New Ohio Theatre & IRT's Archive Residency Premieres From One-Eighth Theater & The Drunkard's Wife

The Archive Residency is a vital incubator for New York City's most electrifying independent theater companies. This two-year residency offers companies an artistic home for the development and presentation of a new work. Each residency culminates with a world premiere production. Now in its sixth year, the Archive Residency is a collaboration between New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater (likeminded neighbors in the historic Archive Building in the West Village).

The two companies completing their residencies this spring are:

One-Eighth Theater, presenting the world premiere of NUMBNESS: CHAPTER 2, a tragicomedy about the unfelt, directed and choreographed by Daniel Irizarry, running April 26 - May 18, 2019. Previews begin April 26 for an April 29 opening.

The Drunkard's Wife, presenting the world premiere of MADAME LYNCH, written and directed by Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin, and choreographed by Iliana Gauto of Ballet Panambí Vera, running May 26 - June 15, 2019. Previews begin May 26 for a May 29 opening.

Shows take place at New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in New York City. Tickets are $25. Purchase at http://NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 212-352-3101.


One-Eighth Theater's NUMBNESS: CHAPTER 2 runs April 26 - May 18. Schedule varies - for exact days and times visit http://NewOhioTheatre.org.

Imagine a world where you feel nothing. NUMBNESS: CHAPTER 2 examines this world in two parts.

Black Water, by Sylvia Bofill, presents an apocalyptic puzzle. In a laboratory/kitchen, a couple collects ash and tries to stay awake, hoping to see their mute daughter once more. Outside, dead bodies lie on the shore and the sun hides, creating confusion and chaos. Will the couple find a way to survive, make meaning, or escape?

Yovo, by Robert Lyons, performed by Daniel Irizarry, features the story of a plane crash victim waiting for the birth of the post-post-post.

Ages 18+. The running time is approximately 75 minutes.

The cast includes Laura Butler Rivera, Michael Leonard and Daniel Irizarry.

The production team includes Jungah Han (Set Design), Erik Petersen (Lighting Design), Elia Chuaqui (Sound Design), Meghan E. Healey (Costume Design), Chris Cancel Pomales (Props Design), Jan Lech (Composer) and Laura Butler Rivera (Assistant Director).

Founded in 2008 by Artistic Directors Daniel Irizarry and Laura Butler Rivera, One-Eighth Theater creates new, bold, international theatre exploring cross-cultural exchanges that constantly push theatrical boundaries all over the world. Their distinguished history includes a 2018-2019 Archive Residency with NYC's Obie Award-winning New Ohio Theatre & IRT Theater, performing at IRT in 2012, two Mabou Mines' residencies (2007-2008 & 2010-2011), a four-year residency at INTAR (2012-2016) and an original piece in Turkey (2016-2017). 11 years + 14 productions + 15 countries = One-Eighth Theater. For info visit https://oneeighth.org.

This project, a new trilogy of One-Eighth Theater, was born during a two-year artist and academic experience in Ankara, Turkey and Vilnius, Lithuania between Laura Butler Rivera Rivera and Daniel Irizarry. Chapter 1 was born in Turkey and Cyprus where the theme explored was Empathy. Chapter 2 explores the theme of Numbness and it came about after witnessing firsthand the attempted Coup d'etat in Ankara, Turkey.

One-Eighth Theater's work has been called "thrillingly kaleidoscopic and boldly physical...an athletic whirl of manic energy" (The New York Times), "gushing with superb physical comedy...gleefully obnoxious and gratifyingly maniacal" (The New Yorker) and "wild, shocking and delightful" (Time Out New York).


The Drunkard's Wife's MADAME LYNCH runs May 26 - June 15. Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm with additional shows on Tue 5/28 at 8pm and Wed 5/29 at 8pm. No show on Sun 6/2.

MADAME LYNCH is a spectacle with music that takes on the picaresque story of Eliza Lynch, a 19th century woman who was an Irish potato famine refugee, a French courtesan, and the self-proclaimed "Empress of Paraguay." In collaboration with the Paraguayan folkloric dance group Ballet Panambí Vera, The Drunkard's Wife creates a complex and fragmented portrait of La Lynch through live music and dance. The show reenacts real and imagined scenes from her life as an adventuress, cultural doyenne, femme fatale and microfinance pioneer through various theatrical frames, including a ball that goes wrong, a fashion show that tells the story of a terrible war, and a list of the 695 known birds of Paraguay. The running time is approximately 80 minutes.

The cast includes Obie Award winner Juliana Francis Kelly, Nikki Calonge, Lisa Clair, Braulio Cruz, Blaze Ferrer, Mieko Gavia and the dancers of Ballet Panambí Vera.

The production team includes Yung Oh Le Page (Scenic Design), Christina Tang (Lighting Design), Craig Flanagin (Sound Design & Music), Normandy Sherwood and Chelsea Collins (Costume & Prop Design) and David Pym (Video Design). Live band directed by Rachel Swaner.

