A Pale Horse, Death & Hell Followed With (A Lifetime Original Series) VOL 1: OFFICE

This past Saturday, January 24th, we performed VOLUME 1 of our  short form series presented as part of  The Ontological Hysteric Theater's Incubator Program at St. Marks Church.  Short Form (curated by Peter Ksander and Brendan Regimbal) is an interdisciplinary forum that gives artists from a variety of backgrounds the opportunity to test the boundaries of compositional performance and refine their own unique form and style by creating a small repertoire of four ten-minute performances that are thematically connected, but independent pieces of art. We will be presenting three more short works over the course of the next five months (along with three other great groups) with a longer culmination in June. We're gracious to have this time to experiment and  look forward to our second short form piece, VOLUME 2: LOVE. 

Rehearsal photos below and thank you for all those who were involved!

A Pale Horse, Death & Hell Followed with ( A lifetime original Series)  VOLUME 1 OFFICE

Written and Directed by Leah Winkler and Teddy Nicholas

Production Assistant: Emily Baines

Costume Design by Katie Hannigan

Lighting Design by Oliver Brooks

Choreography by Mary Mailhot

Music and Sound by Melancholy Elephants

Design: Davison Robie and Nickolas Hartgrove

Musicians: J. Cody Arnholdt, trombone; Brian Grimm, cello; Allie Summers, violin

Adapted from "Rock and Roll Suicide" by David Bowie

Featuring: Ray Campbell, Katie Hannigan, Sean Kenealy, Mary Mailhot, Ike Ufomadu, Chase Voorhees and Abby Page

Happy Thanksgiving- love ETG!!!

Some randoms

What a motley crew.

EMPAC

Up in Troy, NY on the campus of Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute, a state-of-the-art performance facility is about to officially open and the folks up there have planned some really exciting stuff*. The venue is called EMPAC - experimental media & performance art center.


They're throwing three weekends of free performances starting in October which yours truly hopes to go and see.

About EMPAC:

The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) is a place and a program where the arts, technology and science will challenge and transform each other. Founded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation’s oldest technological university, EMPAC draws strength from being part of a great research university. It will offer artists, visiting scholars, researchers, engineers, designers, and audiences opportunities that are available nowhere else under a single roof, providing unsurpassed facilities for creative exploration as well as for research in fields ranging from visualization to immersive environments to large-scale interactive simulations. EMPAC operates nationally and internationally, attracting creators from around the world, and sending new artworks and innovative ideas onto the global stage.

Rensselaer is the nation’s oldest technological university, offering degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, the humanities and social sciences. It is pre-eminent in research into biotechnology, nanotechnology, IT, and the media arts and technology. In addition to its MFA program, RPI offers bachelor degrees in Electronic Arts, and in Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication – one of the first undergraduate programs of its kind in the United States. As a facility, the new 220,000 square-foot center is like no other, boasting unrivaled presentation and production capabilities: a 1200-seat concert hall designed to the highest acoustical standards; an intimate 400-seat theater; and two highly flexible studio spaces, configurable as traditional black-box theaters or as fully immersive environments. Linked to a massive supercomputer, EMPAC’s potential for art and science spans the physical and virtual worlds and the spaces in between.

*some of that really exciting stuff include:

The Wooster Group's THERE IS STILL TIME.. BROTHER, a commission for an installation that consists of an interactive projection for a 360° screen.


Verdensteatret's LOUDER, a collaborative performance installation featuring loudspeakers, shadow puppets, video landscapes, and a huge mechanical spider, activated by actor-musicians.


Elevator Repair Service's GATZ, a six-hour performance marathon of a verbatim reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatbsy.


dumb type's VOYAGE, a multimedia performance which examines the uncertainty and dislocation of the modern world through a combination of intense sound, movement, text and projected images.

Sintesi Dogpile

I'm putting something together for the Ontological Hysteric Theater's Sintesi Dogpile with Teddy, Katie, Chase, Mary and Ollie coming up in October. Keep checking for more details!

7 years ago

I was a senior in high school and I was heading to my Pre-Calculus class when the hallways were buzzing with news that terrorists were attacking NYC. At first I thought it was some stupid prank made by the juniors (who were notorious for causing mayhem). But when I got to class and our teacher was very quiet and still for a long time, I knew there was truth to it. Then our principal made an announcement on the PA system. "The World Trade Center has been the target of a terrorist attack. The details are unclear but school will remain open. We will notify you of any changes immediately." And then everyone was very very quiet. It was one of those rare times when you were in a high school classroom and it was dead silent and no one was taking a test or gossiping or laughing. Everyone just looked at each other, confused, scared, isolated.

The school day continued on (I went to Middletown High School which is 70 miles outside of NYC). There were fears that terrorists might attack Indian Point which held the closest nuclear power plant (40 miles from Middletown, 30 miles from NYC). Some students had parents who worked in the city and immediately left school to be with their closest relatives. Some of us stayed in our Electronic English classroom (the only place in the school where we could watch TV) and watched CNN.

And that was the day terrorism became a household word.

KIOSK @ The Japan Society

I just spent the morning/afternoon helping to build the set for a piece by the ARICA Performance Company entitled KIOSK.

Known for its Beckettian absurdity and stark aesthetic, ARICA Performance Company presents its critically acclaimed KIOSK. In this highly conceptual and visually arresting one-woman show, the narrative follows a day in the life of a woman working in a humble train station kiosk. Perched in her rolling chair, the woman sells newspapers and water. This simple premise is explored through fierce, physical repetition and live electronic music that unfolds the complex layers of the human body's relation to labor in this surreal landscape. ARICA Performance Company is a collective of artists from a variety of disciplines founded in 2001 by designer/director Yasuki Fujita with actress Tomoko Ando, musician Osama Saruyama, poet Shino Kuraishi and producer Keizo Maeda. Since then, the company has collaboratively created site-specific works in unconventional performance spaces. ARICA was awarded Best Solo Performance at the 2005 Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival for Parachute Woman.

It's playing for three nights at The Japan Society: (9/18 thru 9/20 @ 7:30). And if you're interested, you can see the show for free by ushering the show. E-mail me if interested.