.jpg)
So-fi
FESTIVAL
a low-fi, High Concept, multidisciplinary, solo performance Festival, Challenging the boundaries of storytelling since 2018.
The so-fi Festival's online variety show for Isolated Times
Watch and Submit to
the Sofariety Show
OUR TEAM
We're solo artists that like to work with other solo artists in New York and on the road. We came together to produce a solo festival that is affordable, sustainable, creates community and celebrates multidisciplinary works.
2019 TD/Venue Manager
Grace Flavien
2019 Associate Producer
Advisory Board
"With its intimate staging and stripped-down tech, the So-fi Festival celebrates the timelessness of storytelling. The festival’s structure breeds ingenuity as its artists craft striking effects from minimal trappings"- Theasy.com
The So-fi Festival launched in Nov 2018, as new a low-fi, high-concept, multidisciplinary festival for solo works. We define multidisciplinary work as a work that uses multiple artistic mediums which are all integral to the storytelling. Examples are, but not limited to: film, photography, VR, sculpture, dance, experimental music/sound, puppetry, culinary arts, photography, etc. We define solo work as work that primarily features one performer.
So-fi festival partners with artists who can co-present their works in our festival. We strongly believe that artists should be paid for their work and set out to create an affordable opportunity for artists not only to recoup production fees but to profit as well.
WHAT WE OFFER
A small but competitively curated festival that allows us to give each artist personal attention.
A robust pr and marketing campaign for each show and the overall festival.
Photos and video documentation of each production.
Primetime performance times for every performance.
A small but mighty equipment inventory.
70% of our box office is paid to artists.
FOH staff and technicians.
June 6-23 2019 Festival Line UP
A Case Against Peaceful Protest by Eric Taylor
BlueBeardGasLight by Kyra Miller in association with The Muse Project
Honduras (workshop presentation) by Sara Farrington
Lost My Train of Thought by Tiny Box Theater
Parlor Poems by Natalie Johnsonius Neubert/Dennis Krausnick
Meta Dance Workshop with Natalie Deryn Johnson
phase (un)fazed by Natalie Deryn Johnson
Shasta Geaux Pop by Ayesha Jordan/Charlotte Brathwaite
St Kilda by Jody Christopherson
The Dark Heart of Meteorology by The Assembly
The Legend of White Woman Creek by The Coldharts
The Scientist: an Evening with John C. Lilly by Jonathan Torn
Toys 101: The Last Class by Jonathan Alexandratos
Whiskey Flicks Live!: King of New York by Michael Niederman & Daniel McCoy
ABEYANCE
An audio/visual comedy catastrophe on killing time
Written and Performed by Tyler West
New York Premiere
A man waits in the lobby for an important job interview and while he waits, everything goes wrong! Like getting trapped in a vending machine, farting bubbles, and losing his resume. Performed in a unique style called "microphoned-mime" which combines pantomime and sound effects produced live by the actor! This is a very fun, highly visual, and interactive show.
"Clever, original, beautifully performed and just a wonderfully light and entertaining way to spend an hour." The London Free Press
"Clearly a funny guy" - The San Diego Union Tribune
June 20th @7pm (in rep with The Assembly's The Dark Heart of Meteorology)
June 23rd @ 2pm (in rep with Cara Francis' Dad)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
Mediums used: Mime, Clown, Audio Runtime: 50 min
TYLER WEST left his home from Tucson, Arizona for some New York dreams. He graduated with a BFA in Acting from the University of Arizona. And he is a self taught physical comedian! He's created his own work for several shows in Tucson, and has traveled across the nation from various Fringe Festivals with "ABEYANCE." You can also check him out occasionally performing at the Slipper Room. Twitter and Insta @ttylerwest95
https://tyler-west.wixsite.com/abeyance
Top photo by Brianna Gomez
A Case Against Peaceful Protest
A vision of the future, in all its manifestations
Written and Performed by Eric Lawrence Taylor
with live music by Tristan Dossett
A Case Against Peaceful Protest shows us both the terror that is to come but the joy that we will meet it with. An immersive piece that marries the spoken word, song and movement with ritual and digital media to show that audience what has been missing from the conversation.
"Eric Lawrence Taylor deliver(s) strong performances in various roles..." - The New York Times
"Eric Lawrence Taylor radiates..." Theatremania
Mediums used: Theatre, Film, Live Music
Runtime: 45 min
June 14th @7pm (in rep with Ayesha Jordan's Shasta Geaux Pop)
June 15th @ 7pm (in rep with Kyra Miller's BlueBeardGasLight)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
ERIC LAWRENCE TAYLOR was classically trained in acting at Fordham University. He is also a prolific multidisciplinary artist. His original works have been shown around New York City, including Abrons Art Center, The University Settlement, The Artist Co-op, and the Ashmolean Museum. https://www.ericlawrencetaylor.com/
TRISTEN DOSSETT is an actor, writer, producer based in Brooklyn.
Dad
A one woman drag exorcist debate with my Dad, your Dad and America’s Dads. NRA Rating: Z
Written and Performed by Cara Francis
Directed by Nessa Norich
World Premiere
In November 2016, on the eve of Trump’s election, Cara's dad slipped into a coma. One week later, he died. He left behind a loving family, lots of colorful stories, an arsenal of hundreds of guns and enough ammo to get him through an apocalypse.
What is an American dad? When beloved dads become disgraced dads and presidents act like kings, what does a father figure symbolize? Will sacred dads, god our father, our founding fathers, the nuclear 1950's dad, or “daddies” have the answers for us? How can we celebrate the death of the patriarchy while still loving -- and mourning -- our dads?
"Dad" is Cara and her dad in his gun-stuffed home, at the end of his quiet cul-de-sac, in the middle of this tv-on-in-the-middle-of-the-night country we all call home, having a beer and trying to figure it out.
“Brechtian. Poignant”- New York Theatre Review, on Happy To See You by Cara Francis
“uncensored...lovable...a brilliantly conceived and executed show that absolutely tickled the audience....impeccable comedic timing...raw sincerity....daring by current theater standards...deeply personal”- Theasy on The Soup Show, co-written and co-performed by Cara Francis
Mediums used: Video Projections, Audio Recordings, Drag
Runtime: 50 min
June 6th @ 830pm (in rep w/ Jody Christopherson's St Kilda)
June 8th @ 7pm (in rep w/ Michael Niederman/Dan McCoy's Whiskey Flicks Live)
June 16th @ 330pm, Father's Day (in rep w/ Michael Niederman/Dan McCoy's Whiskey Flicks Live)
June 22nd @830pm (in rep with Jonathan Alexandratos' Toys 101)
June 23rd @ 330pm (in rep with Tyler Wests' Abeyance)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
photo by Austin Sandhaus
CARA FRANCIS (Writer/Performer) is a writer, performer and a comedian. An ensemble member of The New York Neo-Futurists from 2008-2017, she designed and performed in The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol 1 and 2 (Drama Desk Nom for Unique Theatrical Experience) and The Soup Show. Her installation work includes "Stand" (Brooklyn Museum, IPA), "Remote" (Trouw, Amsterdam, NE, New Museum, New York for AUNTSisdance, First Person View, The Knockdown Center) and “Happy To See You” (Print Screen Festival, Tel Aviv, Automata Arts, Collapsable Hole, Dixon Place, The Wild Project). She regularly writes and performs original music as your Fantasy Grandma (Bushwig, NY Comedy Festival at Carolines, Catch Performance Series, Hollywood Improv). She is currently co-writing Dugout, a queer musical adaptation of A League Of Their Own as well as writing, directing and producing a series of short films with Julian Klepper about the people of New York City. www.carafrancis.squarespace.com
NESSA NORICH (Director) is a director and performer who trained at the Lecoq school for physical theater in Paris. She has been a writer and ensemble member of the award-winning theater company, the NY Neo-Futurists since 2014. She has collaboratively created over a dozen original works of theater in the US and Europe, at such notable venues as the Institute for Contemporary Art, The Battersea Arts Center, and the British Film Institute in London, the Edinburgh Fringe, Showbox Festival in Oslo, the New Orleans Fringe Festival, and NY Live Arts and Joe’s Pub in New York City. Her work has received critical acclaim in the Huffington Post and the NY Times and has been recognized with a 2016 NY Innovative Theater Award. She has also been the resident DJ for Diana Oh's Infinite Love Party (Bushwick Starr) and Clairvoyance (A.R.T). Nessa has also taught Devised Theater at Columbia and Pace Universities and facilitates mindful movement for children and adults.
