A.R.T.'s OBERON Sets Winter 2017 Lineup
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 05, 2017
OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) Second Stage and club theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, announces events to be presented at OBERON during January and February - including OBERON Presents, Visiting Artists, and Usual Suspects.
In support of the A.R.T.'s mission to expand the boundaries of theater, OBERON is committed to expansive programming and innovative works. Through non-traditional performances and cutting-edge artists, OBERON is an incubator for artistic expression.
GLOWBERON, returning to OBERON from its 2015/16 Season debut and I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s production of Trans Scripts enhance OBERON's dedication to fostering local and national artistry and aim to connect audiences with inventive, contemporary arts experiences.
BARDCORE
A.R.T. Institute for Advance Theater Training Fundraiser
Monday, January 9 at 8PM
Tickets $10
Lush, murder, booze, and blood... William Shakespeare did NOT write plays for the faint of heart! Students from the A.R.T. Institute present BardCore, a sexypants cabaret that brings to life all of the most twisted scenes that Shakespeare ever conceived, in styles ranging from hip-hop to vaudeville to grindhouse gore fest! Featuring excerpts from favorites like Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, live music, custom cocktails, and a raucous punk rock aesthetic, BardCore is Shakespeare as you've never seen him before!
JOHNNY BLAZES AND Brian King
DO YOU QUEER WHAT I QUEER?
OBERON Presents: GLOWBERON
Friday, January 13 at 8PM
Tickets $25
What's 10 years between queers? Born exactly 10 years apart, Johnny Blazes and Brian King are twin queens of song and glitter that share everything... except most of their cultural references. Identities blur as the pair explores intersections and spaces between their versions of queerdom, interlacing story, song, and video to expose the gaps imposed not only in generation, but by geography, gender, and shoe size.
STEMS: ETHEREAL SERENITYSunday, January 15 at 8PM
Tickets $15 STEMS: Ethereal Serenity is the album release show featuring the music of Anthony Conley (Endation, ChoExperiment, The Egg Queen). STEMS will be joined by special guests The Wrong Shapes. Each track from the STEMS debut album will be accompanied by original dance and movement pieces by some of Boston's most notable performance artists and burlesque dancers. Join STEMS for an evening fifteen years in the making.
Friday, January 20 at 8PM
Tickets $30 The Poetry Brothel is an interactive poetry experience set up as a decadent fin de siècle brothel. Poets performing under pseudonyms offer private, one-on-one poetry readings of their original work in candlelit back rooms... for money. The main room presents an immersive cabaret, which consists of live music, burlesque, vaudeville, aerials, fortune tellers, painters, and other related acts.
This event will feature honored guest reader Janaka Stucky, house band, Hounds on an Island, burlesque beauties, Cassandra Estelle and Ginny Nightshade, tarot readings, body paintings, sketch artists, illusions, and of course, your poetry whores.
ALISON YOUNG AND THE SWINGING STEAKSOBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Sunday, January 22 at 8PM
Tickets $20
Can individuals who identify as LGBT find a home in country music? Is Nashville ready for a transgender country music star? Alison Young wants to find out. She performs a mix of original country-inspired songs, as well as covering popular songs from the current wave of country music stars such as Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert. She enjoys altering some of the lyrics of these top ten hits so that they better reflect her LGBT sensibility.
This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event.Becca Blackwell: THEY, THEMSELVES AND SCHMERMOBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Monday, January 23 at 7:30PM
Tickets $25
Transactivist performer and downtown New York Theater star Becca Blackwell's They, Themselves and Schmerm is a fiercely vulnerable solo piece that details the tragic-comic transitions in life, family, sex, and gender.
This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event. PEACOCK REBELLION: BROUHAHAOBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Friday, January 27 at 8PM
Tickets $20
Oakland-based people of color comedy crew Peacock Rebellion, named one of "Ten Incredible LGBTQ Artist Collectives You Should Be Watching" (PRIDE.com), remixes their award-winning, sold-out Brouhaha Stand-Up Comedy with brand-new work for the I.D. Festival. Featuring Lexi Adsit (National Queer Arts Festival), Devi K (United States of Asian America Festival), and an award-winning cast praised in Colorlines, Bitch, and The Huffington Post, Brouhaha brings stand-up, storytelling, and spoken word - all hilarious, all with an activist twist.
