PRELUDE '08; Free Festival of New Works to Take Place Sept. 24-27

PRELUDE '08 -- the fifth annual FREE festival of new work by more than 20 of New York's most distinctive contemporary theatre artists including Richard Foreman, Big Art Group, NYC Players, Builders Association, Jenny Schwartz and NTUSA -- will be presented September 24 to 27 at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) at The Graduate Center (365 Fifth Ave. at 34 St.) at The City University of New York in Manhattan.
 
All PRELUDE '08 performances are FREE -- on a first-come, first-served basis. Performances are scheduled from 4 to 10 p.m. each day starting Wednesday, September 24 through Saturday, September 27. For information about festival programs, call 212-817-1860 or visit www.preludenyc.org
 
The enormously popular PRELUDE festival allows theater goers an advance look at nearly two dozen new works -- under one roof and at no cost -- before they are performed later in the season in venues around the city.  PRELUDE '08 also provides an opportunity to participate in post-performance talk-backs with the artists, who themselves are at the forefront of contemporary theater in NYC. 
 
Curated by Andy Horwitz and Geoffrey Scott, along with Dr. Frank Hentschker, director of programs at MESTC, PRELUDE '08 this year focuses on the question:  "How does the space where a work is presented affect context?," thus considering how the lines between theater, dance, performance art, spoken word and multi-media increasingly overlap, and how performances in non-traditional venues -- especially museums -- have become more and more popular with audiences.   To that end, PRELUDE '08 will feature artists and their new works of "Interactive Art," "Moving Art," "Video Art," "Poetic Art" and "Ensemble Art."
 
According to Mr. Horwitz, "PRELUDE is more than just another theater festival -- it is a celebration of creativity, innovation and community.  Only in New York could you have four days of open studios and theaters showing the work of the most important emerging and established artists working in theater today." 
 
Dr. Hentschker notes that PRELUDE '08 is open to New York artists and companies as a way of "supporting artists who live and work in New York," adding that this unique festival has become especially popular with artists, as well as with audiences.
 
PRELUDE '08 PARTICIPANTS ARE:
Big Art Group, Big Dance Theater, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Fluxconcert, NYC Players, Banana Bag and Bodice, Builders Association, Sheila Callaghan, Richard Foreman, Wax Factory/Ivan Talijancic, Jenny Schwartz, Raul Vincent Enriquez, Neal Medlyn, Andrew Schneider, Peter Von Salis and Ruth Sergei, NTUSA, Okwui Okpokwasili, Temporary Distortion, The Air Band, Joyce Cho,Tal Yarden, The Paper Industry and moving theater.
 
An additional program in PRELUDE '08 will be "Spotlight on Poland," which will preview new work by four contemporary Polish writers prior to the "Native Poland Festival" later this fall.
 
Among the panelists participating throughout PRELUDE: Mark Russell (Under the Radar), Debra Singer (The Kitchen), Marianne Weems (The Builders Association), Yehuda Duenyas (NTUSA), Susan Feldman (St. Ann's Warehouse), David Cote (Time Out New York), Eric Dyer (Radiohole), Richard Foreman, Vallejo Gantner (P.S. 122), et.al.