PS122 Presents John Jahnke and the Hotel Savant's THE ARCHERY CONTEST Oct. 2-18

The Archery Contest delivers a risqué, daring and hyper-stylized sex comedy that shoots straight into the heart of marriage in America. Behind this Technicolor Romantic Pastoral lies a glittering and scathing indictment of rules and regulations, rituals, and rites of spring. A foursome and a sexton breach the boundaries of matrimonial shackles and dive headlong into a hedonistic lifestyle with complex consequences.

Inspired by the struggle for sexual autonomy in a religiously constrained America, The Archery Contest explores the relationship between the Reverend Kendrick and his wife Mercy during an unidentified era of theological conflict. Focusing on the desire of Reverend Kendrick to reach beyond the acceptable boundaries of his marital shackles, and Mercy's increasing acceptance of a pantheistic lifestyle, the work explores the puritanical knots that bind the American psyche.

Through live recording, music, choreography, and pictorial constructs this production achieves a vitally artistic yet mysterious staging. Through John Jahnke's work as both playwright and director, he seeks to explore this certain mystery: a certain mystery whose elliptical form mirrors the past, present and future, an unattainable mystery whose truth remains clearly elusive. With The Hotel Savant he creates theatrical works whose experimental nature reflect this need to portray the mystery as historically repetitive, one relevant to both the present and the past. It is through these works whose obliquely topical themes - either historical or thematically relevant - that the company seeks to reach out to its contemporary audience.

Presented as an original five-actor theatre piece featuring Richard Toth, Hillary Spector, Carey Urban, Alexander Nifong and Jeff Worden, The Archery Contest in features an emphasis on text, tableau, video and sound. The production will be helmed by Playwright/Director John Jahnke and his artistic team; sound designer Kristin Worrall, set designer Peter Ksander, lighting designer Miranda K. Hardy and video designer Andrew Schneider.

The Hotel Savant is a theatre company based in New York City, explores the livid, the uncertain, the magical and sublime: the seminal ideologies of history and mythology and their impact on contemporary narrative. Committed to mounting or developing one original work per year, they utilize a variety of performance techniques that include pageantry, dance and tableau. In addition they are dedicated to reviving obscure and rarely performed texts that correlate to present day topics. Hotel Savant has created work in residence at The Watermill Center, The Armory on Park and 3LD Art and Technology Center. Artistic Director John Jahnke created the script for his new work, ‘Men Go Down', in residence The MacDowell Colony. The company's entire design team were Henry Hewes Design Award Nominees (2008): Notable Effects/The Cenci.

John Jahnke is a New York based playwright/director whose most recent production, The Cenci, debuted in New York City in February 2008 at The Ohio Theatre. Jahnke also staged the world premiere of Susan Sontag's never performed play A Parsifal, which debuted at Performance Space 122 in March 2006. Other original theatrical works include the performance workshop of Funeral Games (The Public Theater) The Shady Maids of Haiti (Walkerspace) Mercurius (HERE) Lola Montez in Bavaria..., (HERE) Jahnke created The Beasts of Luxury, Syphilis, The Monster of Dusseldorf or Paint Me, Paint Me Peter Kurten. Jahnke was a member of Reza Abdoh's Dar a Luz company, appearing in Quotations From a Ruined City and Simon Boccannegra. He has also directed a number of short films and videos,including His Red Snow White Apple Lips and Sex, Death and Rebirth in July, which havescreened at numerous festivals throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. The Shady Maids of Haiti was published in 2004. He is a former opera and ballet student who received a B.F.A from the California Institute of the Arts' Fine Arts program. His company has received funding from New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, The Laura Pels Foundation, The Foundation for Contemporary Art, among others, and he has developed work at The Watermill Center, The MacDowell Colony, and through Chashama's AREA Space Grant program.

Kristin Worrall is a sound designer (film, TV, theater, installations) and musician. Other collaborations with John Jahnke and the Hotel Savant include A Parsifal (PS 122) and The Cenci (Ohio Theatre, Henry Hewes Design Award Nominee), as well as its' workshop production at The Watermill Center (Spring 2007). She is sound designer for Nature Theater of Oklahoma (Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper), and their collaborations include No Dice (Soho Rep, UTR 2007, PICA, Philadelphia Live Arts, Obie Award 2008, presently touring Europe), (UTR 2008), Fragment (Classic Stage Company), Three Sisters (CSC), Kasimir and Karoline (CSC), and Irresistible Targets. Her work has been seen and heard at NY Fringe Festival (2005-2007), PS 122, NY Theater Workshop, Collective Unconscious, La Mama, Tonic, Knitting Factory, Here, The Conan O'Brien Show, and many others. She received her M.A. from the New School in Media Studies.

Peter Ksander is a sculptor and theater artist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Credits include designs for: The Cenci (Ohio Theatre: Henry Hewes Design Award Nominee), The Brothers Size (The Public Theatre), Laude in Urbis (Compania di Colombari), This Place is a Desert (Under the Radar), Drum of the Waves of Horikawa (Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf), The Blackamoor Angel (Bard Summerscape), Women Dreamt Horses and Panic (Bait 3 Festival/PS122). He is co-founder of Tiny Elephant, a theater company dedicated to the performing object, and has continuing artistic relationships with The Hotel Savant, the Theater of a Two-Headed Calf; Banana, Bag, and Bodice; The Ontological-Hysteric Theater; and TENT. In 2005 Peter was one of the recipients of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program, and received a 2008 Obie set design award for Jay Scheib's Untitled (MARS) at PS122.

Miranda K. Hardy is a lighting designer and shadow artist. Her work has been seen at St Ann's Warehouse,

The Ontological Hysteric Theater, PS122, Festival di Due Mondi in Spoleto Italy, PICA's Time Based Art Festival, The Flea Theater, The San Francisco Fringe, The Juilliard School, On the Boards, CalArts, La Mama ETC, The Dublin Fringe, The Ohio and others. She is a co-founder of Tiny Elephant, a theater dedicated to the performing object and has continuing artistic relationships with Banana Bag and Bodice, TENT, Mallory Catlett, Tom Lee, The Builders Association and Hand 2 Mouth. Miranda holds a MFA in Theatrical Design from the California Institute of the Arts. Henry Hewes Design Award Nominee for The Hotel Savant's The Cenci.

Andrew Schneider is a multimedia artist, designer, and performer. He is the co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of the Chicago-based theatre company, BigPictureGroup. His solo performance work has been seen at PS122, Prelude 08 and 07, and The Tank. His multimedia devices have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Out NY, Maker Faire, SIGGRAPH, and at the Center Pompidou in Paris. His Solar Bikini has been shown internationally and was featured in a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. His current projects include Experimental Devices for Performance (.com), and Acting Stranger (.com). He is alsoworking with The Wooster Group. Andrew holds a Masters Degree in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU. Find out more at andrewjs.com.

The Archery Contest is presented by Performance Space 122; Developed at 3LD Art & Technology Center; and with the support of Art International Radio (AIR) and NYSCA.

Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media. PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance; PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs.
www.ps122.org.

The Archery Contest premieres Friday, October 2 and runs through Sunday, October 18: Wednesday through Saturday at 8; and Sunday at 6pm.

Tickets: $20 and $15 (students/seniors).

Tickets and PS122 Passports are now on sale and available online at www.ps122.org, by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101, and at the Performance Space 122 Box Office. Note: The PS122 Passport is a bundle of 5 tickets for only $55 that can be used in ANY combination to the 2009-10 season performances.

 

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