En Garde Arts to Present BOSSS Throughout Hudson River Park, 10/2-4

En Garde Founder Anne Hamburger, a Pioneering Producer of Site-Specific Theater in New York, Returns with New Festival Challenging 26 Emerging Artists to Think Big

This fall, En Garde Arts, the company founded and recently resurrected by pioneering theater producer Anne Hamburger, launches BOSSS (Big Outdoor Site-Specific Stuff), a new site-specific performance festival featuring new works by some of New York City's most promising emerging theatre artists. Hamburger has established BOSSS to give a rising generation of spirited artists a chance to "think big" when creating new work, and to help them cultivate an audience spanning frequent theatergoers and people who rarely seek out live arts deliberately. Under her mentorship and guidance, teams of playwrights, directors, devisers, choreographers and designers are creating a dozen innovative works that En Garde will present throughout Hudson River Park, October 2 - 4. All performances are free of charge. (Opening Night gala tickets are $35 - $250.) Please see below for the lineup of artists and works.

Early this year, Hamburger began mentoring these artists through regular gatherings-in the tradition of an old-school salon. They established a rapport, and have been sharing their dreams and ideas, as well as wrestling collectively with the obstacles most have in common. Enthralled by the dynamic vision of this group, Hamburger invited them to work collectively under En Garde's stewardship in order to achieve their creative goals, including overcoming funding challenges; Hamburger and the artistic teams are multiplying their power and extending their reach through collaborative special events, parties and crowdsourcing. Speaking about this project and her mission with En Garde Arts Anne Hamburger said, "Getting people in the room not normally in conversation is at the center of everything we do."

When En Garde Arts approached Hudson River Park about the festival, they saw the potential immediately: "The BOSSS Festival is a fantastic way to introduce park-goers to innovative performing arts and for existing fans of En Garde Arts to discover hidden corners of Hudson River Park," said Madelyn Wils, CEO and President of Hudson River Park Trust. "We are thrilled to partner with En Garde Arts to support this free opportunity for audiences to discover living art that reacts and engages with our Park's rich environment."

En Garde and the artists will offer a BOSSS Sneak Preview of performances at Elizabeth Street Garden (between Spring and Prince St.), August 23, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, followed by a BOSSS Launch Party at Ideal Glass (22 E. 2nd St) from 8:30 - 10:30 pm.

BOSSS is sponsored in part by NY Carousel, one of the performance locations of the festival.

PREVIEW EVENTS

BOSSS Sneak Preview August 23
6 - 8pm
Elizabeth Street Garden (Elizabeth St between Prince St & Spring St, New York, NY 10012)
Performances are free and open to the public
Hosted by Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden

Sneak Preview Performances:
The Janitor, from the Orbiting Human Circus Group
MOMS, from Sarah Delappe and Morgan Green
The Visitors, from Barbara Cassidy, Jessica Corbin and Johari Mayfield
Ghost Card, from Megan Weaver and Hassan Christopher
Given the Present, the Future does not depend on the Past, from Sam Alper, Deepali Gupta, and Jimmy Maize.
Secrets of the Statuary, from Stephanie Okun

BOSSS Launch Party
August 23, 8:30 - 10:30pm
Ideal Glass
22 E. 2nd St.
New York, NY 10003
Tickets to the event: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/10020308
General Admission $25 or $30 at the door
VIP $100 include reserved seating and wine service.
Including performances by Erin Markey, Willard Morgan, SIREN, John Sully, Cameron Mason and Cake Face. John Sully will be the evening's DJ.

BOSSS LINEUP

Given The Present, The Future Does Not Depend On The Past
Sam Alper, Playwright
Deepali Gupta, Composer and Lyricist
Jimmy Maize, Director

For the past three years, playwright Sam Alper has collected auto-generated spam comments posted on a Wordpress site. He now has over a hundred pages of algorithms impersonating humans, using the language of advertising, viral news stories and personal anecdotes. He is distilling this text to create the script for a massive, mobile, interactive performance in the Chelsea Waterside Park. Directed by Jimmy Maize, with choral arrangements by Deepali Gupta, Given the Present the Future Does Not Depend on the Past shines a light on the robotic ur-text of global capitalism's spam.

