRUJAS-who build revolutionary political coalition through youth culture, and express community through skateboarding, art, and political organizing-will be in residence at Performance Space New York from May 25-June 9. With their project, Training Facility, they have enlisted industrial designer Jonathan Olivares to transform the organization's new theater into a skate park and intimate meet-up spot. On May 25, as part of Red Bull Music Festival, the collective will throw their third annual Anti-Prom in the space, kicking off their residency with the gender-queering party described by the New York Times as 'an effervescent celebration of people usually sidelined by traditional prom culture.' Or, as BRUJAS co-founder Arianna Gil herself has described it, 'the Met-Gala of the underground.'

Performance Space New York continues its East Village Series' examination of the history, assessment of the present, and radical gaze into the future of the neighborhood in which it was founded and has boldly returned this season. Autonomous, anti-capitalist, gender self-determining collective BRUJAS-who build revolutionary political coalition through youth culture, and express community through skateboarding, art, and political organizing-will be in residence at Performance Space New York from May 25-June 9.

Legendary Downtown New York artist Penny Arcade is now 50 years into a career in which she continues to turn a mirror back on society with highly original and entertaining investigations into the human condition that perhaps best described as cultural criticism you can dance to. She revives her international hit Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!: The Penny Arcade Sex and Censorship Show, May 11-19 at Performance Space New York, as part of the institution's East Village Series.

Following a sell-out premiere season of Black is the New White, playwright Nakkiah Lui is back at the Sydney Theatre Company this May with a brand new work - Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death.

Sometimes known as “The Lady of Heart,” EMILY JOHNSON is a Bulgarian-born Nigerian singer, songwriter, and composer. Having performed around the world for many years, she is releasing OPEN YOUR HEART, her debut EP, on May 11, 2018, with the help of Tarpan Records in the United States. This EP was produced by NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN and features 4 original songs. 

Amidst Performance Space New York's exhilarating first series of interdisciplinary works under the new leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, the organization's 2018 gala will celebrate game-changing and iconic figures from the arts sector (April 14).

Day three of New York Live Arts' Live Ideas 2018: Radical Vision festival, Saturday, April 21, looks at our electoral process through readings, a workshop, panel discussions, and a performance spectacle.  

Friday, April 20, day two of Live Ideas 2018: Radical Vision looks into the role of the press, what it means to be a journalist in an endangered liberal democracy, and what obligations the press has today. Opening the day will be visual artist Huiying B. Chan, who will read words by legendary activist Grace Lee Boggs, followed by author and journalist Moustafa Bayoumi's reading of works by Edward Said and a presentation of speeches by Muhammad Ali read by journalist Greg Tate. The readings will start at 4 pm. Admission is free.

Unbounded Lioness Creations presents 'GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY: You Are Not Alone' on the 9th of April at 7:30 PM at Clinton Cameo Studios, STUDIO B.

Performance Space New York kicks off its East Village Series, contemplating the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood, with Welcome to Lenapehoking (February 17, 4pm, Free), a partnership with the The Lenape Center, and Avant-Garde-Arama, the extravaganza of experimentation that's also the organization's longest-running program (February 18, 6pm, Free). Performance Space New York's Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka steps into her new curatorial role with these events honoring the neighborhood's original caretakers and the organization's own trailblazing roots, as springboards into an exhilarating new chapter.

Performance Space New York (formerly Performance Space 122) presents the East Village Series, its first semi-annual themed series, and the first program curated by the institution's new Executive Artistic Director, Jenny Schlenzka. This presentation of works from some of today's most radical performers and multidisciplinary artists resituates the institution in newly revamped spaces, designed by Deborah Berke Partners, in 122 Community Center (150 First Avenue, at East 9th Street), where Performance Space 122 was founded, and where it operated until it moved out in 2011 for the building renovation. The series contemplates the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood.

Dark comedy is served at the historic Royal Theatre as the Young Players Second Stage and Arvest Bank proudly present Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 111 S. Market Street, in downtown Benton. Show times are January 4 6 and 11-13 at 7 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 pm on the 7th and 14th. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors (60+), college age with a valid student ID, and military, and $6 for students (ages 3 high school).

After a critically acclaimed program in 2017 which saw PYT Fairfield win Western Sydney's first Helpmann Award (Best Presentation for Children, PYT and Force Majeure, JUMP FIRST, ASK LATER) the company announce their 2018 Program. Now considered one of the most exciting arts companies in the country, in 2018 their work will be presented in Carriageworks for Sydney Festival, Sydney Opera House, Museum of Contemporary Art and sites across Western Sydney including the local pool and a garden created by refugees to support the settlement of asylum seekers.

PACT Centre for Emerging Artists and Cope Street Collective will present an exciting showcase of performance, theatre and art in PACT Salon: Bad today 2nd December.