This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event. OUR Lady J: GOSPEL FOR THE GODLESSOBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Saturday, January 28 at 7:30PM
Tickets $25 Hot on the heels of writing on the Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning TV show Transparent, Our Lady J comes to OBERON to paint the church pink with Gospel for the Godless, an exhilarating celebration of well-known pop songs, reimagined through the gospel lens. Inspired by conventional Gospel music, this show is anything BUT traditional, promising to deliver you from your woes, sans the usual dogmatic baggage. This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event. NIC KAY: LIL BLK
OBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Sunday, January 29 at 8PM
Tickets $15 - $20 lil BLK is an experimental solo performance by NIC Kay. Influenced by New York City gay/queer ballroom culture, live punk shows, butoh and praise dance, lil BLK is a story about a fairy boi, child of god, lil black girl, performer, and activist. The story plays out through a series of biographical moments that are equal parts narrative and dream. This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event.A.R.T. OF HUMAN RIGHTS: SCREENING OF MY PRAIRIE HOME WITH DISCUSSION FEATURING RAE SPOON, NIC KAY, AND OTHERS
OBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Monday, January 30 at 7:30PM
Free, tickets must be reserved in advance Embark on an exploration through the documentary-musical My Prairie Home, in which indie singer Rae Spoon takes on a playful, meditative and at times melancholic journey. Set against majestic images of the infinite expanses of the Canadian prairies - interviews, performances, and music sequences reveal Spoon's inspiring process of building a life of their own, as a trans person and as a musician. Timothy Patrick McCarthy will then moderate a discussion with Spoon and performance artist NIC Kay about accessibility, process, creation, and the challenges ahead for trans and queer artists.THE MOTH: TOPIC - GENDER
Usual Suspect
Tuesday, January 31 at 8PM
Additional Programming: Tuesday, February 21 at 8PM
Tickets coming soon!
The Moth StorySLAMs are steadily spreading all over the map, gathering people and stories from all over the country. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston have multiple shows each month. The Moth is open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's posted theme. The brave of heart, or those with stories they're aching to tell, prepare personal, true tales. When the doors open, storyteller hopefuls put their names in The Moth Hat. A half hour later, names are picked, and one by one, storytellers take the stage. Each person has just five minutes! The ten featured sotires are scored by teams of judges selected from the audience. Each StorySLAM generates a StorySLAM winner. After ten SLAMs, the winners face off in our GrandSLAM Championships. Come sign up to tell a story, or just enjoy the show! The topic of this evening of The Moth is themed around stories of gender.
Kit Yan: QUEER HEARTACHEOBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Friday, February 3 at 8PM
Tickets $20 Queer Heartache is an award-winning solo slam poetry theater show by Kit Yan that explores his identity as a transgender, queer, Asian American from Hawaii. Kit asks what queer hearts and families are made of, and interrogates the forces that constantly work to break them apart. Queer Heartache is a testament to the resilience of queer love in all its forms - between cis and trans siblings, lovers, pride parade attendees, and many more - in the face of heartbreaking barriers everywhere from the dating pool to the medical establishment. This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event. CALPERNIA ADDAMS: TESTIMONY
OBERON Presents: I.D. Festival
Saturday, February 4 at 8PM
Tickets $25 In Testimony, Calpernia Addams's debut album of original acoustic music, she tells stories from a life that began as the musical eldest child of a minister in a fundamentalist Christian cult hidden away in the woods of Tennessee. A harrowing escape into the burning deserts of the first Gulf War as a combat medic followed, and then her unlikely rebirth as a teetotaling showgirl and burlesque dancer on some of the South's most dangerous and underground stages. A devastating tragedy led to years of work in activism and the crushing machine of Hollywood. Now Calpernia has returned to the simple instruments and music of her childhood to give testimony of her still-unquenchable passion for authenticity, hope and adventure. This event is part of the I.D. Festival, presented in conversation with A.R.T.'s 2016/17 production of Trans Scripts, celebrating the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity. Get $10 off a ticket to Trans Scripts and $5 off an additional I.D Festival show with the purchase of this event. BURLESQUE AGAINST HUMANITY
Sunday, February 5 at 8PM
Friday, February 10 at 7:30PM & 10:30PM
Tickets $15 - $30 This ain't no Apples to Apples strip show. This is Burlesque Against Humanity, a burlesque show for horrible people. Rogue Burlesque won't just push the envelope. Expect to see a mime having a stroke, Dark Vader having some 'me' time, same-sex ice dancing, and dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail! Whether you're a Cards Against Humanity veteran or a tender newbie, come fill in our blanks. If you're feeling extra saucy, get yourself a VIP seat. You'll get to play a special game of Cards Against Humanity with Mama Bang Bang and win a prize!
