Untitled Mars (This Title May Change)

Taking a cue from the space industry, Jay Scheib's latest work pits hard Science against Philip K. Dick as inter-planetary speculation runs amok, the indige-nous population gets screwed, and a strange "anomalous" kid seems to hold all the answers. Developed at MIT with a team of Mars researchers, a mission to colonize the Red Planet is revving up for 2017. Science vs. Fiction in this new work for seven performers and a simulated Martian environment—a story about moving society to Mars and what happens once we succeed...

 

A UNIQUE COLLABORATION BETWEEN LEADING AMERICAN AND HUNGARIAN THEATER ARTISTS

For the past five years, director Jay Scheib's work as an artist in the theater has been focused on an array of hybrid, cross-disciplinary performance practices. Two works associated with this research were developed in collaboration with companies in Hungary and with collaborators from Romania, Ukraine as well as Western Europe. Those projects included two live-cinema performance works—the first workshop with the Krétakör Ensemble was the first step in the development of This Place is a Desert, which just had its world premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, followed by a run at the Under the Radar Festival of the Public Theater in New York City, the second with Pont Műhely at Trafó was based on Tolstoy's play The Power of Darkness - in both cases Anna Lengyel was dramaturge and initiator of the exchange. Scheib's collaboration with artists in Central Europe has had a profound impact on his work as an artist in the United States. It has been a goal of his for some time now to create a meaningful collaboration between his collaborators in the United States and their Hungarian counterparts. Untitled Mars (this title may change) is the perfect opportunity.

Untitled Mars (this title may change) was first developed as a workshop with a studio presentation at the MIT Museum in Cambridge Massachusetts. Scheib developed his first workshop and studio performance on the 4th and 5th of October 2007 in Cambridge. Following the work in Cambridge, rehearsals started in New York during the last week of February 2008. Dramaturge Anna Lengyel, performer László Keszég, performer Dorka Gryllus and performer and video-artist Balázs Vajna have travelled from Budapest to NYC to be part of the ensemble. The world premier of Untitled Mars (this title may change) will take place at Performance Space 122 on April 9th 2008 with a run of three weeks. In the fall, the production will travel to Budapest where it will be translated and adapted, making Hungarian one of the principle languages. Director Jay Scheib, performers April Sweeney, Tanya Selvaratnam, Natalie Thomas, Karl Allen and Caleb Hammond, as well as set designer Peter Ksander, light designer Miranda Hardy and sound-designer Catherine McCurry will all travel from the US to Budapest to work towards Untitled Mars' European premier in Budapest in the beginning of September 2008.

The Hungarian partners are all very excited about this chance of bringing Mars Untitled to Hungary, since this would be the first time your American work could be shown here after the three productions you did in the past years. Both GlassMohn at MU and Power of Darkness at Trafó made earlier in this collaboration were enthusiastically received by audiences and the latter was a real hit with some of the strictest theatre critics of this country. Scheib's workshop with the internationally renowned Krétakör Theater of This Place is a Desert has contributed to his highly successful production presented at the Public Theater in New York City, but it also made a lasting impression on the Krétakör Company, some of whom the director then worked with on Power.

This collaboration on Mars Untitled is a crucial step in an almost ten-year old professional relationship between Pont‘s actor-director László Keszég and the dramaturge and producer, Anna Lengyel, whom Jay Scheib has invited to be part of the original Mars production in New York City at PS122. We are negotiating with the leading cutting edge festival, the Autumn Festival to program Mars and with some of the leading venues here to present the show three to six times.

Jay Scheib's Gesamtkunstwerk-like approach to theater and his special sensitivity to space and his original Viewpoints technique combined with the strong absurdist traditions of the Hungarian stage tradition and Pont have always created unique and novel work in Hungary and has been always appreciated by critics and audiences alike.

 

Performers

Karl Allen (Heliogabalus/HabCom, technical director)

was most recently seen in This Place is a Desert by Jay Scheib at the Public Theatre as part of the Under the Radar Festival. Other recent credits include Bride by Kevin Augustine as part of the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator program, Embert (The Roast) at Dixon Place with his company The Entire Group, and The Pumpkin Pie Show by Clay McLeod Chapman.

