Sinking Ship's A HUNGER ARTIST Returns To Connelly Theater For Seven Performances Only

Sinking Ship Productions is thrilled to return to NYC with their production A HUNGER ARTIST, adapted from the story by Franz Kafka. Created collaboratively by performer Jonathan Levin, writer Josh Luxenberg, and director Joshua William Gelb, A HUNGER ARTIST begins performances on Wednesday, January 10th for a 7-performance limited engagement through January 16th. Performances are at the Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, between Avenues A & B). Tickets are $25 - $35. For more information, to view a trailer, and to purchase tickets, visit www.sinkingshipproductions.com.

The performance schedule is: January 10 at 7:30 p.m.; January 11 at 7:30 p.m.; January 12th at 4 p.m.; January 12 at 10 p.m.; January 13 at 1 p.m.; January 15 at 7:30 p.m.; January 16 at 1 p.m.

A man sits alone in a cage, starving himself for your entertainment. Sinking Ship Productions' unique, visually-striking adaptation of the Franz Kafka short story uses physical theater, Victorian miniatures, puppetry, and a set of simple props to support a powerhouse solo performance. Once cheered by thousands, the Hunger Artist is now forgotten by everyone except his one-time manager. What begins as a simple nostalgic story transforms into a startlingly inventive, darkly comic trip into the nature of memory, art, performance, and spectatorship, as told by the only person who remembers an artist whose act was simply... to hunger.

A HUNGER ARTIST returns to NYC after acclaimed runs in New York City, Baltimore (Theatre Project) and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it ranked as one of the best-reviewed shows of the 2017 festival (according to List Magazine), and won Summerhall's prestigious Lustrum Award for Excellence. After its return engagement in New York, the show will travel to Hartford, CT for a run presented by the Hartbeat Ensemble at their Carriage House Theater.

The show has been critically lauded:

The production is based on one of the few stories that Kafka did not order burned after his death. Kafka was still editing the piece when he succumbed to tuberculosis in 1924. Because the disease caused his throat to close, Kafka died of starvation while he was working on it. And, although never explicitly addressed, there is a disquieting sense that the forces, frailties and fascinations Kafka exposed in 1922 were linked to the rise of fascism back then and of far right populism today.

The design team includes Peiyi Wong (set and costume design); Kate McGee (lighting design); M. Florian Staab (sound design); Charlie Kanev and Sarah Nolen (puppetry design); and Jonathan Levin (props and toy theater). The production stage manager is Elizabeth Ramsey.

Joshua William Gelb (Director/Co-Creator) is a director, performer, and librettist whose projects include a re-imagining of America's supposed first musical The Black Crook at Abrons Arts Center, about which he recently lectured at Harvard's Houghton Library. He is currently an Abrons AirSpace Resident Artist. Other productions include Bear Slayer (Ars Nova), Party in the USA (Incubator/Edinburgh Fringe), Clara Not Clara: A Nutcracker (LMCC Process Space/Minnesota Dance Theater/Knockdown Center), Dukus (Target Margin), and Sometimes in Prague (Ice Factory/Joe's Pub/Polyphone Fest). Gelb received his his MFA in directing at Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama where he graduated as a John Wells Fellow. He is a member of the 2012 Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and an associate artist with Sinking Ship Productions. www.joshuawilliamgelb.com

Jonathan Levin (Performer/Co-Creator) is an international director, performer and puppeteer and Co-Artistic Director of Sinking Ship Productions. As a performer, Jon works extensively with The Krumple Theater Company, which he is also a founding member of. He most recently performed/co-created Go to Sleep, Goddamnit! and Do Not Feed the Trolls throughout Norway and in NYC. Jon has also performed as a puppeteer in Banksy's "Better Out than In", NYC, Wakka Wakka's SAGA (Norway, Iceland, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland). With Sinking Ship, Jon directed Powerhouse at the New Ohio Theatre (NYTimes Critics Pick) in 2014, Ocean in 2016 (in development) at the Mabou Mines Resident Artist program, Flatland (2011), an EST/Sloan Foundation commission, and There Will Come Soft Rains (2008) at FringeNYC (Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction). Jon is a graduate of L'école Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and holds a BA from Oberlin College in theater and neuroscience.

Josh Luxenberg (Playwright/Co-Creator) is Sinking Ship's co-Artistic Director. He is also the General Manager of the Connelly Theater in New York, and co-curator of The Tank's flagship theater series Flint & Tinder. Credits with SSP include: A Hunger Artist (Connelly Theater/The Tank, Edinburgh Fringe) Powerhouse (New Ohio, O'Neill Playwrights Conference Finalist), Ocean (Mabou Mines Residency), Flatland (EST/Sloan Commission), There Will Come Soft Rains (FringeNYC). His programming at the Connelly includes Futurity (Soho Rep./Ars Nova), Lypsinka!, The Offending Gesture (The Tank), and Daniel Kitson's A Show for Christmas. Flint & Tinder: YOUARENOWHERE, Ada|Ava, Paper Hat Game, Ephemera Trilogy (all Drama Desk-nominated). Josh has also worked as an assistant director at Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, Paper Mill Playhouse, NYMF, Virginia Stage, and a writer's assistant at Playwrights Horizons. He worked in the writer's office of HBO's The Wire, and is an alum of the Baltimore School for the Arts and Oberlin College.

Sinking Ship Productions, a Brooklyn-based theater company, is the creative collaboration between Jonathan Levin and Josh Luxenberg. They work with a core group of Associate Artists, combining physical theater, puppetry, music and movement in delightful, strange and unexpected ways. Their productions have grappled with concepts such as the creation and destruction of the universe as imagined by science fiction writers, how a man's search for connection could ultimately lead to complete isolation, and the limits of human understanding through the search for extra dimensions of space in theoretical physics. Previous productions include There Will Come Soft Rains (FringeNYC, Barrow St. Theater) and Powerhouse (New Ohio Theater), both of which played to sold out houses and extended runs in New York City.

In addition to creating original work, Sinking Ship also runs the popular NYC puppet and music series Puppet Playlist, which has has become one of New York's premiere venues for original short-form puppetry.

A HUNGER ARTIST will be presented January 10 - 16, 2017 at The Connelly Theater. Tickets may be purchased online at ahungerartistnyc.brownpapertickets.com/, or by phone at 800-838-3006.

Additional show information and trailer here: http://www.sinkingshipproductions.com/a-hunger-artist/

Facebook: facebook.com/puppetplaylist
Twitter: @TheShipSinks
Instagram: @TheShipSinks

To post a comment, you must register and login.