Incubator Arts Project to Present KATORGA, 6/24-29

KATORGA revolves around the experiences of a woman exiled to OZET's prison colony for revolutionary activities in the turgid, waning days of the Fifteenth Generation. Electronic and acoustic music, spoken and sung text, gestural choreography, and an immersive environment all combine to vivify a richly imagined world where prisoners labor in dimly lit mushroom fields as wardens struggle to communicate with the givers of the law, and somewhere on the outskirts a hundred-year-old hermit is setting out tea for his missing son.

In 2007, composer Aaron Meicht developed eight musical themes inspired by the writings of futurist J.D. Bernal and the aphorisms of Karl Kraus. Since then he has methodically mined those themes, building four "Bernal Project" pieces and (in collaboration with writer Scott Blumenthal and sound designer Daniel Baker) eight performances and six short films about the culture and history of the space-bound collective sphere OZET. In KATORGA, the OZET collaborators' fourth evening-length performance, Meicht's themes return with new prominence, inspiring the structure of a hybrid performance: part concert, part installation, part intimate theatrical event.

KATORGA has been developed over the course of a two-year residency at IAP. Meicht, Blumenthal, and Baker have already joined with the creative team from OZET's ambitious Common Hall Village 20 (presented at IAP in 2012), as well as new artists, for two exploratory workshops, both culminating in public performances. (The second of these, entitled Katorga Retraction Holiday, lasted 11 hours.) A third workshop took place in July 2013.

June 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 // 8pm

Purchase in tickets ($18 General/$14 students) in advance at incubatorarts.org or by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101.

Incubator Arts Project (inside St. Mark's Church) • 131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Ave.) // L to First or Third Ave; R, W to Broadway/8th St.; 6 to Astor Place; N,Q, 4, 5 to Union Sq.