Danspace Project: Out of Space @ BRICstudio

Friday & Saturday
May 23 and 24, 8:30pm

The second in this two-part showcase curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones  features a range of diverse and dynamic artists.  Michael Helland endeavors to enter the realm of the divine with It Just Didn’t Sparkle. Aki Sasamoto’s Modified Habits unravels the memories of objects. Arturo Vidich presents cold heading, and Fiona McCrotty-Dolega presents excerpts from Continental Drift. Lynn Neuman’s Vic and Dee: Through the Years ironically highlights friendships and growing up in the 80s, and Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins/Eternal Works’ new multi-media collaboration delves into childhood memories and intimate relationships. Work by Eva Schmidt will also be presented.  Out of Space @ BRICstudio is co-presented by Danspace Project and BRICstudio.

Tickets available at the door and online: www.briconline.org/bricstudio.

Info: 866-811-4111.

Directions

BRICstudio is located on the 2nd floor of 647 Fulton Street. Enter at 57 Rockwell Place, around the corner from the BAM Harvey Theater.

Subway:  2, 3, 4 or 5 to Nevins St; B, M, Q, R to DeKalb Av; G to Fulton St

Bus:  B25, B26, B38, or B52 to Ashland Place/Rockwell place, turn right on Rockwell.

BRICstudio supports the development of new works in theater, dance, music and multi-disciplinary performance and provides subsidized rehearsal and performance space for artists in our 4,000 square foot black box theater. BRICstudio is a performing arts program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, a multi-disciplinary arts and media non-profit, dedicated to presenting visual, performing and media arts programs that are reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, and to providing resources and platforms to support the creative process. All of our offerings are free or low cost, to enhance the public’s access to and understanding of arts and media.

BRIClab, a commissioning and residency initiative launched at BRICstudio in 2007, is a vital incubator for artists and the creative process. Through intensive one-week residencies, BRIClab provides emerging innovators and established performers with time, space and support to explore new works in various stages of development. BRIClab artists-in-residents receive: rehearsal space, production and technical support, marketing, stipends and partnership opportunities. In addition, artists are paired with Creative Advisors who provide invaluable mentoring and feedback. BRIClab residencies culminate in multiple work-in-process presentations designed for audiences craving creative provocation and exchange.

The Tank’s Fifth Anniversary!

At a time of rising real estate costs and venue closings, The Tank, a nonprofit home for the emerging and experimental arts in lower Manhattan, is proud to be celebrating its fifth anniversary - having survived three moves, a water main breakage, two robberies and an IRS audit. The Tank was founded in 2003 by nine managing partners and curators with an average age of 24. They were determined to provide a welcoming and affordable space for artists and activists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas, and in a location set squarely in the middle of Manhattan they quickly began presenting shows seven nights a week. In 2005 The Tank lost its original space due to commercial real estate development and relocated to a temporary space offered through the organization chashama. In January 2006 The Tank moved again and began its long-term residency with Collective: Unconscious, an artist cooperative and venue located in TriBeCa, where it currently resides. Now turning five, The Tank celebrates its survival in a city where venues dedicated to serving the emerging arts community are struggling to survive. In a time when countless other venues have opened and closed, The Tank has persevered despite the trials and tribulations of running a non-profit art space in New York, serving as an incubator and home for thousands of artists. So now we celebrate!

More info after the jump

Special Anniversary Events:

Tank Anniversary Party - Saturday, May 31, 2008; 9:30pm
Come celebrate five years with The Tank! $15 at the door gets you a one year Tank membership;

Members get in for free!

Symposium: “Diminishing Cultural Capital?: The Challenges Facing Independent Venues and Artists in Manhattan” -
Saturday, June 7, 2008; 2pm-6pm
A symposium presented by The Tank and Milano The New School For Management and Urban Policy, in cooperation with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
***Location for this event ONLY: The New School @ Wolman Hall, 64 West 11th Street

Make Music New York - Saturday, June 21 2008; 4pm-7pm
Indoor After Party @ The Tank - 7pm-9pm
Make Music New York is a one-day music festival spread across the five boroughs, where sidewalks, parks, community gardens, and more become impromptu musical stages, dance floors, and social meeting points. Thousands of amateur and professional musicians in every genre will perform and enjoy the first day of summer. Celebrate Make Music New York with The Tank on Church Street between Franklin and White with very special secret guests from throughout The Tank’s five year history. With a free after party to follow.

i’m thinking of starting a new feature here at Culturebot. Yes, I have been working on a novel with the preliminary title “City of Douchebags”. And maybe if I started a “Douchebag of the Week” column that would help me find all the characters to populate it.

Click here for this week’s douchebag [courtesy of Gothamist]

And by the way, I’m totally voting for Obama.

