Showing posts with label Horse Trade Theater Group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horse Trade Theater Group. Show all posts

Monday, December 01, 2008

Mike Leigh's "Ecstasy" Being Revived

As per the press release...

Horse Trade Theater Group
presents
a Black Door Theatre Company
production of

ECSTASY

By Mike Leigh
Directed by Sara Laudonia

PREVIEWS JANUARY 5-8
OPENING NIGHT JANUARY 9

ECSTASY covers the lives of four blue-collar friends living in 1979 London and the drunken frustration in their lives, namely that of Jean, who struggles to escape the confines of her life and the people in it. While ECSTASY speaks to a very specific time and place, the socio-economic despairs and frustrations facing each character make the story universal and timeless; especially on the eve of our own financial crisis.

ECSTASY features Lore Davis, Stephen Heskett, Gina Lemoine, Josh Marcantel, Brandon McCluskey, and Mary Monahan.

The design team for ECSTASY includes Lore Davis (Costume Design), Paul Howle (Lighting Design), Brandon McCluskey (Fight Choreographer), Damon Pelletier (Set Design), and Christopher Rummel (Sound Design).

The production, produced by Horse Trade Theater Group and Black Door Theatre Company, will play at the Red Room (85 E. 4th Street, 3rd Floor) January 9-25, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm, following preview performances January 5-8 at 8pm. Tickets ($18, $15 preview performances) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.horseTRADE.info.

Mike Leigh (Playwright) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter, and playwright. Some of his well-known films include Life is Sweet (1990), the Gilbert and Sullivan biography Topsy Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are arguably Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Vera Drake (2004) Happy-Go-Lucky, and Abigail's Party.

Sara Laudonia (Director) is a veteran of the windy city where she landed after getting her BFA in acting from Otterbein College. During her time in Chicago, she was a founding member of The Treehouse Theatre Company where she had the unique opportunity to hone not only her acting skills, but also to cut her teeth as a director. Some favorite directing projects include: Gilbert Mandrake’s Flying Saucer’s on the Plains, by Corey Hinkle, Fulfilling Koch’s Postulate, by Joan Schenkar, Hell to Get Along With, adapted by Ms. Laudonia from a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. short story, and Camille: The Forgotten Artist, by Victoria Libertore. In New York she has been Assistant Director to Terry Schreiber on Night of the Iguana and the Director of Sunrise at the Quarry written by Nick Sanzo.

Black Door Theatre Company was created as a vessel for the artistic exploration of the human experience; including classic themes as well as current issues. Whether creating original material, collaborating with emerging artists, or re-thinking existing works, we intend to question, give voice, seek truth, and push the boundaries of form and expression.

Horse Trade Theater Group is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade’s Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York – the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Shows Announced for 2009 New York Frigid Festival

As per the press release...

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP
in association with
EXIT THEATRE
presents
THE 2009 NEW YORK FRIGID FESTIVAL
An Open and Uncensored Theater Festival
A CAFF Member festival

February 25th – March 8th, 2009
Monday thru Friday 6pm – Midnight
Saturday and Sunday 1pm – 1am
Tickets: $0 - $15
Tickets will be available on Smarttix @ 212-868-4444
Or online @ www.FRIGIDnewyork.info

The Kraine Theater & The Red Room
85 E 4th St New York, NY 10003
No Wheelchair access

UNDER St. Marks
94 St. Marks Place New York, NY 10009
Basement Theater - No Wheelchair access

Riding the fringe of winter, the hit celebration of independent theater runs February 25-March 8th, 2009, boasting over 150 performances and 30 shows over 12 days in 3 theater’s, FRIGID New York will kick off the annual North American Fringe Circuit with a bang!

The FRIGID New York Festival was founded by Horse Trade and EXIT Theatre in 2007. Since founding The San Francisco Fringe Festival - the 2nd oldest fringe in the United States - nearly 17 years ago, EXIT has learned a thing or two about festival running. They introduced Horse Trade to the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) in mid-2006. Besides feedback from dozens of thrilled CAFF participants and artists, Horse Trade was drawn to its main principle: “…to provide all artists, emerging and established, with the opportunity to produce their play no matter the content, form or style and to make the event as affordable and accessible as possible for the members of the community,” Horse Trade is proud to sign on to the tradition and chill out the New York independent theater scene’s ideas of what a theatre festival can be. In true support of theatre on the fringe of the mainstream, the artists take home 100% of their box office, and the festival producers do not receive royalties from future performances....

Local Shows
95/turnpike/95: Chickens in Jersey International BTC
An absurdly slow day on the Jersey Turnpike takes a sudden turn when two-tollbooth attendants face impending doom barreling towards them… in the form of a truck filled with chickens.

