Tina Satter
House of Dance
Commissioned by PS122
Co-presented with New York City Players & Performance Space 122 as a part of the COIL Festival
THURS JAN 9 . 7:00 PM
FRI JAN 10 . 8:30 PM + 11:00 PM
SUN JAN 12 . 1:00 PM + 4:00 PM
MON JAN 13 . 3:00 PM
Run time: 75 minutes
ABRONS ARTS CENTER G05
466 Grand Street / tickets $20, $15 Students & Seniors
At a small town tap studio, four dancers prepare for a competition. Tensions flare and dead dreams fly back to life as Head Instructor (Obie Award winning Jim Fletcher) teaches his student the ways of the stage. Tina Satter’s highly stylized writing and direction creates a heightened reality – an intimate, heartfelt look into defining oneself through the context of others.
Co-presented by PS122, New York City Players as part of the American Playwrights Division and American Realness in association with Half Straddle and Abrons Arts Center. House of Dance is made possible with the generous support of the MAP FUND, New York State Council on the Arts, and ART/NY’s Creative Space grant. Commissioning support provided by PS122, Mass Live Arts and a 50th Anniversary Grant from the Jerome Foundation.
Writer & Director Tina Satter
Composer & Sound Designer Chris Giarmo
Performers Jess Barbagallo, Jim Fletcher, Elizabeth DeMent, Paul Pontrelli
Set Designer Andreea Mincic
Lighting Designer Zack Tinkelman
Choreographer Hannah Heller
Costume Designer Enver Chakartash
Stage Manager Randi Rivera
Associate Producer Lindsay Hockaday
Tina Satter is a Brooklyn-based writer and director who makes plays, performances, videos, and music. She is Artistic Director of the theater company Half Straddle founded in 2008 and awarded an Obie grant in 2013. Her recent critically acclaimed show, House of Dance, about a transgender tap student, opened in October 2013 commissioned by Richard Maxwell’s New York City Players and named a New York Times Critics Pick. Her play, Seagull (Thinking of you), a feminist re-working of Chekhov’s Seagull, premiered at PS122’s 2013 COIL Festival following residencies at MASS MoCA, New Museum, and Abrons Art Center. It tours to France and Croatia in fall 2013 and spring 2014. Her play In the Pony Palace/FOOTBALL was named a Top 10 Show of 2011 by PAPER Magazine, among other honors, and FAMILY was named a Top 10 show of 2009 by Time Out New York. Her work has been curated into seasons at The Kitchen, PS122, Incubator Arts Project, the Bushwick Starr, Prelude Festival, and Ice Factory Festival. Her play Away Uniform had its European premiere at Culturgest in Lisbon, Portugal in October 2013. Tina was named a “2011 Off-Off Broadway Innovator to Watch” by Time Out New York, was a 2013 Kitchen L.A.B. resident, and featured director at Culture Project’s 2011 Women Center Stage Festival. She has been a guest artist and teacher at Princeton University, Reed College, and Fordham University. Tina attended Mac Wellman’s graduate playwriting program at Brooklyn College and received a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Reed College. Upcoming commissions include The Kitchen (January 2015 premiere), Soho Rep, and a Wooster Group Performing Garage Artist Residency. Her first book of plays will be published by 53rd State Press in January 2014.
“Far more than your standard-issue play…, House of Dance uses dance to reflect and define the idiosyncrasy and all-too-human haplessness of those who perform it.” – The New York Times’ Critics Pick