Lost my train of thought
an interactive theatrical story that unfolds through card catalogs, dollhouse miniatures, Radioptican Magic Lanterns, and an antique windup tin train.
Written and Directed by Joy Tomasko
Performed by Sarah Murphy
Designed by and Presented in Association with Tiny Box Theater
World Premiere
Tiny Box Theater presents an original story that invites the audience into the action. A reclusive author sends a librarian a copy of their latest book. Within its pages, she finds a special request and a set of clues. The author, the librarian, and an audience of readers must finish a series of stories and return something long overdue. Tiny Box Theater's newest piece will unfold using objects of nostalgia: repurposed card catalogs, dollhouse miniatures, Radioptican Magic Lanterns, and a wind-up tin train. The show has one beginning and several possible endings, depending on chance and the choices of the audience. Lost My Train of Thought explores how we catalog time: is it borrowed, bought, saved, stolen, wasted, or lost?
Mediums used: Live Performance, Interactive Audience Prompts, Object/Toy Theater
Runtime: 45 min
June 8th @ 330pm (in rep w/ Natalie Johnsonius Neubert's Parlor Poems)
June 9th @ 2pm (in rep w/ Natalie Johnsonius Neubert's Parlor Poems)
June 18th @ 830pm ADDED PERFORMANCE! (in rep with BlueBeardGasLight by Kyra Miller)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
TINY BOX THEATER was founded by Sarah Murphy, Justin Steeve, and Joy Tomasko in 2015. They originally met last century during undergraduate studies in theater at Drew University. Tiny Box Theater works are a theatrical hybrid of a pop-up book, diorama, radio play, live performance, and toy theater. Our small, portable venues invite individual audiences to get close. The characteristics of the boxes themselves help inform the story and the style in which it's told. We create original stories, develop interactive moments, craft visuals, record and design audio, and perform the works live. Tiny Box Theater asks our audiences to reimagine what stories look and sound like and to find theatricality in small moments. Collaborators have included artists Anthony Baus & Patrick Byrnes, performer Nico Grelli, musician Eric Holm, voice-over artist Elizabeth Klett, comedian Jason Planitzer, and designers/box operators Maeve O’Sullivan & Grace Trimble. Tiny Box Theater has performed at the NYC, Boston, and Toronto Figment Festivals, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at Luna Stage in New Jersey, the LIC Arts Open in Long Island City, and Madison Square Park’s Kids Fest. https://tinyboxtheater.com/
Parlor Poems
a multidisciplinary sound-experience in a Victorian-era parlor hosted posthumously by Dennis Krausnick.
Conceived, Designed and Directed by
Natalie Johnsonius Neubert
Featuring the poetry of Dennis Krausnick
World Premiere
tea and light tea favors included
The Victorian parlor was traditionally considered to be the most elegant room in the house, and reserved for leisurely greeting important company. Parlor Poems invites audiences to return to that time. Using projections of photographs and images from Victorian-era estates and symbolic set pieces, the performance space will be transformed into a Victorian parlor where the audience will enjoy light refreshments (tea favors and teas). Once everyone has settled into their seats, there will be an immersive sound installation of readings from Dennis Krausnick’s final book of poetry, sharing the quick wit and profound wisdom culminated from a life creating theatre in the woods of the Berkshire hills, where he spent many years living at The Mount, the opulent Victorian home of Edith Wharton. Technology plays an important role in creating the atmosphere for the installation. Mixing contemporary media (sound and projections) with traditional elements (food and storytelling), the division between time and geography are erased, allowing modern audiences to experience tea time or cocktail hour under the same pretense as the Victorian aristocrats living a life of leisure. In doing so, modern audiences are able to focus on the language and timeless humanity of Mr. Krausnick’s poetry.
Mediums used: Sound, Projections, Food, Drink
Runtime: 40 min
June 8th @ 2pm (in rep w/ Tiny Box Theater's Lost My Train Of Thought)
June 9th @ 330pm (in rep w/ Tiny Box Theater's Lost My Train Of Thought)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
NATALIE JOHNSONIUS NEUBERT is a theatre-maker, sound artist, and curator. She has worked throughout New York at such venues as Ensemble Studio Theater, The Ohio Theater, Urban Stages, The Culture Project, Performance Space 122, Galapagos Art Center, Dixon Place, The Brick Theater and with companies including Target Margin Theater and This is Not A Theatre Company, as well as in site-specific pieces created for the NY Public Library and the NY Botanical Gardens. Outside of New York, her work has also been seen and heard at Bridge Lane Theatre (London, UK), The Colonial Theatre (Pittsfield, MA), Belcourt Theatre (Nashville, TN), Chaffin’s Dinner Theatre (Nashville, TN), and at the Miami Light Project as part of the Filmgate Interactive Film Festival. She is also the subject of a portrait in the Cathedral of the Pines series by internationally renowned fine art photographer Gregory Crewdson. She studied acting at the British American Drama Academy and Shakespeare & Company; and received her BA and MFA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied Theatre, Writing, Dance, and Music. She is a member of the Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.
DENNIS KRAUSNICK was a founder of Shakespeare & Company and served as its Director of Training from 1993 to 2018. Krausnick held an MA from St. Louis University and an MFA in Acting from NYU. As a Master Teacher of text and rhetoric, and as a teacher, director or guest-artist, he worked in theatre training programs across the country including NYU, ACT, Boston University, Emerson College, Wake Forest University, Southern Methodist University, University of Washington, MIT, University of Pittsburgh, University of Tennessee, Chapman University, Bradley University, University of South Carolina and Western Carolina University. As a director, his Shakespeare credits include most of the Shakespeare canon. He also directed the award-winning television special about Edith Wharton, Songs from the Heart. Krausnick adapted the fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James for the stage creating numerous one-act and full-length plays all of which have been produced one or more times at Shakespeare & Company as well as by other theaters. Krausnick was awarded the 2006 Bingham Chair of Humanities by the University of Louisville in recognition of his accomplishments as a Master Teacher of Shakespeare Performance.