We got to see a bit of this at PRELUDE in September. Here’s a chance to see more of this exciting project from a great theater company!

The TEAM will be presenting a workshop of its newest work-in-progress Architecting
Wednesday, May 14th - Sunday, May 18th at 8pm (Sat. at 2pm and 8pm)

Tickets $15 ($10 Students)
for more info and to purchase tickets:  www.3ldnyc.org
www.theteamplays.org

and the TEAM will be conducing a Summer Workshop on Devising within a Democracy
Tuesday, June 10th - Saturday June 14th
A great price for a summer intensive designed for both performers and directors interested in creating their own work with and within an ensemble.
For more info: http://www.theteamplays.org/summer.html

Dublin Fringe Festival Seeks New Director

The Dublin Fringe Festival is one of Ireland’s leading multi-disciplinary festivals, covering theatre, Dance, Visual Art, Spectacle and other disciplines. The Festival is curated by the Director and the team.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate with organisational and leadership skills and the necessary artistic vision and drive.

To request and application pack, including a job description and person specification, please email wendy@fringefest.com

Closing Date for applications is Friday 23^rd May 2008 at 5pm.

If you have never seen Steve Cuiffo do his Lenny Bruce, man, let me tell ya, you’re missing out! Best. Lenny Bruce. Ever. No kidding. He’s so good that the Bruce estate has given him exclusive and unprecedented access to Lenny’s archives and files. They think so much of Steve’s performance and sensibility that they have basically anointed him the authoritative, definitive performer of Lenny’s material. Outside of listening to the “Live at Carnegie Hall ” CD this is the closest you will ever get to experiencing the surreal, rapid-fire, free-associating, beat-jazz influenced comedic riffing that was Lenny Bruce in his prime. Unless you can invent a time machine.

In Association with
THE ONION
and
JOE’S PUB
(part of the WE THE PEOPLE* series)

Steve Cuiffo Is Lenny Bruce
Tuesday, June 3 at 9:30pm
$15

BUY TICKETS HERE

What if Lenny Bruce were alive today? The controversial comedian may very well be saying the same things he did in 1965. The cutting remarks of this social satirist prove, unfortunately, that history DOES repeat itself. Actor, Steve Cuiffo, channels Lenny Bruce, performing a selection of Bruce’s most biting satires - VERBATIM!

*This show is part of the ongoing We The People series at Joe’s Pub. In a highly politicized and overspun media world, Joe’s Pub provides an oasis for First Amendment frivolity. On the first Tuesday of every month, join us for a celebration of art, opinions, and politics from a diverse group of outspoken artists and performers.

THIS LOOKS FUN!

Produced and Curated for your viewing pleasure by Ms. Sue Kessler and Mr. Noel Allain, The BWS brings you:  

THE BUSHWHACK SERIES
Bushwick, Brooklyn’s premier new works performance festival!
THURSDAY, MAY 15
FRIDAY, MAY 16
SATURDAY, MAY 17

8 PM
Featuring new and developing pieces by:
THE NTUSA
ANN AND ALEXX MAKE DANCES
CHRIS AJEMIAN
AMANDA MADDOCK
and Bushwick’s own CONLAB
$10
Tickets available at the door or by reservation at: 
www.brownpapertickets.com

THE PHILOCTETES CENTER FOR THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF IMAGINATION
at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute
(EDWARD NERSESSIAN AND FRANCIS LEVY, DIRECTORS)

invites you to a Roundtable
Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:00pm
at
The Philoctetes Center
247 East 82nd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)

*** PERCEPTION AND IMAGINATION: MASTERS OF THEATRICAL ILLUSION ***

Though much contemporary theater and performance art breaks down the fourth wall, most classic and Broadway theater depends upon the idea of theater as illusion. Literal illusions are also a part of many of these productions. Some of Broadway’s master practitioners of stage tricks-from lighting and magic to special effects and acting-will allow us a glimpse behind the scenes and discuss the art of bringing illusions to life in front of our eyes.

Illusion inevitably produces Coleridge’s famed “willing suspension of disbelief” and the catharsis that plays such an important role in traditional theater works. What allows the audience to believe in an individual effect, or in a production as a whole? How do the members of a production team know when they have it right-especially when creating an effect that would not happen in real life? How is something unnatural or supernatural made to appear believable or look essential? This panel will examine the role of illusion in theatrical imagination and, in particular, how it creates the magic of spectacle in stage production.

