Written by Torben Betts
Directed by James Dacre
Animation by Thomas Hicks
Video by Lis Magic Laser
Lighting Design by Charles Foster
Original Musical Score by Jonathan Styles

A shattering re-imagination of life as we live it now set in the
context of a bloody revolution. A brutal political assassination
robs a nation of its charismatic President and thrusts his
beautiful, icy widow into the limelight. As the people demand blood
and vengeance, she must choose between the prospect of immense power and her depraved love of the assassin. This skewed world spins
giddily between the surreal, the mundane and a ghastly graphic reality. Powerful poetic language, raw emotion, dark humor and big uncomfortable ideas build a fast moving story about a morally-bankrupt political system and its effects on those who profit from it, those who merely acquiesce to it and those who oppose it.

Torben Betts has just won BEST NEW PLAY 2007 for his most recent
work (The Unconquered) at the CRITICS AWARDS FOR THEATRE IN
SCOTLAND (CATS).

Featuring ANNIKA BORAS, SHAWTANE BOWEN, DINA ANN COMOLLI and MICKEY SOLIS. Stage Managed by ARIENNE PELLETIER, Sound Designed by ANN WARREN, Fight Directed by AMANDA McCROSKERY and Associate Produced by ABIGAIL KATZ"

"...darkly enchanting... almost perversely pleasurable... as moving as it is impressive" - New York Times

Click here to read the rave review in the New York Times...

"...at once uproarious and harrowing..." - The New Yorker

"Bizarre, complex, and strangely moving, Removable Parts is lyrically brilliant and truly original." - Flavorpill

"[T]his may well be the first BIID musical, and quite a successful one." - Village Voice

 
Removable Parts is a theatrical series of love songs about voluntary amputation.  In an updated version of the lover's plaint, the unrequited lover – whose heart is broken – begins to question the usefulness of his other body parts.   Loosely based on medical journals, psychiatric case studies, and actors' monologue collections, the songs and banter in Removable Parts take a sideways look at amputees, devotees, and wannabes, with a balance of empathy and irreverence.

Removable Parts is performed by Kathleen Supové (piano) and Corey Dargel (voice and electronics), and directed by Emma Griffin with choreography by Yvan Greenberg.

 

Nominated for 2 IT Awards!

    Emma Griffin: director   

    Outstanding performance art production

 

Join us for these special Postshow Panels:
Sun., Sept. 9:  "Developing Concert-Theater" The show's creators discuss their collaborative process.
Wed., Sept 12: "No Disability, No Drama" Dargel and panelists explore techniques for building absurd characters.

Sat., Sept. 15, 3-5pm: FREE Singer / Songwriter Workshop! Those with an interest in singing, songwriting, and/or laptop music are invited to join Dargel for this salon-style session.  
To RSVP or for more info, email workshop@here.org.

Animation: Tim Sweeney
Music: Richard Leo Johnson 

This three minute film which will be shown throughout the festival in the cafe.

This film originated as an animated documentary project.  I chose the topic of animal rights and wanted to create a film dealing with this subject.  As the project progressed further it became a film about the feeling of being trapped and isolated and wanting to find a way to get out.  The film became a more abstract interpretation of what I had originally intended.  Experimental musician, Richard Leo Johnson, composed the music for the film based on the initial idea concerning animals in captivity.

$18 for a single ticket, $15 when buying more than one!


Adapted from Lewis Carroll by Gretchen Van Lente and Drama of Works; directed and designed by Gretchen Van Lente.

curiouser & curiouser was written and adapted using text from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Dodgson’s diary entries and Alice Liddell’s memoirs. The piece surrounds Lewis Carroll, Dodgson’s alter ego, who investigates what could have possibly gone so wrong between Alice and Dodgson to destroy the very friendship that created him. The Alice puppet plays chess with tables in outrageous hats, is scolded by white rabbits made from handkerchiefs and takes boat rides with playing cards. Alice Liddell is represented by a sweet and disjointed doll-style puppet made from doll parts. All other characters come to life through toys, objects and furniture, and the occasional piece of cheese. Drama of Works uses puppetry, original music and songs, object theatre and physical theatre to create the landscape of curiouser & curiouser.