Shasta Geaux Pop
Come celebrate the icon SHASTA GEAUX POP completely uncensored in her signature brand of basement get-down party.
Written and Conceived by Ayesha Jordan
Performed by Shasta Geaux Pop
Created in collaboration with Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite
Music Direction, Production, Performance: Justin Hicks
Music Production, DJing, Performance: Dj Avg Jo
Costume Design: Abigail Deville
June 14th @830pm at Westbeth's Community Room,155 Bank St
(in rep with Eric Taylor's A Case Against Peaceful Protest)
If Millie Jackson, Roxanne Shante, OutKast and Monty Python had a baby in the year 3030 you’d get SHASTA GEAUX POP! Completely uncensored and outrageously hilarious this icon brings you her signature brand of basement get-down party. If Bubble Yum met Colt 45... Crazy, irreverent and uplifting Shasta keeps it real with her gospel of laughter and her free flowing emcee style. With satire, contagious energy and sexy southern charms Shasta tackles naughty topics and pays sonic homage to the 80s/90s classic era of Hip-Hop teleporting the listener to elevated highs.
Mediums used: Music, Movement, Text
Runtime: 60 minutes
photo by Carlos David
"...a mesmerizing stage production combining edgy humor, social commentary, blazing Hip Hop, dynamic performance art and hilarious audience participation…”
--City Beat, 2017
"Created by Brooklyn-based actress/performer/playwright Ayesha Jordan and director Charlotte Brathwaite, Shasta takes the beats of ’80s and ’90s hip-hop, soaks them in satire, and sprinkles on the sex." – Cincinnati Magazine, 2017
"A glamazon hip-hop icon"- The New Yorker
AYESHA JORDAN is a NYC based multidisciplinary artist who often uses characters and stories to create indelible moments for cerebral and visceral experiences. Jordan’s characters each represent a facet of herself and act as a tool to playfully disguise herself, and to uniquely connect with guests. She most recently performed Shasta Geaux Pop at the High Line. Shasta’s also been presented in Amsterdam, Under the Radar Festival, Off Center Festival, La Jolla Playhouse's Without Walls Festival, Cincinnati CAC, and The Bushwick Starr. Ayesha performed in the Broadway production and tour of Eclipsed at The John Golden Theatre and The Curran (SF). Jordan also performed in both Failure Sandwich and Ludic Proxy, by Aya Ogawa, Home by Geoff Sobelle, Stairway to Stardom and Harold I Hate You, by Cakeface (HERE, Ars Nova & Triskelion), and Platonov: Or the Disinherited by Jay Scheib (The Kitchen). In 2015 she created Come See My Double D's at JACK (NY). www.ayeshajordan.com
JO COLLURA (DJ AVG JO)- DJ/Music Production is an award-winning NYC nightlife staple. A classically trained musician, sound engineer and tastemaker, Jo is fluent in reading the air of the crowd, as well as curating and creating music. Jo’s journey began in 2004 as a songwriter, lyricist and music producer for a hip hop collective (s)he founded in Ithaca, NY. From there (s)he went on to help curate acts and perform in Chicago’s underground hip hop scene before landing in NYC as a DJ in 2010. Jo has DJ’d at some of NYC’s biggest venues and parties and co-created multiple underground DIY parties at Brooklyn’s secret venues. Their impeccable DJ skills and eclectic mixes have led to gigs in Miami, Boston, San Diego, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Montreal, and Chicago. Jo has weekly and monthly residencies at Henrietta Hudson, Hot Rabbit, Hill & Dale, Submit, Ace Hotel and several parties in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Jo was nominated for three GO! Magazine Reader’s Choice Nightlife Awards in the Best House, Best Hip Hop, and Best Mixes categories- winning the Best Mixes Award. Jo produces and DJs for The Dance Cartel, and for Shasta Geaux Pop. Follow Jo’s gigs and mixtapes at IG: @averagejothesavage and mixcloud.com/jocollura
CHARLOTTE BRATHWAITE- Director/Co-creator (Canada/Barbados/UK) was named as one of the “up-and-coming women in theatre to watch” by Playbill. Brathwaite is known for her unique approach to staging classical and unconventional texts, dance, visual art, multi-media, site-specific installation, video, film, performance art, plays and music events. Her work has been seen in the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia and ranges in subject matter from the historical past to the distant future illuminating issues of race, sex, power and the complexities of the human condition.
Presented at both national and international venues her work has been seen in New York at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Park Avenue Armory, The Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival, the Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance (BAAD!), The Living Theater, Joe’s Pub, La MaMa E.T.C, The Highline, Jack Performance Space, Bushwick Starr, BRIC Arts Center, Central Park Summer Stage, the Studio Museum of Harlem, 651 Arts, D.C. Arts Commission 5x5 Projects (Washington D.C.), The International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven), FORM Festival (Arcosanti), Moss Arts Center (Virginia), MDLive Arts (Miami), Segerstrom Arts Center (Orange County), Wow Festival (San Diego), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Right About Now Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Test! Festival (Zagreb, Croatia), Het Veem Theater (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Scarlett Project (Port of Spain, Trinidad), Culture Station Seoul 284 Festival (Seoul, Korea), Aarshi Theater (Kolkata, India), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin, Germany) and The Chale Wote Festival (Accra, Ghana) among others.
Brathwaite is a 2019 Creative Capital awardee, a 2019 United States Artists Fellow and a 2019 Rockefeller/Bellagio resident. Other awards include: the Prelude Festival Franky Award, the Brown Institute Magic Grant, the Princess Grace George C. Wolfe Award, the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize (Yale), and the National Performing Network Creation Fund. She has continued collaborations with noted artists such as Meshell Ndegeocello, Peter Sellars, Flutronix, Ayesha Jordan, Justin Hicks, Kyle Abraham/AIM, Tamar Kali, Guillermo E. Brown/Pegasus Warning, Sanford Biggers, Greg Tate, Burnt Sugar Arkestra and others.
She received her MFA at Yale School of Drama and her BA in Physical Theater at the Amsterdam School for the Arts (the Netherlands). She has been a Visiting Professor at Amherst College, The University of Fortaleza UNIFOR (Brazil) and Visiting Artist at Williams College, New York University and Barbados Community College.
Brathwaite is currently a freelance director and Associate Professor of Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
JUSTIN HICKS- Music Director/Composer Justin Hicks is a multidisciplinary artist, collaborator, and performer who uses music and sound to investigate themes of identity, labor, American dream aesthetics, and instinctual value systems. His work has been featured at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Performance Space New York, The Public Theater, JACK, National Black Theatre, The Highline, MoMA, Dixon Place, festival Steirischer Herbst (Graz, Austria), Western Front Society (Vancouver, BC), MASS MoCA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham, UK), The Institute for Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), and The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, among others. Hicks has collaborated with notable visual artists, musicians, and theater makers including Abigail DeVille, Charlotte Brathwaite, Kaneza Schaal, Meshell Ndegeocello, Cauleen Smith, Helga Davis, and Chris Myers. Hicks was the Drama Desk Award-nominated composer for Mlima’s Tale by Lynn Nottage (The Public Theater 2018, dir. Jo Bonney). His practice with artist Steffani Jemison, Mikrokosmos, has deployed commissioned performances and exhibitions internationally. He was a member of Kara Walker’s 6-8 Months Space and holds a culinary diploma from ICE in New York City. Hicks was born in Cincinnati, OH, and is based in the Bronx, NY. justinhicksmusic.persona.co
ABIGAIL DEVILLE (Costume Design) is a site-specific installation artist that exhibits across the United States and Europe. DeVille received an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is the recipient of the 2014-15 fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the 2015 Creative Capital grant, and the 2015 OBIE Award for Design. DeVille is the 2017-18 Chuck Close Henry W. and Marion T. Mitchell Rome Prize fellow.