Are We Freaks? Comedy Period
4 short stories about 8 abnormal women. Freaks and friends-who really is normal after all?
BAGS: Obsessions of a Hoardaholic Lee Michael Buckman
Glimpses of an obsessive personality and some of his adventures as he attempts desperately to cling onto objects and things that he thinks will help him navigate through life. While exploring and attempting to understand his OCD related instincts better, he searches for & finds the root of it.
Dalton Trambo’s Johnny Got His Gun Sleepless Lookout Players
Joe Bonham, rendered a blind and deaf quadriplegic in WWI. Through an intimate one-man performance, we explore the mind of a boy cut off from the world as he struggles to come to terms with the life he has lost.

Hysteri-Killy! A One Frrooklyneak Show Kelly B. Dwyer
A freaky, fantastic voyage through the mind of a manic depressive/cockeyed optimist, Hysteri-Killy! is a multi media, comedic performance art piece that uses original music, dance and film to create concept comedy with a strangetastic yet serious message.

Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass No. 11 Productions
A visceral, violent look at and attack on humanity. Both funny and disturbing, this play is a tossed salad of Surrealism and Theatre of Cruelty, barraging all of the senses with ever-changing stimuli. And scorpions.

Live! ...at the Cockpit: Will at Work with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men Loose Moon Productions
Back stage fun during a performance of the last act of Midsummer Night's Dream at the newly built 1599 Globe Theatre.

Melting in Madras Overcoat Theater
A darkly comic look at storyteller H.R. Britton’s quixotic “pilgrimage” to India. Evocative of the Subcontinent’s sights and sounds, by turns gently humorous and increasingly anxious, the tale follows Britton’s slightly misguided adventures into the terrain of sickness and delusion, and back again.

My Mothers Monologues Department of –E- Productions
This is a gripping reading of some of the most personal stuff ever put on paper by a human being.
Recess Una Aya Osato
A one-woman show created from the experience of a teacher in the NYC public schools. It confronts the state of today's public school system where struggles for power, criminalization of the youth and the effects of a suffocating bureaucracy are a daily reality.

Son of Man Lara Torgovnick and Anna Umansky
This play delves into the lives of twelve individuals as they wait for a train in a purgatory.

The Dysfunctional Guide to Home, Perfection, Martial Bliss, and Passionate Hot Rom Dysfunctional Theatre Company
This “How To” piece will use a blend of vintage and original writings to teach you how to be the perfect housewife (or househusband) - Dysfunctional style.

The Expatriates The Beggars Group
F. Scott, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Ernest Hemingway are placed into a devilish purgatory to face their lives all over again. Flappers, booze, and jazz are the guides to untold wealth and unimaginable excess leading this fast paced show barreling towards certain destruction.

The Giant’s Causeways Nora S. McLaughlin
A story about two boys growing up in Belfast, Ireland between 1969 and 1971 amidst the political struggles of that time and how their friendship is affected.

The Question House Breadbasket Productions
Why does everyone speak only in questions at Question House Research Consulting? Is it true that they'll be struck by the hand of God if they don't? Can Margaret keep the cops at bay when another assistant goes down?

The Surprise Martin Dockery
A comic monologue about a trip to Saigon to rescue a relationship with both my girlfriend, who can't decide if she wants children, and my father, who reveals he's got brand new twin Vietnamese children of his own.

Y Irene Lezos
Travels through the inner landscape of a delusional woman who believes she is Marilyn Monroe. Weaving truth with imagination -- and with the use of alter egos, drug-induced manic episodes, and especially an open heart, "Y" follows Marilyn Monroe as she works to solve her own death.

National Shows
Brainstorming Rory Raven, Providence, RI
Rory Raven Will Read Your Mind. Neither a psychic nor a magician, his knowledge of the inner workings of the human psyche allows him to read minds, bend spoons, and perform other remarkable feats.

End of the Trail EXIT Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Facing a possible Apocalypse, two old friends play a treacherous board game called "The End of the Trail." The object of the game? Don't die alone! A darkly comic examination of friendship and how little it helps.

Jihad for Vent and Dummy Coulter and Star Ventriloquists, San Francisco, CA
A deadly puppet skirmish that pulls your strings. Theatre, frivolity and horror collide.
Now, and at the Hour EXIT Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Join magician, Christian Cagigal as he weaves magic, mind reading, story telling and theatre into an intimate, interactive and altogether "slightly creepy" magical experience.

Oens Wilson Loria, Gulfport, FL
Bringing and mixing the past and the present together, Oens shows that "globalization" is not a recently coined word in today's vocabulary. Through music, mime and dance, Oens also enacts the eternal wish for a better world.

The Black Jew Dialogues Cambridge, MA
What’s so funny about two American minorities that have slavery, the KKK, and chicken livers in common? You’ll find out in this extraordinary two-actor play on the history and absurdity of prejudice and racism.

The Heffner Monologues John Hefner, Cabin John, Maryland
How do you make a name for yourself when someone else already has? That's the question that John Hefner (estranged cousin of a certain international icon) explores through painfully funny stories about love, loss, nudity, traffic court, and finding an identity in a world where "Hef" is a household name.

