PS122's COIL 2014 Festival Kicks Off Today

PS122's contemporary performance festival, COIL, is set to begin today, January 3, featuring theatre, dance, music and more. Details below!

THEATRE:

In TYSON vs. ALI, Reid Farrington realizes the greatest heavyweight-boxing match that never happened, placing Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali into the ring in a way no one thought possible.

One of our country's leading playwrights, Mac Wellman, offers an offbeat, sci-fi tale performed by longtime collaborator Steve Mellor. The story is set on the tiny, imaginary planet of Muazzez.

In An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk, Phil Soltanoff creates a dynamic video oracle of the commander on the USS Enterprise, expanding our universe on contemporary arts and science as only Captain Kirk can.

Tina Satter's highly stylized House of Dance offers an intimate, heartfelt look at ambition and is set within a small town tap studio, where four dancers prepare for a competition.

Okwui Okpokwasili uses song and movement to chronicle the sexual awakening and exploits of two 11-year-old girls living in the Bronx in her solo performance Bronx Gothic.

In the autobiographical Have I No Mouth, Dublin-based Brokentalkers' company director Feidlim Cannon and his mother, Ann, attempt to piece together the truth in the aftermath of a family tragedy.

DANCE:

In a quartet, devoted experimentalist Heather Kravas uses a kaleidoscopic ballet, a mutating folk dance and a titillating cheer to examine the possibilities of individuals interrelating.

The Angola Project is a three-part solo performance by Jeremy Xido that playfully constructs a movie in real time from fragments of film and narrative, only to have it crumble into disarray.

And the 10th anniversary of CATCH, the multi-disciplinary, rough-and-ready performance series, the popular Red + White Party with sounds by Elevator Repair Service, plus soon to be announced late night programming at The Lounge at The Public Theater.

Performance Space 122's contemporary performance festival, COIL, returns for its ninth year. Spanning 16 days and taking place at multiple venues across New York City, this annual mid-winter festival "aimed at the head, the guts and the heart" (New York Post, 2011) features six ground-breaking theater pieces, two visceral dance works and the 10th anniversary of the beloved multi-disciplinary series CATCH-all from daring, risk-taking artists.

Performance Space 122 Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner commented, "For this year's COIL Festival, we turn our gaze inward by focusing on our own - New York City artists working on very intimate, personal stories of who and why we are. COIL14's artists are re-imagining how we tell these stories - with traditional forms juxtaposed against new and remarkable combinations of song, movement, fight and sound."

Most tickets for COIL will go on sale November 12. Tickets may be purchased online at ps122.org, via phone at 212-352-3101, and in person at venue box offices except where otherwise noted. Single ticket prices vary per event. Ticket packages include: The PS122 Passport (5 tickets for $75 valid through June 30, 2014) and The COIL Pass (8 tickets for $122, valid through January 26, 2014), recommended for arts professionals and performance lovers.

PS122's ninth annual COIL festival is made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program.

More information about COIL can be found at ps122.org.

Performance Space 122 (PS122) provides incomparable experiences for audiences by presenting and commissioning artists whose work challenges boundaries of live performance. PS122 is dedicated to supporting the creative risks taken by artists from diverse genres, cultures and perspectives. We are an innovative local, national and international leader in contemporary performance.

Beginning in 2011, PS122 embarked on one of the most unusual and potentially radical shifts in its history, including a re-structuring of artist support, a business model overhaul, and the renovation of our building. As PS122's East Village home undergoes a much-needed interior renovation supported primarily by the City of New York, DCA and DDC, PS122's core activity continues to be providing audiences with contemporary live performance.

For over 3 decades, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the cultural community. Under the curatorial vision of Vallejo Gantner (Artistic Director 2005 - present) PS122 has developed a set of programs designed to re-establish the value of live performance, provide singular experiences for audiences that inspire critical thinking, and sustain the creative process for artists throughout their career. Largely in partnership with peer organizations, PS122 currently presents artists in all disciplines in spaces all over the city during an annual fall & spring season and COIL festival in January.

In addition to the commissioning and presenting of artists from NYC across the US, and around the globe, PS122 has increased our activity off the stage to provide audiences with a variety of access points and context for the work on stage. These activities include both talkbacks with the artists as well as in depth conversations that bring together luminaries from non-arts disciplines to discuss a variety of topics including everything from religion, to migration, to queer real estate and cultural diplomacy. PS122 encourages the asking of questions and debate of contemporary society's issues in both artistic practice and audience experience.

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