DeVille’s work has exhibited as venues including the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Cooper Gallery at Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Cambridge; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, to name a few. She has designed sets for theatrical productions at venues such as the Stratford Festival (2014), Harlem Stage (2016), La Mama (2015), JACK (2014-16), and Joe’s Pub (2014).
ST KILDA
A Horrific Scottish Sound Excursion With Live Foley Looping
Written and Performed by Jody Christopherson
Directed by Isaac Byrne
Sound and Foley Design by Andy Evan Cohen
Dialect Coaching by Chloe Dirksen
with voice-overs featuring Michael de Roos
After the death of her Grandmother, an American woman travels to an abandoned island off the coast of Scotland and unearths a dark family secret.
Steeped in Scottish folklore and told in a tradition as ancient as its subject matter, this tale of supernatural horror is performed and technically executed entirely by Jody Christopherson. Foley instrumentation, live singing and looping create a multi-layered soundscape in near darkness. Instruments include violin bows on bowls of water, cigar box guitars, pie tins full of salt, folk singing and more. This narrative is inspired by the 1930 evacuation of Hirta, St Kilda's only inhabitable island, and the role that music plays in women's narratives.
"One of the funniest, spookiest experiences I’ve ever had at the theater. With the timing of a seasoned comedian, Christopherson sparkles as a story-teller, breathing exciting new life into this oldest of art-forms. She’s a visionary in the theater world and legendary story-teller." - The Theatre Times
"A not-so-typical, one-woman performance that completely blew away the audience. . . an amazing sight for the senses. . . enchanting." - Woman About Town
"Chilling, a tribute to long-buried tales and the power they obscure." - Theasy.com, New York
"If you like Laurie Anderson, try St Kilda."- Minneapolis Star Tribune
June 6th @ 7pm (in rep w/ Cara Francis' Dad
June 7th @ 830pm (in rep w/ Michael Niederman/Dan McCoy's Whiskey Flicks Live)
June 9th @ 830pm (in rep w/ Jonathan Alexandratos' Toys 101: The Last Class)
June 21st @ 830pm (in rep with The Assembly's The Dark Heart of Meteorology)
June 23rd @ 7pm (in rep with The Coldhart's The Legend of White Woman Creek)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
Mediums used: Sound Foley, Live Music, Storytelling
Runtime: 55 min
Top photo by Michael Niederman, bottom photo by Kacey Anisa at Torn Page
JODY CHRISTOPHERSON (Writer/ Performer) has been called “a talent to watch, not to mention a pleasure to hear” (Time Out NY) “the ANTITHESIS of the manic pixie dream girl” (Zouch Magazine) and a “Rock Monster” (Brooklyn Rail). Her work has been performed in 28 cities in 6 countries and nominated for 7 Innovative Theater Awards. Works include Greencard Wedding, AMP, Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Project and Because You Are Good (based on interviews with Clove Galilee). Additional performance credits include: the award-winning monodrama The Other Mozart by Sylvia Milo, Directed by Isaac Byrne, The Reenactors by Juliana Francis Kelley Directed by Tony Torn at Abrons Art Center, Director/Writer Mark Harris' The Lost Children at Lincoln Center Film Society, Primary by Gracie Gardner at IRT, Habitat by William Leavitt at The Kitchen, The Spot by Steven Dietz (Humana Festival), CHURCH Written and Directed by Young Jean Lee at Performance Space122, Under The Radar, and Snakeskin Suit by J. Holtham at Ensemble Studio Theater. She is the recipient of a New York Society Library Grant, underwritten by Alexander Sanger, for her show AMP. The equipment used in St Kilda was also underwritten by Mr. Sanger and The New York Community Trust. She is originally from Omaha, Nebraska.
ISAAC BYRNE (Director ) has received the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Direction twice and productions he has directed have been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, an Off Broadway Alliance award, 25 NYIT awards, and 11 Planet Connection Awards. He also performs regularly with the Aztec Economy theatre company in the touring show Butcher Holler Here We Come. He studied acting with renowned acting teachers including Fred Kareman and Matthew Corozine in NYC and Terry Martin in Texas. He has taught acting at the University of the Arts, the New York Film Academy, and the Matthew Corozine Studio. He will graduate with an MFA in Theatre: Directing from Texas State University in May 2019. Directing credits include: The Other Mozart by Sylvia Milo, AMP by Jody Christopherson, Tar Baby and 52 Man Pick Up, both by Desiree Burch
ANDY EVAN COHEN (Sound and Foley Design) is a NYC-based composer and sound artist. Credits include off-Broadway's Pushkin, If Only, Dear Jane, and In Bed With Roy Cohn; touring productions of Hamlet, Sense & Sensibility, and Our Trojan War (Aquila Theater); The American Soldier (Kennedy Center, The Citadel, and other venues); and many shows off-off-Broadway and regionally. Film: Marty's Shadow, The Mall, Show & Tell Tango (awarded best score at European Independent Cinema Awards). His compositions have been performed by such groups as the Minnesota Orchestra and he has written music for PBS TV and United Nations Radio.
MICHAEL DE ROOS (Voice Over, YFKE) is an Amsterdam based artist who plays Alex de Boer on Amertdam’s long running soap series “Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden” and Detective Simon in Nickelodeon’s “Hunter Street”. He is also a presenter on FOX in Jack-tv’s “Brutale Apen” and for VVN in “Veilige Feitjes”. Michael is a co-founder of the band Greencard Wedding with Jody Christopherson.
CHLOE DIRKSEN (Dialect Coach) holds a BA in Literature and Linguistics from the University of Toronto and studied acting at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York. Chloë works as an actor and private dialect coach, in person and via Skype.
ST KILDA is an archipelago of abandoned islands, the remotest part of The British Isles, 41 miles west of Benbecula in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Today, it is the most important seabird breeding station in Northwest Europe and has had Dual World Heritage Status since 2005. St Kilda’s island Hirta is said to be shaped like a woman.
The Dark Heart of Meteorology
A disgraced weatherman presents a barely-multimedia presentation — part bargain-basement TED Talk, part happening — about natural disasters, large and small.
Presented in Association with The Assembly
Jess Chayes - Director
Nic Benacerraf - Scenic Designer
Asa Wember - Sound Designer
Simon Harding - Video Designer
Devin Fletcher - Stage Manager
Stephen Aubrey - Writer
Emily Caffery - Associate Producer
Rich Lovejoy - Performer
Intrepid weatherman Franklin Elijah White is traveling across the country on an increasingly quixotic journey, aided only by a slide projector and whatever visual aids he can find in the backseat of his car. Battered by personal tragedy and heavy winds, he’s taking shelter here for the night, and he comes bearing a simple but devastating message: the weather is going to kill us all. Every single one of us.