- JULES FISHER has lighted over 100 Broadway shows, receiving 20 Tony nominations and 8 Tony awards for Lighting Design, a record in this category. Recent projects include Gypsy at the Shubert Theatre, Caroline, or Change at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, Assassins at Studio 54, for which he received a Tony award, and the motion pictures Chicago, The Producers, School of Rock and Dreamgirls. Mr. Fisher’s concert tour lighting credits include Linda Ronstadt, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and The Rolling Stones World Tour, for which he received an I.E.S. Lumen Award. He also received a Lumen for his work on the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball in New York City. A world-renowned theatre design consultant, Mr. Fisher is an inductee into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Together with his partner, Peggy Eisenhauer, Jules conceives and designs lighting for all forms of entertainment at their studio, Third Eye.

- PETER MALONEY is an actor, director and writer who works in theater, films and television. Beginning May 13th, he will be appearing as God in the Atlantic Theater’s production of Ethan Coen’s play Almost an Evening. He has been seen on Broadway in Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley, Poor Murderer, Hughie, and in the Lincoln Center Theatre productions Dinner at Eight, Arcadia, Carousel, Six Degrees of Separation, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and Our Town. Television viewers will recognize him as “Uncle Red” on the Denis Leary series Rescue Me. He has appeared in 47 films, including K-Pax, Boiler Room, Requiem for a Dream, The Crucible, Washington Square, JFK, Desperately Seeking Susan and John Carpenter’s The Thing! His play Leash (published by Applause Books as one of the Best American Short Plays of 2003-2004), is currently playing at the Luna Theater in L.A., and his Abu Ghraib Triptych was recently produced at the Alley Theater in Toronto. His adaptation of Machiavelli’s Mandragola will soon be published by Broadway Play Publishing, and other plays have been published by Faber and Faber, Samuel French, Inc, and in the quarterlies The Kenyon Review and Ontario Review.

- GREGORY MEEH designs, builds, and supplies special effects for theatre, opera, dance, industrials, television, film and print. Some recent credits include KA for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, Lord of the Rings in Toronto and London, and the Broadway productions of Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Pirate Queen, Spamalot, Julius Caesar, Nine, Into the Woods, Aida, Ragtime, Showboat, An Inspector Calls (Drama Desk Award), Damn Yankees, Angels in America, Tommy, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Eddy Award). His work also includes the television productions of Fool’s Fire for American Playhouse, Late Show, Saturday Night Live, and One Life To Live.

- MARK MITTON (moderator) started doing magic tricks when he was nine years old and never stopped. He was the apprentice to legendary sleight-of-hand master and vaudevillian Slydini and studied Commedia dell’Arte in Italy, physical comedy with David Shiner, and ancient street performing arts in Japan. Mark is fascinated by using magic and crafts as a way to better understand how we all see the world. As a professional sleight-of-hand artist, he has performed for Benoit Mandelbrot, Roald Hoffmann, Salman Rushdie, Greg Maddux, Sienna Miller, John Mayer, Sting, and many others; at festivals in Europe and Asia; at the Olympic Games; in war-torn Liberia; and in hospital wards around New York City. He has made Will Smith appear in the middle of Times Square, directed a freak-show opening circus for Aerosmith, and taught sleight-of-hand to Stanley Tucci and John Travolta for various film projects. Last summer, he created magic for the Public Theater production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Central Park.

- CHARLES REYNOLDS has served as producer, director, magic creator, and magic consultant for many television, stage, and film productions from Hollywood and Broadway to London, Paris and Hong Kong. He has worked on Broadway as a magic consultant on dozens of shows, including Merlin, starring Doug Henning, Into the Woods, Sleight of Hand, Blackstone!, and, most recently, Young Frankenstein. He is the author and co-author of numerous book and articles on the theory of magic. Mr. Reynolds is the recipient of both the Creative Fellowship and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Magical Arts and is a Gold Star Honorary member of London’s prestigious Inner Magic Circle. He was elected one of the 100 most influential figures of the 20th Century in American magic in a poll conducted by Magic magazine.

Hi All. I’m way behind on posting. I have too many jobs! But I will try and catch up this weekend, there’s lots of great stuff going on in NYC and all around the world! So, I will make my semi-regular call for writers. If you would like to get involved with Culturebot as a writer, send me a cover letter, writing sample (or links to writing samples) and resume at culturebot[at]gmail[dot]com.

I also need:

An Associate Producer for a collaborative theater project

A house manager/operations mgr/ managing director type person for the new performance space

AND most immediately I had a cancellation and need a third performer for the IRT benefit on Saturday night. Something funny, fun and 3-5 minutes long.

Once again, just email me at culturebot[at]gmail[dot]com and put something obvious in the subject line.

As usual, none of these positions are paid. Yet.

One Love!

Applications are now being accepted for the Conflux Festival 2008. Conflux is the art and technology festival for the creative exploration of urban public space.