Written & Directed by Peter McCabe

"If I were to murder you and sift through your mutilated remains, would I be able to hold the part of you that loves music?"

By looking at the seductive relationships between stories and their audiences, In the Company of Trees examines things that are real, cannot be perceived through the senses, but can be understood in a theater.

Created by Sharptoolstheatre

Absolute Brightness is a puppet/physical theatre performance that links the inexplicable connections between an all-but-forgotten human computer named Henrietta who cataloged stars at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, an Italian monk versed in the mnemonic mysteries, burned alive in the Campo dei Fiore in Rome in 1600, and a black woman in 2007 whose human family is slowing disappearing from recorded history.  Absolute Brightness braids the loose strands of the known and unknown Universe in order to remember things forgotten.

www.Sharptoolstheatre.com

Choreography and Design by Michael Bodel

The American mid-west, midway through the 20th century.  An endless line of bed sheets advances across stage, tended to by three women.  Their invisible children play among the sheets: tiny shoes that run across the railroad tracks.  The mothers pull down the white sheets and carefully fold them.  They watch a 6 inch picket fence as it slowly circles the stage.  The children are nowhere to be found, and in the distance, several army boots swing in the wind.

A piece of dance-theater and puppetry featuring 4 female dancers, 3 puppeteers, 3 children, 1 violinist, and hundreds of baby shoes.

Written by and featuring Monica Hunken
Dramaturgy by Nadia Foskolou and Benjamin Cerf
Directed by Laura Newman

Reading the Water is the intimate portrait of an unknown father by a young woman traveling through tales of deep-sea dives, top-secret government experiments, madcap relatives, lawsuits and an untimely death.  This one-woman show attempts to uncover the life of an introverted scientist in love with the sea, and is a personal investigation of identity and loss.

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Written and performed by Jamie Lyn Smith
Directed by Mikki Baloy

Free and Compulsory is a solo comedy that unflinchingly tells it like it really is for a naïve and hopeful first year teacher struggling to succeed in one of the ten worst high schools in the city.  Her increasingly desperate tactics to reach the kids make for hilarity in her heartfelt (if misguided) attempts to make a difference.  Ultimately, she must face the fates and furies of the system in an unsettling revelation that in order for schools to get ahead, someone will be left far, far behind. 

http://www.MySpace.com/FreeandCompulsory

"Factory Girl" DVD Giveaway!

Written and Performed by Hal Fickett

"65" follows a man on a surreal journey as he confronts issues of bipolar disorder, alcoholism and divorce.  "65" opens with a tragic road trip which forces the boy to reach the east coast and his awaiting mother alone. Having arrived safely, we see the man in his teen years grappling with the severity of bipolar.  Saved by his mother and now a young man, the two take a journey across a crippled United States where his mother is eventually killed.  Alone, the man travels back to the east coast, and is met by the ghost of his mother and father.

Only the first 2 parts of the piece will be performed. 

www.HalFickett.com

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Written by Timothy Braun
Performed and Directed by Alexis Macnab
Sound Design by Jeremy Wilson
Light Design by Chris Brown
Film by Joshua Higgason

Told in rich soundscape and dreamlike images, Trigger Happy Jack is the story of a girl determined to survive in the Large, Large, Large City in the Sky.  Armed with barking spiders and her painted bottle caps, the girl discovers how much of herself was left behind when she left home.

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Written by Joanne Hudson
Directed by Meghan Finn
Dramaturgy by amy freeman

Men and Women, marriage, guns and six packs of coke collide in a world where Tofutti Pizza is a meal and the Internet is our touchstone.

"Factory Girl" DVD Giveaway!

Cancan dancing, courtesans of 1890’s, the actress Gena Rowlands, swedish erotica, and Werner Herzog's documentary, Grizzly Man have all served as source material for this work.  I am also thrilled by what a fur coat does to a woman, in the same way that a business suit affects a man’s bearing, carriage and stance.  I want the final work to reflect images of real women, from courtesans to movie stars, as well as the Roman myth of the Big Dipper, in which a jealous god’s wife turns his mistress into a bear, and she and her son are saved by becoming stars in the sky.