The Assembly reimagines our beloved 2009 hit for the age of climate change. A comedy about trying to hold it all together when the sky is falling down.
“The Dark Heart of Meteorology....is a delight, featuring a tour de force performance by the fine indie theater actor Richard Lovejoy....Aubrey's script is tight and smart and insightful and often hilarious, and Jess Chayes's deft direction serves it well." – Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
“Chayes’s direction of Meteorology is astute, nimbly intertwining life lessons with levity. With such talent onboard, there do not appear to be many storms that this company cannot weather.” – Doug Strassler, Show Business Weekly
"A cutting-edge young theater collective." – The New York Times
Mediums used: Video Projection, Sound Design
Runtime: 60 min
June 16th @ 830pm (in rep with Natalie Deryn Johnson's phase (un) fazed) )
June 20th @ 830pm (in rep with Tyler Wests' Abeyance)
June 21st @ 7pm (in rep with Jody Christopherson's St Kilda)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
JESS CHAYES (Director) is the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at Northern Stage and a founding co-artistic director of The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed ten original productions. Recent directing includes VENUS RISING (Northern Stage), INTELLIGENCE (NYTW Next Door), SEAGULLMACHINE (The Assembly @ La Mama), THE FLICK (Warehouse Theatre), HOLIDAYS IN/COYOTE (The Tank), THE PROVIDENCE OF NEIGHBORING BODIES and LATTER DAYS (Dutch Kills), and HALF MOON BAY (Lesser America). She has developed new work with The Vineyard Theatre, The Playwrights Center and New York Theatre Workshop, among others. Jess is a NYTW Usual Suspect, a 2018 Audrey Resident with New Georges, a co-founder of The New Georges Jam artists’ lab, and alum of The Civilians R&D Group and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Associate Director on PETER AND THE STARCATCHER (Brooks Atkinson Theater and New World Stages) and MISERY (Broadhurst Theater). Jess is the recipient of the 2017 Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and the 2019 Collaboration Award from the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.
STEPHEN AUBREY (Playwright) is a Brooklyn-based writer and dramaturg. With the company, he has written or co-written THAT POOR DREAM, HOME/SICK, THE DARK HEART OF METEOROLOGY, WHAT I TOOK IN MY HAND, DAGUERREOTPYE and WE CAN'T REACH YOU, HARTFORD, as well as dramaturging all Assembly productions. Other writing credits include MINDCRAFT (Dixon Place) THE LONG GAME (Tiny Rhino) and BRAIN EXPLODE! (The Video Game Festival at The Brick Theater). His writing has appeared in Electric Literature, Publishing Genius, and The Brooklyn Review. He teaches literature and composition in the CUNY system. MFA: Brooklyn College.
RICHARD LOVEJOY (Franklin Elijah White) Richard Lovejoy is a Brooklyn based writer and actor. He wrote and starred in the feature film The Widowers, a comedy about grief. He has been featured in All My Children, We Cause Scenes, Rising Up: The Story of the Zombie Rights Movement, and numerous other films. On stage, Richard originated the role of Franklin Elijah White in Stephen Aubrey's The Dark Heart of Meteorology, and has been recently seen in The Scavengers by Eric Meyer, Willy Nilly by Trav SD, as well as his own plays Adventurer's Quest and A Brief History of Murder. Richard is a 2009 NY Theater.com Person of the Year, and a 2014 nominee for Person of the Decade.
NIC BENACERRF (Scenic Designer) Nic is a designer of sets and environments for live performance, a co-artistic director of The Assembly, and an academic who studies the mechanics of social change. He has been honored to collaborate with Judith Malina (The Living Theatre), Trusty Sidekick (Lincoln Center), Waterwell (Under the Radar), Lars Jan (Center for New Performance), BAM Poetry, Meiyin Wang (La MaMa), Kristin Marting (HERE), Goat in the Road (New Orleans), Son of Semele (LA). He is a proud graduate of Wesleyan, CalArts (MFA), and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance at the CUNY Graduate Center. www.nicbenacerraf.com
ASA WEMBER (Sound Designer) has collaborated with The Assembly on Seagullmachine, HOME/SICK, I Will Look Forward to This Later, That Poor Dream, and The Dark Heart of Meteorology, and with Jess Chayes on Holidays/In, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies, Latter Days and The Sister. Other recent work includes Am I Dead with Flux Theatre Ensemble, Adam & Evie with SITILab, Temping with Wolf 359, Selkie and In Quietness with Dutch Kills, Wyoming with Lesser America, and Brownsville Song at LCT3/Lincoln Center.
THE ASSEMBLY is a collective of multi-disciplinary performance artists committed to realizing a visceral and intelligent theater for a new generation. Assembly members unite varied perspectives in service of wide-reaching, unabashedly theatrical and rigorously researched ensemble performances, crafted to spark conversation with our audiences. Our work embraces the complexities of our present moment; it is a call for empathy and engagement. From workshops to productions to post-performance discussions, The Assembly is dedicated to rooting its artists, audiences, and peers in a profound sense of community. Since 2006, The Assembly has created ten original works that have been seen in Edinburgh, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and throughout NYC at La Mama, The New Ohio and IRT (through the Archive Residency), JACK, Horse Trade, and others. We've explored topics such as the ruthlessness of capitalism in the Gold Rush and the Dot-Com Boom and the politics of 1960s radicals. A feature article about the company was published in TDR in 2016. https://www.assemblytheater.org/
The Legend of White Woman Creek
A thirteen song cycle of love, betrayal and revenge sung by the ghost of Anna Morgan Faber.
Presented in Association with The Coldharts
Created and performed by Katie Hartman
Created and directed by Nick Ryan
Since the late 1800's, inhabitants of western Kansas and eastern Colorado have claimed to have seen and heard the specter of a woman singing to herself at twilight, as she wanders along a dry, cracked stream-bed known as White Woman Creek. Some say she was killed, some say she killed herself, others say worse… but to hear the truth, you must hear Anna's song for yourself. The Legend of White Woman Creek is a music-theatre piece inspired by a ghost story that weaves a tale of frontier life and peril through thirteen original folk songs, based on the traditional music of the era.
“"A series of magnificent narrative songs, performed just perfectly... An absolute triumph of music, production and mischievous willingness to unnerve." - Edmonton Journal
"Her voice is a trained heart-tugging tool, and she expertly controls her vast range. Hartman can move from soft murmurs to cries so powerful you’ll need to have some tissues handy for when she really lets loose. - CBC
"Not only best show of the Winter Mini-Fest, but one of the most moving musicals I've seen in many moons."
- Orlando Weekly
"Splendidly moving vocals, exquisite guitar artistry and rich emotional range convey genuinely epic storytelling. This production evokes an atmosphere, forlorn, spectral and sacred." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Mediums used: Live Music, Theatre
Runtime: 60 min
June 22nd @ 2pm (in rep w/ Michael Niederman/Dan McCoy's Whiskey Flicks Live)
June 23rd @ 830pm (in rep w/ Jody Christopherson's St Kilda)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
Illustration by Nicole Handel
KATIE HARTMAN is a Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, actor, and theatre-maker. Recent New York credits include EDGAR ALLAN at Soho Playhouse and Torn Page, Bread Arts Collective's RISE AND FALL and 3 Sticks' new folk opera, VESTIGE, both at the Brooklyn performance space, Cloud City. Katie is co-artistic director of the Coldharts, an international touring theatre company that creates ensemble-devised, new music theatre inspired by the American Gothic. While living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Katie worked with Four Humors Theater Company, Bedlam Theatre, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and on the Mainstage of the Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater. She is a founding member and producer of the Twin Cities Horror Festival, the largest performing arts festival in North America dedicated to the genre of horror. Katie received her BA in Theater Arts from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.
