Ice Factory '05 Offers 6 Play Premieres, July 6-Aug 13
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 11, 2005
Ice Factory is Soho Think Tank's annual summer festival of new work. STT presents work by emerging and established downtown companies, as well as exceptional national and international groups. STT prides itself on the aesthetic diversity of the work presented, while maintaining a standard of intelligent, imaginative theater. Ice Factory offers companies (like adobe theatre, Jane Comfort, New Georges, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Elevator Repair Service, Les Freres Corbusier and The Rude Mechs. (Austin, TX)) a prime forum in which to develop new work for possible future productions. Shows produced in the Ice Factory have gone on to Off-Broadway, the Joyce, PS 122, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Walker Art Center, and more.
"Soho Think Tank strengthens, nurtures and promotes an aesthetically and culturally diverse community of independent theatre artists and theatre companies by producing, presenting, and programming new work at the Ohio Theater, in Soho," states a release.
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The list of premieres is as follows:
July 6-9 SABOOGE THEATRE
Fathom
Devised and created by the company
Fathom
Devised and created by the company
At the far edges of the known world, a disenchanted shell collector and a sickly boy navigate science and survival in the bug-ridden fundamentalist colony of Tasmania. With minimal props, live music, and unflagging ingenuity, Fathom weaves its way through history and fantasy.>
Fathom won Best Production in the Dublin Fringe Festival 2004, where it was
called "Playful and inventive… as entertaining as it is intelligent" by The
Irish Times. SaBooge Theatre is a Brooklyn based, Lecoq-trained company
that has performed throughout the US, Canada, and Europe.
July 13-16 SPONSORED BY NOBODY
The Position
written and directed by Kevin Doyle
choreography by Nicole Colbert
The Position
written and directed by Kevin Doyle
choreography by Nicole Colbert
Six men wait to be interviewed for a job opening at a major
corporation. Are they deranged, or is it the inverted logic of the
American job market? A comic vision that strips away the veneer of
reflexive gestures and coded corporate conversation in today's
dog-eat-dog business culture.
The Position warms up at Ice Factory before a run in the Berkshire
Fringe Festival at the end of July. Sponsered By Nobody's work has been
called: "unyielding satire softened by a gift of comic absurdity" -- New York
Timesnytheatre.com. and "funny, smart, risky, and even a tad scary" -- Martin Denton,
July 20-23 THE RIOT GROUP
Switch Triptych
Written & Directed by Adriano Shaplin
New York City, 1919. At a switchboard exchange on the brink of
extinction, three operators stare down the future, desperate to preserve their
matriarchy. A carelessly researched, serious-minded, peep-show for the
brain.
Founded in 1997, and guided by playwright Adriano Shaplin, the Riot Group
has received three Fringe First Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and
rave reviews in London and New York for their stylized, fiercely intelligent
work (Victory at the Dirt Palace, Pugilist Specialist).
July 27-30 FAVORED NATIONS THEATRE
Psyche
Written by Deborah Wallace
Directed by Leon Ingulrud (SITI Co. founder)
Music by Andy Gilis
Psyche
Written by Deborah Wallace
Directed by Leon Ingulrud (SITI Co. founder)
Music by Andy Gilis
James Barry was born in 1796. He was a surgeon and a soldier.
He fought duels and treated lepers. He was tried for sodomy and
acquitted. He was also a woman. An epic musical about
war, medicine, sexuality and love, told through the life of a flamboyant and
fascinating human being who chooses to love only in the dark.
Psyche blends the unique physical work pioneered by director Leon Ingulsrud
(SITI Company), and the collaboratively developed text of Deborah Wallace
(International WOW Company) and features Akiko Aizawa (SITI), Connie Hall (WOW)
and Magin Schantz (WOW).
August 3-6 THE FOUNDRY THEATRE
Major Bang
Featuring Steve Cuiffo
Directed by Paul Lazar (Big Dance Theater)
Major Bang
Featuring Steve Cuiffo
Directed by Paul Lazar (Big Dance Theater)
David Hahn earns a merit badge building a homemade nuclear reactor in his
backyard. A heady concoction about nuclear suitcases, The Anarchist
Cookbook, and Zbignew Brezinski. Is this the end of geo-political war, or
just an awe inspiring magic trick? Entertainment for the little terrorist
in each of us.
Established in 1994 by Melanie Joseph, The Foundry Theatre productions have
been awarded seven OBIES and three Drama Desk nominations. They return to
the Ohio Theatre, following David Greenspan's THE MYOPIA (IF '03), and LIPSTICK
TRACES (OT '01).
August 10-13 WITNESS RELOCATION COMPANY
In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus
Directed by Daniel Safer
Designed by Ruth Pongstaphone
In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus
Directed by Daniel Safer
Designed by Ruth Pongstaphone
The Palace is awash in Grand Guignol blood, guts and Bowie songs to create
an expressionistic production of the classic Racine play Andromaque, itself an
adaptation of the classic Greek play.
Witness Relocation Co. returns to the Ohio Theatre after their acclaimed
production of Roberto Zucco, which was part of STT's Koltes/NYC
festival. WRC, features the work of multiple Obie-winning designers and an
international cast from the U.S., Thailand, Hong Kong, and France. WR's work has
been described as "raw physical intensity against a backdrop of grace and
beauty" (Bangkok Magazine) and "an epic, operatic dance of demons" (La
Liberacion).
Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7 PM. Tickets are $15/ $10 for students and seniors, and can be ordered through Smarttix at 212.868.4444 or at www.smarttix.com.
Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7 PM. Tickets are $15/ $10 for students and seniors, and can be ordered through Smarttix at 212.868.4444 or at www.smarttix.com.
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