The Visitors
Barbara Cassidy, Playwright and Director
Jessica Corbin, Choral Leader
Johari Mayfield, Choreographer

Three teenage girls, Mattie, Brooke, and Queenie decide to drink an "elixir" and stay out all night in order to feel alive. Weird things ensue. People follow them. They ask questions of each other­-the kinds of questions about life that prompt all night talks. Finally, they come upon a group of strange women sitting along the Hudson River. The girls "know not what to do." This performance features music and dance.

Moms
Sarah Delappe, Playwright
Morgan Green, Director

Sarah Delappe will create a chorus of young men who will push strollers while discussing the struggles of motherhood as though they were women.

The Queer Garden
Kenny Finkle, Playwright
Jessie Geiger, Director
Liz English, Producer

The Queer Garden is an outdoor spectacle installation that is part living sculpture garden, part happening, part love story, and part fairy tale. The work-sometimes reflective, sometimes active-seeks to question queer identity past, present and future. The audience is invited to engage in whatever way they feel most comfortable. Is there music? Of course there's music. Diva, it's a show.

We Were Wild Once Episode 6: Talks With A Drunk
Sanaz Ghajarrahimi, Director
Vincent van Santvoord
Susie Williams

Sanaz Ghajarrahimi will create a piece with her company, Built4Collapse, inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's book On Booze. With text, dance, music and media, Ghajarrahimi will create a lifetime-asking, by the end, "Was it worth it after all?"

Night, Janitor, Carousel
Ellie Heyman, Director
Robbie Cucchiaro and Christy Gressman, Julian Koster, Performers

A Janitor has been hired to clean the carousel at night. This solitary worker battles crushing loneliness as real and imaginary realities collide.

An Evening With Bina48
Andrew Scoville, Director
Dave Tennant, Designer
Kate Freer, Designer

Andrew Scoville, Dave Tennet and Kate Freer seek to explore the use of robots in theatrical storytelling. In this production, they are teaming up with Bina48, the world's most advanced social robot, to create an evening of conversation unlike any other. Bina48 has been in TED Talks throughout the world and featured in various publications, including The New York Times. This performance marks Bina48's theatrical debut, as a robotic actor in collaboration with a human creative team.

This Place
Lee Sunday Evans, Director

Inspired by Richard McGuire's graphic novel Here, Lee Sunday Evans stages a series of overlaid events that take place in the same location in NYC at vastly different times, beginning in the 1600s and extending into an imagined future.

Gnomads of the Garden
Stephanie Okun, playwright

An unexpected bunch does unexpected things.

Long Time
Conceived by PopUP Theatrics
Written by Peca Stefan, Directed by Tamilla Woodard

On Pier 66, two self-improvement groups try to negotiate space and time on this section of prime peaceful waterfront real estate. With the title and text, inspired by the sculpture that adorns the edge of the pier, Long Time pits spiritual gurus against fitness freaks in an epic turf battle for the well being of mankind, creating an unforgettable, reality-altering experience for participating and witnessing audiences. The history of human conflict unfolds in a screwball comedy of errors, in which every second weighs more than a year, and a minute more than a century.

Ghost Card
Choreographed by Megan Weaver and Hassan Christopher

In this choreo-play staged upon Allan Wexler's iconic Two Too Large Tables (in Hudson River Park at 29th Street), the four lost suits of Heart, Club, Spade and Diamond haunt the strange and surreal moments that occur when we come to the table and pull up a chair.

About The Artists

Sam Alper is a writer living in Brooklyn. His plays have appeared in NYC at La MaMa ETC, BAX, Cloud City, The Brick and Dixon Place. He is a member of the Bookshop Workshop '14-'15 Writers Group and recently premiered his interactive play Loveplay/Playmoney at La MaMa ETC. Alper holds a degree in Literary Arts from Brown University, where he studied playwriting with Erik Ehn, Lisa D'Amour and Greg Moss. He is currently assisting the director of ABCs Madoff mini-series.