NICK RYAN is a founding member and resident playwright of Four Humors Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has written eight shows with the company including 'The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha' which premiered at the Dowling Studio in the Guthrie Theatre in May of 2016. 'Endurance,' a show he wrote in collaboration with Split Knuckle Theater, premiered during the 2010 Connecticut Repertory Theater Nutmeg Summer Series and received a Connecticut Critic's Circle Award for its run at Longwharf Theater in New Haven in 2015. Nick was the co-creator of an immersive adaptation of Jule's Verne '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' for Children's Theater Company in Minneapolis which ran for three hundred performances in the summer of 2015. He graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with a BA in Theater Arts, where he was the two-time recipient of the Arthur Ballet Award for Playwriting. Nick currently resides in Brooklyn where he is Co-Artistic director of The Coldharts.
.jpg)
TOYS 101: The Last Class
TOYS 101: The Last Class: On the last day of a high school English class, the text becomes the teacher, their action figures, and their Queerness.
Written and Performed by Jonathan Alexandratos
World Premiere
TOYS 101: The Last Class - After years of teaching at a conservative high school, one teacher fears the oppressive curriculum they have been forced to regurgitate has left their students with no way to see themselves in the limited education they've received. Today, for their final class of the year (and possibly their career), this teacher has decided to change that. The teacher, by using the toys that have followed them their entire life, carves an academic path to their own Non-Binary identity, and, in so doing, advocacy for the beautiful uniqueness of all their students. Taught by Jonathan Alexandratos, this immersive, theatrical class uses toys, discussions, literature, projected images, and community to build a hopeful, Queer story. You are the student. The semester is almost over. Class is in session, one last time.
“he is exceptional, you tend to forget you're in an english class. don't think twice just REGISTER FOR THE CLASS :)" -Rate My Professor
"Greatt prof! homework really easy. read the books- really interesting. gives 2 , 5-7 page essays and a midterm! easy A if you come to class and do all the work!" -Rate My Professor
Mediums used: Projections, Document Camera, Dry Erase Board, Lesson Plans, Action Figures
Runtime: 50 min
June 9th @ 7pm (in rep with Jody Christopherson's St Kilda)
June 22nd @ 7pm (in rep with Cara Francis' Dad)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
JONATHAN ALEXANDRATOS is a New York City-based playwright. Jonathan began work on their M.F.A. in Playwrighting at Queens College (CUNY), graduating in 2011. During their time in graduate school, they co-founded Playsmiths, a playwrights' lab in which holds weekly readings of writers' work and provides them with feedback. In school, Jonathan studied with playwrights Richard Schotter and Tina Howe. Howe nominated Jonathan's play *Molding Plastic* for the Rita and Burton Goldberg Award and the Irving Zarkower Award for best new play. In 2012, Jonathan's play *Chain Reaction*, a two-act comedy about the building of the atomic bomb, was produced in the NY International Fringe Festival. Since then, Jonathan has received commissions from the Abingdon Theatre Company and Truant Arts for the creation of new work. These commissions have resulted in two well-received plays: *Shepherd* (a piece about the bond between military dogs and their human partners) and *Teeth* (about a woman, born without a mouth, who finds her voice). Their play *Breaking/Orbit* was performed at the 2013 Pop Culture Association Conference in Washington, D.C. and the 2013 Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska. They are a member of Mission to (dit)Mars, a Queens-based writers' collective that commissions new plays from its members each season. Jonathan created *Duck*, a full-length animal allegory about the nature of abuse, culture, and individuality, which received a workshop production in Strasbourg, France. As a member of the Ingram New Works Lab at Nashville Repertory Theatre (2015-2016), Jonathan wrote WE SEE WHAT HAPPEN, a play about Jonathan's grandmother's immigration from Greece to the U.S. in 1951 as told by bootleg superhero action figures. They are a huge geek: a lover of action figures and comic books, and always finding ways of incorporating those things into their theatre.
Whiskey Flicks Live! The King of New York
New York is fucking dying.
Capitalism is killing it.
Let’s go to the movies.
A live “reaction performance” (over a bottle of whiskey) in which film geek, motormouth, and native New Yorker Michael Niederman provides unscripted responses to a series of movie clips centered around New York City’s past, present, and future, pondering the question: is New York dying, and if so, what can we do to save it?
Performed & Co-Created by Michael Niederman
Directed Co-Created by Daniel McCoy
World Premiere
New York exists on various levels. There’s the city we experience every day, with its infinite array of challenges, rewards, annoyances, and anecdotes. Then there’s the New York we know through media, most specifically film, which contains a larger-than-life mythology, a grandiose narrative of adventure, struggle, and romance. How do these two New Yorks intersect? What does the New York we know from the screen tell us about the New York we live in?
Each evening we’ll spend some time with Michael Niederman (on stage, fully lit), a New York-born theater artist and educator, as his friend Daniel McCoy (off stage, in the shadows) leads him through a one-time-only series of clips from movies, TV shows, performance art, music videos and more to spark in-the-moment impressions on New York as it was, is, and could be. There will probably be a sing-along at some point. Maybe a dance party, who knows?
Whiskey Flicks: Live! - The King of New York is the next step in an ongoing collaboration that began with the film-exploration cable access talk show Niederman Describes (watch on YouTube!) and continued with the midnight-movie-going-slash-whiskey-tasting podcast Whiskey Flicks (listen on iTunes!). This is a live attempt by McCoy to impose structure on the natural pandemonium inherent in Niederman. Just like New York itself, this piece is a marriage of order and chaos.
Mediums used: Performance, Interactive Video Projection
Runtime: 50 min
June 7th @ 7pm (in rep w/ Jody Christopherson's St Kilda)
June 8th @ 830pm (in rep with Cara Francis' Dad) ASL Interpreted Performance
June 16th @ 2pm (in rep with Cara Francis' Dad)
June 22nd @ 330pm (in rep with The Coldhart's The Legend of White Woman Creek)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
photo by Jody Christopherson
MICHAEL NIEDERMAN (Co-Creator, Performer) is a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Playwriting Program where he studied under such luminaries as Eduardo Machado and Theresa Rebeck. He is the author of the plays Freshman Fifteen (NYC Actors Studio), The Riverside Symphony (Planet Connections Theater Festivity), The Kuptferberg Family Tragedy (New York Stage and Film), To Barcelona! (Ignited States), Chelsea, Alaska (Lion Theater), and his newest work, Untitled First Draft. His play Every Man won the 2007 Samuel French Short Play Festival. Michael is also an accomplished screenwriter. Most recently he Co-Directed the film uniform, which for the past year has played for dozens of film festivals across the world. His script for the film Billion Star Hotel filmed in Cambodia. His script for the short film Proof of Birth won the Broadcast Educational Association Best Screenplay Award, and Faculty Selects at the Columbia University Film Festival. His feature-length screenplay, Saint Carlos of Gowanus also won Faculty Selects at Columbia University, was featured at the National Association of Independent Latino Producers Writer’s Lab, and has been a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival Writers Lab.
