Best of the Fests
January, they tell us, is going to be lean and mean. So lets have a theater festival! Two of them, actually, curated by a pair of artistic directors who put the we back into weird. Truthfully, everything in the Under the Radar and Coil festivals intrigues, but unless your hedge fund did especially well in 2008, its unlikely youll be able to catch all the shows on offer. Someones got to separate the Huh? from the What? so here, like wine, are some pairings to consider. As ever, please dont drink in the dramaturgy and drive.
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Under the Radar Festival
Venue: The Public Theater
Dates: Jan. 7-Jan. 18
Head Honcho: Mark Russell
What He Does: Basically I run around the world as much as I can and visit a lot of festivals. I even send some of my staff to see festivals and I look at a lot of DVDs. Very often the selection of a piece is from triangulation: someone sees something in Dublin and says its great, then so does this other person, then I watch the tape. Its not my preferred way to program but it is one way its done.
Early Favorite Show: Folk song freak out Into the Dark Unknown: The Hope Chest
Dark Horse Show: The actors group therapy session of LIGA, 50% Reward & 50% Punishment
Obscure Pick for Production: An adaptation of the early Beckett novella First Love
Biggest Star Included: A cool, Korean adaptation of Georg Bchners superstar Woyzeck
Interesting Imports: Sight is the Sense That Dying People Tend to Lose First from the U.K.
Leave Mother Home For...: The sonic pseudonymity of Transition
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Coil Festival
Venue: Performance Space 122
Dates: Jan. 9-Jan. 16
Head Honcho: Vallejo Gantner
What He Does: When I arrived in New York I was looking at everything happening and trying to figure out how to give opportunities to companies whose work wed presented who were also ready to tour. The APAPAssociation of Performing Arts Presentersconference is in January and its full of 10-minute showcases. I thought, well, this is sillylets create a concentrated festival at P.S. 122 that would attract international presenters and national presenters. So we just started doing it.
Early Favorite Show: The American cultural paradiso Architecting
Dark Horse Show: Pirandello on ecstasy in the cinematic Welcome to Nowhere (Bullet Hole Road)
Obscure Pick for Production: The fucked-up family fun of Lewis Forever: Freak the Room
Biggest Star Included: An upending of Carl Th. Dreyers immortal 1928 film The Passion Project
Interesting Imports: Geisha from Israel
Leave Mother Home For...: The untruth-telling original MILF of Trash Warfare