Dorka Gryllus (Doreen Anderton)

graduated from the Budapest Academy of Drama and Film and joined the legendary Kaposvár Theater, where she played leading roles including Giacinta in Adventures in the Country (Goldoni) and Dog in Family Stories (Serbljanovic), and musicals like Cabaret (Sally Bowles) with Hungary's most renowned directors. In 2004 she moved to Berlin. She then starred in Robert Pejo's Dallas Pashamende and was awarded Best Actress in Festroia 2005 (Portugal), at the Hungarian Film Week 2005 and got the European Shooting Star Award 2005, Berlinale. Recent film work includes Irina Palm with Marianne Faitfull (Sam Garbarski) , stage works at the Hebbel Theater and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

Caleb Hammond (Arnie Kott)

has recently been seen in This Place is a Desert (William Faulkner and John Rowe), Dir: Jay Scheib, Under the Radar Festival, The Public Theater. Daniel Veronese's Women Dreamt Horses,(Ivan) Dir: Jay Scheib, PS122. Sam Shepard's True West (Lee), Dir: Eileen Rooney, Piano Factory, Boston. Directing: SICK (also writer) at The Ontological Theater and Collective Unconscious. Erik Ehn's Seal Skin, FeverFest Boston. DESTRUCTION, (adapted from Richard Foreman's notebooks), TALR Festival, HERE Arts. Ionesco's Rhinoceros, TheaterWorks, Boston. Solo Performance: FIRE (Sex and Death) Toured internationally. Exhibitions: Can You Get That? Collaboration with Rise Industries, Gallery 825, Los Angeles.

László Keszég (Sylvere Bohlen)

is one of Hungary's leading young stage directors. László comes from Szabadka in Voyvodina, Serbia, but has lived in Budapest since 1992. He's been a resident director at the legendary Kaposvár Theater since he got his MFA in 1998. László works regularly at the National Theater in Budapest, mostly directing but also acting like in the double lead in Czillei and the Hunyadys. Directing credits include Titus Andronicus, The Magic Flute, Gogol's Wedding, as well as the Family Trilogy in his own, cutting-edge independent company, Pont Műhely, where he collaborated with Jay Scheib on Power of Darkness and GlassMohn as an actor and artistic director. László is a lecturer at the Kaposvár Theater Academy and will get his PhD in 2009.

Tanya Selvaratnam (Jackie Bohlen)

has toured around the world with The Wooster Group's House/Lights, The Builders Association's Alladeen and Super Vision, and her solo shows. In 2007/8, she was a resident artist at Yaddo, Voice & Vision Theater, and Blue Mountain Center; and appeared in Rotozaza's Double Think (PS 122), 9 Scripts from a Nation at War (Documenta), Fiona Templeton's The Medead (Dixon Place), and Jay Scheib's This Place is a Desert (The Public Theater). Also a respected film producer, she is currently working with directors Chiara Clemente and Catherine Gund. Tanya was born in Sri Lanka and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University.

April Sweeney (Anne Esterházy)

Recent credits include with Jay Scheibb This Place is a Desert (Public Theatre/UTR), Women Dreamt Horses (BAIT Festival-Performance Space 122), Herakles (Chashama), West Pier (Ohio Theatre), POD (COL). Regional/Off-Broadway: Streetcar Named Desire

(U.S Tour-Montana Rep.), Grapes of Wrath (Arkansas Rep.), The Idiot (Manhattan Ensemble Theatre), Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya (ChekhovNOW Festival), Beloved (Guggenheim Museum). International: Arcá de Babel (Bolivia, Argentina), Godard (distant and right) (France) Training: MFA-Acting, Columbia University.

Ms. Sweeney is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Colgate University.

