underground zero

My friend and fellow League of Independent Theater stalwart Paul Bargetto is cooking up a festival. Info below.

COLLECTIVE:UNCONSCIOUS TO PRESENT
THE UNDERGROUNDZERO FESTIVAL JULY 19 TO AUGUST 5
Festival offers new life for successful productions from the alternative theater movement.

NEW YORK, June 19 -- Alternative theater is ephemeral in its nature, but it doesn't have to be, according to Paul Bargetto, curator of the UndergroundZero Festival, and Caterina Bartha, Co-Founding Director of Collective:Unconscious. They imagine independent theater in repertory as a way to extend the life of successful "downtown" plays, and have established the UndergroundZero Festival as an artistic proof-of-concept for it. Collective:Unconscious will present the event over three weeks July 19 to August 5 at its Tribeca theater facility, located at 279 Church Street.

The festival is inviting successful productions that could be viable in a Downtown theater devoted to rotating repertory. The repertory forum for independent theater, a new model of production, is being showcased as an alternative to the current system of limited runs that consign many successful shows to oblivion.

Plays presented will range from full-cast productions to works by performer-playwrights. Companies represented include International WOW Company, The Flying Machine, Stolen Chair, East River Commedia and Pinchbottom’s Burlesque. There will also be a selection of plays that were originally developed in the Columbia MFA Program.

The festival will also feature a convening of the League of Independent Theater on Tuesday, July 31 at 7:30 pm. Independent theater producers and artists will gather to discuss the issues facing the community and draft a resolution for action. See www.leagueofindietheater.blogspot.com.

A schedule and list of participants will be available on the Collective:Unconscious website, www.weird.org, on June 19. Tickets for individual shows will be $15. The audience information number is (212) 352-3101 and online ticketing is available at www.weird.org.

AUXILIARY EVENTS
The festival will also launch "The Moxie Show," a turntable for music acts, comedians, variety acts and sections from works of theater, puppetry and dance. Hosted by Trav S.D., beginning July 24, it will continue on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Door prizes will be awarded for acts showing the most moxie, chosen by the world's oldest approval device, the applause-o-meter. Curator Trav S.D. is a long-time host of American Vaudeville Theater and author of "No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous." Admission will be $5 per night.

On the two Mondays of the festival, C:U will present its ongoing film program, "Speakeasy Cinema," hosted by Matt Kohn and presenting a mystery film on Monday July 16. July 23 will feature Jewels and Gems from the Film Makers Cooperative, the largest archive of avant-garde film in the world. Admission is $5 and the films begin at 7:30pm.