Barbara Cassidy's work has been seen at JACK, The Flea Theatre, Playwrights' Horizons, Dixon Place, Little Theatre, The New York International Fringe Festival and BRIC Studios. She has received a MacDowell Residency Fellowship, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency and grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council. She earned her MFA at Brooklyn College, and is an affiliated artist with New Georges.

Director / Choreographer Hassan Christopher's projects range from commercial to concert stage. He has earned the Lester Horton Innovator Award, an NACCP award, and a NYMF award in Directing. Credits include Sable & Battalion's J.O.B. the Hip-Hopera, and Comedy Central's Chocolate News among others. He has performed in videos for TV on the Radio, Britney Spears, Usher and Shakira in addition to dancing for David Rousseve and Diavolo Dance Theatre. Hassan is currently performing in Gerard & Kelly's Timelining at the Guggenheim.

Jessica Corbin is a music director, accompanist, conductor and singer. She is an adjunct professor in the Theater program at Kingsborough Community College, and is the Founding Director of the Brooklyn women's choir Bella Voce Singers. Corbin frequently conducts and performs new music in the NYC area, and regularly works as an accompanist with area choirs, theater groups and vocal classes, at locations including Marymount Manhattan College and Stagedoor Connections. She also maintains a private teaching studio in Manhattan.

Robbie Cucchiaro is the co-founder of The Orbiting Human Circus and a creative collaborator in The Music Tapes. As a musician and in various other roles he has had the good fortune to participate in the musical and artistic culture of Athens, GA.

Sarah Delappe's plays include The Wolves (Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons Theater School, Great Plains Theater Conference) and Parabola (JACK, The Amoralists, Bookshop Workshops). She has been a resident at Sitka Fellows Program and SPACE on Ryder Farm; a recipient of an EST/Sloan commission and the Holland New Voices Award; a member of Clubbed Thumb Early Career and Bookshop Workshops writers groups; and a New Georges affiliated artist. BA: Yale, Frances Bergen Memorial Prize for Prose. MFA: pursuing at Brooklyn College.

Elizabeth R. English is an independent producer, dramaturg and founder and Co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based theater company A Collection of Shiny Objects. Her artistic practice blends development, production and curation. With A Collection of Shiny Objects: Queerspawn by Mallery Avidon, Darling (as part of Ars Nova's 2011 ANT Fest), and The Collections, an ongoing series of experimental time-based art happenings in Brooklyn. Broadway: Dictor Zhivago (Associate Producer). Off-Broadway (with the Women's Project): We Play For The Gods (Producer) and Apple Cove (Associate Producer).

finkle is currently presenting UR?, a graphic novel musical for audiences of three. It has been developed at the Orchard Project and the American Repertory Theatre. He is also working on The 1993 Melancholy Experience, a live audio movie musical for audiences to listen to with their eyes closed. The work has been developed with support from the Keen Company. finkle is the alter ego of playwright Kenny Finkle.

Katherine Freer is a multimedia designer working in live performance, film, and installation. Her work has been seen in venues across the United States and internationally. Frequent collaborators include Liz Lerman, Ping Chong, Stein | Holum Projects, Tim Bond, Kamillah Forbes, Andrew Scoville and Tamilla Woodard. Freer is a Helen Hayes nominee and an Innovative Theater Award nominee. She is a founding member of Imaginary Media.

Jesse Geiger (Director) is a Brooklyn-based theater artist, Co-Artistic Director of A Collection of Shiny Objects and Resident Director of the Naked Angels Issues Project Lab, where he creates new work exploring issues of social justice. For Shiny Objects he has directed Queerspawn by Mallery Avidon and Darling in concert (Ars Nova ANT Fest), as well as workshops of Goods & Services (a collaboration with Greg Moss and puppeteer Stefano Brancato) and The Herculine/Caster Project.