DANIEL MCCOY (Co-Creator, Director) is a playwright and performer based in New York City whose plays include Dick Pix, Perfect Teeth, Nothing Beyond the Light Matters, Four and Twenty Draculas, Cleave, and Epimythium. His work has been produced and developed recently with Theaterlab, Primary Stages, Project Y Theatre, IATI Theatre, Dutch Kills Theatre, and Simple Machine Theatre. He is alumni member of the Project Y Playwrights Group and the Cimentos Play Development Program at IATI Theatre. As an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, Daniel has written and performed in The Great American Drama, Mute, (un)afraid, and the long-running late night show The Infinite Wrench. Daniel is a graduate of the MFA Playwriting Program at Hunter College, where he studied with playwrights Tina Howe and Arthur Kopit and dramaturg Mark Bly. He directs every spring for the Writopia Lab Worldwide Plays Festival, showcasing the work of young playwrights.
phase (un)fazed
One girl dances and talks her way through cosmic metaphors of black holes, atomic romance, and the physics of falling in search of answers on compatibility, compassion, and integrity of self.
Created and Performed by Natalie Deryn Johnson
with a sound score by Rhys Tivey
What do Stephen Hawkings and tuning forks have to do with my love life? Natalie has long wished to be a Steinway, reads quantum physics like a love story and is now in search for the frequency of personal alignment. In a desire to explore resonance, compatibility, and integrity of being, Natalie turns to her dancing body and voice. She weaves whimsical and radical correlations between poetic phenomena and human connection while moving in and out of lushness. At times her body and voice speak in tandem (metadance). At times her voice is only heard in recording, featured and then nearly swallowed in the atmosphere of exhales, musings and melodic murmurs of a sound score composed by Rhys Tivey.
Mediums used: Dance and Spoken Word / Meta Dance, Sound
Runtime: 50 min
“Natalie is a force of nature, one of those dancers who remind me of wild horses, unstoppable in their frenzy. Her style of movement is both quirky and unique.”-Lois Greenfield
June 13th @ 830pm (following a Meta Dance workshop taught by Natalie at 7pm)
June 15th @ 2pm (in rep with Sara Farrington's Honduras at 330pm)
June 16th @ 7pm (in rep with The Assembly's The Dark Heart of Meteorology at 830pm)
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
NATALIE DERYN JOHNSON is an improvisational movement artist, poet, photographer based in New York City. In 2018 she was chosen to partake in the Once Upon Water Residency in Toronto and was in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts for her solo work. Patient History, a story exploring chronic illness and elevation, premiered at Mister Rogers as her first movement memoire. She has worked with famed dance photographer Lois Greenfield and regularly performs with Christina Noel and the Creature. Her work with Albert A. Garcia premiered at BAM, Dixon Place and Bowery Poetry Club. She holds a Scholastic National Gold Key in Photography and received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from UC Irvine. She dances in the rain and can be found collaborating with a variety of artists in a variety of contexts, from galleries to basements, from stage to film.
RHYS TIVEY is a Brooklyn based Composer and Sound Engineer. Rhys is a multidisciplinary singer, trumpeter, songwriter, producer, and movement artist. He has released two albums under his name, bridging influence from modern jazz to indie soul. He has performed his work at NYC venues like The Cutting Room, Mercury Lounge, Manderlay Bar, and Cornelia Street Cafe. Most recently he has created ambient sound work for a gallery performance entitled "What does this have to do with the universe?" Rhys also performs experimental trumpet and voice looped ambient soundscapes. He accompanied Gagosian Gallery’s unveiling of John Chamberlain foil sculptures at Longhouse Reserve, and co-created the show “Looks, Sounds, Smells like the The Universe” with artists Hap Tivey and Quinn Tivey, his brother and father, at Real Tinsel Gallery in Milwaukee, incorporating movement by Natalie Deryn Johnson into performance. Tivey and Deryn comprise a sound and movement performance duo that has also performed for Sarah Entwistle’s exhibit at Signs and Symbols gallery in NYC.
BlueBeardGasLight
A folklorist prepares her version of an old, dark fairy tale, only to discover a disconcerting fun-house mirror image in her own partnership.
Written and Performed by Kyra Miller
Presented in Association with The Muse Project
Developed with Katie Pearl
Video Consultant Jeanette Yew
Puppets designed and built by Kyra Miller
Dollhouse set by Jei Olson
BlueBeardGasLight is very loosely based on a real-life married couple of folklorists and imagines a woman, accompanied in her work by her husband, suddenly doubting the bedrock of her marriage. As her suspicion and his secrecy begin to overwhelm her, her thinking about "BlueBeard" (the subject of her writing) begins to clarify. Alone in her children's abandoned nursery at night, she uses their toys and dolls to do "embodied research," exploring the murky emotional territory she cannot discuss with her husband. This work was originally incubated at The Muse Project, Jocelyn Kuritsky Artistic Director.
"Kyra Miller....a Philip Roth story come to life (if Philip Roth were a stunning woman)." -- NYMag, on Chosen,
by Kyra Miller at Joe's Pub.
Mediums used: Puppetry, Live-feed/Projection, Song
Runtime: 40 min
June 15th @ 830pm (in rep with Eric Lawrence Taylor's, A Case Against Peaceful Protest)
June 18th at 7pm
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
KYRA MILLER is an actor, singer, writer and Alexander Technique instructor living in New York City. Most recently, Kyra played Rebecca in Rags at the Tony-award-winning Theatreworks Silicon Valley. She has worked at Seattle Rep, the Fifth Avenue Theater, A.C.T., Westport Country Playhouse, Southern Rep, the Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Pearl Theater Company. BlueBeardGasLight received a grant from the Muse Project and began workshopping at the Flea Theater last fall. Her solo work includes Chosen at Joe’s Pub (with Matt Ray on piano), Bridge and Tunnel Troubadour (about Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, directed by Barb Jungr) at Pangea. She studies singing with Virginia Grasso. MFA, University of Washington. Proud member AEA.
THE MUSE PROJECT seeks to disrupt the imbalance of opportunity and ownership of work for women actors through the development of challenging, actor-driven theater works and focused research into their participation in American theater. The initiative aims to shift the theater paradigm through the empowerment of women actors as creators and content generators. Notable achievements include the development and production of multiple theatrical pieces. Jocelyn Kuritsky's Muse project, Stet, written by Kim Davies, directed by Tony Speciale, and starring Jocelyn, premiered at Abingdon Theatre Company - in association with The Muse Project - toward the end of the 2015/16 season, and it enjoyed a successful, extended, Off-Broadway run. In October 2018, The Muse Project's first collection of "Mini Muses" (a kind of festival) was presented at The Flea Theater. Actresses Vanessa Aspillaga, Lynn Cohen, Jessica Frances Dukes, Déa Julien, and Kyra Miller all took part and presented. www.themuseprojectnyc.com.
Actress Jocelyn Kuritsky is the Producing Artistic Director of The Muse Project. She is also a founder and the actor-in-residence of the Lucille Lortel Award-winning immersive theater company, Woodshed Collective. www.jocelynkuritsky.com.
