Dec 2018-Jan 2019
Presented in association with Torn Page
Saint EX
a physical poeM
Performed by Nathan Gebhard with live music by Natalia Steinbach
Directed by Jeesun Choi
Costumes by Clara Cavins Wolford,
Created by Spaceheater (jon dahl + nathan gebhard).
Saint Ex confronts the relationship between muse and artist, unravel the love behind Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince.”
Created by Spaceheater, Saint Ex combines elements of theatre and dance as it embodies what it's like to be human, to love and to love something so much that it breaks. And to love it back to rejuvenation and transformation. Behind Exupéry's best selling novella lies a man who yearns to love the world but is incapable of loving his wife, and a woman who gives up everything to love her husband only to find herself alone in his place. Saint Ex uses the lives of Consuelo and Antoine as a springboard to show how people want to be inspired and be inspirational. How we want to gift each other with the life-giving energy.
EDGAR ALLAN
A manic lullabye inspired by the childhood and short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
Eleven-year-old Edgar Allan has only one goal: to be the most remarkable boy at Manor House School. He has only one obstacle: Edgar Allan. Created and performed by Katie Hartman & Nick Ryan, In collaboration with Mark Benzel
Edgar Allan is a two-person musical created and performed by Katie Hartman and Nick Ryan. It follows a pre-adolescent Edgar Allan Poe in his first year at Manor House School, as he seeks to gain academic ascendancy over the student body. All goes to plan until another boy named Edgar Allan arrives in class... which complicates his schemes of dominance, the obsessions, the mania, and the insanity that haunted the life and work of America's first professional writer.
"A triumph of storytelling" -Edmonton Journal
"A dark, polished gem" -Winnipeg FreePress
"Katie Hartman plays the loquacious Edgar with gawkish and malevolent glee... Nick Ryan's raspy-voiced turn as Edgar's rival is delightfully odd."-CBC
"Darkly funny and dangerous... Katie Hartman exudes malice even as she beautifully sings her intent."-Global News
Pier Valentino's: show without end! (the Final broadcast)
A WORKSHOP PRESENTATION
Written and Performed by Nico Grelli
Directed by Nidia Medina
“wonderfully campy and deeply hilarious...a play of such clear promise... layered in dark humor.... a treat for anyone with a fondness for hammy theatrics and charming oddities. Grelli has mastered the role of Pier. The well‑meaning TV host is something of a neurotic mess, albeit kind, soft‑spoken and endlessly endearing.... adorably sympathetic”- All About Solo
For over a decade, from the basement of Pier’s mother’s Foccaceria, Show Without End has broadcast sometime between midnight and 4 am every Monday (and occasional Thursday) on Bay Area Public Access Television, just after Barry Weatherjam’s Bagpipe and Kazoo Jamboree Hour. And in the final hour (or so) before the imminent asteroid collides with our planet, Pier has decided to share the very last Show Without End with whoever would so choose to watch.
This is from Pier: “All praise the Olive Duchess, who is all things, and who is me, and who is you. May we strut, as the Duchess does, through what remains of this existence, and into the next existence, once the approaching asteroid rear ends us off the galactic highway and into the deep, cold, oxygen-less vacuum that is the Milky Way. My humble freaks, my gentle geeks. Let me be your steadfast Captain through this last dark night. Consider yourself welcome to share the end with me, on the final Show Without End.”
Nico began development on this project with the support of the Grange Hall Cultural Center in Waterbury, VT and will be returning in February to perform the full length show. Nico’s other solo shows include: American Sideshow (Emerging Artists Theatre), Gather Fuel in Vacant Lots (NYU/Tisch). This piece is part of a thematic trilogy, the other two of which are plays: Private Catholic Mixtape ’89-’01 and A Priori A Posteriori. For more info on Nico’s work, please visit: www.nicgrelli.com
Nidia Medina is a Latina theatre artist of various disciplines who is dedicated to challenging and advancing American Theatre in any and every way she can. She believes ferociously in new voices and a diverse community. She is currently Associate Producer and Director of the Studio at Theatre for a New Audience.
photo by Reese Muntean
ST KILDA
A Horrific Scottish Sound Immersion/Excursion With Live Foley Looping
Written and Performed by Jody Christopherson
Directed by Isaac Byrne
Sound and Foley Design by Andy Evan Cohen
with voice overs featuring Michael de Roos
Dialect Coaching by Chloe Dirksen
"because sometimes the magic you need in this world is brutal, not lovely."
