Performance Space 122 Presents Newyorkland

Performance Space 122 is set to present the New York premiere of Newyorkland, from performance group Temporary Distortion. Merging film and live performance, the work follows four cops who struggle with the rigorous demands of the NYPD. Newyorkland was commissioned by PS122 as part of COIL, PS122’s annual performance festival.

14 performances of Newyorkland will take place Jan 12–28 (see schedule above) at the Howard Gillman Performance Space at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Critics are welcome as of January 13 for an official opening of January 17. Tickets are $20 ($15 for students, seniors) and can be purchased online at ps122.org or by phone at 212.352.3101. The Baryshnikov Arts Center is located at 450 West 37th Street in New York City.

Both terrifying and touchingly vulnerable, Newyorkland sheds a dark light on the secretive, fraternal society that is the NYPD and the thin line that officers must walk between righteousness and corruption. The work combines representations of cops from TV and film with testimonials from police officers in director Kenneth Collins immediate family. In merging this private history with fiction, Collins has set out to create one of his most personal works to date. The Seattle Times writes, “Newyorkland is a fascinating window into a cop's often isolating experiences.”

Staged in one of the company’s signature box-like structures, Newyorkland fuses live performance and film to create a claustrophobic, yet meditative work. The box-like installation serves as a framework for the both the performers’ restrained acting style and as a canvas for the arresting images of video designer William Cusick, who blends cinéma vérité, documentary realism and pure fiction. “Seamless and gorgeous,” writes Seattle’s The Stranger, “a dreamy, poetic, abstracted, and sometimes scary meditation on what it's like to live behind a badge.”

Newyorkland features direction and set and lighting design by Kenneth Collins, video design and direction by William Cusick, music and sound by John Sully, and costumes by TaraFawn Marek. The stage cast includes Nick Bixby, Daniel Brown, Al Di Martino and Brian Greer. Prior to PS122, Newyorkland was presented at Theatre Junction (Calgary, Canada) and On the Boards (Seattle, Washington).

About Temporary Distortion

Since its inception in 2002, Temporary Distortion has earned a reputation for pushing the boundaries of theater by staging unsettling, meditative performances in claustrophobic, boxlike structures that feature minimal physical movement and a uniquely restrained acting style. In the company’s work, projected video is juxtaposed with live performance to create dreamlike double worlds that fracture traditional notions of narrative coherence and merge film, performance, and visual art.

In these four-dimensional theatrical installations, the performers never make eye contact, never touch and barely move. Meanwhile, a journey on film unfolds around them in a hyper-real world of blood, sweat, and death that is ironically more physical than the presence of the live performer.

Steadily gaining recognition and critical acclaim through international touring over the past three years, Temporary Distortion is led by longtime collaborators Kenneth Collins and William Cusick, Newyorkland follows Welcome to Nowhere (bullet hole road) (2007), a deconstruction of the American road movie, and Americana Kamikaze (2009), the company’s western-infused translation of Japanese horror. In his review of Kamikaze in The New York Times, critic Jason Zinonman wrote, “Temporary Distortion, integrating mind-blowing video images and theatrical tension, has created a nightmarish pop aesthetic that deserves your attention.”

Temporary Distortion is based in New York City, where its work has been presented at The Chocolate Factory, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater and Performance Space 122. The Company’s work has also been presented internationally at: Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane, Australia), Exit Festival (Paris, France), Gare Saint-Sauveur (Lille, France), LiFE (Saint-Nazaire, France), Mois Multi (Quebec City, Canada), Prague Quadrennial (Prague, Czech Republic), Salzburg Festival (Salzburg, Austria), SPAC (Shizuoka, Japan), Théâtre de l’Agora (Évry, France), Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse, France), Theatre National de Toulouse (Toulouse, France), Trafó (Budapest, Hungary), Usine-C (Montreal, Canada), Via (Maubeuge, France).

Credits

Newyorkland is made possible with commissioning support from Performance Space 122. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support provided by the Arts Collaboration Lab, a partnership between Columbia University School of the Arts and Performance Space 122 in July 2011, and The Greenwall Foundation

About Performance Space 122