A lot of cheerful chaos reigns. The audience gets a menu of 30 plays, and at "Curtain" the audience shouts out the number of the next play, and in a few seconds the cast has cleared the old play, set up the new one and started a new play, chosen randomly by the first number the cast hears.
The plays are drama and comedy and satire. Sometimes the very brevity of the plays adds its own humor to an otherwise serious piece.
The style is a mashup of sketch comedy, sketch drama and improv. The performers are not only very, very good, but it is a tour-de-force to be able to set up and perform any one of thirty plays at the drop of a title sheet. (The titles of the thirty plays are strung on a clothesline and pulled down as they are called out by the audience.) Moreover, every week a random number of plays (between two and twelve -- the roll of two dice) are removed from the repertoire, with new plays written and prepared to enter the show.
There is a manifesto of principle that guides the structure of the evening. One of the principles is reality. NeoFuturism "advocates the complete awareness and inclusion of the actual world within the theater." Several plays deal with this head-on, stemming from the real lives of the actors; some plays are literally "site-specific," bringing audience members into the show.
Randomness also determines the price. When you arrive, you go to the boxoffice and get a little token that says you are guaranteed a seat, then you go back to the queue. (The nights I came, the theater was almost, but not quite, sold out.) As you make your way into the theater, you roll the dice to determine how much over the base price you need to pay (usually adding up to somewhere between $10 and $15).
The show is crazy, entertaining, and thought provoking. Sometimes it can get over-chaotic, and some plays just don't feel completely realized. One of the newer (I think) members of the troupe, the beautiful Chisa Hutchinson, brings her skill as a grounded (but very free) actress and talented playwright ("She Like Girls," and other plays) to the show. The marriage of skilled playwriting with the highly energetic chaos and structure of the performance, promises to make NYNF potentially the most exciting show in the city.
At the Innovative Theater Nominations
Chisa Hutchinson (l), Nicole Hill (c), and Christopher Borg (r)
Photo by Eric Roffman
Indeed, I'd like to see NYNF web streaming all or part of their shows live to the world. I think it would be a sensation. (See, for example, this month's issue (Sep 2010) of FAST COMPANY and the story on "Must See TV: The Web's New Fall Lineup".)
But NYNF does not just do their weekend shows. They also produce full-length plays and special evenings. Just recently they did "The Soup Show," an all naked production.
Coming up in the fall is another "Main Stage" production:
...be afraid... be very afraid...
October/November 2010
And on the 20th and 21st of August, they are doing
60 Half Nekkid Minutes"
we bare (most of) our selves
It is not clear which half (top, bottom, or middle) of the actors is naked, or whether half the actors are completely naked, or (most likely) whether most of the actors are mostly Nekkid, but wearing some thing... like underwear. Note that, possibly, audience members who are Half-Nekkid may get a discount on the admission price.
The NY Neo Futurists generally perform at the Kraine Theater at 85 East 4th Street.
info@NYNF.org
http://www.nynf.org/
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