EX MACHINA Set for FringeNYC, Begin. 8/9

Monster Down! Theatre Company and Aporia Theater have announced the world premiere of EX MACHINA, by David Jacobi and directed by Sarah Wansley, at the New York International Fringe Festival. The company recently finished a successful run of a workshop production of EX MACHINA at UC San Diego's Wagner New Play Festival. This production marks the first collaboration between Beijing based Monster Down! Theatre Company and New York based Aporia Theater.

EX MACHINA will play Venue #4: Teatro Latea at 107 Suffolk Street, between Rivington and Delancey Streets on August 9 @5:30pm, August 15 @7:00pm, August 17 @3:30pm, August 21 @3:30pm, August 23 @9:30pm. Tickets are $15-$18. To order, visit www.FringeNYC.org

Two Smartphone factory drones must learn to coexist while under threat from fascist anti-union politics, drunk security guards, and a sexy anarchist unfettered by the laws of physics. It's dystopian dark comedy about dancing, Nekko Wafers, and the thrill of rebellion.

Says Wansley, "David's play drops us in the midst of a bizarre world where the workers who build Smartphones have started to act more like the machines they create, then like humans. The scary thing is we know this world is not too far off from our own. I could not be more delighted to continue the work we started on this haunting and hilarious play in San Diego at the Wagner New Play Festival and bring it home to the New York International Fringe." The cast features Danvir Grewal, Tommy Crawford, Kim Blanck and Michael Moran. The design and production team includes Natalie Kheun (sets & graphics), Lily Bartenstein (lights), Janet O'Neil (costumes), Emily Jankowski (sound), and Kate Guthrie (Production Stage Manager).

Monster Down! Theatre Company is dedicated to developing and staging new plays in China and abroad. Through our work, we hope to help create and nurture a community of interested, engaged, impassioned theatre-goers who not only consume the arts, but desire to become part of the conversation. Utilizing and catering to both English and Chinese language audiences, Monster Down! Theatre Company has enormous faith in the creative process of playwrights and actors, and in human ingenuity.

Aporia Theater, founded in 2007 by a group of Columbia University alumni, is a dynamic company devoted to cultivating a rising generation of theater artists through the development and production of compelling original work. Past work includes Woyzeck at Access Theater, Follow Me Down at The Flea Theater, Rick Hardon: Private Dick at the T.O.N.Y. Lounge, Bare Naked Drama at The Cherry Pit and Jimmy's No. 43, Passion in the Park in Central Park, The Disappearance of Jonah in the 2008 NY International and Capital (DC) Fringe Festivals, and Existential Acts at The Cherry Lane Studio. www.aporiatheater.com.