Category: Dance | Ballet Page 1 of 2

East meets West: rehearsing for Devdas in production of Hypokrit Theatre Company and Junoon Performing Arts

Review | Devdas & Chokher Bali | Indian Classics Reimagined | Directed by Arpita Mukherjee | Hypokrit Theatre Company and Junoon Performing Arts

On November 9, 2016

In Adaptations From Great Authors, Dance | Ballet, Musical Theater, Off-Broadway Theater

Two Indian classics re-imagined

First on the program, Devdas (The Lover) is a feast of dancing and music, choreographed with originality and variety by Swarali Karulkar, and with exciting music by Aalap Desai. The dancing blends aspects of traditional Indian dancing with modern, contemporary pop, and ballet. With the use of photo projections, the set shifts from visions of romantic and exotic beauty to stunning images of bare practice halls. The costumes, too, blend contemporary western with a traditional Indian sense of intense color and shine. The stage is filled with dancing of high quality, filled with youthful energy and idealism. It all comes together in a joyous, spirit-lifting performance.

East meets West: rehearsing for Devdas.

Devdas is based on a novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, written in Bengali in 1917. The plot is a complicated tale of love, rivalry, passion and loss and unless you know the story in advance, you won’t catch on to the narrative details through this dance performance but the emotional truths in the individual episodes come across.

This re-imagination transforms a rivalry among women for love of a man into a competition for “Best Dancer in India.” All the dancers in the program are professional and fine to watch: Adam Bourke as Mr X is exceptionally dynamic, and Sonia Mukerji as Paro gives us gorgeous glimpses of classical Indian dance. Swarali Karulkar, the choreographer, performing Chanda whose heart is set on winning the prize, is sensational.

Second on the program is Chokher Bali (The Passion Play), a drama adapted by Partha Chatterjee from Rabindranath Tagore’s novel, with musical direction by Shubhra Prakash and choreography by Rujuta Vaidya. The title means “sand in the eye,” that is, a constant irritant, referring to the rivalry of two women who become friends in the course of the play and rivals for the love of the same man.

The story is clear in Chokher Bali, even to the uninitiated, and the intermittent use of western pop music to convey emotional situations is effective. Generally, the play is diffuse and not strong on dramatic tension, and the acting is uneven.

Produced by the Hypokrit Theatre Company and Junoon Performing Arts, and playing at Theater for the New City through November 20, 2016, Devdas and Chokher Bali are each stand-alone productions and tickets can be purchased for each separately. They can also be seen together, as I saw them, with tickets for the two available at a special combined price. For more information, including performance schedules and tickets, click here.

Max Beckmann in New York, exhibition at Metropolitan Museum, NY, October 19-2016 -February 20, 2017

Art Review | Max Beckmann in New York | Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, NY | October 19, 2016 – February 20, 2017

By Yvonne Korshak

On October 19, 2016

In Art Exhibitions, Dance | Ballet

… great expressive power …

Max Beckmann was one of the greatest artists of the 20^th century. In a way, his tragic vision was the truest.

The exhibition includes works made during the three years he spent in New York at the end of his life and works that may have been made elsewhere but are in New York collections. The focus is on paintings — Beckmann was also a draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer — and though not comprehensive it brings to the viewer the full range of Beckmann’s painting.

Max Beckmann in his NY studio on East 19th Street, with Hanging Man (1950). Exhibition photo.

Beckmann (1884-1950), a German painter associated with German Expressionism(though he rejected that association), was essentially squeezed out of Germany by Hitler and the rise of fascism. He was one of those “Cubists, Futurists and Expressionists” who were all, for Hitler, “degenerate artists” and “corrupters of art”.

Marginalized and persecuted in his own country, Beckmann with his wife weathered World War II in a self-imposed exile in Amsterdam and after the war, came to the United States, first to Washington University in St. Louis, that has the distinction of being the first to offer him a post-war opportunity to teach, and then to the Brooklyn Museum in New York which became his favorite city — the first being Berlin in the Weimar period following World War I.

