FoolsFURY to Kick Off 2013 FURY Factory Festival, July 6

FoolsFURY has announced the program for the fifth FURY Factory festival of ensemble theater, July 6 - 20, 2014.

Since its inception in 2005, FURY Factory has presented the works of more than 60 companies from around the the U.S. and beyond, working in devised or collaboratively created theater. Initiated by foolsFURY Founder and Co-Artistic Director Ben Yalom in an effort to foster a sense of community and share ideas within the disparate world of ensemble theater, the festival has evolved to encompass a series of "main stage" performances and a series of works in progress. This year's festival presents 9 main stage shows -- including three world premieres, one West Coast premiere and two Bay Area premieres -- and 16 works in progress. Packed into two weeks, the festival will occupy the Mission district's Project Artaud arts complex comprising Z Space, Z Below, the Joe Goode Annex and Theatre of Yugen's NOHspace.

The artists performing main stage works represent the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, and showcase the great breadth of ensemble theater in America, with shows ranging from technology driven avant-garde improvisation, to exuberant clowning, to work focused on social justice and community empowerment. FoolsFURY is proud to present the following ensembles making their FURY Factory debut: Dzieci Theatre, Epic Frame, Post Natyam Collective, Teatro Luna, The Imaginists, The Submarine Show and WaxFactory. Returning ensembles include Dandelion Dancetheater and past festival standout Under The Table.

FURY Factory brings a significant focus on works in progress, which is uncommon in the ensemble and devised theater fields. The festival "provides a rare opportunity for new work to gain critical feedback through performance and audience engagement," says foolsFURY Co-Artistic Director Debórah Eliezer. "And it's great for audiences who get to see multiple artists' creations for a single ticket price."

FURY Factory's works in progress series features 16 ensembles from the metropolitan areas of San Francisco; Los Angeles; Atlanta, Georgia; and Austin, Texas. Of these 16 groups, five will make their Bay Area debut: Danielle Deadwyler, Estela Garcia, Gale Theatre Company, Hungry Bird Theater and The Defenestrators. And six more will make their festival debut: Antic in a Drain, Bad Unkl Sista Counter Balance, The Illuminated Theater, The Real Kim Harmon Performance Collective and Theater Plastique. Returning groups include local favorites Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Killing My Lobster and Ragged Wing in addition to foolsFURY.

One final addition to the list of works in progress participants is a group from the University of Chichester / CIIS 2014 Performance Making Intensive. In a free performance on Sunday, July 6, the group will perform Unfinished Business 2014 (Bay Area Edition) followed by drinks and conversation.

In addition to the festival's main stage and works in progress series, FURY Factory is delighted to offer a number of performance workshops open to professionals and the general public alike, pre- and post-show conversations with the artists, and a one-day convening to discuss the relationship of Bay Area theater to the national and international theater scenes. More information will be available later this spring.

Tickets for FURY Factory are $16 for single shows, with discounts for packages of three or more performances. After April 7, individuals may purchase tickets online at zspace.org, or by calling 866-811-4111.

MAIN STAGE PERFORMANCES:

DANDELION DANCETHEATER

Tongues and Gather (world premiere)

July 17 - 18, 20

San Francisco-based Dandelion Dancetheater performs the world premiere of Tongues and Gather. Tongues, written by Sam Shepard and Joe Chaikin, is reinvented by Dandelion Artistic Director Eric Kupers as a confrontation with death. Using birth as a connecting point, Gather draws from many cultural traditions of gathering together to celebrate with dance and music, with an original score composed by former Sweet Honey in the Rock vocalist Ysaye M. Barnwell.

DZIECI THEATRE

Makbet

July 16, 18 - 19

Brooklyn-based Dzieci (Polish for "children") is an ensemble in search of the sacred through the medium of theater. Using techniques drawn variously from Grotowski and the Polish Theater Laboratory, Eugenio Barba, Peter Brook, Native American and East Asian rituals, and an ethic based in humanistic psychology, Dzieci aims to create a theater that is as equally engaged with personal transformation as it is with public presentation. For FURY Factory, they will perform Makbet, based loosely on Shakespeare's Macbeth.

EPIC FRAME

The Unfelt Wonder (world premiere)

July 18 and 20 Epic Frame, based in New York, is the team of Angella Santillo, Lillian Meredith and Kevin Brouder. Performing for FURY Factory in their first project ever, Epic Frame presents the world premiere of The Unfelt Wonder about a woman who has never been touched. A dark comedy, The Unfelt Wonder follows the woman's attempt to escape the lifelong scientific experiment that has denied her physical contact with objects, people and even herself.

