I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER Set for PS122's COIL16

As part of the eleventh edition of the COIL festival, Performance Space 122 and The Chocolate Factory present I Understand Everything Better, by recent Bessie Award Winner David Neumann. I Understand Everything Better is a deeply personal reflection on the consciousness of dying and interrupted narratives within the context of a cataclysmic storm. Combining personal narratives, traditional Japanese Noh theater and Neumann's virtuosic movement and humor, collaborators Tei Blow and Sibyl Kempson unite with Neumann to reveal the shimmer of attention to realms unseen, the concurrence of unrelated events and the body as evidence of a will having to let go.

In 2012, Neumann's parents died on either side of Superstorm Sandy. His mother passed away suddenly in July 2014. His father had a longer journey, one where Neumann became the primary care giver, and died one month after Sandy made landfall. Created following this period, I Understand Everything Better is both fiction and truth. It rides a fine line between the purely presentational and the deeply personal. The work is a reflection on the consciousness of dying and finds Neumann working with some of his most autobiographical source material to date. I Understand Everything Better is set in a sparse and mutable landscape; there, Neumann presents a man on his deathbed, a meteorologist reporting from within a storm and a great actor who might be performing a Kabuki play about a dying man in a great storm.

I Understand Everything Better features performances by Neumann along with John Gasper, Jennifer Kidwell and Tei Blow. It features text by Sibyl Kempson, a sound score by Tei Blow, set design by Mimi Lien, lighting design by Chloë Z Brown and video design by Christine Shallenberg.

Performances of I Understand Everything Better will take place January 10 - 16 (see schedule above) at The Chocolate Factory, which is located at5-49 49th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. Tickets are $20and available online at ps122.org and by phone at 212.352.3101.

About the Artists

David Neumann (director / creator) / Advanced Beginner Group's original work has been presented in New York at PS 122, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Central Park Summerstage (where he collaborated with John Giorno), Celebrate Brooklyn and Symphony Space (where he collaborated with Laurie Anderson) and The Whitney. ABG has also performed at the Walker Art Center, Alverno College, MASS MoCA and the American Dance Institute, among others. Neumann was a performer for many years working with, among others, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Big Dance Theater, Doug Elkins, Doug Varone and Sally Silvers. Recent projects include: Choreographer on 'An Octoroon' at Soho Rep/Theater for a New Audience, directing Geoff Sobelle in 'The Object Lesson' at BAM Fischer (Bessie Recipient for Outstanding Design, 2015), Futurity, co-produced by Soho Rep and Ars Nova, and Hagoromo with Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto at BAM. He is currently professor of theater at Sarah Lawrence College. Neumann is the recipient of three New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awards, including most recently, a 2015 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for I Understand Everything Better. Additionally, he's received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (Noh immersive), and support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Creative Capital, NYFA and National Dance Projects among others.

Sibyl Kempson's plays have been presented in New York, Austin, Omaha, Minneapolis, Bonn, and Baltimore. Current collaborators, along with David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group (also Restless Eye, 2012) include Elevator Repair Service (Fondly, Colette Richard) opening at New York Theatre Workshop Fall 2015). She is a 2015 Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts Center, where her fledgling 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf Co. will present its first production Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag, continuing collaboration with Messrs. Neumann, Blow, and Gasper in April 2015. MFA Brooklyn College. Her plays are published by 53rd State Press, PAJ, and PLAY: A Journal of Plays.

Tei Blow is a performer and multimedia designer based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Japan and raised in the United States, Tei's work incorporates photography, video and sound designs made by contemporary and antiquated processes. His designs have appeared at BAM, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, The Public Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Wadsworth Atheneum, and at theaters in over 30 major cities in the world. He is one half of Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble who are currently working on The Art of Luv (Parts 1-22), a multi-part group meditation on the nature of love and longing. His photography is represented by Brooklyn Photo and his music is licensed by Enemies List Home Recordings.

Funding Credits

I Understand Everything Better was co-commissioned by The Chocolate Factory Theater and Abrons Art Center, and received its world premiere at the American Dance Institute. This project was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This project was also co-produced by Mabou Mines. Additional support provided by, the David and Leni Moore Foundation and individual donors. Development was supported through residencies at The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, The Banff Centre Theatre Arts, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the BRIClab residency program at BRIC and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at The Florida State University.