Signdance Collective to Bring CARTHAGE/CARTAGENA to Theaterlab This July

Theaterlab will host the UK-based performance company Signdance Collective as they celebrate their 30-year anniversary with its international tour of Carthage/Cartagena by Obie Award-winning playwright Caridad Svich. Performances are July 19 through 21, 2017 at Theaterlab's Midtown loft space (357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor, NYC).

Set in an imagined despoiled, war-torn landscape, Carthage/Cartagena uncovers the lost voices of those who have been displaced and isolated by slavery, human trafficking, and forced migration. Signdance imagines Svich's text, which is constructed as a series of ten song-poems, through their signature hybrid form, incorporating dance, theatre, music and languages both spoken and signed.

From 1987 to 2000, the company's directors-Isolte Avila and David Bower-began constructing their unique fusion of sign theatre, dance, and original live music. In 2001, they officially formed Signdance Collective, a company crafting new and original work built on inclusivity, with a focus on disability- and deaf-led work. They have forged a number of international collaborations, delivering workshops and producing "innovative and creatively brilliant performances" (Diversity Awards, BBC) across the globe.

As David Bower, Signdance Collective's Artistic Director, shares: "Carthage/Cartagena gives the quiet voice expression, a poetical plea through Signdance Collective for cosmopolitanism, reason and compassion."

"We are thrilled to welcome Signdance Collective to our white box theater, which has been a proud home to International Artists and rigorous creativity since Theaterlab's inception," noted Theaterlab's Artistic Director Orietta Crispino.

Carthage/Cartagena is directed by the Company with Joke Menssink and Beatriz Cabur. The cast includes Lionel Macauley, Isolte Avila, David Bower, and Angelina Schwammmerlin.

Carthage/Cartagena is supported by Arts Council England.

Carthage/Cartagena will be performed at Theaterlab (357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor; between 8th and 9th Ave.; Subway: A/C/E or 1/2/3 to 34th St.) July 19, 20, and 21 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased in advance at web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/970433.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

SIGNDANCE COLLECTIVE (Producer) was founded by Isolte Avila and David Bower. Signdance Collective is an award-winning international touring performance company established in 2001. The company is culturally diverse with a team of experienced deaf and disabled artists at the helm. From 1987 to 2000, the company directors pioneered "signdance theatre", a fusion of sign theatre, dance and live original music.

Caridad Svich (Playwright) received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theatre, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and NNPN rolling world premiere for Guapa, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the Isabel Allende novel. She has won the National Latino Playwriting Award (sponsored by Arizona Theatre Company) twice, including in the year 2013 for her play Spark. She has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama four times, including in the year 2012 for her play Magnificent Waste. Her works in English and Spanish have been seen at venues across the US and abroad, among them San Diego Repertory Theatre, Gala Hispanic Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, 59E59, The Women's Project, Repertorio Español, Salvage Vanguard, Teatro Mori (Chile), Artheater-Cologne (Germany), Ilkhom Theater (Uzbekistan), and Edinburgh Fringe Festival/UK. Recent premieres include The Hour of All Things at Ensemble Studio Theatre/NY under William Carden's direction; Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (based on the Mario Vargas Llosa novel) at Repertorio Español in New York City, In the Time of the Butterflies (based on Julia Alvarez' novel) at San Diego Rep; JARMAN (all this maddening beauty) at Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C., and Upon the Fragile Shore at Summerworks Festival in Toronto, Canada.

She is alumna playwright of New Dramatists, Drama Editor of Asymptote literary journal, associate editor of Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge, UK), contributing editor of TheatreForum, and founder of NoPassport theatre alliance and press (www.nopassport.org), which recently published Todd London's collection of essays The Importance of Staying Earnest. She is a Lifetime Member of EST, and is on the advisory board for the US-Mexico Exchange at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from UCSD. www.caridadsvich.com

THEATERLAB (Presenter) curates and presents new, experimental and hybrid work for theater as well as the visual arts. The company has a longstanding relationship with International Artists of note, showcasing their work to New York audiences. Theaterlab serves the NYC performing arts community through a number of developmental programs including Hotel New Work, the Solo Sunday Series, and the TLAB SHARES program. Recent productions include Reut Shemesh's Wildwood Flowers, Nicole Renaud's The Inflatable Salon, French POV#1-Body (Jacques Perdigues, Karine Laval and Pierre Kaufmann), Megan Metrikin's Finding Fellini, Tjasa Ferme's Wild Child in the City and Orietta Crispino's Three Sisters Come and Go and Snow in the Living Room. For more information, visit www.theaterlabnyc.com.