Max Beckmann, Departure, triptych, o/c, 2932-2933, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Max Beckmann, Departure, triptych, o/c, 1932-1933, Museum of Modern Art, New York

For me, Beckmann’s Triptych, Departure, stands out as a masterpiece. The two side panels are agonized images, the central one offers a sense of escape. It seems prophetic, as if the artists understood the persecutions to come and sadistic tortures perpetrated in Nazi concentration camps. Hitler seized full power in January 1933.

Max Beckmann, Departure, left panel, detail

This was during the period Beckmann was working on Departure, and there appears to be a direct reference to the Nazi take-over and totalitarian directing of art: the hotel bell-boy beating the drum to announce the horror in the lower part of the right-hand panel (above) looks like Hitler’s propaganda minister and Beckmann’s enemy, Joseph Goebbels, charged with purging the “degenerate elements” out of German art and artists.

But the physical mutilations and agonized world view in this and other of Beckmann’s painting, though they look forward, also are rooted significantly in Beckmann’s experiences as a medical orderly during World War I which brought

Max Beckmann, Departure, right panel, detail

him into direct contact with physical pain and loss of life and limb, an experience so horrific that it led him to a nervous breakdown, today PTSD. It also remodeled his artistic psyche, leading him to abandon his earlier academic naturalism to powerful, unflinching emotional and philosophical expressiveness. He painted what he’d learned about existence and human nature in the university of violence and war.

Beckmann said that one can see in the right panel of Departure “… the corpse of your memories, of your wrongs, of your failures, the murder everyone commits at some time in his life … “ but the center panel, which he called The Homecoming,” offers a glimpse of hope. “The King and Queen have freed themselves of the tortures of life … Freedom is the one thing that matters – it is the departure, the new start.”

Max Beckmann, Quappi in Bllue in a Boat, 1926-1950, gouache and oil on paper and cardboard, 89.5 cmx 59 cm, private collection

Max Beckmann, Quappi in Blue in a Boat, 1926-1950, gouache and oil on paper and cardboard, 89.5 z 59 cm, private collection

Max Beckmann, Quappi in Blue in a Boat, detail

In an unexpected, and rare contrast, Beckmann’s painting of his wife. Quappi, in a blue bathing suit (left) strikes a delightfully positive mood.

A number of Beckmann’s major self-portraits are in this exhibition and one of the greatest brings with it a poignant story. Self-Portrait in Blue Jacket (below) was included in an important exhibition of painting in America at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Blue Jacket, 1950, o/c, 55 1/8 x 36" (140 x 91.4 cm), Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequet of Morton D. May, c. 2016 Artists Rights Society, NY/ VGBild-Kunst, Bonn

Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Blue Jacket, 1950, o/c, 55 1/8 x 36 in (140 x 91.4 cm), Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequet of Morton D. May, c. 2016 Artists Rights Society, NY/ VGBild-Kunst, Bonn

But, as the exhibitions’ curator, Sabine Rewald recounted, he did not attend the opening. Instead a few days later, he set out walking to the Museum to see his painting and on the way, was struck by a heart attack and died.

Rewald speculated with a trace of amused irony that if Beckmann were alive today, he would say of this exhibition, “Nice little show.” Perhaps she said that because he did so much. Beckmann painted and painted and painted – in Germany during the freedom of the Weimar period, under siege when Hitler took power, under siege again in Holland, occupied by the Germans where he was seen as a foreign enemy, and in the final liberating years in the United States. There’s nothing little about Max Beckmann in New York – it’s magnificent, and brings us close to the mind, heart and expressive power of this profound artist.

An illustrated and descriptive catalog accompanies the exhibition.

Max Beckmann in New York will be at the Metropolitan Museum, NY, through February 20, 2017. For more information and tickets, click here.

