En Garde Arts to Present BOSSS at Hudson River Park in October

This fall, En Garde Arts, the company founded and recently resurrected by pioneering theater producer Anne Hamburger, launches BOSSS (Big Outdoor Site-Specific Stuff), a new site-specific performance festival featuring new works by some of New York City's most promising emerging theatre artists. Hamburger has established BOSSS to give a rising generation of spirited artists a chance to "think big" when creating new work, and to help them cultivate an audience spanning frequent theatergoers and people who rarely seek out live arts deliberately. Under her mentorship and guidance, teams of playwrights, directors, devisers, choreographers and designers are creating nine innovative works that En Garde will present throughout Hudson River Park, October 2 - 4. All performances are free of charge. (Tickets for the opening night gala, on board the Frying Pan at Pier 66, are $250 - $500.) Please see below for the lineup of artists and works.

Early this year, Hamburger began mentoring these artists through regular gatherings-in the tradition of an old-school salon. They established a rapport, and have been sharing their dreams and ideas, as well as wrestling collectively with the obstacles most have in common. Enthralled by the dynamic vision of this group, Hamburger invited them to work collectively under En Garde's stewardship in order to achieve their creative goals, including overcoming funding challenges; Hamburger and the artistic teams are multiplying their power and extending their reach through collaborative special events, parties and crowdsourcing. Speaking about this project and her mission with En Garde Arts Anne Hamburger said, "Getting people in the room not normally in conversation is at the center of everything we do."

When En Garde Arts approached Madelyn Wils, CEO and President of Hudson River Park Trust, about the festival, Wils saw the potential immediately. "The BOSSS Festival is a fantastic way to introduce park-goers to innovative performing arts and for existing fans of En Garde Arts to discover hidden corners of Hudson River Park," Wils said. "We are thrilled to partner with En Garde Arts to support this free opportunity for audiences to discover living art that reacts and engages with our Park's rich environment."

BOSSS is sponsored in part by NY Carousel, one of the performance locations of the festival.

BOSSS Opening Night Party

October 2nd at 7:00 pm
Madelyn Wils, President and CEO of Hudson River Park, hosts En Garde Arts' Opening Night Party at the Frying Pan.
There will be performances by BINA48, cakeface, Lee Sunday Evans' This Place and more.
Tickets: VIP are $500 and Regular Admission is $250
530 W 26th St
NY, NY 10001

BOSSS LINEUP

Given The Present, The Future Does Not Depend On The Past
Sam Alper, Playwright
Deepali Gupta, Composer and Lyricist
Jimmy Maize, Director
October 3 & 4, 9PM near the Rock Garden at Pier 63

For the past three years, playwright Sam Alper has collected auto-generated spam comments posted on a Wordpress site. He now has over a hundred pages of algorithms impersonating humans, using the language of advertising, viral news stories and personal anecdotes. He is distilling this text to create the script for a massive, mobile, interactive performance. Directed by Jimmy Maize, with choral arrangements by Deepali Gupta, Given the Present the Future Does Not Depend on the Past shines a light on the robotic ur-text of global capitalism's spam.

The Visitors
Barbara Cassidy, Playwright and Director
Jessica Corbin, Music Director and Composer
Johari Mayfield, Choreographer
October 3 & 4 at 6pm across from the Frying Pan at Pier 66 Maritime

Three teenage girls, Mattie, Brooke, and Queenie decide to drink an "elixir" and stay out all night in order to feel alive. Weird things ensue. People follow them. They ask questions of each other­-the kinds of questions about life that prompt all night talks. Finally, they come upon a group of strange women who just happen to be a choir sitting along the Hudson River. The girls "know not what to do." This performance features music and dance.

Moms
Sarah Delappe, Playwright
Morgan Green, Director
October 3 & 4 at 4:00 at the Pier 62 Entrance Garden

A jubilant feminist march with strollers in which a small army of boys describe motherhood.

We Were Wild Once Episode 6: Talks With A Drunk
Sanaz Ghajar, Co-Creator, Artistic Director of Built4Collapse
Vincent Van Santvoord, Co-Creator
Benjamin Hobbs, Co-Creator
Susie Williams, Co-Creator
October 3 & 4 at 3:30pm in the Rock Garden at Pier 63

Sanaz Ghajarrahimi will create a piece with her company, Built4Collapse, inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's book On Booze. With text, dance, music and media, Ghajarrahimi will create a lifetime-asking, by the end, "Was it worth it after all?"

