Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theate

UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL JANUARY 6-17, 2021

A Thousand Ways (Part One): A Phone Call
Now Playing Through JANUARY 17 (Running Time: 60 Minutes)
Live Phone Call
By 600 HIGHWAYMEN (U.S.)
Written and Created by Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype

Pick up the phone. Someone is on the line. You don't know their name, and you still won't when the hour is over, but through this exchange - as you follow a thread of automated prompts - a portrait of your partner will emerge through fleeting moments of exposure. A THOUSAND WAYS "takes a simple premise and turns it into magic" (The New Yorker).

Under the Radar is thrilled to present A THOUSAND WAYS (PART ONE): A PHONE CALL, the first of an eventual three-part series by Obie Award-winning theatermakers, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, known for exhilarating performances that challenge the very definition of theater.

Taking place around the world, A THOUSAND WAYS explores the line between strangeness and kinship, distance and proximity, and how the most intimate assembly can become profoundly radical.

Capsule
JANUARY 6-17 (Running Time: 50 Minutes)
Streaming On-Demand at publictheater.org
By Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall (U.S.)
Directed and Produced by Taibi Magar and Tyler Dobrowsky

Inspired by the past year CAPSULE is a kaleidoscopic reflection on isolation and longing, about breaking apart and breaking free and the impossible nature of connection. Through original text and music, Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall grapple with race, the medium of film, and being caught up in the maelstrom of 2020. In a society that insists on blunt, binary responses to complex questions, CAPSULE is a clarion call in favor of curiosity and abstraction.

Espíritu
JANUARY 6-17 (Running Time: 35 Minutes)
Streaming On-Demand at publictheater.org
By Teatro Anónimo (Chile)
Written and Directed by Trinidad González
Performed in Spanish with English subtitles

Created by Teatro Anónimo and directed by Trinidad González, ESPÍRITU is a journey through diverse stories that happen during the night of an unknown city, that involve anonymous individuals marked by the spiritual crisis unleashed by the wild consumerism of the times and the exploitation of the neoliberal model in people's consciousness, through power and the manipulation of their desires. The lack of answers that transcend money and the offer of material possessions will lead these characters to want to find the hidden devil that inhabits the city, and to catch it in a bottle.

Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran
JANUARY 7-10, 14-17 (Running Time: 60 Minutes)
Select Live Performances Online at publictheater.org
Written by Javaad Alipoor (U.K./Iran)
Co-Created by Javaad Alipoor and Kirsty Housley
Produced by The Javaad Alipoor Company

The global gap between rich and poor has never been greater. As the world decays, the spawn of the powerful dance like everyone is watching.

Winner of the 2019 Scotsman Fringe First Award, RICH KIDS: A HISTORY OF SHOPPING MALLS IN TEHRAN is a darkly comedic, urgent new play about entitlement, consumption and digital technology, that explores the ubiquitous feeling that our societies are falling apart.

Combining digital theater and a live Instagram feed, it is the sequel to the award-winning The Believers Are But Brothers, and the second part of a trilogy of plays from Javaad Alipoor about how digital technology, resentment and fracturing identities are changing the world.

Borders & Crossings
JANUARY 7-10 (Running Time: 60 Minutes)
Select Live Performances Online at publictheater.org
By Inua Ellams (U.K.)
Produced by Fuel

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother against a backdrop of sectarian violence, Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England in 1996 aged 12, moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London. An award-winning poet, performer, playwright, graphic artist, and designer, Inua returns to the theme of migration in his work, exploring his own life experiences and wider global and political questions. BORDERS & CROSSINGS is an opportunity to get to know Inua and hear some of his poetic and dramatic work on this theme, live and online from London.

Disclaimer
JANUARY 7-11, 14-17 (Running Time: 90 Minutes)
Select Live Performances Online at publictheater.org
Written by Tara Ahmadinejad
Created by Piehole (U.S.)

Disclaimer: This event contains propaganda, vague promises of Persian food, minimally invasive audience participation, and (gasp) MURDER.

Chef Nargis invites you to her virtual cooking class, and if you both do your jobs just right, you'll have more to look forward to than an aromatic dinner. Help prevent a perpetually impending war from the safety of your home! DISCLAIMER examines identity and fear, the stakes of cultural (mis)representation, the quest for togetherness, and the seductiveness of a classic whodunnit.

the motown project
JANUARY 8-17 (Running Time: 60 Minutes)
Streaming On-Demand at publictheater.org
By Alicia Hall Moran (U.S.)
Presented by Joe's Pub
Part of Joe's Pub New York Voices Commission
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype

Musical traditions yearning for each other across race, class, and nation grace Alicia Hall Moran's meditation on the Motown songbook - a cinematic, movement-based aria fusing Sugar Pie Honey Bunch with Mozart while Marvin Gaye's lyrical pathos finds solemnity in Purcell. Featuring Thomas Flippin (guitar), Steven Herring (vocals), Barrington Lee (vocals), and Reggie Washington (bass) in collaboration with choreographer Amy Hall Garner, the motown project reimagines Motor City poetics in a study of desire and infatuation only soul and opera embodied by one chanteuse could endure.

Devised Theater Working Group's INCOMING!
JANUARY 6-17 (Running Time: 30 Minutes)
Streaming On-Demand at publictheater.org

By The Devised Theater Working Group Cohort Members: Savon Bartley, Nile Harris, Miranda Haymon, Eric Lockley, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, Mia Rovegno, Justin Elizabeth Sayre, and Mariana Valencia

This year, The PubIic Theater's Devised Theater Working Group was challenged to create individual digital expressions for a group compilation video: INCOMING! Immediate, made for the here and now, this 30-minute video will show short pieces from all eight members of this cohort.

RSVP for free festival events through The Public's website to receive email updates and reminders. Booking for timed ticketed events will be available at a later date. For the full festival calendar with performance times, visit publictheater.org.

UNDER THE RADAR SYMPOSIUM: A CREATIVE SUMMIT: JANUARY 7, 2021

The Under the Radar Symposium: A Creative Summit is a half-day event on JANUARY 7, featuring conversations and panels about the field at this moment in time. Artists and arts leaders from around the globe will participate in a virtual summit. Digital attendance at the Symposium is open to all those who would like to participate. For more information on the UTR Symposium, please email utrsymposium@publictheater.org.