Sanaz Ghajar is a director, writer and Artistic Director of Built for Collapse. She has developed works nationally and internationally with New York Theatre Workshop, The Drama League, Target Margin Theater, The New Ohio, Three Legged Dog, Prelude Festival, Dixon Place, Ars Nova, HERE, Theater for the New City, Rising Circle Theatre Company, The Tank, Fresh Ground Pepper, breedingground, Colorado State University, Prague Film and Theater Center, UK-based company Fragility, Vox Populi in Bulgaria and Goldex Poldex Gallery in Krakow, Poland. She is a directing fellow at Clubbed Thumb, a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellow Alum and a Drama League Director's Project Alum.

Morgan Green is a Brooklyn-based director and co-founder of New Saloon. Recent credits include Three Translations of Uncle Vanya at the Same Time (New Saloon, The Invisible Dog), I'm Miserable but Changes Scares Me by Milo Cramer (New Saloon, The Brick), and He Ate Quietly into the Wall by Ariel Stess (New Georges, New Ohio). Green was a Directing Intern at Williamstown Theater Festival and a Robert Moss Directing Resident at Playwrights Horizons. She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab. BA: Bard College, Ana Itelman Prize for Directing.

Christy Gressman is an artist and attorney and the creative manager of The Orbiting Human Circus. She has studied design and painting at the University of Pennsylvania, law at Harvard, and arts and entertainment management at Yale. In addition to making her own artwork, Gressman works with artists to facilitate creative action and organization.

Elena Heyman is a New York City-based director. Credits include The Traveling Imaginary, a nationally touring, theatrical rock show featuring Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel) and rated in the "top five shows of the year" by NPR; The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Brown/Trinity SuRF); The Sun Experiment (Helikon Rep); and Oh Liza (watchliza.com). Recent collaborators include Lucy Thruber, Madeleine George and Erin Markey. Heyman is Co-Artistic Director of The Orbiting Human Circus, a graduate of Northwestern and Boston Universities (MFA) and a Drama League Directing Fellow.

Ben Hobbs is a performer, writer and choreographer. Selected credits include Fuerzabruta (NYC), Red Wednesday (New Ohio, LPAC), The Barber of Seville (Brooklyn Loft Opera), Nuclear Love Affair (Roma Fringe Festival, HERE, Prague Fringe, Ars Nova), Byuioo (Judson Church), Clown Bar (Parkside Lounge, The Box), Hamlet (Galapagos Art Space), Lynn Barr Dance Theatre (Judson Church, Kaatsbaan), and Drunkfish Oceanrant (Prelude Festival, Dixon Place). He earmed his BFA in Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, with a minor in Art History. He also studied Chinese Opera, Shanghai Theater Academy and Dance, Point Park University.

Julian Koster is a multi-disciplinary artist, storyteller and musician. He is a member of the music groups The Music Tapes and Neutral Milk Hotel, and a co-founder of The Orbiting Human Circus.

Jimmy Maize is a director whose recent credits include his critically-acclaimed 100-actor adaptation of Spoon River Anthology (The Invisible Dog); The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing (CSC); Hypochondria by Kyle Jarrow (Columbia University); Between Life and Nowhere (Old Vic, 3-Legged Dog); You're Invited (Old Vic); and Burn The End (The New School). Maize is a member of Tectonic Theater Project, where he has developed such projects as 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda (Broadway), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Broadway) and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later (BAM). MFA: Columbia University.

"Double Dutch meeting Martha Graham meeting African dance meeting Edgar Allan Poe meeting beatboxing" best describes Johari Mayfield's eclectic enclave of dance, theatre, music and digital media. As a choreographer, her work has been presented at venues including HERE Arts Center, The Gatehouse at Aaron Davis Hall, 45 Bleecker Theater and Dance Theatre Workshop (now New York Live Arts).