The Orbiting Human Circus Presents
Night, Janitor, Carousel
Written by Julian Koster
Directed by Elena Heyman
Featuring Julian Koster, Robbie Cucchiaro, and Drew Callander
Music by The Music Tapes (Julian Koster, Robbie Cucchiaro, and Thomas Hughes)
Production Management by Christy Gressman
With Artistic Contributions by Robbie Cucchiaro, Christy Gressman, Mary Ellen Stebbins, Eric Sluyter, Ali Kerestly, Ethan Dubin, Callie Jane Farnsworth, and Bridgette Kluger
October 2 at 7:45pm, and October 3 & 4 at 8:15pm, in and around the Pier 62 Carousel

Boundary-pushing storyteller and musician Julian Koster (of seminal indie band Neutral Milk Hotel) creates a richly imaginative, immersive experience set aboard the Hudson River Park carousel. Amidst this enchanting backdrop, Koster inhabits his seriocomic alter ego, The Janitor. Hired to clean the carousel by night, The Janitor combats loneliness through surreal flight of fancy and hallucinatory daydreams in which even the audience may just be a figment of his imagination. Featuring stories, shadow play, surprises, and songs (accompanied by a calliope organ), this alternately dark and dreamlike piece weaves a spellbinding tale of memory and magic as the carousel whirls in the night.

An Evening With Bina48
Andrew Scoville, Director
Dave Tennant, Designer
Kate Freer, Designer
October 3 at 5:00 and 6:45pm and October 4 at 3:30pm in the Frying Pan at Pier 66 Maritime

Andrew Scoville, Dave Tennet and Kate Freer seek to explore the use of robots in theatrical storytelling. In this production, they are teaming up with Bina48, the world's most advanced social robot, to create an evening of conversation unlike any other. Bina48 has been in TED Talks throughout the world and featured in various publications, including The New York Times. This performance marks Bina48's theatrical debut, as a robotic actor in collaboration with a human creative team.

This Place
Lee Sunday Evans, Director
Alisa Simonel-Keegan, Producer
Deb O, Designer
October 2 at 8:30pm, and October 3 & 4 at 7:30pm, outside the entrance to the Frying Pan at Pier 66

This Place is a collaboration between Director Lee Sunday Evans, Producer Alisa Simonel-Keegan of Keegansmission, and Designer Deb O. Together they are creating an interactive installation and performance through a series of scenes along Pier 66 at the panhandle. The piece will bring viewers through transitions in time and through events that had major socio and environmental impacts on the city, the waterway, and development, and evoke images from early settlement through future imaginations.

Long Time
Conceived by PopUP Theatrics
Peca Stefan, playwright
Tamilla Woodard, Director
Paul Molnar, Fight Director
Shannon Stowe, Choreographer
October 3 & 4 at 5:15pm at the end of Pier 66

On Pier 66, two self-improvement groups try to negotiate space and time on this section of prime peaceful waterfront real estate. With the title and text, inspired by the sculpture that adorns the edge of the pier, Long Time pits spiritual gurus against fitness freaks in an epic turf battle for the well being of mankind, creating an unforgettable, reality-altering experience for participating and witnessing audiences. The history of human conflict unfolds in a screwball comedy of errors, in which every second weighs more than a year, and a minute more than a century.

Harold, I hate you.
Written + Directed by Amanda Szeglowski
Featuring Jade Daugherty, Ayesha Jordan, Amanda Szeglowski
Choreography by Amanda Szeglowskiin collaboration with cakeface
Sound Design by Jeso O'Neill
Dramaturgy by Cate Cammarata
Costumes by Elle Chyun
October 2 at 7:15pm. October 3 & 4 at 4:30pm near the Rock Garden at Pier 63

I don't know who Harold is, but I'm pretty sure I hate him. Florida, 1985. Chris isn't eating his broccoli. There's a knock at the door. Grams says it's a little boy named Harold who lives upstairs. He has come to eat our dinner. We clean the plates just in time, but he returns again and again. Harold, I hate you. is an exploration of the many incarnations "the boy from upstairs" took on in cakefacedirector Amanda Szeglowski's rabid imagination. This new work is an investigation of omnipresent insecurities, that are, perhaps, imaginary.