Dutch Kills Theater's Immersive Show TEMPING Begins Previews in October

Dutch Kills Theater (In Quietness, The Sister, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies) will present Wolf 359's TEMPING an interactive, immersive and site specific solo theatrical experience. It is written by Michael Yates Crowley (The Rape of the Sabine Women, The Ted Haggard Monologues) and directed by Michael Rau. with sound, lighting and props by Asa Wember (Seagullmachine) and set by Sara C Walsh (Queen of the Night, A Beautiful Day in November on the...Great Lakes). Previews begin October 23 at The Wild Project with opening slated for October 29.

Somewhere in a filing cabinet in Delaware or Indiana, there is a table that shows how long we're expected to live. Most of us will never see it. But what if your job was to update these tables, to record the beginnings and ends of thousands of lives? What if you found the formula to predict your own lifespan?

Sarah Jane Tully, a 53-year-old actuary, is taking her first vacation in years, and you've been hired to cover for her. TEMPING, the strange and comic tale of an employee's inner life, is performed for an audience of one by a Windows PC, a corporate phone, a laser printer, and the Microsoft Office Suite. Filling in at Sarah Jane's cubicle, you'll update client records, send emails, and eavesdrop on intra-office romance. Each performance is unique, depending on which tasks you accomplish and which of your co-workers you decide to trust. Congratulations, you're the new temp! Get ready to work.

With no live performers, the piece interacts with the single audience member and challenges them with themes of human interaction through technology, isolation, and death. Contrasting the anonymity of an Excel spreadsheet with furtive moments of human intimacy, TEMPING brings you deep into the heart of corporate America.

Each audience member will be required to wear a face mask throughout the experience. Hand sanitizer is available and all surfaces will be disinfected between patrons.

Michael Yates Crowley is a New York City-based writer and performer whose work has been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. His works for theater include The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B Matthias (The Duke on 42nd Street/ Playwrights Realm); Righteous Money (Ed Fringe / Pleasance); Gunplay: A Love Story (developed at NYTW and Ars Nova); Song of a Convalescent Ayn Rand... (American Repertory Theater, Joe's Pub); The Dead, Inc (Schlosstheater Moers); Evanston: A Rare Comedy (2013 O'Neill NPC selection); and The Ted Haggard Monlogoues (published by S. Fischer Verlag; filmed by HBO). He is a former New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting fellow and member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at Juilliard. Together with the director Michael Rau, he founded the narrative technology company Wolf 359.

Michael Rau is a live performance director specializing in new plays, opera, and digital media projects. He has worked internationally in Germany, Brazil, the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the Czech Republic. He has created work in New York City at Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, PS122, HERE Arts Center, Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, The Brick, 59E59, 3LD, and Dixon Place. Regionally, his work has been seen at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland OH, and The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. He has developed new plays at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Lark and the Kennedy Center. Michael Rau is a recipient of fellowships from the Likhachev Foundation, the Kennedy Center, and the National New Play Network. He has been a resident artist at the Orchard Project, E|MERGE, and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. He has been an associate director for Anne Bogart, Les Waters, Robert Woodruff, and Ivo van Hove. He is a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect and a professor of directing and devising at Stanford University.

Asa Wember. Sound design credits include Evanston, Righteous Money; Song of a Convalescent Ayn Rand... and The Block Association Project for Wolf 359; The Sister, In Quietness, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies, Latter Days, Selkie, and The Antelope Party for Dutch Kills; In Corpo, Seagullmachine, That Poor Dream; and HOME/SICK of The Assembly. Other Work: The Russian and the Jew with Anna&Kitty, Am I Dead with Flux Theatre Ensemble and Holidays/Inn, Coyote with Coyote Company.

Sara C Walsh is a New York based theatre-maker. She works in immersive and environmental theatre as well as traditional venues. She is a member of Wolf 359 in NY and Resident Designer at Wellfleet's Harbor Stage Theatre on Cape Cod. She helped create Queen of the Night (as Head of Design), an acclaimed large scale immersive theatre/circus/food experience in the Paramount Hotel in Times Square. She won a New York Dance and Performance award ("Bessie") for 837 Venice Blvd. with Faye Driscoll Group. Her design for Get Mad at Sin! (directed by Jeff Larson, conceived and performed by Andrew Dinwiddie) was a NY Times Critic's Pick and toured to the TBA Festival in Portland OR, The Fusebox Festival in Austin, TX and took over the parking lot of the San Diego Museum of Art with a revival tent. She designed the Obie award winning A Beautiful Day in November on the...Great Lakes for Lee Sunday Evans, and an immersive house party musical called The Bad Years for Stephen Brackett. She teaches at Hamilton College in upstate NY.

Wolf 359 is a New York City-based company of narrative technologists. Our work exists at the intersection of theater, technology, and experience. Since the company's founding in 2007 by Michael Yates Crowley and Michael Rau, Wolf 359 work has been shown in New York, Berlin, Chicago, Dublin, Edinburgh, and many other cities and city-states.

Since 2011, Dutch Kills Theater Company (Alley Scott, Artistic Director and Allison Raynes, Managing Director) has been committed to developing and producing new plays by the most exciting emerging theater artists in New York and beyond. Dutch Kills full productions include Selkie by Krista Knight at The Wild Project, Intelligence at Next Door at NYTW, The Sister by Eric John Meyer at the 4th Street Theater and later at Paradise in Edinburgh, In Quietness by Anna Moench at Walkerspace, and Adventure Quest by Richard Lovejoy at Just the Tonic in Edinburgh. In 2017 the company produced two plays developed by Dutch Kills: Latter Days by Ben Beckley and The Providence of Neighboring Bodies by Jean Ann Douglass, both directed by Jess Chayes as an Ars Nova Fling. Providence... was also produced in August 2018 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The company has produced dozens of developmental workshops and readings including works by Kate Benson, Alexandra Silber, and Erin Mallon.

TEMPING runs October 23 - November 22. Performances are daily at 10:30AM, 12PM, 1:30PM, 3PM, 4:30PM, 6PM, 7:30PM and 9PM. (Note: no performances 10/26, 11/ 3,4,9 or 16.) The Wild Project is located at 195 E. 3rd Street between Aves A & B. Running time is 50 minutes. Tickets are $10 - $45 at www.dutchkillstheater.com

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