Video Improvisation Takes the Spotlight in THEBAN PLAYS, Beginning Tonight at the Brick

THEBAN PLAYS is a contemporary performance based on Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle. The performance focuses on the themes embodied by three characters in the ancient dramas -- Oedipus, Jocasta, and Antigone.

Created through a long-term process of video improvisation, THEBAN PLAYS seeks to find the place where the themes of Sophocles' drama resonate in the lives of the ensemble and those around us living in New York City in 2016. The performers each create a unique and distinct theatrical world using live webcast (Oedipus), sound installation and live painting (Jocasta), and Super 8mm films (Antigone), while directly engaging the audience in conversation.

Director Asa Horvitz, who has worked with such directors as Lukasz Korczak (collaborator of Krystian Lupa) and Romeo Castellucci, adapted a version of Lupa's video improvisation technique to co-create text for THEBAN PLAYS with the actors.

"In making the video improvisations the idea is that if you ask the right questions about these characters, the stories come from the actors. It's never strict biography, fantasy is always mixed in, and there is a charged residue that is directly related to the themes of the text. Out of this residue, we create characters and worlds", says Horvitz. "By coming to understand how these myths are influencing our lives today, we can come to better understand ourselves and what our culture is up to," says the director.

Meanwhile, Castellucci's impact is compositional and dramaturgical wherein classical themes are filtered through a contemporary lens.

THEBAN PLAYS seeks to explore -- by confronting materials from the past (foundation myths, forgotten histories) -- the role of ideology, imagination, and fantasy in contemporary American lives. Horvitz and company aim to create performances that are complete, autonomous, living worlds, which break open the possibility of re-imagining the past, present, and future.

THEBAN PLAYS features Deidrea Hamid (performer/filmmaker), Eliza McKelway (performer/singer) and Ryan Pater (performer) and is directed by Asa Horvitz (director/sound design/dramaturgy), with music by Adrian Knight (composer), additional video by Cassie McQuater, web consultation by Bryan West, lights and stage management by Sarah Jane Schostack.

Performance Schedule:
Thurs Jan 21 at 8pm
Fri Jan 22 at 8pm
Sat Jan 23 at 8pm
Wed Jan 27 at 8pm
Thurs Jan 28 at 8pm
Fri Jan 29 at 8pm
Sat Jan 30 at 8pm

THEBAN PLAYS, directed by Asa Horvitz, plays at The Brick (579 Metropolitan Ave at Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn - L train to Lorimer stop / G train Metropolitan stop). More information at www.asahorvitz.com. Tickets: $15.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Asa Horvitz (director) - Asa Horvitz founded the Koans and Performance Project in 2012. Working between live theatre, sound installation, film, and concerts, he has created original work in the US and Europe at venues including CounterPULSE, Meridian Gallery, Death by Audio, Living Arts Museum, The New Museum, PRELUDE Festival, and Teatr Polski (Wroclaw). In 2014 Asa collaborated with Scott Gibbons and Romeo Castellucci of the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio on the performance Go Down, Moses, which premiered at Théâtre de la Ville as part of the Paris Festival d'Automne. March 2015 saw the release of VALES, an interactive website of films and songs in memory of Asa's longtime collaborator Dominic Ziegler (1988-2012), with an installation and performance at New Amsterdam Records in Brooklyn. In late 2014 he relocated permanently to New York City and began to work with the group of artists that comprises THEBAN PLAYS.

Adrian Knight (composer) - Adrian Knight (b. 1987, Uppsala, Sweden) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. His works are published by Project Schott New York. Commissions and performances include pieces for The Living Earth Show, R. Andrew Lee, Minnesota Orchestra, Mobius Trio, Red Light Ensemble, Nonsemble 6, Tigue, Margaret Lancaster and the Yale School of Drama. In 2008 he founded the record label Pink Pamphlet as an outlet for his own and his friends' recorded work. He is a founding member of Blue Jazz TV and ambient duo Private Elevators. He performs and writes regularly with David Lackner in the Synthetic Love Dream Band. www.adrian-knight.com

Ryan Pater (performer) - Ryan Pater is an actor, musician, and teaching artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a recent graduate of both the high school and college drama programs at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Ryan's favorite credits include A Man's A Man at Classic Stage Company, Emily Dickinson OUTER SPACE at the Bushwick Starr, and Good Boys and True at the Bushwick Starr. Ryan was a William R. Kenan Jr. Performing Arts Fellow at Lincoln Center Education as well as a recipient of the Semans' Grant for his Pilgrimage of Silence. Ryan performs with his band Lion and Spaniel around New York City and produces/develops work with his company Oh Force! Theatre Co. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.

Deidrea Hamid (performer) - Deidrea Hamid is an actor and filmmaker living in Brooklyn, NY. As an actor she has performed at many venues in New York including the Public Theater. She graduated from Bennington College in 2012. She is currently a member of Brooklyn Gypsies and works at Film Forum.

Eliza McKelway (performer) - Eliza McKelway is an actress and musician living in Brooklyn, NY. Recent projects in include work the bands VALES, Anawan, and Shen Din Shen, as well as performances with Michelle Sutherland at the Bushwick Starr, and Theodora Skipitares at La Mama Etc. She is a graduate of Bennington College. www.elizamckelway.com

Sarah Jane Schostack (stage manager/lighting designer) - Sarah Jane Schostack is a director, actor, stage manager. Selected NYC directing credits: Manere Fortis (Semi-Finalist in the Take Ten Festival), The Stand-Ins, and No Stranger There by Luke Wise (named a 2014 Samuel French Finalist). Past assistant directing credits include Lincoln Center Originals: CRY HAVOC (Lincoln Center), Period of Adjustment (WHAT), 101 Dalmatians, A Rockin' Midsummer Night's Dream,Liberty Smith, DIsney's The Lion King Jr., all with Michael Unger and the 12.14 Foundation, The Stone Will Roll (New York Theatre Workshop) and Trip to Bountiful (Hangar Theatre). SDCF Observer under Peter Flynn for Smart Blonde at the City Theatre. Stage management credits include: Prelude NYC 2015, Scenes from a Marriage (NYTW), New York Theatre Workshop 2014 Gala, cast performance of Company in the 2011 Tony Awards. Associate Member of the SDC.

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