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Created by Under the Table
Performed by Matt Chapman and Josh Matthews

As two brothers find themselves suddenly lost in a ridiculous puzzle about their own lives, they become entangled in colliding worlds of fantasy, reality, and memory!  This insightful physical comedy takes the audience on an intelligent journey of imagination and play, through steamy jungles and bitter cold!  The race is on to figure out what may or may not have just happened as they sort through the details of their last moments together.  Hilarious and moving, SOLO: a Two-Person Show consistently leaves audiences in stitches and tears, with rapid-fire comic timing, acrobatics, song and dance, and a little devil puppet.

www.UnderTheTableTheatre.org

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Company: DOORKNOB COMPANY
Co-directors: Shannon Gillen, Elisabeth Motley

In 'steel net and a high wire sing along', we are immigrant men bound for the promise of work in America.  Upon arrival, we find jobs on the East River, constructing what will become the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.  Channeling the voices of the bridge, we tell our stories from behind the masks of immigrants, children, sailors, as well as the engineer of the bridge and his wife, Emily and Washington Roebling.  This work will investigate the challenges of bridging, both in the rigorous physical construction of the bridge and of the links that connect each other and our stories. 

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Featuring: Megan Campisi, Loren Fenton, Kevin Lapin, Liz Vacco and Ben Vershbow

Fallen women, ribald sailors and 18th century birth control…In 1789, a thirteen-year-old prostitute, a savvy con-artist and a fallen maidservant are shipped to a male penal colony.  Performed on a 3'x6' platform, the reduced space functions like a camera lens, with close-ups, jump-cuts and pan-outs as 6 actors transform the stage from the bustle of London, to the dank bilge of a ship crossing the high seas, to the unknown colony.  Pulled from the underbelly of London and thrust into the belly of a ship, three women discover what (and who) they'll do to survive. 

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Written and directed by Hélène Lesterlin
Live sound and music by Seth Cluett and Stephan Moore
Produced by ATLAS Dance

Praxis is a dance theater work steeped in unsolicited advice, Marxism, incomprehensible instructions, songs, and game structures.  Actions on stage overlap and coalesce, pitting disparate activities against each other, as evolving scenes shift in and out of focus. In a space constantly under construction, the audience on three sides, four characters enter, exit, go about their business, and figure out how to move things forward - while pointers rain down on them from the Voice above. Two musicians mix live and prerecorded sound, adding another level of chaos, humor, and surprise to this circus of theory into praxis, plan into action.

www.AtlasDance.org

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Choreographer: Isabella Bruno
Featuring: Kate Johnson and Pamela James

The occasional subway ride is the inspiration for an investigation of physical intention and how focus on a task can grab outsiders’ curiosity.  Those we identify as "crazies" often transform an everyday task into something alien, perhaps unidentifiable, simply through intention.  We are intrigued by physical logic out of the ordinary.  By acknowledging our own personal quirks, can we as dancers develp an internal logic, resulting in a uniquley rigorous body language?  Can we push that body language beyond our nurtured social conventions?  By reversing traditional behavior therapy techniques, we exaggerate parts of ourselves, ordinarily kept hidden.

"Factory Girl" DVD Giveaway!

Photo by Alex Romanov

Voom is the choice of The Village Voice

Choreographed and directed by Vangeline for the Vangeline Theater
Additional Choreography by Nina Buisson
Featuring Pamela Herron, Yukari Coco Koyama, Alethea Vasilas, Vangeline Theater, Kat Mac Millan, Ayako Sana, Myndy K, Katherine Adamenko, Minako Nakashima, and Cassandra Rosebeetle
Set Design by John Vogt 
Music by SORIAH

In 2004, Artist Robert Wilson was invited for a residency at the experimental VOOM HD Lab  and created a series of high-definition video portraits of celebrities in near stillness.  A “Butoh portrait in Motion”, Vangeline Theater’s VOOM rescues the camp, extravagant elements from Robert Wilson’s Voom portraits.  A painting come to life, the 45 minute Performance Arts piece borrows from both Japanese Butoh and "Method Go Go" (invented by New York Empress Chi Chi Valenti).  An erotic and mysterious Dance portrait of women, VOOM explores Fashion, Beauty, and the darker side of the human heart. 

www.Vangeline.com

myspace.com/soriahmusic

www.soriah.net

www.wyrddesign.com

soriah appears courtesy of Beta-Lactam Ring records 

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Developed and Presented by Human Company
Adapted and Directed by Royd Climenhaga
Assisted and Designed by Kelly Hanson

