| Under The Radar Festival |
| Written by Dja Horry |
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Under The Radar Festival 2009 January 7-18, 2009 Admission: $15 @ Public Theater The Public Theater/ Joe's Pub/ other venues 425 Lafayette Street 212-539-8500 publictheater.org joespub.com publictheater.org/content/view/148/252/ Lists of all shows: click here Under the Radar is an explosively diverse kaleidoscope of new theater- examples from around the US and the world that spotlight artists ranging from emerging talents to masters in the field. UTR 09 promises to be an intense and wild celebration of theater. Performances will be held at The Public Theater and other venues around the city. Previews of a few shows for Under The Radar:  photo credit: Nate Henry-Silva Written and Performed by Lemon Andersen Developed and Directed by Elise Thoron Brooklyn based hip-hop artist Lemon spins his version of the coming-of-age memoir with this jarring and poignant performance. Lemon’s unique voice seamlessly flows from hard-edged drama to urban poetry, creating a vivid portrait of his difficult yet at times humorous experiences growing up in New York City during the birth of hip-hop. COUNTY OF KINGS is a true story of finding passion and purpose in life, against all odds. Lemon is a regular on HBO’s Def Poetry, an original cast member and writer of the TONY award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and a Drama Desk nominee. For more information about this show: click here LIGA, 50% reward & 50% punishment Kassys (The Netherlands) Nobody can deny the hilarious performances perfectly timed, captivating and immediate from the cast.” -Volkskrant, November 2006  photo credit: Klaas Paradies LIGA starts with the end. On a video we see how the highs and lows of the just-completed performance are re-lived as the actors enthusiastically congratulate and console each other. A live "flashback" follows as the actors begin to perform their play. We observe five characters. Young and easily influenced, the human need to conform makes them susceptible to manipulation. With rapid speed they learn how to please and how "to pretend." Meanwhile, the audience is left wondering just what kind of performance these characters are learning to give. Kassys is a theater initiative of Liesbeth Gritter and Metter van der Sijs, founded in 1999 and based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. UTR welcomes back the company who brought us Kommer in 2006. For more information about this show: click here  photo credit: Julie Archer Written and Directed by Lee Breuer “As fabulously far-fetched as it is brilliant, injected with comedic irony.” -Irish Independent of Breuer’s writing Mabou Mines presents avant-garde legend Lee Breuer’s Pataphysics Pennyeach (a la Alfred Jarry), two one acts: Summa Dramatica – a spiritual acting lesson, and Porco Morto – a memorial service for Gonzo Porco PhD, an avant-garde pig. Delivered as a lecture/postscript to William James’ “Varieties of Religious Experience”, Summa sends up and up and up into the ionosphere -“Acting-in-Itself”. A post-obit Porco comes back to life via a bunraku puppet. OBIE award winners Ruth Maleczech and Greg Mehrten star as a four-armed bovine Goddess, and as an old pot head pig who fell in love with The New York Times when he realized he had always wanted to screw the system. For more information about this show: click here Siren By Ray Lee Performed by Ray Lee and Harry Dawes  photo credit: Steven Hicks This ”choir of rotating sirens” creates an audio visual spectacle that is essentially a live experience. While you explore the space, the performers move about within the mass of swirling metal machinery, dodging and ducking the rapid movement of the rotating arms. The sound pulses past the listener with a Doppler-like effect, while the cluster of closely tuned oscillators creates a rich and pervasive sound world. The closeness of the tuning of the separate tones sets off a series of amazing overtones that evoke the sense of an ethereal choir. Ray Lee is an artist, composer and performer whose work investigates the hidden world of electro-magnetic radiation and how sound can be used as evidence of invisible phenomena. For more information about this show: click here |