2016 Ice Factory Festival to Present Seven New Works at New Ohio Theatre

Artistic Director Robert Lyons presents the 23rd annual OBIE Award-winning Ice Factory Festival. Ice Factory 2016 takes place at New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in New York City. Ice Factory 2016 will present seven new works over seven weeks, running from June 29 - August 13, 2016.

Performances are Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7pm. Tickets are $18, and $15 for students and seniors, and can be purchased online at www.NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 212-352-3101.

For more information, visit www.NewOhioTheatre.org, like on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/NewOhioTheatre and www.Facebook.com/IceFactoryFestival, follow on Instagram at NewOhioTheatre, and for up-to-the-minute festival updates follow on Twitter at Twitter.com/NewOhioTheatre.

New Ohio Theatre strengthens, nurtures and promotes a community of independent theatre artists and theatre companies by curating and presenting new work in New York City. With its Ice Factory summer festival the New Ohio offers emerging and established companies a prime forum in which to develop their work. Ice Factory prides itself on maintaining extraordinary aesthetic diversity along with an unequaled standard for intelligent, imaginative theater.

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning theatre under the leadership of Robert Lyons, Artistic Director, and Marc Stuart Weitz, Producing Director. The New Ohio serves New York's most adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting bold work from today's vast independent theatre community. They believe the best of this community, the small artist-driven ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of where American theatre is right now and where it's going. From their home in the West Village's historic Archive Building, the New Ohio provides a high-profile platform for downtown's most mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish and profound theatrical endeavors. The theatre is accessible from the #1 train to Christopher St. or A, B, C, D, E, F or M train to West 4th St.

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ICE FACTORY 2016 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

June 29 - July 2
ICONS/IDOLS - Presented by The Byzantine Choral Project, book and lyrics by Helen Banner, composed by Grace Oberhofer, directed by Colette Robert and choreographed by Erik Thurmond.

ICONS/IDOLS is a choral play performed by over a dozen women. Mixing music, movement and text, it recovers the secret history of the Empress Irene as she fights to re-introduce religious icons into the Byzantine Empire and take power from her husband and son. This is the first part of a cycle that will chart Irene's rise from child bride to Empress Regent as well as the purple Empresses that follow her.

The Byzantine Choral Project is a collaboration between playwright Helen Banner, composer Grace Oberhofer and director Colette Robert to make theater using women's voices. Inspired by the Byzantine Empresses Irene, Theodora, and Euphrosyne, they are creating work that showcases the radical power of a large ensemble of women singing on stage and explores the importance of imagery, representation and iconoclasm in classical and contemporary life.

July 6 - 9
ARE WE HUMAN - Written by John Kaplan and directed by Margarett Perry.

It's the future. A toxic cloud from the Canadian-Balinese war covers the earth. Androids are torn apart to keep humans alive. America is not so great. Again. ARE WE HUMAN is a dark sci-fi tale inspired by the work of James Baldwin.

Margarett Perry (Director) is an award-winning director who has developed new work Off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the country. She is an Artistic Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center and is currently in development with Center Theatre Group on Brian Dykstra's play, USED TO WAS (MAYBE DID). Other upcoming projects include the world premiere of a new Theresa Rebeck play at San Francisco Playhouse.

John Kaplan (Playwright) is a NYFA Award-winning playwright for BAD SKIN. New York productions include runs at La MaMa, The Public, HERE, Westbank, St. Mark's Church, the Ohio Theatre and other productions regionally.

July 13 - July 16
THE ANNOTATED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MUSKRAT - Presented by Foxy Henriques and Circuit Theatre, written by John Kuntz, directed by Skylar Fox, created with the original company.

All that our test subjects know is that they're in America, and they have to give a presentation about muskrats if they ever want to sleep (unless they're sleeping right now). Muskrat is part play, part wild collage of absurd comedy, melodrama, dance, historical fiction, and live music videos, exploring how Americans build a national identity. Get ready to fall in love...muskrat love.

