PS122 Presents Cupola Bobber's WAY OUT WEST, THE SEA WHISPERED ME 9/24-27

The last time Cupola Bobber were here in N.Y.C., back in February 2007 at Chelsea's Cue Gallery, they constructed a cardboard "observatory" in which viewers could climb a ladder to peep at mocked up stars. This fall, Chicago's beloved performance duo, the collaboration between Stephen Fiehn and Tyler B. Myers, return and once again craft a ridiculously sublime adventure with Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me - which will be the first theatre presentation at Performance Space 122 this season.

Infused with gentle humor and melba-dry wit, delightfully low-tech invention, and expansive imagination, Cupola Bobber create a vast internal adventure of miniscule proportions. Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me is a study of the Sea, both as mythology and awesome presence, that was inspired by their journey to Dunwich - a small town in Suffolk, U.K. - that is slowly sliding into the Sea, along with its historic architecture.

Channeling both Laurel & Hardy and Gilbert & George, Cupola Bobber follow the doomed particles of Dunwich's parish churches, from their watery fate to their time-bending reconvergence as dustclouds over Depression-era Kansas. Wielding a home-spun minimal aesthetic - a multi-layered tarp is artfully manipulated to conjure sea, land, and sky - and poker-faced absurdist charm, Cupola Bobber build an engaging and quizzical exploration of the Sea as a dwarfing muse of existential contemplation, a place of leisure, and as a heartless destroyer; and above all, why people are always drawn to it.

Cupola Bobber is a collaboration between Stephen Fiehn and Tyler B. Myers. Founded in 1999 they have created four evening length performances by working slowly out of their studio on the west side of Chicago. They have performed in multiple venues in Chicago, in Austin, Portland, and New York, and toured internationally. They were International Artists in Residence at the Nuffield Theatre Lancaster in 2008. Alongside the evening-length performance work they have made video, durational performance, and published writing.

Tyler B. Myers works primarily collaboratively with the duo he co-founded, Cupola Bobber (2000 - present), and Lucky Pierre (2000 - 2008) with whom he has toured and shown work across the US and internationally. Venue highlights include; CUE Art Foundation in New York, Fusebox Festival in Austin, Arnolfini in Bristol, Battersea Arts Centre in London, Eurokaz in Zagreb, and Belluard Bollwerk International in Switzerland, Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, and Kunsthaus Graz in Austria. He received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001, with a Nelson Raymond Fellowship, and is currently an MFA candidate in Northwestern University's Art Theory and Practice Department.

Stephen Fiehn is a co-founder of collaborative performance duo Cupola Bobber. Selected Performances and Exhibitions : CUE Art Foundation,New York; Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago; Fusebox Festival, Austin; Arnolfini, Bristol; Green Room, Manchester; The Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster; Battersea Arts Centre, London. Cupola Bobber were International Fellowship recipients at Lancaster University, England in 2007/08 and awarded Best of PAC/edge Chicago 2005. He is currently working in collaboration with Every House Has A Door- a project-specific company formed by Lin Hixson and Mathew Goulish- on their debut performance Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. Stephen received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001, with a Nelson Raymond Fellowship.

Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me is a National Performance Network Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Links Hall and PS122 in partnership with the National Performance Network. Major contributors of the National Performance Network are Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.

Cupola Bobber's Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me is co-produced by Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster, U.K.

Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media. PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance; PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs.
www.ps122.org.

Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me premieres Thursday, September 24 and runs through Sunday, September 27: Thursday and Friday at 8; Saturday at 8pm and 10:30pm; and Sunday at 6pm

Tickets: $20 and $15 (students/seniors).

Tickets and PS122 Passports are now on sale and available online at www.ps122.org, by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101, and at the Performance Space 122 Box Office. Note: The PS122 Passport is a bundle of 5 tickets for only $55 that can be used in ANY combination to the 2009-10 season performances.

Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue @ E. 9th Street, New York, NY 10009

 

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