Vampire Cowboys and Rady&Bloom World Premieres Set for Ohio Theatre & IRT's Archive Residency

The Archive Residency, a collaboration between New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater (likeminded neighbors in the historic Archive Building in the West Village), is a unique incubator for the country's most promising emerging independent theater companies. This two year residency offers each company that most elusive and invaluable resource, an artistic home, including space, artistic support, and institutional continuity for the development and presentation of a new work, culminating in an exciting world premiere.

This year, the two companies completing their residencies are:

Vampire Cowboys, presenting the World Premiere of Six Rounds Of Vengeance, written by Qui Nguyen and directed by Robert Ross Parker, running April 24 - May 16, 2015. Previews begin April 24 for an April 25 opening.

Rady&Bloom Collective Playmaking, presenting the World Premiere of The Upper Room, co-written and co-directed by Jeremy Bloom and Brian Rady, with music composed and performed by Catherine Brookman (Broadway revival of Hair), running May 22 - June 12, 2015. Previews begin May 22 for a May 28 opening.

Immediately following these two shows, our two first-year resident companies will be presenting works-in-progress in the 2015 Ice Factory Festival, June 24 - August 8. They include The Assembly's Untitled New Project, and Blessed Unrest's Body. The Archive Residency will invite two additional companies into residency in September 2015.

Shows take place at New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in New York City. Tickets are $18 and $15 for students and seniors, and can be purchased online at http://NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 1-888-596-1027. For info visit http://NewOhioTheatre.org, Like them on Facebook at /NewOhioTheatre and follow on Twitter at @NewOhioTheatre.

About the Archive Residency: The first year includes a one-month stay in IRT's 3B Development Series, and a one-week presentation in New Ohio's OBIE Award-winning Ice Factory summer festival. The second year includes additional time at IRT, and culminates with a fully realized, four-week run in the New Ohio's main season. Each fall, two more independent companies are invited into the Archive Residency, bringing the program to full strength with four companies in residence, each cycling through the two-year development process. Current Archive Residency alumni include The Mad Ones and Collaboration Town. Membership into the Archive Residency is by invitation only.

Vampire Cowboys' World Premiere of Six Rounds Of Vengeance runs April 24 - May 16. Performances are Wednesdays - Sundays at 8pm (no show on Wednesday, April 29). The running time is 90 minutes.

In a post-apocalyptic "Lost Vegas", an ex-lawman enlists the help of a young swordstress and her cursed strongman to help avenge the murder of his lover. However, the gang they'll be going against has powers that go way beyond just gunpowder and steel. To get revenge, they may have to become just as blood-thirsty as the monsters they're facing.

The cast includes Sheldon Best, Jamie Dunn, Jon Hoche, Tom Myers and Nicky Schmidlein.

The production team includes Qui Nguyen (Fight Choreography), Nick Francone (Set & Lighting Design), Kristina Makowski (Costume Design), Shane Rettig (Original Music & Sound Design), Matthew Tennie (Video Design), David Valentine (Puppet Design) and Jeanne E. Travis (Production Stage Manager).

Vampire Cowboys is an OBIE Award-winning "geek theatre" company that creates and produces new works of theatre based in action/adventure and dark comedy with a comic book aesthetic. The company actively pursues the mating of different genres with varied theatrical styles to create an eclectic structure to tell its stories. The company aims to bridge the gap between mass media entertainment and the performing arts, exposing the community to challenging, thought-provoking live entertainment rooted in today's pop-culture vernacular. For info visit http://VampireCowboys.com.

Rady&Bloom Collective Playmaking's World Premiere of The Upper Room runs May 22 - June 12. Performances are Tuesdays - Saturdays at 8pm.

The Upper Room is a new play with original music inspired by the back-to-the-land movement. Set on an island way off the north coast of Maine, the last participants of a once thriving commune meet the sea. Anxious and restless, the quorum gathers around the table in their upper room to confront the rising water and certain members' curious ailments. A darkly humorous consideration of spirituality and the dangers of our changing environment combines with a live mixed score, antique scuba suits and an overhead projector to create a brand new music theater event.

The cast includes Catherine Brookman, Tjasa Ferme, Robert Gadol Lavenstein, Dana Kaplan-Angle, Govind Kumar, Joyce Miller, Stacy Ayn Price, Julia Sirna-Frest, Heather Thiry and Joe White.

The creative team includes Catherine Brookman (Original Music), Rady&Bloom (Set & Costume Design) and Jay Ryan (Lighting Design).

Rady&Bloom Collective Playmaking is the husband/husband team of Jeremy Bloom and Brian Rady. They have worked at Ars Nova, The Flea, New Ohio, IRT, The Brick, the cell, Walkerspace and Exapno. Their major directing fellowships include the Drama League Director's Project, the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, the EST Director's Residency and the T.S. Eliot Directing Fellowship. They have received support from LMCC's Process Space and Manhattan Community Arts Fund/the NYS Department of Cultural Affairs, the Archive Residency, The Drama League's Artist Residency Program and the HERE Artist Residency Program. R&B's Peter/Wendy is published by Playscripts. For info visit http://www.RadyAndBloom.com.

Rady&Bloom Collective Playmaking stage narratives in a stripped down, efficient manner, with high energy and a sense of visual lyricism. They are drawn to modern mythology - stories that ask us to believe in something bigger than ourselves. Among a diverse and growing ensemble, they devise music and words directly from and designed for the performers, building roles and characters to the eccentricities of specific group dynamics. Distilled from personal experience, they cultivate a mood, an assertive and complex yet welcoming cultural texture - party meets epic meets chorale meets ethnography.

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning theatre that serves New York's most adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting the boldest, most innovative work of today's vast independent theatre community. They believe the best of this community, the small artist-driven ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of where American theatre is right now and where it's going. New Ohio Theatre nurtures, strengthens, and promotes this community; as we reestablish the West Village as a destination for mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish and profound theatrical endeavors. The theatre is accessible from the #1 train to Christopher St. or A, B, C, D, E, F or M train to West 4th St. For info visit http://NewOhioTheatre.org.

IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT's mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. Some of the artists they have supported include Young Jean Lee, Reggie Watts, Mike Daisey and many others. For info visit http://irttheater.org.