The Scientist: An Evening with John C. Lilly
A journey to the mind of John C. Lilly: dolphins researcher, float tank inventor, psychedelic explorer, and interstellar diplomat
Written and performed by Jonathan Torn
Live music written and performed by Freddy Katz
Mediums used: Text, live music, slide show
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 min, including intermission
June 12th and 19th @ 7pm
At Westbeth's The (Bell Labs) Boardroom, 463 West St
So-fi and the estate of John C. Lilly present a workshop of The Scientist: An Evening with John C. Lilly, a solo performance with music, sound, and images. The Scientist depicts the spiritual and experimental journey of John C. Lilly, one of the most creative and controversial thinkers of the 20th century. His early groundbreaking research on the brain led him to encounter government mind control conspiracies, mind-expanding drugs, sensory deprivation and inner space explorations, and inter-species communication with dolphins, whales, and silicon-based extraterrestrial life forms. Skeptics and believers alike will find food for thought in his remarkable and often harrowing story. Featuring live guitar improvisation by Freddie Katz.
Jonathan Torn lives in Flagstaff, AZ. His work has been seen in New York at The Brick, Chain Lightning, Torn/Page, and Tribeca Lab Theater.
Meta Dance Workshop with Natalie Deryn
Come dive into the performance practice of a contemplative mover that dances and talks at the same time. This class is a journey of movement meditation, visualization and verbal prompts that lead towards conversations of body and voice. Through poetic physical exercises as combined with improvisation, we plant seeds for a visible and narrative self.
This permission-giving and awareness-based practice allows one to become more intimate and available to the moment and others in the spaces between stillness and wild embodiment, silliness and sensuality.
Duration: 1 hour
Level: Open
Tickets are $11 in advance, suggested donation of $10 at the door.
Following this workshop will be a performance of Natalie Deryn Johnson's Meta Dance performance of phase (un) fazed at 830pm
A double bill ticket can be purchased to attend both the workshop and performance for $36
“Natalie is a force of nature, one of those dancers who remind me of wild horses, unstoppable in their frenzy. Her style of movement is both quirky and unique.”-Lois Greenfield
NATALIE DERYN JOHNSON is an improvisational movement artist, poet, photographer based in New York City. In 2018 she was chosen to partake in the Once Upon Water Residency in Toronto and was in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts for her solo work. Patient History, a story exploring chronic illness and elevation, premiered at Mister Rogers as her first movement memoire. She has worked with famed dance photographer Lois Greenfield and regularly performs with Christina Noel and the Creature. Her work with Albert A. Garcia premiered at BAM, Dixon Place and Bowery Poetry Club. She holds a Scholastic National Gold Key in Photography and received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from UC Irvine. She dances in the rain and can be found collaborating with a variety of artists in a variety of contexts, from galleries to basements, from stage to film.
So-fi presents
a work in progress showing oF Honduras
Valeria A. Avina performs true stories from Honduran several asylum-seeking moms that the playwright, Sara Farrington met and supported in the summer of 2018.
Written by Sara Farrington
Performed by Valeria A. Avina
In the summer of 2018,
one mom hid in the mountains,
while one mom was extorted,
while one mom was killed,
while one mom made it,
while one mom lost her kids,
while one mom heard about it on the radio,
while one mom drove across country,
while one mom waited at the bus station...
HONDURAS is a solo piece based on true events, accounts, personal experiences from the Honduran immigrant mothers in the New York/New Jersey area, all of whom playwright Sara Farrington and her colleagues at Immigrant Families Together have supported. Each asylum seeking mother and child in this story crossed the border in the summer of 2018. All names are changed. Some characters in this play are composites or interpreted versions of people we met and helped and some scenarios are condensed, consolidated and dramatized, but nothing has been exaggerated. PLEASE NOTE: this piece as a work-in-progress showing, half staged, half-read, very raw. This piece with regionally premiere at The Michael Chekhov Theater Festival in Ridgefield, CT, October 2019 under the direction of Evan Zes.
Photograph by George De Castro Day
Runtime: 60 min
June 15th, 330pm (in rep with Natalie Deryn Johnson's phase (un) fazed
Press for Sara Farrington's work-
"Farrington's CasablancaBox is a brave, almost foolhardy undertaking." ---The New York Times.
"CasablancaBox is a brisk ninety minutes of entertainment first and foremost, a breakneck-paced behind-the-scenes comedy in the style of Truffaut’s Day for Night, catnip even for the most casual cinephile."---The Village Voice.
"Leisure, Labor, Lust realizes Farrington's vision with superior artistry." ---TheaterScene.net
"Ms. Farrington ingeniously grafts the characteristics of Wharton and Riis with her own imaginative powers in her finely written and bold scenario that is set in 1907 and is structured in three acts. And outstanding work of theater that soars on every level." ---TheaterScene.net
Valeria A. Avina (Performer) Writer and a voice teacher from Durango Mexico, based in NYC. MFA in Acting at the University of Iowa. Valeria is a member of the Saudade Theatre Company, Intar UNIT52, The Flea (The Bats). She has also performed at All For One Theater, Dixon Place, Drama League, Intar, Danisarte, Teatro SEA, Bushwick Starr, The Lark, Noor Theater and Planet Connections Festivity. In 2017 she was nominated at The Planet Connections Awards for Oustanding Lead Actress in a Play for her role in Victory Girls by Kristina Poe. Some of her TV/Film credits are commercial for Cadillac, Revlon,Stratus, Fidelis Care, Indriver, Mastercard and an episode for Ralph Friedman TV Series, The perfect Murder and POSE (FX). Upcoming shows: Cross-Roads by Raquel Almazan, (LaMicroTheater), Honduras by Sara Farrington (Judson Church, So-fi Festival, Michael Chekhov Theater Festival and The Tank), POSE season 2 FX June 11. www.Valeriaavina.com IG @valeavina29
Sara Farrington (Playwright) Co-founder of Foxy Films, her theater company w/ Reid Farrington. MFA: Brooklyn College w/ Mac Wellman. HARP Artist @ HERE Arts for CasablancaBox, nominated for two Drama Desk Awards: Unique Theatrical Experience & Outstanding Projection Design. Upcoming: BrandoCapote (Tank, Fall 2019), Cosmicomics, (The Flea, Spr. 2020), Honduras (Michael Chekhov Theater Fest, Fall 2019), Recent: Honduras (AFO SoloCollective, IHRAF), Leisure, Labor, Lust (Tank, The Mount, Art House, Jersey City), The Return (commissioned/performed at The Metropolitan Museum), Near Vicksburg (Incubator Arts), Mickey & Sage (Incubator, Great Plains Theater Conf., NTI @ O'Neill, ShelterBelt, Omaha.) Supported by: Venturous Fund, MediaTHE, NYSCA, Axe-Houghton, Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation. MacDowell Colony fellow, Connecticut College & NTI @ O'Neill grad, Wooster Group intern. Published by Broadway Play Publishing. Sara is the Artistic Associate at Art House, Jersey City, freelances for The Brooklyn Rail, is an advocate for rights of asylum-seekers & champion of #MeToo. Sara & Reid Farrington have 2 boys. www.ladyfarrington.com
so-fi FESTIVAL
2020
Join Our mailing List
