As part of its current 2014-2015 producing season, HERE presents Send for the Million Men, a HERE Resident Artist and Dream Music Puppetry Program production by Joseph Silovsky. Send for the Million Men plays today, December 3-13 at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street).
Oratory meets object theater in Send for the Million Men, as the "crime of the century" of the 1920s jolts to life in modern day New York City in
Joseph Silovsky's micro-history multimedia tale. Using animatronics, robotics, puppetry and handmade projectors,
Joseph Silovsky, in collaboration with Victor Morales (video designer / performer) and Catherine McRae (sound designer / performer), examines the controversial executions of anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, convicted of murder in conjunction with the armed robbery of a Massachusetts shoe factory. In this new work featuring original text, actual transcripts and spontaneous storytelling, their bleak fates intertwine with Silovsky's own micro-tragic biography in a humorous and captivating history-rethink.
Joseph Silovsky has been performing and making machines for theater since 1990. A "mad scientist" of New York's experimental theater, he is known for his odd and ingenious mechanical creations that he uses to tell stories of obscure historical incidents and the minutiae surrounding them. The combination of low and high-tech props that he builds creates an extraordinary landscape for his singular performance style. Solo performances:?St. Ann's Warehouse, PS122, Pete's Candy Store, Dixon Place's Little Theater, CATCH! at the Bushwick Starr, and the 25 Cent Opera at Barbez in New York, as well as various venues in Chicago and at the Kananahk Performance Art Festival in Rakveres, Estonia. He recently has been developing scenes from Send for the Million Men at Little Theater, The Twenty Five Cent Opera, and CATCH! His most recent large-scale show was The Jester of Tonga (2007-2010). Other solo pieces include The Reddest Dirt in Oklahoma (2006); The Prisoner's Song (1993-2005); The Cowboy Song, Interrupted (2001-2002); I Am Not an Epileptic (1998-2001); and Lessons From a Dead Man (I'm So Sorry) (1997).? Through his solo shows, Silovsky created the endearing and critically acclaimed robot, Stanley, who has become an integral part of Silovsky's performances. He has collaborated with Victor Morales as Tutto and the Ragman (2001-2005), as well as the Radiohole (2003-2012), The Builders Association (1999-2010), Lucky Pierre (1998-1999), HMS (1995-1997), and the Cook County Theater Department (1994).
Send for the Million Men is created and directed by
Joseph Silovsky. Performed by
Joseph Silovsky, Victor Morales and Catherine McRae. Associate Director is
Eric Dyer. Video Design by Victor Morales. Sound Design by Catherine McRae. Lighting Design by
Laura Mroczkowski. Electronics Designed by Ryan Holsopple.
The OBIE-winning HERE (
Kristin Marting, Artistic Director and
Kim Whitener, Producing Director), founded in 1993, is a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance viewed as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theater, dance, music and opera, puppetry, media, visual and installation, spoken word and performance art. Standout productions include
Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues,
Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique and Arias with a Twist,
Hazelle Goodman's On Edge,
Trey Lyford &
Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers,
Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven,
Corey Dargel's Removable Parts, Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge, Kamala Sankaram's Miranda, and Robin Frohardt's The Pigeoning, among many others. In 2008, following an extensive renovation, HERE re-opened the doors to its long-time downtown home for the arts, where it continues as a vibrant, welcoming haven for artists and audiences alike. In addition to commissioning, developing and producing innovative new work from artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), HERE co-produces the acclaimed PROTOTYPE opera-theatre and music-theatre festival, with
Beth Morrison Projects. Through its popular SubletSeries@HERE, HERE also proudly hosts adventurous artists, companies and productions - whether emerging or acclaimed - from New York and around the country.
The HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) has been HERE's core program since 1998. HARP commissions, develops and premieres new hybrid performances. Productions developed at HERE challenge existing boundaries between disciplines -- theater, dance, music, opera, puppetry, media, visual arts, installation, spoken word and more. Through HARP, the Resident Artists are given the unique opportunity to develop their projects for up to three years through free works-in-progress showings, workshop presentations in HERE's annual CULTUREMART festival, culminating in full-scale productions.
Each season, HERE premieres several of these Resident Artist productions as mainstage works. These innovative projects are grown in a diverse artistic community where artists receive career development resources and hands-on training. HARP has been widely recognized as a unique model for artistic development for the field to emulate. In honoring HERE with the 2009 Ross Wetzsteon Award, the OBIE Committee noted, "it's become increasingly hard for artists to find a place to take risks, a safe haven where they can develop daring new work. One theater has regularly bucked the trend, making its mission to ensure that artists have a home for their research and development, and that theatregoers can sample the exciting results."
HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program, under the artistic direction of
Basil Twist, with producing direction from HERE co-founder Barbara Busackino, is one of few programs in the country to grow and commission contemporary adult puppet works, particularly works that feature live music as a collaborative element. Dream Music seeks to secure the future of puppetry by providing increased development and performance opportunities to puppet artists, and by collaborating with artists from other disciplines to develop new puppetry techniques. This program was inaugurated with the premiere of
Basil Twist's OBIE-award winning Symphonie Fantastique in 1998 and the opening of the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre, an intimate space created specifically for intimate puppetry.
Send for the Million Men plays December 3 - 13 as follows: Wednesday through Saturday at 8:30pm. Tickets are $20.00. Tickets can be purchased at
www.here.org or by calling
(212) 352-3101 or at the HERE Box Office (5PM until curtain on show days). For more, please visit
www.here.org.
