Eliza Bent's TOILET FIRE Returns to the Brick with Dave Malloy This Weekend

After critically acclaimed runs this year at JACK and Abrons Art Center, TOILET FIRE (Time Out Critics' Pick) kicks off 2016 with a royal flush as part of Brooklyn's "Exponential Festival."

Encore performances run tonight, January 15 at 4pm and tomorrow, January 16 at 7pm -- the latter featuring Dave Malloy in the role of Cantor.

Written and performed by Eliza Bent, TOILET FIRE is a ceremony and celebration of the one thing that unites us all: our need to go. Using the structure of an ancient religious ritual to talk about matters of digestion, philosophy, and faith, TOILET FIRE, explodes with song, story, audience participation, and unexpected textual twists.

By the end of this tour-de-toots, TOILET FIRE reverts to a more traditional solo show structure with the real Eliza Bent ultimately asking: How can we best relieve suffering? Poo puns and word play mix together in a show that is as irreverent as it is incisive.

TOILET FIRE features Eliza Bent and Alaina Ferris; directed by Kevin Laibson; dramatur(d)gy by Jess Barbagallo; set + lights by Christopher Bowser; costumes by Enver Chakartash; projections by Anthony Jackson; stage management + assistant direction by Nic Adams.

Running time is 60 minutes. TOILET FIRE is performed at The Brick (579 Metropolitan Ave at Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn) L train to Lorimer stop / G train Metropolitan stop. More info at web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/953932. Tickets: $18.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Eliza Bent (writer/performer)
Eliza Bent is a performer / playwright / journalist. Her plays include: The Beyonce (Breaking String Theatre, 2014 Payne Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event), Blue Wizard / Black Wizard (Incubator Arts Project / Other Forces 2014 festival), The Hotel Colors (Bushwick Starr, L magazine's 25 best stage shows of 2013), and Karma Kharms (or yarns by Kharms) (Target Margin Lab at Bushwick Starr). Her performance pieces include: Fire the Hire (New George's Jam Festival), Toilet Time with Eliza Bent (Catch! 50, Great Plains Theatre Conference, "Little Theatre" at Dixon Place), Trumped! (Solo Nova Ones at Eleven) and Pen Pals Meet (Iranian Theatre Festival at the Brick). Bent is a MacDowell Colony fellow, a Bay Area Playwrights Finalist, a New Georges affiliated artist and member of Project Y's Playwrights Group. Bent is a contributor with American Theatre magazine and TDF's Stages, a frequent performer with the Obie-award winning company Half Straddle, and lives in Brooklyn. MFA in playwriting Brooklyn College.

Kevin Laibson (director)
Kevin Laibson is a producer, director, educator, improviser, and grump. In 2010, he co-founded Magic Futurebox, a performance and development space for experimental theater in a factory in Sunset Park, which closed so the landlords could make it a food court or some shit. From 2010-2012, he was the theater curator for The Tank. He developed the improv program for the New York Film Academy Musical Theater wing, and was on faculty in the filmmaking, acting, and musical theater departments there for 8 years. Other teaching includes TVI studios, NYU Tisch, the Boys and Girls Club of America. Directing highlights: Tommy Smith's Demon Dreams (Oni No Yume) with a new score by DJ Spooky (NY Premiere, 3 NYIT Award Nominations, 1 win), Alan Schmuckler's I Miss the City (Joe's Pub), Dance School: School for Dance (#serials at the Flea), Katharine Clark Gray's The Pestilence is Coming - A Superfun New Musical About How You Will Probably Die! (Magic Futurebox, based on the album by The Minor Leagues), City Hall Sketch Comedy (2010, 2010, 2011 INNY Noms., Best Sketch Group), Next to Normal (Steel River Playhouse, PA), Skyscraper National Park (narrative comedic improv on and about rooftops), rebecca AND ron (2011 INNY nom., Best Twoprov). Producing highlights: Much Ado About Nothing (Public Theater - Mobile Shakespeare Unit), Sometimes in Prague (Ice Factory), The Throwbacks (NYMF), SEEWATCHLOOK (High Line, Canal Brasil Documentary), Public Domain Series (The Tank). @kevinlaibson

Alaina Ferris (music)
Alaina Ferris is a composer, performer, and poet. She composed for Mac Wellman's play, The Offending Gesture, performed in Gary Winter's Daredevil (The Brick Theater) and Temporary Distortion's six-hour durational piece My Voice Has an Echo in It (Watermill Center, Exit Festival, Stereolux). She has also recently worked with playwrights Mia Rovegno, Mark Sitko, Scott Adkins, and William Burke. She has an MFA in Poetry from New York University. She lives in Brooklyn with Paul Ketchum.

Pictured: Eliza Bent. Photo by Knud Adams.

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