Max Beckmann in New York, exhibition at Metropolitan Museum, NY, October 19-2016 -February 20, 2017, two masterful triptychs, left, Beginning, 1949, right, Departure, 1932-1933

Dance of Life with Gwynedd Vetter-Drusch in FringeNYC 2016. Photo: James Jim

Press Release | Fringe NYC | New York’s Festival Of New And Independent Theater | August 2016

By Yvonne Korshak

On July 13, 2016

In Dance | Ballet, Musical Theater, Of Special Interest, Off-Broadway Theater

Contact: Ron Lasko @ 212-505-1700 / ron@spincyclenyc.com

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL

Returns for 20th Anniversary Season
August 12-28, 2016

Review | Angel Reapers | By Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry | Signature Theatre

By Yvonne Korshak

On February 13, 2016

In Dance | Ballet, Musical Theater, Off-Broadway Theater

Directed and Choreographed by Martha Clarke

Here again Martha Clarke has given us a lovely new creation of her unique vision, a theatrical union of dance, music and narrative. Although Angel Reapers, about repression and ecstasy among the Shakers, is a smaller, less commanding theater piece than Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights and her staging of Threepenny Opera, it has her mark.

The Shakers religious sect is known for celibacy and ecstatic prayer and in Angel Reapers these are two sides of the same coin. Repression finds an outlet in wildness, sanctioned and controlled by rigid dogma and social control.

While awaiting the performance — and the prayer meeting — the audience sits on two sides of the austere meeting house, near to becoming part of the congregation. We are in the original Shaker foundation in the United States, a group headed by Mother Ann Lee who came here with a small circle fellow Shakers, including her brother William, in the late 18^th century .

I’ll never forget the beginning of this play: men and women uniformly dressed by gender, silently, in a choreographed but natural seeming entry, take seats opposite one another in the unadorned, white washed meeting house. And after a notably long silence (in which you think you’ve figured out that this is going to be all about repression) they break into laughter.

It’s life-affirming, and conveys quickly the tension between straight-faced discipline and irrepressible human emotions that the play is all about.

And then they break into song.

In a beautiful pattern of emerging, we get to know driving aspects of each character’s emotional history. Through mime, song, dance and speech, we encounter the heartaches, spiritual conflicts, suffered abuses, thwarted passions, religious yearnings, and idealistic visions that thrust the characters toward the tightly structured Shaker life. Beneath the cloak of conformity, suffering and pleasure are personal

At prayer meetings, as in revival meetings, ecstatic dance and song pull individuals from communal obedience to private gyrations, spastic movements, seizures, rolling on the floor, these movements signifying loss of control choreographed to beauty by Clarke.

But ecstatic release in song and dance doesn’t erase the effects of sexual repression and its heavy burden of guilt: within this small, tight knit community, homosexual yearnings are barely concealed. Incestuous love is conveyed in a delicate scene in which Brother Lee tenderly washes the feet of his sister, Mother Ann Lee who – what an irony – makes the rules here. The passionate, anarchic love affair between a young man and woman, followed to its outcome, creates something of a plot. The essential narrative, however, is the emerging of characters from communal to specific.

Clarke’s previous extravaganzas have filled the eyes with luscious color. Here she takes a turn to tones of gray and white. The women wear modest grey dresses and white coifs and the production, with costumes by Donna Zakowska and scene design by Marsha Ginsberg, takes its cues from those colors. Color is like that: placing a Rembrandt next to a Rubens, the muted colors more than hold their own.

The cast that sings, dances, mimes and speaks is excellent. The dancing of the men in particular, with their powerful stomping, whirling movements, all right near you in the small theater, is vibrant and exciting.

While enjoying Clarke’s sumptuous theatricality, one senses that the underlying script is thin. Also there is a toward the end there’s some awkward speechifying — the authors seem to be trying to make sure we know what to think about what we’ve seen — which is unnecessary and interrupts the wholeness of the production. In spite of a tailing off at the end, one leaves still in the thrall of Martha Clarke’s vision.

Music direction and arrangements are by Arthur Solari who also worked with Samuel Crawford on Sound design. Lighting design, which brings out the beauty of the greys and whites almost as if you’re seeing through a delicate filter, is by Christopher Akerland, .

Angel Reapers plays at Signature Theatre on Manhattan’s West 42nd Street through March 20th. For more information and tickets, click here.

