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A full calendar of the festival and ticketing information can be accessed here. Scroll below for information on each of the three shows. If you are a presenter, please contact Shannon Sindelar at shannon@ontological.com or 212-420-1916 to arrange complimentary tickets.
All performances take place at the Ontological Theater at St. Mark's Church, 131 E. 10th St. (at 2nd Avenue), NYC
60 minutes
Sat, Jan 9, 7:30p.m.
Sun, Jan 10, 4:30p.m.
Mon, Jan 11, 6p.m.
Sat, Jan 16, 7:30p.m.
Fusing elements of theatre, film, journalism and installation art, Sponsored By Nobody examines American consumerism, distilled into one place, one time. The Target store at Atlantic Terminal Mall (Brooklyn) is used as a focal point around which to explore what lies beneath the collective shopping experiences of consumers across diverse ethnic and class backgrounds. This Target store has emerged as a defining location where residents from various neighborhoods converge to obtain their basic necessities. With the advent of gentrification across various neighborhoods bordering this location, the Target store at Atlantic Terminal Mall has become an intersection point for ethnic and class groups. This work originally premiered at the Ontological Theater as part of the 2009 Incubator summer season.
Sponsored By Nobody is a Brooklyn-based theatre company dedicated to developing original work that is relevant to contemporary American culture. Founded in 2005, SBN has developed seven critically-acclaimed, original works of theatre in New York, including THE POSITION [Ice Factory '05], NOT FROM CANADA [FringeNYC '07] and "W.M.D. (just the low points)" [The Game Is Up! '09]. The company has earned a reputation in New York and Europe for presenting abrasive theatre committed to the idea of art as a catalyst for social change. While rooted in theatre, SBN incorporates multiple disciplines -- borrowing from dance, film, music and installation art -- while employing both found-texts and original writing that reflects contemporary realities in American culture.
“Though Behind The Bullseye may have documentary realism at its roots, ultimately it owes more to the scathing absurdism of Ionesco and Maxwell than to the manipulated ‘realism’ of Michael Moore (…) with its mashup of the mundane and the dreamlike, Bullseye aims for a target much larger and elusive than the easy takedown of corporate capitalist culture. Like its earlier W.M.D. (just the low points), SBN is looking to defibrillate American theater with the short, sharp shocks of the uncomfortably familiar, this time aiming at a culture beholden only to its own want/need/want/need/want desires.” – Brooke Stowe, THE BROOKLYN RAIL
"Stylishly illustrated... looks like one of Reverend Billy's nightmares staged by Robert Wilson on a budget." -- Jason Zinoman, THE NEW YORK TIMES
60 minutes
Thurs, Jan 7, 6p.m.
Sat, Jan 9, 1p.m.
Sun, Jan 10, 7:30p.m.
Mon, Jan 11, 1p.m.
Tues, Jan 12, 6p.m.
Fri, Jan 15, 7:30p.m.
A Thought About Raya brings to the stage the violent and darkly comedic spirit of Leningrad artist Daniil Kharms, whose idiosyncratic visions and nonlinear theatrical performances led to his arrest, imprisonment, and eventual death during Stalin’s purges. In a series of colliding scenes, vibrant images and absurd turns frame this performance that is part fable, part dance, and part experience. Complex themes of love, sex, violence, and death pepper this simple story of the search for a voice in the midst of chaos. A Thought About Raya premiered in New York City in March of 2004 at the Red Room before transferring to Clemente Soto Velez.
The Debate Society is a Brooklyn based company that creates new plays through the collaboration of Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen (writer/performer/designers) and Oliver Butler (director/developer). Typically shaping a new play via a rigorous 12-18 month development process, the company specializes in creating unexpected stories set in supremely intricate, vividly theatrical worlds. The trio’s plays include A Thought About Raya, The Snow Hen, You’re Welcome (Dixon Place), The Eaten Heart (Ontological-Hysteric Incubator) and Cape Disappointment (PS122). The company’s past tour destinations include Portland, OR, Austin, TX, Hartford, CT, Martha’s Vineyard, MA and Syracuse, NY.
“As far as new voices in the American Theater - I think this company may be at the forefront of developing a distinctly American theatrical form that is at once literate and experimental but still deeply rooted in the American Myth.” -Andy Horwitz, CULTUREBOT
“Stylish blend of humor, pathos, and non sequitur. Bad theater leaves me craving whiskey and reality TV. After A Thought About Raya, I wanted vodka and a fur hat. If that isn’t a recommendation, what is?” -Alison Hallett, THE PORTLAND MERCURY
Photo © Paula Court
70 minutes
Thurs, Jan 7, 9p.m.
Fri, Jan 8, 1p.m.
Sat, Jan 9, 4p.m.
Sun, Jan 10, 1p.m.
Tues, Jan 12, 9p.m.
Wed, Jan 13, 6p.m.
The Assember Dilator is a sonic meltdown of science fiction and human desperation focused on the development of x-ray vision and its consequences, obvious and unknown. Through hypnotic aural and visual design 31 Down is confronting issues of medical research, sources of funding and the responsibility of science in the near future. Dealing with themes of transcendence, control and greed, specific notions of human interaction with science and nature are unraveled. This intense work features a doctor and a nurse’s journey, as they become lab rats in their own hallucinogenic medical trial. The Assember Dilator premiered at P.S. 122 in the fall of 2009.
Recent performance history includes productions with: Performance Space 122 (The Assember Dilator, fall 2009), Bumbershoot (P.S. 122: Seattle Edition, The Scream Contest, fall 2009), PRELUDE07 (CUNY, I Used to be Curious [Loud]), The Ontological-Hysteric Incubator (Universal Robots, summer 2007, Metronoma, summer 2006, That's Not How Mahler Died, summer 2005), The New Museum (Wanderlost, spring 05), White Box/PERFORMA 05 (Rita, Katrina and Stan, fall 2005), The Kitchen (Chase the Bitch, 2004), Rhizome (wwwSomnambulator, 2005), free103point9, EXIT ART (I Am So Sorry), Participant, Eyebeam, The Brick Theater (That's Not How Mahler Died, fall 2005), WFMU, CATCH (Galapagos), SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Art (Minneapolis, MN, That's Not How Mahler Died, 2006), The Bushwick Starr (The Assember Dilator, work-in-progress, 2008, 2009). Educational workshops have been given in Beijing China (2007), Eindoven, NE and New York City.
"a surreal, psychosexual journey of ocular exploration plumbing the depths of obsession and the quest for Truth" -Andy Horwitz, CULTUREBOT
"no one will be able to take their blinking, squinting eyes off it...Yet it's the constant jittering and pulsing of Sindelar and Holsopple's breathtaking, original atmospherics that burn The Assember Dilator into your memory—by way of spots on your retinas and ringing in your ears." -Mitch Montgomery, BACKSTAGE |
