Trickster Theater Performances are free and open to the public. “Theater is free, because art should be free” -Papo Colo, Artistic Director

Trickster Theater programs are free to the public thanks to the generous support from the Lambent Foundation Fund of the Tides Foundation.

NEW YORK –Exit Art in-residence Trickster Theater is pleased to premiere a new original work and a special late night performance event directed and conceived by Artistic Director, Papo Colo this August.

Trickster Theater is creating new works that reflect the diverse audiences and influences of New York City.  Trickster’s mission is to produce experimental performance theater works that challenge the formal canon and expand the audience’s notion of contemporary theatre.

VORTEX is a view of the Americas via the lens of two iconic poets, Pablo Neruda and Walt Whitman. Crisscrossing historical and geographical landscapes, wrapped in Pablo Casals’ Bach suites, Whitman and Neruda find the most supreme versions of themselves as they interconnect between English and Spanish, and North and South America in a dance-theatre conversation about where we’ve been as a continent. The VORTEX attempts to re-imagine what modern Americana means: a stage that represents the complexity and diversity of contemporary America with a new use of poetry in a context of dramatic texts and extraordinary set design.

CONFESSIONS is an intimate, late-night theatrical experience presenting Trickster actors, playing themselves, confessing to an audience.  These confessions are given dramatic context by the ceremonial process enacted in this unique performance event.  Actors are guided to embrace the musicality of language and the performative religiosity of confessing.  These late night Confessions will produce volition on the part of the actor, creating a space for the performers to intimately share with their audience.

THE VORTEX PERFORMERS: Mauricio Leyton*, Ernesto Nodal, Elinor Thompson

CONFESSIONS PERFORMERS: Shannon Altner, Megan Branch, Cara Loften, Siobhan O’Loughlin, Alexa Thorson, and Hannah Scott

THE VORTEX and CONFESSIONS conceived and directed by Papo Colo.

• This actor is appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association

ABOUT EXIT ART Exit Art is an independent vision of contemporary culture. We are prepared to react immediately to important issues that affect our lives. We do experimental, historical and unique presentations of aesthetic, social, political and environmental issues. We absorb cultural differences that become prototype exhibitions. We are a center for multiple disciplines. Exit Art is a 29-year-old cultural center in New York City founded by Directors Jeanette Ingberman and artist Papo Colo, that has grown from a pioneering alternative art space, into a model artistic center for the 21st century committed to supporting artists whose quality of work reflects the transformations of our culture. Exit Art is internationally recognized for its unmatched spirit of inventiveness and consistent ability to anticipate the newest trends in the culture. With a substantial reputation for curatorial innovation and depth of programming in diverse media, Exit Art is always changing.

Escape the heat and enjoy these performances in Trickster Theater’s fully air conditioned space!

ABOUT TRICKSTER THEATER Papo Colo founded Trickster Theater in 1998. Since its inception, an important aspect of the Trickster Theater is its role as a multilingual and multinational theater, creating theater as global and local as its audience. Trickster Theater investigates the American language and the relationship of different accents and tonalities. The theater has a history of bilingual productions that tackle issues of translation in the dramatic arts. Trickster has produced a range of shows including Praying Project, Wild Nights, Tropical Area, Cannon Dialogues, Confessions of the Face, Somehow, Still Life, and Distant Sex, which can be viewed on Exit Media and Trickster Theater’s website.

To view last year’s performance of Distant Sex, please click HERE.

EXIT ART AND TRICKSTER THEATER SUPPORT Exit Art and Trickster Theater programming support provided by  Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Ford Foundation’s Good Neighbor Committee, Lambent Foundation Fund of the Tides Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

EXIT ART 475 Tenth Ave at 36th St NYC / 212-966-7745 / www.exitart.org Open Tu–Th, 10am–6pm; Fr, 10am–8pm; Sa, 12–6pm. $5 suggested donation.