The Drunkard's Wife is a theater company led by Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin that creates theatrical and musical spectacles in New York City. Their mission is to create and produce experimental musical plays and site-specific theatrical environments with a generous, maximalist design sense. Their plays are darkly comic, language-drunk, full of reverence for the hand-made and therefore wholeheartedly feminist and anticapitalist. Their theatrical style combines their impulses towards camp, the carnivalesque, and the maximal with an appetite for subtlety, complex argument and tenderness. They make music that draws from folk mountain music traditions and no-wave dissonance, and that incorporates complex time signatures and improvisation. For info visit https://www.thedrunkardswife.com.

The Drunkard's Wife's work has been called "a tour de force" (NY Theatre Now), "intelligent with a screwball bawdiness and irreverence" (Stage Buddy) and "delightfully absurd and cerebral" (New York Theatre Review).

Ballet Panambí Vera is an organization founded by Berta Gauto which is dedicated to supporting Paraguayan cultural in New York. Since 1995, Panambí Vera's mission has been to educate, demonstrate and spread Paraguayan culture through collaboration with local artists, organizations, and leaders in the community. While their focus is empowering young Latina/Paraguayan girls locally, ultimately their goal is to embrace global currents in contemporary culture so that they can foster global citizenship through the affirmation of local identities. Choreographer Iliana Gauto is the creative director of Ballet Panambí Vera.


About the Archive Residency: The first year includes a one-month stay in IRT's 3B Development Series, and a one-week presentation in New Ohio's OBIE Award-winning Ice Factory summer festival. Archive Residency's two first-year resident companies, Radical Evolution and Byzantine Choral Project, will be presenting first-look showings in the 2019 Ice Factory Festival, June 26 - August 10. The second year includes additional time at IRT, and culminates with a fully realized, four-week run in the New Ohio's main season. Each fall, two more independent companies are invited into the Archive Residency, bringing the program to full strength with four companies in residence, each cycling through the two-year development process. Archive Residency alumni include anecdota, The Assembly, Blessed Unrest, Built for Collapse, Collaboration Town, The Mad Ones, Our Voices Theater, Piehole, Rady&Bloom and Vampire Cowboys. Membership into the Archive Residency is currently by invitation only.

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning theatre under the leadership of Robert Lyons, Artistic Director, and Marc Stuart Weitz, Producing Director. The New Ohio serves New York's most adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting bold work from today's vast independent theatre community. They believe the best of this community, the small artist-driven ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of where American theatre is right now and where it's going. From their home in the West Village's historic Archive Building, the New Ohio provides a high-profile platform for downtown's most mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish and profound theatrical endeavors. The theatre is accessible from the #1 train to Christopher St. or A, B, C, D, E, F or M train to West 4th St. For info visit http://NewOhioTheatre.org, Like them on Facebook at https://www.Facebook.com/NewOhioTheatre, and follow on Twitter (https://twitter.com/NewOhioTheatre) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/newohiotheatre) at @NewOhioTheatre.

IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT's mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. For info visit http://irttheater.org.


Daniel Irizarry is an international director and actor. He's known for The Maids by José Rivera (New York Times Critic's Pick), UBU (Time Out NY Critic's Pick), The Madman and The Nun performed in Turkey (Bilkent), Poland (Gardzienice) and NYC (Pregones Theatre), An Italian Straw Hat (Essen, Germany), Mouthgasm Chapter 1 (Turkey and Cyprus), Momorato (Tokyo, Japan), and Chekhov's one-act series (Seoul, South Korea). This April he performs in Piazzola's Maria de Buenos Aires (Bare Opera at Blue Building in NYC).

Laura Butler Rivera is an international actor, director, and choreographer. She is an Artistic Director of One-Eighth Theater; a member of Caborca, and a co-founder of Cloud of Fools Theater. Most recently, she performed Salome in M-34's Salome, translated and directed by James Rutherford at Irondale. She holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Laura was a guest performer in Studio Vivarium's L'Effet de Serge in the Under the Radar Festival, which won an Obie Award.

Michael Leonard is a NYC based actor and filmmaker. He holds an MFA in acting from Columbia University. Since 2012 Michael has been an active member in both One-Eighth Theater and Cloud of Fools theatre companies. Michael is a producer and director with the film company Blackbox Productions.

Normandy Sherwood is a playwright, costumer, director and performer. Her plays have been presented at The New Ohio Theatre, The Public Theater, The Kitchen, Dixon Place, The Brick and more. In addition to her work with The Drunkard's Wife, she was a co-Artistic Director of the OBIE-award-winning National Theater of the United States of America (2000-2017, R.I.P.). As a costume designer she has worked with Mac Wellman, Young Jean Lee, Half Straddle, Faye Driscoll (BESSIE Award, 2009) and more. (http://www.normandysherwood.com)

Craig Flanagin is a performer, composer, playwright, theater director and carpenter. He is a founder of the bands God Is My Co-Pilot and Attractive Nuisance. He has toured worldwide, playing in more than 40 countries (so far). As an improvising guitarist, he has been lucky to perform with many of his favorite musicians, including Yoshimi (Boredoms), Sandy Ewen, Cat Power, John Zorn and Ikue Mori.