Tag Archives: abrons arts center

UNDER THE RADAR 2011

GOB SQUAD’S KITCHEN (YOU’VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD) will be at La Mama January 6-8 during the seventh annual Under the Radar festival (photo by David Baltzer)

The Public Theater (and other venues)
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
January 5-16, $15-$30
212-967-7555
www.undertheradarfestival.com

The seventh annual Under the Radar: A Festival Tracking New Theater from Around the World features nineteen international productions, from the United States’ AMERIVILLE and LIVING IN EXILE to Belgium’s BONANZA, from Italy’s TOO LATE! ANTIGONE (CONTEST #2) to France’s VICE VERSA, from the UK’s THE INTERMINABLE SUICIDE OF GREGORY CHURCH to Slovenia/Latvia’s SHOW YOUR FACE! Several works investigate the nature of theater itself, including Vladimir Shcherban’s BEING HAROLD PINTER and Barry McGovern’s WATT BY SAMUEL BECKETT, while others feature such behind-the-scenes theater favorites as director JoAnne Akalaitis helming Nora York’s JUMP, about Sarah Bernhardt in Sardou’s TOSCA; Suzan-Lori Parks’s free WATCH ME WORK, in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright will literally work on her next project in the lobby of the Public Theater; and writer Taylor Mac’s THE WALK ACROSS AMERICA FOR MOTHER EARTH, a collaboration with the Talking Band that documents a cross-country antinuclear protest march. Other highlights include Reggie Watts’s multimedia collaboration with playwright Tommy Smith and journalist Brendan Kiley, DUTCH A/V; 2boys.tv’s PHOBOPHILIA, in which audiences will witness an interrogation in a secret location; and CORRESPONDENCES, a dance-theater piece in which Haitian/Malian Kettly Noël and South African Nelisiwe Xaba meet in person after having written to each other for a long time. While the Public Theater is home base for Under the Radar, there are also productions scheduled for HERE Arts Center, La MaMa, Dixon Place, the Abrons Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and the Robert Moss Theater, in addition to several postshow discussions, a two-day symposium, festival lounges at the Chinatown Brasserie, and other special events.

STEAMPUNK HAUNTED HOUSE

Abrons Arts Center is home to a very different kind of haunted house

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Through October 31, $10-$25
212-352-3101
www.abronsartscenter.org
www.steampunkhauntedhouse.com

Zach Morris and Third Rail Projects bring visitors back to neo-Victorian times with their elegant three-floor Steampunk Haunted House, at the Abrons Arts Center through October 31. People experience the immersive environment individually, increasing the scare factor as they wander among “mechanical apparitions, wraithlike sleepwalkers, and gear-powered beasts.” But this haunted house has no bloody depictions of gore and violence, instead relying on other types of thrills and chills.

ARMITAGE GONE! DANCE: THINK PUNK!

Armitage Gone! Dance will revisit two pieces from the '80s at Abrons Arts Center on Sunday and Monday (photo © Paula Court)

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Sunday, October 17, free, 3:00
Monday, October 18, $10, 8:00
212-352-3101
www.abronsartscenter.org
www.armitagegonedance.org

Last year New York City choreographer Karole Armitage revisited two of her groundbreaking works, 1981’s “Drastic-Classicism,” featuring an original score by Rhys Chatham, and 1985’s “The Watteau Duets,” set to a score by David Linton. Armitage’s Gone! Dance company will be performing excerpts from the two pieces as part of “Think Punk!” at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side on Sunday and Monday, with live music by Steve Gunn and TALIBAM! Get ready for a powerful experience, as the combination of Armitage’s aggressive, very physical choreography and the very loud live music should be exhilarating. The Sunday afternoon program is free; on Monday night, the excerpts will be accompanied by a a salon-style panel discussion involving the audience and special guests, including Armitage, composer Chatham, and artist James Nares, talking about the punk and art scene that took off in the 1970s ($10).

VISION FESTIVAL XV

Abrons Arts Center and other venues on the Lower East Side
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Sunday, June 20, through Wednesday, June 30
Admission: free – $25 (festival pass $150)
www.visionfestival.org