Natalie Thomas (Mannie Steiner)

Natalie's theater credits include Lucid at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 52 Pick-Up at the Gene Frankel Theatre and The Wooster Group's House/Lights at St. Ann's Warehouse. Her film credits include Payback, directed by Jen Li, and Heute Nacht, directed by Brock Labrenz and produced by An Films. Natalie is currently a member of An Films and Moving Theater and is the movement coach for The Wooster Group's Poor Theater and Hamlet. Natalie's dance credits include Woolf Phrase at Brooklyn Academy of Music and Eidos Telos at Sadler's Wells, London. Natalie was a company member with Nederlands Dans Theater II, Berlin Komische Oper, and a soloist with William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt.

Balázs Vajna (Norbert Steiner, video designer)

traveled extensively all over the world with one of Hungary's most prestigious independent companies, the Moving House as an actor and assistant director in productions including The Tragedy of Man, Romeo and Juliet and The Cherry Orchard. He then focussed his attention on video design and has become one of Hungary's leading VJs for leading literary and music events, such as poetry recitals and showcases in Budapest, Amsterdam, Berlin and other cities. Balázs has worked with Jay Scheib on the original production of Power of Darkness as a performer and assistant video designer. This is his first time in New York.

 

Artistic staff

Oana Botez-Ban (costume designer)

a native of Romania, has designed for major theater and dance companies including The National Theater of Bucharest and was involved in international theater festivals such as the Quadrennial Scenography Show in Prague. Oana is part of the first Romanian theater design catalogue, Scenografica. Since 1999, her New York collaborations include Richard Foreman, Richard Schechner, Brian Kulick, Zelda Fichlander, Karin Coonrod, Jay Scheib, Eduardo Machado, Molissa Fenley, Zishan Ugurlu,, Gus Solomon Jr, Pavol Liska, Matthew Neenan, Doris Mirescu, Erin Mee, Michael Sexton, Pig Iron Company, Play Company, Charles Moulton, Loy Arcenas, Ripe Time. MFA in Design from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Princess Grace Recipient for 2007.

Miranda K Hardy (light design)

is a lighting designer and shadow artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been seen at PS122, St Ann's Warehouse, The Ontological Hysteric Theater, Festival di Due Mondi in Spoleto Italy, PICA's Time Based Art Festival, The Flea Theater, The San Francisco and Dublin Fringe Festivals, The Juilliard School, On the Boards, La Mama ETC, HERE Arts Center and others. She is a co-founder of Tiny Elephant, a theater dedicated to the performing object and has continuing artistic relationships with Banana Bag and Bodice, TENT, Mallory Catlett, Tom Lee and Hand 2 Mouth. Miranda holds a MFA in Theatrical Design from the California Institute of the Arts.

Peter Ksander (set design)

is a sculptor and theater artist currently based in Brooklyn NY. Credits include designs for: The Brothers Size (The Public Theatre), Laude in Urbis (Compania di Colombari), This Place is a Desert (Under the Radar, ICA Boston), The Blackamoor Angel (Bard Summerscape), Women Dreamt Horses and Panic (Bait Festival/PS122). He is co-founder of Tiny Elephant, a theater company dedicated to the performing object, and has continuing relationships with Banana, Bag, and Bodice, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and TENT. He is also a curator for the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator and in 2005 was one of the recipients of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program.

Anna Lengyel (Hungarian producer)

is a dramaturg, translator and producer. She started her career with the legendary Kaposvár Theater and since 2004 has worked for the most prestigious Hungarian company, Krétakör, where she introduced a series of staged readings of international plays and other programs and publications. Anna translated Martin McDonagh, Neil LaBute, Martin Crimp, as well as Hungarian authors into German and English. She has worked internationally with Tamás Ascher, Árpád Schilling, Jay Scheib and Robert Wilson. In 1997 she was a Fulbright fellow at Columbia University. Anna is a lecturer at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest and recently started working as an international producer.

Catherine McCurry (sound design)

graduated from MIT in 2007 where she studied physics and music. She trained as a violinist and composer at the New England Conservatory. In 2007 she worked on music and sound design for Matermorphosis with Serious Play! in Northampton, MA, and designed sound and music for The Demolition Downtown/Municipal Abattoir for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, in which she also acted. She was assistant sound designer for This Place is a Desert at the Public Theater in January, and sound and video programmer and assistant designer for Imminence with the Talking Band at La Mama E.T.C. in March.