Review | An American In Paris | Book by Craig Lucas | Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin | Directed and Choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon | Palace Theatre

By Yvonne Korshak

On March 29, 2015

In Broadway Theater, Dance | Ballet, Musical Theater

Inspired by the film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron

This new Broadway musical, American in Paris , has absolutely spectacular dancing and choreography, magnificent scenes and scene changes, and wonderful Gershwin songs. The story, well, it’s a little weak but never mind. American in Paris will fill you with joie de vivre.

And if you know the movie — though not always in the same ways this is every bit as good!

The show starts on a vibrant note: the liberation of Paris – August 25, 1944, World War II is ended and the GI’s are going home. But one GI, Jerry Mulligan, caught up in the wild euphoria and equivocal events of the game-changing moment, decides to stay on. He tears up his government-issued ticket to return to the States and enters into a fall-in-love with the city and fall-in-love with the girl adventure.

The girl, Lise, is gamine – tiny, a bit hungry looking, with big eyes and bobbed boyish hair curling around her cheeks — Leslie Caron played the part in the movie. And Jerry’s not the only one to love her – so does the wry seen-it-all club pianist, Adam who’s also an American in Paris, and Henri, the rich and mysterious scion of an aristocratic French family, Lise’s unspoken fiancé who has some special hold on her.

Who will get the girl? Adam’s out of the running, she falls for Jerry, but it’s intimated that she’s somehow beholden to Henri. This is the heart of the story that unfolds with wonderful Gershwin songs, imaginative and virtuoso dance, all taking place against a gloriously designed and ever-changing backdrop of Paris with its eternally appealing sites.

Woody Allen must have been thinking of this aspect of the movie when he made Midnight in Paris. Only this isn’t movie-Paris, photographed: it’s Paris created through the artistic wizardry of the designers and, believe it or not, it’s just as good.

There’s also an astounding quick trip to Radio City Music Hall — complete with the Rockettes.

The show is an absolute feast of great dancing. Jerry is played by Robert Fairchild, a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet. Simply said, he’s great. His acting also is intense and passionate, and although he’s a finer dancer than singer he puts across songs like “I’ve Got Beginner’s Luck” and “Fidgety Feet” effectively. In the extended ballet that ends the show, he’s breathtaking. In and of itself, this famous sequence is reason enough to see the show – and there’s much more!

Leanne Cope, who plays Lise, is an exciting dance partner for Fairchild, free and lithe. She’s less of a singer, and as an actress, her expressions are obvious and repetitive — she “does gamine” but she isn’t the character.

Brandon Uranowitz plays the self-deprecating Adam pro forma, though the audience appreciated the intensity he brought to singing “But Not For Me.” As Henri, Max von Essen’s rendition of “Stairway to Heaven” is disappointing … for that, see Georges Guetary in the film. In general, the producers needed singer-dancers but got better dancers than singers.

But among the singers, Jill Paice is a notable exception, a true song stylist, who delivers songs like “Shall We Dance,” and “But Not For Me” the way we need to hear them. As Milo, a rich, predatory American woman who wants Jerry for herself, she goes beyond cliché to suggest Milo’s loneliness and vulnerability – but with high style.

Whether broad Parisian backdrops or intimate indoor scenes, the sets are eye-filling. Particularly spectacular and evocative is Jerry and Lise’s favorite rendezvous spot, the Seine river quay, complete with moving water. People around me gasped—me, too — at the realization of what the designers had achieved.

The visuals throughout are sharp, clever, and stunning – and never obvious. Art is in the details, the cubist portrait of Milo, who runs an art gallery, “looks like” Jill Paice, but not overtly – in its sly way, it captures the essence of the character. The costumes are enchanting — both witty and of the time.

The choreography is varied, original, unexpected — and a triumph for Christopher Wheeldon. It’s an ample show with lots of dancers – all superb at ballet, jazz, and through all the original steps, leaps and turns Wheeldon’s invented for them. The design, by Bob Crowley, is gorgeous.

This is the Paris we all want to see, captured at a high moment. Is that Paris still there? Well, I dunno … nobody whirled me dancing in the streets when I was there recently but … See American in Paris – you’ll leave on a high note!

An American in Paris plays at the Palace Theater on Broadway in NYC.

