Experimental Text Festival

May 10, 2007 - May 13, 2007
Ontological Hysteric Theater

131 East 10th St. | Manhattan, NY | 212-420-1916
http://www.ontological.com

Six jewel-like performances created by artists from Poetry, Theater, Dance, Film, and Visual Art. Each project features a graphically dynamic, unusually notated, and formally rebellious text that calls for new approaches to staging and performance.

Featuring new work from Bronwen Bitetti, Karinne Keithley, Rachelle Knowles, Tan Lin, Johanna Linsley, Ruth Margraff, and Jason Szalla. Lighting by Jeanette Yew. Curated by Sally Oswald and Jennifer Tsuei.
Thursday, May 10: 7pm
Friday, May 11: 8pm
Saturday, May 12: 7pm
Sunday, May 13: 7pm (with post-show reception)

All shows performed every night. Run time is 90 minutes. Tickets are $10. Reservations recommended. To purchase in advance, visit www.ontological.com or call 212-352-3101.
Performances at the Ontological Theater, upstairs at St. Mark's Church. 131 East 10th Street at 2nd Ave. 4/5/6 to Union Square. 6 to Astor Place. L to 3rd Ave or 1st Ave.
Audio and video of all performances will be streamed live on free103point9 Online Radio, www.free103point9.org.
FESTIVAL PROGRAM (in alphabetical order) CASTING OFF by Bronwen Bitetti directed by Jeremy Wilhelm. Three collage images function as play texts in this piece exploring degenerative disease and the liminal space between life and death.

DO NOT DO THIS EVER AGAIN by Karinne Keithley. A video adaptation of a freestanding operetta from Do Not Do This Ever Again. The operetta materializes Marie Antoinette and Esme the Cat in Maine, as they wander about nothingness and listen to the deer sing.

CONVERSATIONS FOR YOU AND ME by Rachelle Knowles with text by Jenny Levison. Visual artist Knowles knocks experiment off its pedestal with playwright Levison in a page-based response to the festival's mission.

DISCO EATS ITSELF by Tan Lin with Flash design by Danielle Aubert. A text transforms into a disco, with its seamless flow of all-night, 4-to-the-floor grooves. Poet Tan Lin conjures a theatrical synaesthesia as a disco video track plays against live performers and an animated text.

LEARNING SKILLS PROGRAM by Johanna Linsley directed by Katrina Bugaj. Learning Skills Program provides a gently insistent overview of one current approach to Particular Algebra. Objectives include: lightly drifting from categorized levels of abstraction, observing mathematical operators and intuiting concrete solutions. All levels welcome.

OVER THE GARDEN WALL by Ruth Margraff directed by Brooke O'Harra. A drawing-room theatrical version with the whole of the stage business built right in, or high art for amateurs. Guaranteed performable by any amateur anywhere. No rehearsal necessary.

COPY 8852 by Jason Szalla Copy 8852 is an alcohol fueled, candy flavored transcribed, circum-conversation about River Phoenix, Pop Culture, and Contemporary Art. Anonymity will be the new celebrity. Now and then in the Viper Room a museum can be found .