It may still be 60 degrees outside, but Boston’s theater scene insists that it’s springtime. This weekend, The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), Huntington Theatre Company and the Institute for Contemporary Art (I.C.A.) are busting out their second annual Emerging America Festival.
Showcasing the innovative work of up-and-coming theater artists from Boston and beyond, the festival makes use of all three of the company’s performance spaces in Cambridge and Boston. The festival website also offers podcasts of theater walking tours and site-specific audio plays.
Festival-goers are encouraged to mingle and discuss the spectacles they have witnessed throughout the weekend. OBERON, the A.R.T.’s Harvard Square cabaret space, will be hosting a “Festival Tent” where audiences can grab drinks, meet the artists, process the varied wonders on display, and plot their next adventures. Activities on Sunday, the festival’s closing, include a “conversation brunch” in the morning at the Huntington’s Calderwood Pavilion at the B.C.A. and a festival- closing party back at OBERON.
Tickets can be purchased for individual events or in a variety of bundles. From the website, here’s the festival schedule.
FRIDAY, MAY 13
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART/BOSTON
Jay Scheib brings the dystopic and violent vision of Samuel Delany’s epic sci-fi novelDahlgren to the stage. Using smashing choreography and live video action, this sexy cast of characters explores the limits of life at the end of the world. Bellona combines passages from Delaney’s novel with original material as well as video and photography by director Jay Scheib and artist Carrie Mae Weems.
8:00 PM
BEOWULF – A THOUSAND YEARS OF BAGGAGE
OBERON
This SongPlay adaptation of the Old English epic poem Beowulf harkens back to the raw and rowdy storytelling of the Scandinavian mead halls. The show features a 7-piece band including dueling trombones, bass clarinet, accordion, and saw, combining Weillian cabaret, 40’s jazz harmony, indie rock, punk, electronica, and Romantic lieder into a cacophonous swirl.
SATURDAY, MAY 14
1:00 PM
HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY’S CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA
Everybody wanted to talk to the mysterious old lady in Alfred Hitchcock’s slasher masterpiece Psycho. Now, after the bloodbath, Mrs. Bates pulls back the curtain and tells HER side! Featuring Larry Coen in Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans’ twisted take on Hitchcock’s masterpiece. WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
2:00 PM
THE UN-OFFICIAL GUIDE TO AUDIENCE WATCHING PERFORMANCE
OBERON
Raphael Xavier, a break dancer for over two decades, shifts and plays with the rhythms of rap, break dancing, and narrative to draw parallels between the performer’s body and the stage itself, in this inventive work spiked with humor. With special guest performance by The Movement Specialists.
4:00 PM
HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY’S CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA
Everybody wanted to talk to the mysterious old lady in Alfred Hitchcock’s slasher masterpiece Psycho. Now, after the bloodbath, Mrs. Bates pulls back the curtain and tells HER side! Featuring Larry Coen in Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans’ twisted take on Hitchcock’s masterpiece. WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
4:00 PM
OBERON
Characters from World of Warcraft, Halo Reach, and Grand Theft Auto 4 perform tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Middle and high school students turn into digital “puppeteers” when they operate projected images of their favorite games. This production combines ancient text with modern technology to create an original theatrical experience.
6:00 PM
OBERON
Borrowing tales from half-a-dozen cities where Aaron Landsman sat in on government meetings, as well as improvised testimony from you the viewer, this piece imagines public discourse as art and vice versa. Come early and you could end up as the Mayor of this night. Come late and you may lose your voice.
7:30 PM
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART/BOSTON
Jay Scheib brings the dystopic and violent vision of Samuel Delany’s epic sci-fi novelDahlgren to the stage. Using smashing choreography and live video action, this sexy cast of characters explores the limits of life at the end of the world. Bellona combines passages from Delaney’s novel with original material as well as video and photography by director Jay Scheib and artist Carrie Mae Weems.
8:00 PM
OBERON
A love song to American pop, a performance of simultaneous surround- sound stories, a rousing dance party, and a look into the lives of 10 music fans – all from the generation after the generation that fell into bed to the songs of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, a generation searching for its own undeniable song.
10:30 PM
OBERON
The Donkey Show transforms the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream into the ultimate disco experience. Celebrate with festival artists at OBERON’s signature club theater event and continue to party through the weekend.
SUNDAY, MAY 15
12:00 PM
HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY’S CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA
Enjoy live music and brunch selections and mingle with other festival-goers to talk about the weekend’s adventures and experiences. Featuring performances by Alvin Terry (Ruined), Company One’s ARTiculation, and Imaginary Beasts, and the fight stylings of Angie Jepson and Georgia Lyman.
2:00 PM
HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY’S CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA
Unhappy? Listless? Broke? Alone? Let the Laws of Attraction massage your vibrations and change your life in the self-help-sploitation The Momentum. Remember: It’s not self-help if you don’t help self.
2:00 PM
THE UN-OFFICIAL GUIDE TO AUDIENCE WATCHING PERFORMANCE
OBERON
Raphael Xavier, a break dancer for over two decades, shifts and plays with the rhythms of rap, break dancing, and narrative to draw parallels between the performer’s body and the stage itself, in this inventive work spiked with humor. With special guest performance by The Movement Specialists.
2:00 PM
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART/BOSTON
Jay Scheib brings the dystopic and violent vision of Samuel Delany’s epic sci-fi novelDahlgren to the stage. Using smashing choreography and live video action, this sexy cast of characters explores the limits of life at the end of the world. Bellona combines passages from Delaney’s novel with original material as well as video and photography by director Jay Scheib and artist Carrie Mae Weems.
4:00 PM
OBERON
Borrowing tales from half-a-dozen cities where Aaron Landsman sat in on government meetings, as well as improvised testimony from you the viewer, this piece imagines public discourse as art and vice versa. Come early and you could end up as the Mayor of this night. Come late and you may lose your voice.
6:00 PM
BEOWULF – A THOUSAND YEARS OF BAGGAGE
OBERON
This SongPlay adaptation of the Old English epic poem Beowulf harkens back to the raw and rowdy storytelling of the Scandinavian mead halls. The show features a 7-piece band including dueling trombones, bass clarinet, accordion, and saw, combining Weillian cabaret, 40’s jazz harmony, indie rock, punk, electronica, and Romantic lieder into a cacophonous swirl.
8:00 PM
FESTIVAL CLOSING PARTY featuring THE LISPS
OBERON
The closing party features The Lisps and delightful surprises cooked up by OBERON and its eclectic artists. The Lisps are a New York-based band whose songs borrow liberally from vaudeville, science fiction, and Americana. Their hyperactive performances typically involve bloody tambourines, wrestling, lipstick smeared melodicas, old filing cabinets, and film reels suspended by rusty chains.
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