Prototype Postpones Tenth Anniversary Festival Due To Surge In COVID Cases

Today, the directors of the PROTOTYPE Festival, alongside partners St. Ann's Warehouse, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, and Abrons Arts Center, announced the difficult decision to postpone this year's tenth anniversary festival to January of 2023, due to the current surge in COVID cases and the resulting safety risks, as well as logistical challenges including artist and staff illnesses, travel complications, and more. The Festival was scheduled to run January 7-16, 2022.

The performance run of The Hang, Taylor Mac's and Matt Ray's re-imagining of the final hours of Socrates' life, will continue as planned through February at HERE, though the first performance will be pushed back to January 20. Beth Morrison Projects and St. Ann's Warehouse hope to present Huang Ruo and Basil Twist's Book of Mountains & Seas later this season. HERE and La Mama Experimental Theatre Club also hope to present Grace Galu and Baba Israel's Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville later this season as well. All other previously-scheduled events - including Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph's The All Sing - "Here Lies Joy", Emma and Mark O'Halloran's Trade, Silvana Estrada's Marchita, and digital offering Undine - will be postponed.

In a joint statement, PROTOTYPE Festival directors Jecca Barry, Kristin Marting, and Beth Morrison said: "We have explored every possible option that would allow us to present this year's Festival in a way that was safe for artists, production teams, and audiences, but at this point we simply do not see a way forward given the precipitous rise in cases, the positivity rate of the new variant, and the disruptions it has caused. We are heartbroken to not be able to share these extraordinary works with our audiences right now, but we pledge to return even stronger in 2023, when we can once again safely gather and joyfully celebrate art together. In the meantime, we will honor all of our financial commitments for this year's Festival, including those impacted by the postponement, in order to ensure that all contracts for artists and creative teams, production staff, and seasonal employees are paid in full for the incredible work they have been creating."

Ticket buyers will receive communications from the festival and its partner institution's box offices about ticketing options this week.

For more information please visit prototypefestival.org.

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