Egon Schiele’s disquieting images of fluid, sexualized bodies caught in a limbo of space - like specimens pinned to the canvas in an emotional natural history museum - ask us to look for what lies beyond the surface of the image and beneath the permeable layer of our own skin.  Human Company works to elicit the visceral presence of Schiele’s life and art through intensely physical performance.   Adapted from sources both critical and fictional, Schiele interweaves dance and theatre, sound and image, history and context, to create a portrait of the artist and the dynamic dreamscape of Expressionist Vienna.

http://Humancompany.org/ 

Created and Performed by La Pendue

Two puppeteers on the run are bringing with them a massive weapon of hilarity: they draw Polichinelle, the most famous puppet in the world and, with unbridled enthusiasm, get ready to perform a show of which exceptional qualities they have proclaimed.  But, as planned, nothing goes as planned.  Welcome to the hilarious frenzy of a new version of Polichinelle where he appears in his most wild outburst, in an explosive rhythm, provoking roars of laughter that strike indiscriminately kids as much as adults.  Because Polichinelle laughs at everything.  Death included.
 

Composer/Librettist: Garrett Fisher
Headpieces: Louise McCagg
Direction: Ken Cerniglia & Christy Fisher (movement)

The Passion of Saint Thomas More is an opera about Thomas More's conflict with King Henry VIII and his ultimate execution.  Rather than follow a literal historic narrative, the work is a meditation on More's decision to remain true to his convictions.

These excerpts highlight characters Thomas More (Kathy Hanson) and daughter Margaret (Linda Strandberg), who also play three dark angels.  Two other Fisher Ensemble members include: Garrett Fisher (Indian harmonium) and Jay Kauffman (Guitar).  The full-length piece also includes King Henry VIII (baritone), English horn, dumbek, and dancer/narrator. It was released on BIS Records (2002).

www.FisherEnsemble.org

Story by West Hyler & Tim J. Lord
Written by Tim J. Lord
Directed by West Hyler

In October 2002, forty heavily armed men and women took a Moscow theatre hostage, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.  Seventy-two hours later all the Chechens and 129 hostages had died during the Russians’ operation to retake the theater.  Five years on the conflict in Chechnya is still raging.  What justifies one country’s right to subjugate another?  What is the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist?

Created by Matthew Torney and Ian Russell
Designed by Kara Zeigon

Walter Benjamin took his own life on September 27th 1940.  He died trying to escape the spread of fascism in Europe, unable to bear the pressures of the war.  For Benjamin, history was something at once terrifying and deeply nostalgic.  It lives in objects, memories, sensations, dreams and fantasies.  His deeply poetic writings explore the experience of history in the 20th century, and describe 'the state of emergency' that we live in in modern society.

This performance work dissects this 'state of emergency' looking at how history lives in our bodies and our dreams.

Written by viBe Theater Experience's ensemble of urban teenage girls
Directed by Dana Edell and chandra thomas
Designed by Gina Scherr

viBe Theatre Experience presents: Strand of Anonymous Pearls, a brand new play with songs and dances written and performed by Amanda, Brooklyn, Lenora, Lori, Luisa, Ishaw and Yazming, seven amazing teenage girls in New York City.  Dive into the sea of creativity as seven sparkling mermaids, bored with life in their underwater paradise discover mysterious pearls that let them see into the lives and struggles of teenage girls above.  Inspired to help them, the mermaids use their power and sisterhood bonds to guide the girls above to overcome self-esteem issues, identity issues, abuse, loneliness, and per pressure.  Through poetry, song, dance and heartfelt storytelling, the viBe girls invite you to splash through the experience of being an urban teenage girl.

www.viBeTheater.org

Choreographer: Vicky Virgin
Theatrical Direction: Umit Celebi

Salt becomes a metaphor for desire in Vicky Virgin's new dance theater piece, Salt Lake, a New Ballet in 3 Acts. Story ballet converges with performance art providing the framework for the emergence of Fleur de Sel, an odd character with an irrational craving for salt.  Three salt nymphs join her as she negotiates that dangerous landscape of passion: the desire, bliss and despair. Elements include video on a screen of falling salt and a Shakespeare sonnet. Salt in its myriad forms are fully explored. In the end, you will be left with nothing less than pure unadulterated thirst.

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"

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.