The 2010 Vision festival gets under way June 20, kicking off eleven days of avantjazz at venues on the Lower East Side, with the Abrons Arts Center serving as home base. Run by the nonprofit group Arts for Art, this year’s event will honor Muhal Richard Abrams, naming him Master of the Rightful Arts of Music with a special series of programs June 24 at Abrons. Each day generally takes place at a single location, beginning with poetry and music at Gathering of the Tribes on June 20, a free outdoor concert with Little Huey’s Sextet & Children and the Roy Campbell Trio on June 21 at Campos Plaza Playground, followed by the Darius Jones Trio, the Lowest Common Denominator, Crackleknob, and the Bradley Farberman Ensemble at the Local 269. Among the other shows (at Abrons unless otherwise noted) are Frank London’s Kali Krew at Drom on June 22, Rob Brown’s New Quartet on June 23, contemporary dance choreographed by Jason Jordan on June 25, 28, and 29, Amiri and Amina Baraka with Thulani Davis and others on June 26, Billy Bang’s Spirit of Sir One on June 27, a drum tribute to the late Rashied Ali on June 29, and William Parker’s Southern Satellites at (le) poisson rouge on June 30. Many evenings will also include postmidnight jam sessions at Clemente Soto Velez. In addition, Abrons will host a related multimedia art installation June 23-29.

THE WHIZ: OBAMALAND

The Wizard of Oz heads to Obamaland at Abrons Arts Center

NICHOLAS LEICHTER DANCE + MONSTAH BLACK
Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
June 16-19, $20, 8:00
212-598-0400
www.henrystreet.org
www.nldnyc.org

Since 1996, nicholas leichter dance has specialized in what it calls “cultural narratives where movement tells the story,” creating such works as KILLA, FREE THE ANGELS, CARMINA BURANA, and SWEETWASH. The company’s latest piece of musical dance theater, made in collaboration with Monstah Black (who also participated in KILLA), reinterprets THE WIZ and THE WIZARD OF OZ through the lens of the Obama generation. Leichter, who previously danced with Ralph Lemon, Jennifer Muller, Ronald K. Brown, and Gus Solomons jr., will ease audiences down the yellow brick road and into Obamaland at the Abrons Arts Center June 16-19, examining America’s hopes, fears, dreams, and recession-busting fantasies.

Monstah Black and nicholas leichter dance ease on down the disco road in a reimagined WIZ for the Obama generation (photo by Steven Schreiber)

Review: A fanciful collaboration between New York City-based choreographer Nicholas Leichter and self-proclaimed Messiah of the Funk Monstah Black, THE WHIZ: OBAMALAND is a campy low-budget send-up and joyful celebration of Sidney Lumet’s 1978 musical, THE WIZ. Black, serving as a sort of emcee à la Joel Grey in CABARET, has adapted songs from the original soundtrack, performing such numbers as “The Feeling That We Have,” “Ease on Down the Road,” and “Slide Some Oil” while wearing some of the most fab costumes this side of 1970s-era Studio 54 and the 1980s PARIS IS BURNING aesthetic. (Oh, those shoes…) Leichter and Black also throw in Missy Elliot’s raunchy “Lick Shots,” Faith Evans’s “Soon as I Get Home,” the Time’s “Jungle Love,” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” to keep up the funk and, in the latter case, add yet more silly humor to what was already a very funny, groovy show. The dancers, including Lauren Basco, Wendell Cooper, Stephanie Liapis, Aaron Draper, Dawn Robinson, Keon Thoulouis, Laurie Taylor, Yozmit, and Leichter, pay tribute to Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Rocky Balboa as they clearly have a ball performing Leichter’s exuberant choreography. Draper brings down the house several times, first holding fans on Robinson to make her dress and feather boa flap in the wind, then coming out as a boxer, his skinny white body soon dancing alongside three men with much, er, bigger, stronger, darker frames. Even at a mere seventy-five minutes it could use a little trimming here and there, but the show is still great fun, with one heckuva surprise near the end that will have you gasping for breath. THE WHIZ: OBAMALAND runs through June 19 at the Abrons Arts Center, but we’re hoping it comes back soon so it can be seen by the wider audience it deserves.

QUARTET v4.0

WaxFactory revisits its history and lays a course for its future with QUARTETv4.0 at Abrons Arts Center

WaxFactory YEAR 11 RETROSPECTIVE
Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
February 24-28, $15
212-352-3101
www.henrystreet.org
www.waxfactory.org
www.performingrevolution.org

The SoHo-based experimental theater company WaxFactory is celebrating the completion of its eleventh year with a series of programs that look back at the company’s founding, in 1998, as well as ahead toward its future. The “Year 11 Retrospective” began in January with the presentation of BLIND.NESS (LOVE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD) as part of P.S. 122’s COIL festival and continues this week with WaxFactory’s new version of QUARTET v4.0, based on Heiner Müller’s controversial adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES. Part of the New York Public Library’s Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe, the multimedia production, which uses surveillance cameras, live video capture, and real-time editing and processing, was conceived and directed by Ivan Talijancic and stars Erika Latta and Todd Thomas Peters. The celebration concludes next month with the American premiere of the company’s DELIRIUM 27, directed by Latta and running March 24-28 at Abrons Arts Center.