Adapted from Lewis Carroll by Gretchen Van Lente and Drama of Works; directed and designed by Gretchen Van Lente; music composed by Jonathan Portera; lights by Jeanette Yew; costume assistance by Vita Mechachonis; set assistance by Markus Maurette; featuring Amy Carrigan, Talaura Harms*, Adam Sullivan, Ben Sulzbach & Meghan Williams.

There will be a special Q&A after opening night (9/19) with the director, cast and the Lewis Carroll Society of North America's president Andrew Sellon.

Drama of Works, New York's tightly organized satirists (In Pittsburgh), are known for their innovative works "high on fantastic production value" (Village Voice) that cross the line between actors and puppeteers. "Whatever it is supposed to be, it isn't boring" (Puppetmaster). Led by Artistic Director Gretchen Van Lente (also president of UNIMA-USA), they have performed locally and abroad: around New York City plus all over Pennsylvania and New England, and over six international festivals to date with their unique brand of theatre: gaining members, fans and supporters along the way. "This company will be around for a number of years to come; if you go see them now, you'll be able to say you knew about them before everybody did."

www.dramaofworks.com

Adapted by Stranger Theater, directed by Kate Cayley.

All the way from Toronto, Stranger Theater brings their version of Alice to HERE.  And What Alice Found There brings to life Lewis Carroll's writing of Alice in Wonderland, the real Alice, and the world in which they lived. Using a mixture of sources from Carroll's two famous novels, letters and other writings, we begin with a sunny day on the river and travel to far darker places. The story examines childhood, love, and the nature of creation. Alice Liddell's journey through Victorian times mirrors Alice in Wonderland's journey through the hallucinatory landscape of her author's imagination, where nothing is as it seems. Stranger reworks a classic text to create a multi-media theatrical adventure using physical theater, puppetry, slide images, video, stop-motion animation, and a little tap dancing. Bizarre, visually stunning, funny and absurd, this is an enticing look at the troubled friendship that gave birth to a masterpiece.

Directed by Kate Cayley; performed by Sarah Cormier, Simone Rosenberg, Christina Serra, with additional puppeteering by Lea Ambros and Sarah Klein; video by Adrienne Connelly and Simone Rosenberg; designed and built by the company.

www.dramaofworks.com/alice

Stranger Theater is an artist-run company that uses myth, folktales and literature as a springboard through which to tell new stories. In our work, we try to give pre-eminence to social and political critique, while also giving delight or surprise through playful ways of telling, incorporating physical theatre, found text and objects, video, clown, various forms of puppetry, mask, song, and original writing. Our focus is the creation of new pieces, adapting old texts into new forms, and producing work that uses public space in unconventional ways.

http://www.strangertheatre.ca

Read the great reviews!: The Young Ladies Of

"Taylor Mac seduces you, breaks your heart, patches it back up again,  and sews sequins along the scars." -- The Irish Times

"All of [Mac's] plays are self-revealing, but The Young Ladies Of may well be his most personal... rarely has someone wearing so much make-up appeared so naked." -- The Village Voice (Read the whole article...)

"With his unique blend of bleak humor, personal revelation, political engagement, folk-inflected music, and astonishingly elaborate, gender-twisting, gorgeous grotesque costumes, Mac has emerged as an essential figure in the downtown performance scene." -- Time Out New York (Read the interview with Taylor...)

HERE is pleased to present the world premiere of The Young Ladies Of, written and performed by Taylor Mac. 

Stationed in Vietnam in 1968, Lt. Robert Bowyer placed an advertisement asking women ages 19-26 to write him.  He was flooded with letters from hundreds of young ladies responding to his ad.  Juxtaposing images of Lt. Bowyer in Vietnam with Mac’s own unique gender-bending aesthetic, Mac uses the letters, original text and songs to bridge the gap between perceptions of masculinity and femininity, past and present, and red and blue states.

The Young Ladies Of... is registered at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards website, http://www.nyitawards.com. Click to vote!

Join us for a talkback after the performance on Thursday, Oct. 11th!