Foxy Henriques is a company made up of Skylar Fox, Simon Henriques, and their collaborators. They make inventive, funny, strange plays in an effort to create uniquely communicative experimental theatre. Their work has been produced at Ars Nova, the Brick, Fresh Ground Pepper, the Flea, and the Orange Tea Theatre in Amsterdam, and their show ...Apathy Boy was a 2015 O'Neill finalist.

Circuit Theatre is a critically acclaimed, Boston-based company, known for creating epic theatrical experiences. Circuit has worked in residence at the A.R.T, the Huntington, the Boston Playwrights Theatre, and more, and has been nominated for six major awards over five seasons. The Boston Globe calls them "A theatre company pushing dramatic boundaries in exciting new ways."

July 20 - July 23
SHE-SHE-SHE - Presented by Hook & Eye Theatre, conceived by Carrie Heitman, and created by writer Virginia Grise, director Elena Araoz, visual artist Susan Zeeman Rogers and the performing ensemble of Hook & Eye Theater.

Set simultaneously in the present and a 1930s New Deal camp, SHE-SHE-SHE maps the lives of two generations of women and their relationships to each other and the land. Utilizing eyewitness testimony, case studies in neuroscience, and original narratives, SHE-SHE-SHE explores the science of memory and flirts with the possibilities of genetic switches, a biological function that allows offspring to inherit the experience of their ancestors.

Hook & Eye builds inspiring and inquisitive theater productions to embolden audiences of every age. They use an extended creative process devised by the ensemble, yielding memorable theater that amplifies the combined talents of each artist.

July 27 - July 30
SKI END - Presented and created by Piehole, and directed by Tara Ahmadinejad.

When a group of adults gets stuck in an abandoned ski shop, a cosmic ritual of nostalgia, natural disaster, and apocalyptic delusion ensues. Inspired by the many clues left behind in a real abandoned ski shop, and featuring an ensemble of teens and adults, Piehole's SKI END examines anxieties about how we spend our time.

Piehole investigates the process of collaboration and collective authorship to create live events. Driven by an ongoing pursuit of surprise, delight and beauty in unexpected places, Piehole encourages agency in one's thinking, perceiving, and feeling, as well as an expanded sense of potential realities. Since 2008, Piehole's work has performed in theaters, galleries, and hotel rooms in New York, Philadelphia, and Prague, and has been praised for its "beauty and gratifying weirdness" (The New York Times).

August 3 - 6
ON A CLEAR DAY I CAN SEE TO ELBA - Presented by Bentertainment, written by Eliza Bent and directed by Knud Adams.

Lambrusco, putanesca, Queen, and geraniums populate the ongoings in Bent's ON A CLEAR DAY I CAN SEE TO ELBA, a two-hander that is as personal as it is poetic. Exploring the solipsism of love and the maddening aspects of intimacy, ELBA asks what is the nature of self-actualization within a couple?

Different from normal; strongly inclined; changed by bending an originally straight condition, Bentertainment produced plays and projects penned by playwright/actor Eliza Bent. Bentertainment seeks to entertain with word play and pun while also engaging audiences in conversation full of philosophy, feeling, and fun. "As a performance artist and a wry confessor, Bent makes an impression. She's this generation's answer to Amy Sedaris: frank, weird and immensely likable" (Time Out New York).

August 10 - 13
OUR VOICES PROJECT - Presented by Our Voices, written by Charles Mee and directed by Kim Weild.

What drives a boy born profoundly deaf who never learns to read, write, sign or speak, to create over 20,000 works of art? James Castle made himself into one of the most important American outsider artists. Playwright Charles Mee and Our Voices continue their collaboration in investigating the landscape of Castle's world combining music, dance, sign language and more as they celebrate the life of this extraordinary artist.

Our Voices is a multicultural company dedicated to creating innovative theater that exalts diversity, engenders understanding, and provokes empathy. They investigate themes of otherness in society whether they are culture, language, gender, or ability. Our Voices actively cultivates an inclusive experience that more accurately represents the world in which we live and our shared humanity.