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 Situated in and around an abandoned subterranean bank vault beneath one of New York's oldest skyscrapers, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's newest and biggest Swing Space -- more than 15,000 square feet -- has been transformed into a multi-use center for the development and presentation of works by performing artists. The varied, sprawling lower level space offers numerous opportunities to meet the needs of a diverse array of performing arts projects: a small rehearsal room acoustically appropriate for music groups, two medium-sized rooms ideal for readings and site-specific exploration, and an expansive area inside the vault itself, where LMCC has installed a hardwood dance floor for dance and theater groups to rehearse. The stunning bank vault details of the space make for a unique setting for the creation and exploration of new work. 14 Wall Street is one of the largest space donations LMCC has received and is generously provided by Capstone Equities. 
Hirsute is a band focusing on the energy of live performance and the possibility of dance music to galvanize constituencies. Their lyrics are rooted in the band's ethos of 'be relevant' and speak to issues such as wartime economies and queer struggles. The music is dance punk. The stage is saturated in solid color with sculptures holding significant space alongside performers. Hirsute is currently developing a live stage show that transcends traditional boundaries of performance art, live music and visual art. Hirsute is Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Emily Roysdon, JD Samson and Michael O'Neill. You can also visit Hirsute on MySpace. 
Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops, and produces funny, strange, and provocative new plays. Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned three Obies and presented plays in every form of development, including over 60 full productions. Clubbed Thumb is a groundbreaker, with an unparalleled track record for finding emerging artists and producing some of the country's most innovative new plays; a matchmaker, cultivating relationships between theater artists through our development and production programs; and an incubator, nurturing emerging artists and their work, from first read-through to fully mounted production. We are committed to providing opportunities for, and to improving the quantity and quality of women's roles in dramatic literature. While at 14 Wall Street, Clubbed Thumb will develop a pool of new plays and projects, commissioned and otherwise, by Andy Bragen, Sheila Callaghan, Jason Grote, Michael Levinton, Ethan Lipton, Ann Washburn, and Chris Wells, among others. 
Bronwen Bitetti is a playwright whose work combines text, sound, installation and theater. Her work has been produced in New York City at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, HERE Arts Center, the Inter-Art Annex and on the lightship Frying Pan, as a site-specific performance-installation for the Mabou Mines Suite Resident Artist program. Her plays have been published in the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies and in Play: A Journal of Plays. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop (2001) and a BA in Theater Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (1998). Bronwen will continue developing Casting Off, a movement theater piece accompanied by a rigorous sound score assembled from interviews and found sound. Casting Off explores the transition from health to illness and the liminal terrain between life and death. An abbreviated version of the performance was presented in the Experimental Text Festival at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in May 2007. A work-in-progress showing of Casting Off will be presented on Friday, March 21 at 7:30pm. RSVP REQUIRED. 
Aya Ogawa is a performer, director, playwright and translator. Performance credits in NYC include the title role of The Loneliness of Noam Chomsky with the Butane Group and JR Oppenheimer in The Bomb with International WOW Company. She has also performed nationally and internationally in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Milwaukee, and notable venues in The Philippines, Thailand, Japan, and Austria. As a playwright, her work has been seen at Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, SoHo Rep, HERE, and The Joyce Theater. Her project in progress, ARTIFACT was staged at PRELUDE07 Theater Festival at City University of New York. She has translated several Japanese plays into English including the upcoming works of Toshiki Okada, ENJOY and Five Days In March. BA, Theatre Arts, Columbia; 2005 Playwright Fellow & Usual Suspect, NYTW; Van Lier Fellow, New Dramatists; Artist in Resident, HERE Arts Center; grants: Urban Artist Initiative; Axe-Houghton Foundation; NYSCA; space grant: Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Founder & Artistic Director of Knife, inc.. Knife inc. is a collective of visual, audio, technology and theater artists who create time-based works that explore the multiplicity of experience of living in an international context. The company's work is designed to investigate the moments of crisis, the collision of the past and the future, and seeks a modern, international language of art. At 14 Wall Street, Aya is developing her new play oph3lia slated for full production at HERE Arts Center in June 2008. oph3lia examines the archetype and themes emerging from the character in Shakespeare's Hamlet in a contemporary and international context. Three interwoven stories of disjoint and disconnection portray the convergence of dream and reality in a globalized world. |
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