Art Party Presents HOW THE SALTS GOT DOWN, 10/25-11/17

Art Party (Mary Birnbaum, Artistic Director) announced today that their latest theatrical experience How the Salts Got Down: A Family History in Parties will play a limited seven-performance engagement beginning tonight at Hartley House (416 West 46th Street).

In a statement, Artistic Director Mary Birnbaum said, “You know the Salts. They’re your neighbors down the street, your mom’s best friend from high school, those kids you always saw at the park on Saturdays. They’re throwing a dance party (or three) and you’re invited.” Join Art Party and playwrights Christopher Oscar Peña (Goodman Playwriting Fellow), Nastaran Ahmadi (Exile), David Ingber (Fantasy Football: the musical?) as they blow out the candles on mom Molly’s 25th birthday, welcome Uncle Walter back from jail, and celebrate daughter Rachel’s (surprise) pregnancy. Meet the guests, boogie down, and join the Art Party family as they celebrate the Salts’ magic moments by cutting loose. Booze, tunes, family: don’t worry - there will be more twisting than shouting.

Conceived by Mary Birnbaum, Christopher Oscar Peña and Andrew Broussard, How the Salts Got Down features Direction by Mary Birnbaum, Choreography by Lauren Lim Jackson, Associate Choreography by Chie Morita, and Scenic Design by Grace Laubacher. The cast includes Alex Orzeck-Byrnes, Bairbre Dowling, Leigh Dunham, Jody Flader, Frankie Francisco, Jojo Karlin, Mary-Jane Lee, Kat Lee, Olivia Mora, Caitlin Saylor Stephens, Alex Teicheira, Scott Thomas and Dax Valdes.

The performance schedule is as follows: October 25 and 31, November 2, 8, 9, 15 and 17. All performances are at 8:00 P.M. Tickets are priced between $15 - 30 ($12 tickets available for artists) and are available at http://SaltFamilyParty.BrownPaperTickets.com.

Art Party plays with our audience in original performances and installations that are meant to activate, engage, and connect. Founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Mary Birnbaum, Art Party is embarking on a fourth season of smart, inventive theater. Season One featured SCHOOLED, Moliere’s Learned Ladies, as a pop-up poetry salon in NYC apartments; Duchess in the Dark, a retelling of The Duchess of Malfi where the audience lit the action with flashlights; the company’s first collaboration with The Bryant Park

Conservancy, Bryant in the Park; and a daily performance installation in chashama’s Times Square location, so much depends upon [a red wheelbarrow]. Season Two reunited the company with Bryant Park in STARBOX, an installation/performance piece on the nature of fame which was lauded by Encore Magazine as “genius”, and saw a collaboration with American Opera Projects in BAD ROMANCE, a couples therapy session based on two Schumann song cycles. Season Three brought a mixtape folk musical, Live Mermaids Live, based on the Little Mermaid & set in a dive bar; Meeting, Important, which put the audience at the table in the midst of a board meeting in 1995; Of All The Pianos..., featuring the company's legendary lounge duo Chaz and Loreleen, Art Party’s contribution to the 2011 New Museum Festival of Art and Ideas. Art Party has premiered new work by Erica Lipez, Jess Burkle, Jeremy Bloom, and Mattie Brickman and has developed work at Harvard University and The Orchard Project. For more information, visit www.artpartytheatercompany.com.