Molly Beach Murphy and Taylor Riccio Set for Double Bill at Incubator Arts Project, 2/28-3/2

Molly Beach Murphy and Taylor Riccio will present LBJ'S GREATEST HITS + MOLLY MURPHY & NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON ON OUR LAST DAY ON EARTH, February 28-March 2, 2014, at Incubator Arts.

Molly Beach Murphy and Taylor Riccio premiere two works in conversation with one another on this double bill.

Taylor Riccio has every intention of performing his two-man show with the world's most advanced one-half life-sized Lyndon Johnson robot. The plan is that for a live audience, the two will discuss Johnson's place in history, his greatest achievements and regrets in politics, love and life using scaled models and documents from the historical archive. Unfortunately that plan is derailed when the pair have a falling out. What remains is an ardent attempt by Riccio to perform the two-man work by himself in an attempt to win back the love of his robot. Over the course of the evening the discourse devolves from a logical and historically accurate exploration of LBJ's life to a rambling monologue accusing the robot itself of having been behind the JFK assassination as evidenced by doctored photographs, strangely scaled models, and unreliable accounts from unsavory characters.

Molly Murphy And Neil deGrasse Tyson On Our Last Day On Earth is an experimental adventure cabaret by Molly Beach Murphy about the famous astrophysicist, Neil de Grasse Tyson and his biggest fangirl, a fictional character named Molly Murphy. It's the last day on Earth, and our solar system is about to get sucked into a massive black hole. Molly marches down to the Hayden Planetarium in New York City in order to find her hero Dr. Tyson and have him fulfill her lifetime dream of being a space tourist. A vaudeville adventure story about two lost souls in the Hayden Planetarium, Molly Murphy as Neil deGrasse Tyson On Our Last Day On Earth is composed of source material from Tyson's books, lectures, podcasts and biography as well as our own fears about the cosmic end of the world.

Written by Molly Beach Murphy
Directed and Choreographed by Derek Smith
Music and Lyrics by Loren Beri and Kyle Acheson of Met City
Dramaturgy by Jenna Clark Embrey

Featuring Kyle Acheson, Loren Beri, Steve Conroy, Edlyn "Sonny" Griffin, Julia Izumi, Carson Moody, Molly Beach Murphy, and Sarah Stephens

Scenic and Lighting Design by Taylor Riccio
Artwork by Eric Emch
Photography by Hunter Canning
Produced by Allison Bressi

Taylor Riccio is a theater artist living and working in New York City. He has worked in various capacities with Reid Farrington, Object Collection, Hybrid Stage Project, Molly Murphy, Sarah Rose Leonard, and True/False Theater. He holds a BA in American Studies from Fordham University.

Molly Beach Murphy is a Harlem-based stage and film director via Texas via Indonesia. At the Incubator: Indigo Dai: Immortal Men, Morbid Poetry. New York Directing: Not I (APT. 3E), To Bloom (Dixon Place Hot Festival), The Stronger (APT. 3E) and Okay, Cupid! (Snapdragon Theatre Works). She has worked at venues that include Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, The Apollo Theater, Arena Stage, The Dallas Theater Center and The Invisible Dog among many others. She is the creator and curator of APT. 3E, a monthly performance salon in her living room. To date, salons and performances have included new plays, work by Beckett and Strindberg, drag performance, long form improv, new music, and mask performance by various artists in the community. Molly has served as an assistant to John Guare, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tina Landau, Patricia McGregor and Stan Wojewodski Jr. She is a recipient of the Garland Wright Award for Achievement in Directing. BFA, Southern Methodist University.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at incubatorarts.org or by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101. These works are performed at Incubator Arts Project (located inside St. Mark's Church) • 131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Ave.) • L to First or Third Ave; R, W to Broadway/8th St.; 6 to Astor Place; N,Q, 4, 5 to Union Sq.

Incubator Arts Project cultivates and presents a multi-generational community of artists who challenge the conventions of live performance by producing original work at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. IAP programs provide access to a fully equipped venue along with personalized career support and strategic investment of resources individually tailored to the needs of each artist.

By providing production opportunities for emerging to mid-career artists, Incubator Arts Project functions as a training ground where formative repertoire is conceived and new work can be constructed as each participant's artistic voice develops a distinct style. In addition to offering artists exclusive access to a theater, technical assistance and administrative support, staff provides professional mentoring and advisement to assist in the process of making well-considered choices in support of artists' long-term stability and success during all stages of their careers.

Core programs include the New Performance Series, Other Forces, Music and Short Form. Incubator Arts Project is fiscally managed by Performing Artservices Inc., a New York based non-profit arts organization, and is artistically led by a team of curators who collectively make programmatic, artistic and organizational decisions: Travis Just, Samara Naeymi, Daniel Nelson, Brendan Regimbal and Shannon Sindelar.

Incubator Arts Project was originally known as the Incubator and began in 2006 as a program of Richard Foreman's legendary Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Since then, it has presented award-winning work by artists including: Alec Duffy, Banana Bag & Bodice, Debate Society, 31 Down, Daniel Fish, Half-Straddle, Karinne Keithley, Object Collection, Vampire Cowboys, and Witness Relocation. Incubator artists have seen their work tour nationally and internationally and go on to Off-Broadway runs.

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