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Soho’s Think Tank
Ice Factory’s Artistically Daring Theatre Festival
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Described by critics as “artistically daring” and “unabashedly intellectual,” Soho Think Tank’s annual Ice Factory is not to be missed. Founded in 1988 by playwright/director Robert Lyons, Ohio Theatre—the company behind the producing firm that is STT—faced homelessness last year after losing its Soho space on Wooster Street. The Obie Award-winning company now presents its 18th iteration of Ice Factory at 3LD on Greenwich Street, under the name Ohio Interrupted@3LD.
Ice Factory 2011 opens shop this Wednesday, June 22nd. With six debuts scheduled over six weeks, the festival will run until July 30, featuring the works of both local and foreign companies. With a history of Ice Factory shows triumphing in Off-Broadway, Edinburgh Fringe and the Joyce, among others, these six performances well deserve a place in your calendar!
Struck: A Lighting Story (June 22-25)
Lighting strikes twice this week as Ice Factory opens its curtains with the electrifying musical Struck. Written by International WOW’s Producing Associate Director Robert Saietta, and actress/rock star Rebecca Hart, Struck is a play that moonlights as a rock concert. Inspired in Oliver Sack’s Musicophilia, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Hart’s own early days as a composer, Struck tells the story of Beth Prosser, a cult-rock performer whose brush with death in the form of a lightning strike changes her life doubly as she suddenly develops enormous musical talent—and a degenerative neurological condition. Ten years later, Beth is in the middle of a tour when a storm leaves her stranded in her hometown, vulnerable to both the outside elements and the storm raging inside her head. Rock and neuroscience convene in this tempestuous performance! Struck is directed by D.J. Mendel and accompanied by Rebecca Hart’s electrifying compositions.
The Pig, or Václav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig (June 29-July 2)
Untitled Theater Company No. 61 presents the first staging of Václav Havel’s latest work outside the Czech Republic. Set at a zabijačka—a traditional Czech festival—The Pig, or Václav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig is the story of Václav Havel’s search for a suitable pig to feast upon with his dissident friends, and an American journalist’s quest to interview Havel. A collision of politics and celebration, The Pig has much to recommend it: a live feed video, professional classical singers, a seven piece live orchestra, and Czech beer. Translated by Edward Einhorn and directed by Henry Akona, The Pig is a cross between a play, an operetta and a village feast in which the audience itself has a seat at the table. Tickets are $35 with meal (pork or vegetarian), and $29 for students and seniors.
Pontiac Firebird Variations (July 6-9)
“Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me,” exclaims one of Clarence’s murderers in Shakespeare’s Richard III (Act I, Scene IV). A modern take of the bard’s celebrated tragedy, Pontiac Firebird Variations features the bickering and deliberations of six potential killers enlisted by a New York crime family. The target: Pepsi-loving Clare, sister to crime czar Richard, and a perceived threat to his authority. A tragicomedy about murder, desire and guilty consciences that features car shoptalk, 80s pop culture trivia, and an unusual narrative structure. Written by Casey Wimpee and directed by Matthew Hancock, Pontiac Firebird Variations is brought to you by Brooklyn-based Aztec Economy.
An Impending Sense Of Doom (July 13-16)
Known for its production of socially and politically relevant theater, the Subjective Theatre Company will not disappoint with its most recent project. An Impending Sense of Doom analyzes the widespread cultural apprehensions and extremisms that surround “ends-of-days” discourse. Written by Julia Holleman and directed by Jeffrey Whitted, An Impending Sense of Doom features reality games, subverted utopias, militia leaders, lands lain to waste by the elements and economic crisis—a deconstruction of apocalyptic paranoia that you can’t miss.
Three Graces (July 20-23)
An operatic play that draws its inspiration from Cretan rebel songs and Greek blues, Three Graces depicts a story of botched insurgence, illicit desires and a collision between West and East. A woman by the name of Three Graces relates this “Illiad for modern Greece,” which includes a trouble-spinning swindler, two warring brothers, a lamenting Cretan wife, and a dancing girl who will not dance. With a libretto by Ruth Margraff and music by Nikos Brisco, Café Antarsia Ensemble and the Obie Award-winning Immigrants’ Theatre Project present Three Graces under the direction of Ian Belton.
Sometimes in Prague (July 27-30)
Produced by Magic Futurebox and Rusty Ring Thelin, Joshua William Gelb and Stephanie Johnstone’s Sometimes in Prague seeks to answer a simple, yet enduring question: what is the most authentic way to love? A fortuitous meeting of three Americans in a Czech pub detonates the inquiry, and leads to the examination of both polyamory and monogamy as the audience is invited to scrutinize the face of passion in an increasingly unstable world. Multimedia features, rock music, and ample supplies of cake and champagne will complement the performance. Widely popular at its workshop showing last summer, Sometimes in Prague is a sure hit that you cannot miss.
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