About PS 122

For 30 years, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the East Village, as well as the wider cultural community in N.Y.C. and across the globe. In just the past 5 years, under the curatorial vision of Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, PS122 has opened the curtain on more than 2,600 performances, welcomed more than 125,000 visitors, and supported the work of more than 2,100 artists, performers, choreographers, playwrights, directors and designers.

Performance Space 122 passionately advocates for U.S. artists in New York and across globe. Our organization and the artists we present are reclaiming their relevance to wider social discourse by engaging artists, audiences and other community leaders in cultural, economic, and environmental debates about what it means to live in contemporary society.

Past Events:

• Performance Space 122 presents
  the World Premiere of John Kelly’s
  The Escape Artist
  Written by 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award Winner John Kelly
  With 7 original songs by John Kelly & Carol Lipnik
  
  The Escape Artist runs on the following schedule:
  Wednesday, April 15 – Saturday, April 30
  Performances Wednesday – Friday at 8PM, Saturdays at 8 + 10PM.
  Tickets: $25, $15 (students / seniors), $11 with a PS122 Passport
  Purchase online: http://www.ps122.org/performances/the_escape_artist.html
  By phone: 212-352-3101
  In person at the box office in Performance Space 122 (150 1st Avenue at East 9th St.)
  
  “And you realize what you’re watching isn’t so much an artist inventing himself as inevitably discovering the true self within.” –The New York Times
  Performance and visual artist John Kelly explores the character of creative genius as it occurs in the gradations between the ephemeral and the tangible. His past creative work runs the gamut from mixed media dance theatre works to vocal concerts and exhibitions.
  John Kelly completed work on The Escape Artist after being awarded the Ethyl Eichelberger Award in 2010. The Escape Artist traces the story of a man who has a trapeze accident while rehearsing a theatre piece based on the life of Italian Baroque painter, Caravaggio. Stranded on a gurney with a broken neck in the hospital emergency room, he finds refuge in the images that flood his mind – the sinners and saints, prostitutes and gods that populate Caravaggio’s paintings. The Escape Artist contains 7 original songs by John Kelly & Carol Lipnik, as well as covers of songs by Claudio Monteverdi and John Barry.
  Specific past projects by John Kelly have pondered Egon Schiele, Caravaggio, Antonin Artaud, Joni Mitchell, Barbette, Jean Cocteau; autobiography, the Berlin Wall, the Troubadours, the AIDS epidemic, and Expressionistic Film. These works have been performed at The Kitchen, PS 1, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, The Tate Modern, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. Paintings, drawings, photographs and video works have been exhibited in galleries and museums. He has sung the music of John Cage at the San Francisco Symphony, and collaborated and recorded with Laurie Anderson, David Del Tredici, Natalie Merchant and Antony and the Johnsons.
  
  Writings include an autobiography 'JOHN KELLY', published by the 2wice Arts Foundation, in association with Aperture. Acting credits include the Broadway production of "James Joyce's The Dead", and films by John Turturro and James Franco. Awards and Fellowships include 2 Bessie Awards, 2 Obie Awards, an Alpert Award, the 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award, a Visual Aids Vanguard Award, 2 NEA American Masterpieces Awards, and an Eliot Norton Award. Fellowships include NYFA, Art Matters, Inc., The Guggenheim Foundation, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, The Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. Archive: www.johnkellyperformance.org
  
  The Escape Artist was developed, in part, by The Sundance Institute Theatre Program with ongoing support from the Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship; the Music Theatre Group’s Here-See Residency Series; the Dixon Place HOT! Festival; The 2wice Arts Foundation; The Civitella Ranieri Center; The Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome; the Armory Artist in Residence Program at the Park Avenue Armory; and a commission from the 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award created by Performance Space 122 and made possible with generous support from the Gesso Foundation.

• Performance Space 122 presents
  the WORLD PREMIERE of
  RADIO PLAY by Reggie Watts & Tommy Smith
  
   RADIO PLAY runs
  Friday, May 6 - Sunday, May 22 on the following schedule:
  Wednesday - Saturday at 8PM, Sun at 6PM
  No performances Sunday, May 8 / Thursday, May 12 / Friday, May 13
  Late shows at 10PM: Saturday, May 14 & Saturday, May 21
  No performances: Sunday, May 8 / Thursday, May 12 / Friday, May 13
  Tickets: $25, $15 (Student / Seniors), $11 with a PS122 Passport
  Reserve online:http://www.ps122.org/performances/radioplay.html
  Reserve by phone: 212-352-3101
  Reserve in person: Performance Space 122 is located at 150 1st Avenue at East 9th St.
  
  PLUS: As part of The Festival of Ideas for the New City, Reggie Watts joins Heather Kravas for a free discussion on Rhythm and Repetition: Reconfiguring Performance Practice Across Genres
  Saturday, May 7 at 4:00 pmat Performance Space 122
  “Nakedly entertaining! Watts, with his cloud of black hair and surprisingly beautiful voice, is loads of fun to watch” – Variety
  Modeled after radio programs of yesteryear, RADIO PLAY gathers a group of actors, musicians and sound-effects artists to create a surreal sonic entertainment. Songs, stories and soundscapes collide in a comedic mash-up of non-temporal quasi-political pop-cultural tropes.

• Michel Groisman - Various
  September 21 - 25, 2011
  Performance times vary 

The Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen St., Brooklyn NY
BODY INSTALLATION
NY PREMIERE | BRAZIL

As part of his first US tour, Brazilian artist Michel Groisman brings two singular pieces and several intimate interactive group experiences to the Invisible Dog Art Center in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

• Cuqui Jerez - The Rehearsal
  October 12 - 15, 2011
  Wednesday - Saturday 8pm
  
  The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster St., Manhattan, NY
  Co-presented with Crossing the Line and The Performing Garage
  DANCE / PERFORMANCE
  US PREMIERE | SPAIN
  
  In this highly original and intriguing US Premiere, Spanish choreographer Cuqui Jerez employs the simple process of the rehearsal, an integral component of traditional theater practice, as a starting point from which she explores & questions the audience's reality. 

• PS 122 Spring Gala
  March 15, 2012

  Honorary chairs MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV, JO ANDRES & STEVE BUSCEMI
  JOHN LEGUIZAMO, YVONNE RAINER, Gala chair EAST VILLAGE COMMUNITY COALITION
  and the PS122 BOARD OF DIRECTORS invite you to
  ST. ANN'S WAREHOUSE on MARCH 15
  Sponsorships from $25,000 - $1,500
  Single tickets from $350
  Single Tickets / Sponsorships

  • 6:00 pm Cocktails & hors d'oeuvres with DJ JOHNNY DYNELL
  • 7:30 pm Performance
  • 9:00 pm Dessert & silent auction
  • 10:30 pm Afterparty at SUPERFINE
    Honoring LUCY SEXTON
    

Shining Star Award presented to PHIL HARTMAN

Hosted by MX JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND

Performances by
ANNE IOBST as THE NAKED LADY / SARAH MICHELSON & MIKE IVESON
JULIE ATLAS MUZ / BOB HOLMAN

Short film by STEPHEN DALDRY

Excerpt from Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell performed by
JONATHAN AMES, ERIC BOGOSIAN, MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, AIN GORDON

Excerpt from TURNING a new film by CHARLES ATLAS featuring ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS

Live Auction with ISAAC MIZRAHI & RICHARD MOVE as MARTHA GRAHAM