Stephanie Okun is a playwright and student at Riverdale Country School. Her short stories, plays, poetry, essays,and works of creative nonfiction have been recognized both regionally and nationally by The Scholastic Writing Awards, Young Playwrights Inc., Writopia Lab, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and The Blank Theatre. Okub has had professionally staged readings of her plays at The Producers Club, June Havoc Theatre and Cherry Lane Theatre.

Andrew Scoville is a Brooklyn-based theater director developing new work that merges science and performance. He is co-creator of People Doing Math, a podcast about math and art. He is the director of Love Machine, a high-tech, interactive performance utilizing actor and audience responsive technology. He is a co-Founder/co-Director of Fresh Ground Pepper, a not-for-profit dedicated to cultivating new work. Scoville was Associate Director for Alex Timbers on David Byrne's Here Lies Love in NYC and UK.

Lee Sunday Evans is a director and choreographer. She won a 2015 OBIE Award for Kate Benson's A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes and recently directed Jerry Lieblich's D Deb Debbie Deborah. Her work has been presented/developed at New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Institute, CATCH, 59E59, New Ohio, BAX, LMCC, the Watermill Center, Emerging America Festival, Williamstown Theater Festival, Dixon Place, LaMama, Coatesville VA Medical Center, New Victory and Women's Project Theater.

Dave Tennant creates interactive video installations, custom theatrical software, and projections designs for theater. He has designed at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Incubator Arts Project, The Flea, Ars Nova and the New Ohio. Tennant has taught projections workshops at Syracuse University, New York University and Harvard University.

Vincent Van Santvoord is an actor, Development Director of Built for Collapse, and a founding member of Motel Room Studios. He recently completed his first collaborative screenplay and is developing work with Bulgarian theater company Vox Populi. Recent theater credits include Unremarkable (developed at NYTW, presented at TNC), We Were Wild Once (3LD, JACK, Summer on the Hudson), Red Wednesday (LPAC, Ice Factory), Drunkfish Oceanrant (Prelude Festival, Dixon Place), Nuclear Love Affair (Roma Fringe Festival, HERE, Prague Fringe Festival, Ars Nova, TNC), The Sea Plays (Old Vic Tunnels), Hamlet (Galapagos Art Space). Film Credits Include: No Singing in the Halls (Dir. Steven Hajar), Fish Will Bite (Dir. Stiven Luka) and The Giant (Dir. David Raboy).

Megan Weaver is a director, writer and facilitator of devised, site-specific and multimedia work. She is a recipient of the Virginia Piper Enrichment Award, AriZoni Theater Awards (Best Director, Best New Script), and KCACTF Meritorious Achievement Award (Directing). Recent credits include The Belief Project (FullStop/IRT), Cause of Failure (FullStop/FringeNYC; NYTheater.com Best of Fringe) and The 7 Layers of Bastian Bachman (immersive, The Icehouse, Phoenix AZ). Weaver is the Executive Artistic Director of FullStop Collective. MFA: Directing, Arizona State University.

Susie Williams is an aerial performer, choreographer, instructor and producer. She recently completed a Fellowship in the 2014 BAM Professional Development Program. Producing credits include Bright Ideas' Aerial Salons, migrations, Landscrapes and Discord and the award-winning Roundhaus video Hammertime. As a performer, Williams has appeared in traditional circuses, casinos and theaters. She has performed flying trapeze, Spanish web and silks at Circus Circus and in Kristin Geneve Young's migrations. Williams is an adjunct professor at Pace University, where she teaches circus arts.

Tamilla Woodardis the co-founder of PopUp Theatrics, a partnership that creates site-impacting theatrical events around the world, often in collaboration with international theater artists. She is currently is serving as the Artistic Director of The Five Boroughs/One City Project, a multi-year initiative of The Working Theater. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she is a current Time Warner Directing Fellow at the Women's Project Theater Lab, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an alumnus of The Lincoln Center Directors Lab, an artistic affiliate with New Georges and a recipient of The Josephine Abady Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women. More at www.Tamilla.com

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