Noted on May 5, 2016 — While American in Paris is no longer playing in NYC, the producers have announced the show is coming to the Dominion Theatre in London. For more information and and tickets for the London production, click here:
http://www.londontheatres.co.uk

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The New David H. Koch Plaza, New York, NY

By Yvonne Korshak

On September 12, 2014

In Art Exhibitions, Dance | Ballet, Of Special Interest

… one of New York’s favorite theaters …

The moment the fountains of the new David H. Koch Plaza at the Metropolitan Museum were first (officially) turned on

The fountains that ran along the front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though they still looked beautiful and continued to toss their refreshing waters, had severe internal problems in the pipes and plumbing. Museum Trustee David H. Koch expressed willingness to pay for repairs, an offer that morphed into a total re-design of the public spaces, four blocks long, that span the front of the museum, including removing the old fountains and installing new ones. We were told at the ceremony dedicating the new plaza that Mr. Koch said “Why don’t I pay for everything including the extras?” and he did at a cost of $65 million.
He said at the ceremony he’s pleased that the two-year renovation project came in on time and on budget. So how does it look?

View from steps looking north before the fountains were turned on

The main features of the new design are two large fountains in square granite basins that flank the steps north and south. Being square rather than long, and reaching closer to Fifth Avenue than the old fountains, these new ones bring the sparkling play of water and its delicious sounds closer those on the steps and to passers-by, more readily enjoyed. That’s really nice! On either side of

After the fountains were turned on

the fountains are newly planted shade trees — more than there were before — with café tables and chairs interspersed. The Plaza is unified its entire length and depth by paving of grey toned granite.

It’s good to have this important city open space healthily maintained.

High view looking south.

A consideration of old and new, though, makes it clear that there have been some significant losses. The old fountains were long and narrow, stretching on either side of the steps a good part of the length of the museum’s façade, and thus they invited movement along the full length of public space, while the depth of the new square fountains obstructs the continuity of the spaces on either side of the steps.

Also, the high arching play of the water in the old fountains reflected and

Square within a square. Circle within a square.

echoed the series of high arched openings of the museum’s facade behind them. The square-within-a-square and circle-within-a-square geometry of the new fountains is a fascinating exploration of classicism, and links them with the steps in an interesting way, while engaging less with the architecture of the building.

And — depending how you feel about park-like settings — before the renovation, shade trees and park benches set on cobblestones created a continuation of Central Park that lies behind the museum. The new plaza is sheathed in gray-toned granite, with café tables and chairs instead of park benches and pebbly cobbles, weakening the sense of the continuity with Central Park. Before the park embraced the museum, now it sits behind it.

All in all, the new design is more centralized than the earlier one, with the casual seating areas — café tables and chairs — somewhat marginalized by those deep fountains.

During the dedication ceremony for the new plaza, Thomas Campbell, the

Night view fountain

Museum’s Director and CEO said some wonderful words about what he called “one of New York’s favorite theaters — the steps of the Met.” The steps draw an exhilarating mix of museum goers and people and performance watchers from all over the city and all over the world, sunning, eating, singing, enjoying music, mime, break dancing, juggling — virtuoso performances of all kinds … well, if you don’t know, make a visit!

And as for the plaza, it will take a little doing but — like a river — people will find their way, filtering through the full length of the four city blocks, and make this public space their own.

View of plaza looking North from 81st Street. Photos 4-7 courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jazz Review | The Anderson Twins Play The Fabulous Dorseys | Written and Directed by Pete and Will Anderson | 59E59 Theaters

By Yvonne Korshak

On September 18, 2012

In Dance | Ballet, Film, Off-Broadway Theater

For a thoroughly enjoyable time, go see The Anderson Twins Play The Fabulous Dorseys at 59E59.

Here’s how it goes: it’s not a theater, for the time being, but a nightclub from the 1920’s or ‘30’s, think speakeasy, draped in red with little round candle-lit tables instead of regular audience seating — if you like you can bring a drink you’ve picked up at the Mezzanine bar down below. Settle yourself in and listen to six wonderful musicians play jazz like Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, interspersed with hilarious clips from the 1947 film about the Dorsey brothers in which the Dorseys played themselves — how fascinating — and it gives you just enough of the story line of their lives for fun and interest without taking away from the great jazz the band is playing.