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.
St Kilda, uses live foley and a looper to create a foreboding soundscape for a tale of supernatural horror. Instruments include violin bows, 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.
Christopherson 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, including Canada, Detroit, New Orleans, Miami, Amsterdam and has been compared to Margaret Atwood’s writing.
"Jody Christopherson’s one-woman show St. Kilda, at the So-Fi Festival, gave me 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. . . exciting, inventive . . . able to inspire fear, sympathy, laughter, and wonder. 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
“Atmospheric and dreamy, St Kilda is a unique theatrical experience, an uncanny, unsettling story and world of secrets and mystery." -Minnesota Theater Love
If you like Laurie Anderson, try St Kilda.”- Minneapolis Star Tribune
“The most enjoyable evening of theatre we’ve had in a long time . . . In addition to its folkloric aspects (which spoke strongly to my Scottish soul!), the piece is very much informed by sexual politics in a way that roots it in the Right Now. Yet the Pagan core of the story reinforces expression of female perspective in a way that does not overwhelm the work’s aesthetic virtues, which are many. I especially loved the fact that the very form this piece takes (storytelling), is as old as its subject matter — it enhances the imaginative magic . . . a tribute to what Artaud called the “Alchemy” of the theatre.-Travalanche, New York
photo by Michael Niederman
http://jodychristopherson.wixsite.com/jodychristopherson/st-kilda
The Prodigal Vegan
Written and Performed by Lisa Huberman
Devising Director Michole Biancosino
Part memoir. Part vegan dinner party. All feelings.
For most people, salads don’t carry a lot of emotional baggage. They provide nutrition. Weight-loss. And maybe a couple of artful Instagram hashtags.
But Lisa does not have a normal relationship to salads.
In The Prodigal Vegan: A Culinary Solo Show, playwright takes her audience on a colorful, comic, interactive culinary journey through her relationship with food. Growing up as a third-generation vegetarian in suburban Ohio, for her family healthy eating wasn’t just about following trends—it was an integral part of their identity. And crafting a salad was a process that carried with it ritual, performance, and a generous helping of vegan guilt. Though her own food choices as an adult do not always conform to her parents’ nutritional expectations, Lisa maintains a messianic belief in the power of plant-based eating to create a sense of community and transcendence. Previously performed at La MaMa and Project Y’s WIT Festival.
"charming and delightful"- theasy.com
photo by Jody Christopherson
The Scientist
Based upon the life and works of John C. Lilly. Written and performed by Jon Leon Torn. Live guitar by Freddie Katz.
A remarkable audio/visual trip into the mind of John C. Lilly: Dolphin researcher, flotation tank pioneer, psychedelic explorer, and interstellar diplomat
Torn/Page and the estate of John C. Lilly present a workshop reading of The Scientist, 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.
Jon Leon Torn lives in Flagstaff, AZ. His work has been seen in New York at The Brick, Chain Lightning, Torn/Page, and Tribeca Lab Theater.
lady Brewster Will Burn: Parts 1 & 2
A wicked beverage interlude in 2 parts
Written and Performed by Erika Phoebus at the So-fi bar
Brewing beer was a woman’s sport, until they were accused and hunted for witchcraft. Come drink with a Brewster who burned from this tale, and may the wine in your belly resurrect her.
Part 1: Dec 12, 18 & Jan 5, During intermission
Part 2: Dec 13, 14, 19, 21 & Jan 6, During intermission
"Watch in amazement as Erika Phoebus brings this character to life"- Woman About Town
