Performance Space 122 Presents HOTEL SAVOY 9/30

Access to the Goethe-Institut New York's uptown location, a lavish, six-floor Beaux-arts townhouse built in the early 20th century, has been extremely restricted due to revised German fire code regulations. But now, with Dominic Huber's Hotel Savoy, a theatrical experience based on the novel by Joseph Roth, new life inhabits 1014 5th Avenue.

Thursday, September 30th - Sunday, October 31st, Performance Space 122 kicks off their 30th Anniversary Season with the World Premiere of HOTEL SAVOY, commissioned by The Goethe-Institut New York. Imaginative sets, atmospheric light- and sound-scapes, and stunning architecture combine into a rich framework that houses the overlapping realities of the novel, the building, its history, its lingering "employees", as well as each person who enters.

Hotel Savoy is experienced singly - that is to say, by an audience of one. Visitors enter one-by-one and begin their personal journey through the hotel. Inside they will encounter five real people: the elevator operator, the young maid, the hotel barber, the concierge, and the bartender. These inhabitants, each with their own anecdotes and relationship to the building, act as intermediaries and gatekeepers. They gently guide each audience member into remote corners of the space; and at the same time, they create a customized story and experience for each audience member.

To be sure, this is not a performance predicated on traditional audience participation - there is no pressure for visitors to perform, there is no stage to be thrust upon - rather, audience members can just relax and be themselves as they delight in exploring this peculiar hotel and engaging with the slightly unconventional staff. Each audience member becomes a guest in the Hotel Savoy and in so doing, becomes the main character in an amazing reality that reveals itself exclusively to them.

Dominic Huber is an architect of theatre - that is, he builds spaces that hover between dream and actuality, and creates worlds where fiction, history, and contemporary lives co-mingle. In the 1924 novel Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth, the hotel is a metaphor for a world out of joint; within the hotel's convolutions a kaleidoscope of itinerant figures is caught between war and former opulence, Old Europe and the New World, nostalgia and thoughts of revolution. Huber's Hotel Savoy transforms and evolves with each guest who enters the rarely-visited Goethe-Institut New York at 1014 5th Avenue.

The building that is The Goethe-Institut New York at 1014 5th Avenue in New York City constitutes a sounding board for American-German relations throughout the 20th Century to the present. 1014 5th Avenue is home to a history rich in cultural and international relations, from housing Ambassadors to displaying great works of art to acting as a bridge between the United States and Germany. Against the surreal background of this one-time through-station for German-exiles, visitors are faced with questions about their own heritage in these restless and unanchored times. The Goethe-Institut New York, Performance Space 122 and Dominic Huber welcome audiences to join this history and make an imprint in the majestic spaces of 1014 5th Avenue.

More about...

Dominic Huber began working in the theatre while studying architecture at ETH in Zürich. In 2000 he founded the company blendwerk with lighting designer Christa Wenger. In collaboration with the director Bernhard Mikeska, Huber conceptualized and produced a series of scenographically and technically complex performances (Rashomon, Ghosts, Marienbad) under the rubric mikeska:plus:blendwerk which were invited for guest performances by numerous theatrical venues, including Impulse and the Fajr Festival in Teheran. Along with his work as a set designer, Dominic has developed a series of installations and exhibitions. His first large projects took him from Zürich to Theater Basel, and then on to Berlin for numerous jobs at, among others, the Maxim Gorki Theater, where in 2002 he presented a piece he directed, Koppstoff, based on the book by Feridun Zaimoglu. Along with Berlin's Hebbel am Ufer, other venues included Theater Aachen, Theatre de Vidy-Lausanne, the Munich Kammerspiele and the Schauspielhaus in Zürich. He has created spaces for, among others, Susanne-Marie Wrage, Simone Aughterlony, and PeterLicht. Since 2008 he has worked in an ongoing collaboration with Stefan Kaegi und Lola Arias. In 2008 he received a three-month stipend from the city of Zürich for a working stay in New York. Dominic Huber lives in Zürich und Berlin. http://www.blendwerk.ch/

The Goethe-Institut New York is a branch of the Federal Republic of Germany's global cultural institute, established to promote the study of German and German culture abroad, encourage international cultural exchange, and provide information on Germany's culture, society, and politics. Through the network of Goethe-Institutes, Goethe Centres, cultural societies and reading rooms, alongside examination and language learning centres, the Goethe-Institut performs the principal tasks of cultural and educational policy abroad. The Goethe-Institut works in partnership with public and private cultural bodies, the German federal states and municipalities, and the corporate sector. www.goethe.de/newyork

Performance Space 122 is one of New York's ultimate destinations 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.

For thirty years, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the East Village, as well as the wider cultural community in N.Y.C. and across the globe. In just the past 5 years, under the curatorial vision of Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, PS122 has opened the curtain on more than 2,500 performances, welcomed more than 125,000 visitors, and supported the work of more than 2,100 artists, performers, choreographers, playwrights, directors and designers.

Performance Space 122 passionately advocates for U.S. artists in New York and across globe. Our organization and the artists we present are reclaiming their relevance to wider social discourse by engaging artists, audiences and other community leaders in cultural, economic, and environmental debates about what it means to live in contemporary society. www.ps122.org

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