MORTIFIED
Usual Suspects
Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February 12 at 7PM
Tickets $15
Hailed as a "cultural phenomenon" by NewsWeek and celebrated for years by the likes of This American Life, The Today Show, The Onion AV Club, and Entertainment Weekly, Mortified is a comic excavation of teen angst artifacts (journals, poems, letters, lyrics, home movies, schoolwork) as shared by their original authors -- in front of total strangers.
TRUE LUST
Tuesday, February 14 at 8PM
Tickets $15 - $25 - on sale soon!
True Lust is a sincere take on Valentine's Day, showcasing all the aspects of what this holiday is supposed to be about - romance, love, lust, sex, and fun! With a live band, burlesque, poetry and more, it will be an intimate and sensual experience, punctuated by explosive sexuality, dancing, and silliness. A destination for couples as well as singles looking to get lucky, there will be chocolates at every table, performers to entertain you, and maybe a certain something in the air.
THE STORY COLLIDERThursday, February 16 at 8PM
Tickets $10 - $12 From finding awe in Hubble images to visiting the doctor, science is everywhere in our lives. Whether we wear a white lab coat or haven't seen a test tube since eighth grade, science affects and changes us. We all have a story about science, and at The Story Collider, we want to hear those stories.ACOUSTICAELECTRONICA
Friday, February 17 at 10PM
Tickets $15 - $55 Succumb to an awe-inspiring experience that stimulates all of your senses. AcousticaElectronica sets its tale in the world of art's past, resurrecting its most intriguing ghosts and planting them here, in this new future. DorIan Gray, Carmen, Pierrot Lunaire, Odette the Swan, and the Conductor all travel through time and are planted here, in this moment. Watch as they struggle with who they were and what they are to become in this new future. The show blends elements of electronic and classical music, dance, circus arts, and immersive theater with the infectious energy of a nightclub to bring you an evening you won't encounter anywhere else.
QUEEN NIGHT AT THE DONKEY SHOW
Saturday, February 18 at 7:30PM & 10:30PM
Tickets from $25
The Donkey Show's glittery world of freaks, fairies, flesh and fantasy goes drag this February! Our queen will be in the disco booth and all over the dance floor shaking that groove thing before a disco diva inspired performance.
A RIDE ON THE IRISH CREAMOBERON Presents
February 28 - March 4
Tickets from $25 Written and Created by Erin Markey
Music by Erin Markey, Emily Bate, and Kenny Mellman
Lyrics by Erin Markey
Directed by Jordan Fein
In this fresh and surprising new musical, a live band and swath of carpet become the space for the thrills and terrors of a relationship between a vainglorious self-made girl and her family's pontoon boat. They are in love, but when their relationship is tested by dust ruffles, sex for money, severe T-storms, and a secret cellar, the only way to stay together is to remember all the parts of themselves their bodies tried to forget.
THE DONKEY SHOW
The Long-Running Hit
Presented by A.R.T.
Every Saturday night at 10:30PM
Tickets from $25
Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus' celebrated smash hit continues its 8th Season at OBERON every Saturday night, bringing you the ultimate disco experience - a crazy circus of mirror balls and feathered divas, of roller skaters and hustle queens inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The party rages on the dance floor to all the best 70s hits as the show unfolds around the audience. After the show, the party continues into the night so you can live out your own disco fever fantasy!
OBERON is located at 2 Arrow Street at the corner of Mass Ave. in Harvard Square, Cambridge. For more info and tickets visit cluboberon.com.
OBERON is the American Repertory Theater's Second Stage, a destination for theater and nightlife on the fringe of Harvard Square. In addition to offering work from the A.R.T's main season, OBERON is also a thriving incubator for emerging artists to imagine new projects that could only exist in this exciting club-theater environment. Thousands of artists and performance groups bring work to the space each year. OBERON regularly features local performers including aerialists, beat poets, food artists, tap dancers, gender-bending sketch troupes, comedians, hula-hooping burlesquers, and pop-and-lock human statues to name a few.
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