POST NATYAM COLLECTIVE

Super Ruwaxi: Origins (world premiere)

July 9 - 10

The Post Natyam Collective is a transnational, web-based coalition of women artists who creatively and critically engage South Asian dance. Members of the collective are as far-flung as Munich, Los Angeles and Kansas City. For FURY Factory, they will perform Super Ruwaxi: Origins about The Good Little Confucian Girl who discovers her super-identity as the Hairy Arm-Pitted Feminist, armed with magical gender-bending body odor that can change the course of patriarchal oppression. Super Ruwaxi: Origins mashes together theater, multimedia and contemporary Indian dance to create a live comic-book story about queerness, coming of age and the immigrant experience.

TEATRO LUNA

Generation Sex

July 16 - 17, 19

El Teatro Luna is Chicago's first and only all-Latina theater, founded for the purpose of exploring the varied experiences and cultures of Latina women. For FURY Factory the ensemble will perform Generation Sex, about the intersection of technology and romance, and what we find titillating in a digital world. From "sexting" to Skype to online dating, the Ladies of Luna guide us through stories of finding love and satisfaction.

THE IMAGINISTS

The Party

July 8 - 9, 11

Led by Brent Lindsay and Amy Pinto, The Imaginists is an ensemble based in Santa Rosa, California. For FURY Factory they remount a work titled The Party, dramatizing a ritual re-enactment of The Story told annually on the longest night of the year, and taking place on, under and around a table. The characters include a soldier, a widower, a motherless child, a seer, a servant, a host and an uninvited guest. Together they recreate The Story as they have done for years.

THE SUBMARINE SHOW

The Submarine Show

July 10 - 11, 13 Two men crash their submarine on the bottom of the sea, and must find their way to safety amid a landscape of strange fish, birds and monsters vividly sculpted from nothing. Created by Emmy Award-winning actor Slater Penney and former Cirque Du Soleil performer Jaron Hollander, The Submarine Show has received rave reviews since its premiere in 2011."These guys are not only good but perfectly matched... a must-see" (Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle).

UNDER THE TABLE

The Hunchbacks of Notre Dame (Bay Area premiere)

July 10, 12 - 13

Under the Table, based in Brooklyn, is known for their family-friendly and comedic brand of physical theater. For this year's FURY Factory, they present the Bay Area premiere of The Hunchbacks of Notre Dame, starring the Hunchinson Family Players, a theater troupe of hunchbacked siblings hoping to turn their luck around. Paul has artistic vision. Johann has merchandise. Hilda has room in her bed. Hugo's classic gets the production it never deserved in this eccentric comedy. This is "brilliant physical comedy," writes the Edmonton Journal.

WAXFACTORY

#aspellforfainting (West Coast premiere)

July 11 - 13

Since its formation in 1998, WaxFactory has been one of the most internationally active multidisciplinary groups to emerge from the New York downtown scene, creating installation, film and video works featuring physical performance, audio-visual, architectural and fashion design, and an integrated use of new media and technology. For FURY Factory, they will perform a work titled #aspellforfainting. Using 19th-century French neurologist Jean-Marie Charcot's Tuesday Night Lectures at the Salpêtrière hospital and his calculated provocation of "hysterical performance" among the female inmates as a leaping-off point, WaxFactory traces the lines of fainting, hallucination, delusion and love letters that run through the source material. Combining disparate musical selections and sounds, video animations and a multitude of objects, #aspellforfainting vividly celebrates the live, raw neurosis of being a performer.

ABOUT FOOLSFURY: FoolsFURY, founded in 1998 by Co-Artistic Director Ben Yalom, is a physically oriented theater ensemble based in San Francisco. Under Yalom's leadership, foolsFURY has been hailed as San Francisco's "Best Theater Company" (SF Weekly), "one of the brightest stars of the San Francisco experimental theater scene" (SF Arts Monthly) and awarded the GOLDIE award for theater by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. FoolsFURY strives to innovate constantly, focusing on inspired uses of the body in creating narrative, and offering visceral experiences for audiences that cannot be replicated on film or television. In addition to creating and touring new works, foolsFURY produces FURY Factory, a festival of ensemble theater presenting diverse works from companies across the U.S.

Pictured: Clockwise from top left - Theater Plastique, photo credit Jordan Harrison; Hungry Bird Theatre, photo credit Mikka Pineda; Teatro Luna, photo courtesy of Teatro Luna; Antic in a Drain, photo credit ShootthatKlown.

To post a comment, you must register and login.