International Shows
Camouflage Camouflage Productions, Etobicoke, Ontario
This one-woman play explores the dangers of camouflaging the truth, especially from yourself. Humor, pathos, raucous, gut wrenching, you'll laugh, you'll cry. It's better than sex.

Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom, and the Fabulous Buddha Boy Mischief and Mayhem Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta
Clucking, chanting, and a lot of caffeine! Meet a family who are trying to figure out what it's all about, in very different ways. If they're lucky they may actually be able to live together, or better yet, with themselves. Who says home is where the heart is?

Freedom 85! Hi-D Theatre, Toronto, Ontario
When a clumsy waitress breaks a feisty 85 year old out of her retirement home, past and present collide. This two- woman multi-character comedy has it all: colorful townies, euchre, war stories, a Jamaican diner and loves lost and found.

How Does a Drug Deal Become a Decent 3rd Date? Green With Envy Productions, Toronto, Ontario
The story of a girl who is coming to grips with a dating life that is unraveling. Why is she attracting these guys? Could it be her? Or maybe dating isn't about perfecting the art of what doesn't work…

On Second Thought Wog Productions, Toronto, Ontario
Based on those times in life we get ourselves into and then question how we got there.
The Solitary Al-Khareef Theatre Troupe, Damascus, Syria
The a story of two men, the first is the prisoner and the other is the prison guard, who’s two lives are mostly not fair and full of broken dreams. But do they get to their dreams at the end?

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Horse Trade's Frigid New York Festival Needs Your Help

Does everyone know about the Frigid New York festival at Horse Trade Theater Group? If you know about it, or you've seen some of the work, or heard about some of the work, you might consider reading the note (see below) that I just received from managing director Erez Ziv, and taking action.

Dear Friends of Horse Trade and FRIGID New York,

Hello. I am Erez Ziv, Managing Director of the Horse Trade Theater Group.

I am writing to announce that in February 2009, Horse Trade and San Francisco’s EXIT Theatre will once again celebrate the end of winter with the return of FRIGID New York, a new global Indie Theater Festival that kicks off the annual North American Fringe Circuit. As you know FRIGID is a unique model which gives 100% of the box office income to the artists. This year I am asking you to materially contribute to this worthy endeavor through direct donations of cash and/or by contributions of your time, energy and spare rooms.

FRIGID Needs You!
Horse Trade, EXIT Theatre, and all of the hard working staff, artists, and volunteers of FRIGID New York contribute their labor and resources to underwrite the costs of producing the Festival.

As the Festival grows beyond all expectations, it requires year round management, but we cannot continue to go it alone. With 100% of box office revenue going the artist we are stretching our budget dollars as thin as they can go. We will have to cut back on events and services that have helped this festival get such a great reputation around the globe in such a short time. Your contribution would prevent that.

We know this is not the best of times to ask our friends for money but here we go anyway. Your gift of:

$25 would help pay for us to provide our artists with a wireless internet connection so they can easily market their show and arrange the next leg of their international tours while at our festival. This donation will give you a great warm feeling all winter.

$50 would help pay for a venue manager to take care of both the artists and the audience at each performance. This level of support, beyond a great warm feeling, will entitle you to a FRIGID winter hat.

$100 would help pay for a good bit of web advertizing on Time Out New York. This level of support will make you hot and entitle you to a limited run FRIGID bag.

$250 would help pay for print advertizing in The Village Voice. You will be steaming hot and might not even need your hat, but you will be able to carry it in your FRIGID bag as you come see shows with your 10 show pass.

$500 would help pay for one tech person for the entire run of the festival. We worry that you might melt, so we will make you an Ice King/Queen entitling you to special VIP treatment, a free pass for you and a friend to every show and a special invite to all our events.

In Kind Donations
If you can’t afford to write a check, don’t despair, you can give us your time and join our volunteer corps to help make the festival function as smoothly as it has in previous years.

And if you have an extra bedroom or just a couch, and can help us with housing some of our national and international visiting artists, you will be crowned an Ice King/Queen with all above listed benefits.

For all donations you will be invited to FRIGID New York’s opening weekend party @ UNDER St. Marks, where you can meet all this year’s artists and staff while making frequent trips to the open bar.

The festival’s producers are proud of our guiding principles to support self-producing artists in furthering the success of their work. We ask for your help as we continue to provide this opportunity for ingenuity to thrive in a festival that prides itself on freedom of expression and artistic determination. Your kind support for FRIGID New York will help secure a future for this unique festival and a truly vibrant theater community.

I ask you to join us today and make the 2009 FRIGID New York a grand success! Please support FRIGID New York today. You can donate online at: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/1301

Or send contributions to Horse Trade Theatre, 85 E. 4th Street, New York, NY 10003. Checks should be made payable to Fractured Atlas, with “In behalf of FRIGID New York” in the memo line.

We look forward to seeing you this winter.

Sincerely,

Erez Ziv
Co-founder
FRIGID New York Festival

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