There’s another marvelous film insert I’ll leave for you to discover — but what a laugh!

Flanking the group the twins, Pete and Will — two players both accomplished on the saxophone, clarinet and flute (a little amazing!) — whip through their changes of instruments, solos, ensembles and improvisations. They’re more or less look-alikes though not identical and it’s fun to watch their individuality — musical as well as in personality. Between them is Jon-Erik Kellso on the trumpet, Ehud Asherie’s on the piano at right, and behind are Dave Baron on bass and Kevin Dorn on drums — what a feast!

One wonderful jazz piece after another, from “Tangerine” to “Way Down Upon the Swanee River,” from ensemble to solo, the fast-paced jazz lifts the spirit. Among favorites … Kellso’s thrilling solos … Asherie dazzling picking up from where (filmed) Art Tatum left off … Will Anderson’s virtuoso tour de force playing Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” — what an enchanting piece of music. And, yes, you hear the bee. But these are six outstanding musicians in a jazz fest filled with favorites!

Go! You’ll have a great time — and come out of the theater with a big happy smile.

The Anderson Twins Play The Fabulous Dorseys plays at 59E59 Theaters in midtown Manhattan through October 7.

Press Release | 2011-2012 Patrick Lee Theater Bloggers Awards | Independent Theater Bloggers Association (ITBA)

By Yvonne Korshak

On June 4, 2012

In Broadway Theater, Dance | Ballet, Off-Broadway Theater

The Independent Theater Bloggers Association (the “ITBA”) is proud to announce the 2012 recipients of the Fourth Annual Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Awards, (the “the Patricks”). Patrick Lee was one of the ITBA’s founding members. Patrick, who passed away suddenly in June 2010, was an erudite, passionate, and tireless advocate for theater in all its forms. Patrick was also the ITBA’s first awards director, and was a regular contributor to Theatermania and TDF Stages.

Press Release | Fringe Festival NYC 2011 | Overall Excellence Awards | Here Are the Winners!

By Yvonne Korshak

On August 31, 2011

In Dance | Ballet, Off-Broadway Theater

FringeNYC 2011 Overall Excellence Award Winners

Overall Production/Play
PigPen Presents The Mountain Song
The More Loving One

Overall Production/Musical:
Yeast Nation
Pearl’s Gone Blue

Performance:
Jennifer Barnhart (The Legend of Julie Taymor,or The Musical That Killed Everybody!)
Ryan Barry (In the Summer Pavilion)
Miles Cooper (Elysian Fields)
Patrick Byas (Sammy Gets Mugged)
Casey McClellan (My Name Is Billy)
Brian Charles Rooney (Winner Takes All)
Lauren Hennessy (Ampersand: A R&J Love Story)

Playwriting:
Nicholas Billon (Greenland)
A.D. Penedo (The Three Times She Knocked)
Bella and the Pool Boy (Dennis Flanagan)

Music Composition:
Chris Rael (Araby)
Dusty Brown (The Ballad of Rusty and Roy)

Ensemble:
Jersey Shoresical
The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady
Stimulated!
Crawling with Monsters

Costume Design:
Stephanie Alexander (Le Gourmand, or Gluttony!)
Mark Richard Caswell (Parker and Dizzy’s Fabulous Journey to the End of the Rainbow)
Tara DeVincenzo (Technodulia Dot Com)

Directing:
Greg Foro (Hamlet)
Joshua Kahan Brody (Fourteen Flights)
Alaska Reece Vance (The Disorientation of Butterflies)

Solo Performance:
Donna/Madonna
The Day the Sky Turned Black
Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!
Paper Cut
Heroes and Other Strangers

Dance:
Wallstories When the Sky Breaks 3D

Video Design:
Cinty Ionescu (Nils’ Fucked Up Day)

TheaterMania Audience Favorite Award:
COBU – Dance like Drumming, Drum like Dancing.

Applications for the 2012 festival will be available online in November 2011 and completed applications will be due February 14, 2012. For more information, www.FringeNYC.org

In 1997, New York City became the seventh US city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. In its first 15 years FringeNYC has presented over 2500 performing groups from the U.K., Canada, Poland, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Germany, the Czech Republic and across the U.S., prompting Switzerland’s national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare, “FringeNYC has become the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists.” The festival has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater productions including Urinetown, Matt & Ben, Never Swim Alone, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, 21 Dog Years, Krapp 39, Dixie’s Tupperware Party, Silence! The Musical, The Irish Curse, 666, Tales from the Tunnel and Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party and as well as movies (WTC View) and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair). FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy.

Press Contact: Ron Lasko @ 212-505-1700 x. 11, ron@spincyclenyc.com

Press Release | Fringe NYC — 15th Annual New York International Fringe Festival: August 12 – 28

By Yvonne Korshak

On August 5, 2011

In Dance | Ballet, Off-Broadway Theater

First Sold Out Performances Announce
New York International Fringe Festival
** 15th Annual Festival runs August 12 – 28 **

note: to help you decide, Ken Davenport, a producer of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, sorts out his 10 to see in in his blog, date August 11. The official site of FringeNY with information and tickets is useful as is Theatermania’s outline guide.

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest
multi-arts festival in North America, will present the 15th Annual Festival from August 12 – 28, 2011. This year, the festival will present programming by 192 of the world’s best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies in 20 venues in Lower

Dreamplay, photo Veseth R Sieu

Manhattan. Attendance at last year’s festival topped 75,000 people, making it New York’s fifth largest cultural event (just behind New York International Auto Show, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City Marathon, and New York Comic Con). The festival presents works covering a wide range of disciplines including drama, comedy, dance, performance art, children’s theater (FringeJr), outdoor theater (FringeAlFrecso), spoken word, puppetry, improv, and multimedia.

Thus far, advance sales are on par with last year. “At only $15 per
ticket, FringeNYC is one of Manhattan’s few remaining bargains,” notes
festival Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy.

Yesterday afternoon, Yeast Nation (a new musical by the Tony Award-winning team behind the FringeNYC-to-Broadway hit Urinetown) became the first show to sell out a performance. This is the earliest a show has sold out in the 15-year history of the festival. In 2005, Silence! The Musical (which was co-produced by much of the same team behind Yeast Nation) became the first show in FringeNYC history to sell out before the opening day of the festival.

Today, Bella and the Pool Boy sold out its opening performance and several other productions are on track to sell out individual performances including: The Legend of Julie Taymor, Facebook Me, Pearl’s Gone Blue, Smoking Section, Jersey Shoresical, and The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady. Other top sellers thus far are: Parker & Dizzy’s Fabulous Journey to the End of the Rainbow, Whale Song, Sammy Gets Mugged, You’ve Ruined A Perfectly Good Mystery, Destinations, Pawn, and Hush The Musical.

In 1997, New York City became the seventh US city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. In its first 13 years FringeNYC has presented over 2100 performing groups from the U.K., Canada, Poland, Japan, China, Germany, the Czech Republic and across the U.S., prompting Switzerland’s national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as “the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists.” The festival has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater productions including Urinetown, Never Swim Alone, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, 21 Dog Years, Krapp 39, Dixie’s Tupperware Party, Silence! The Musical, Matt & Ben, The Irish Curse, 666 and the current Off-Broadway productions of Tales From The Tunnel and Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party and as well as movies (WTC View) and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair). FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy.

FringeNYC shows run 2pm – midnight weekdays and noon – midnight on

Welcome Eternity, photo Dixie Sheridan

weekends. Tickets are: $15 in advance at www.FringeNYC.org or
866-468-7619; $18 at the door, subject to availability. Discount
passes for multiple shows ($70 for a Fiver Pass, $120 for a Flex Pass
good for 10 shows, and $500 for an all-you-can-see Lunatic Pass) are
also available.

Press release contact: Ron Lasko @ 212-505-1700 x. 11, ron@spincyclenyc.com