CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES FROM HEDDATRON
L. Ron Hubbard and the
Robert Moses and Urban Renewal.
Now Henrik Ibsen and High-End Robotics will
be wrestled to the mat in…
Les Freres Corbusier’s
Heddatron
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25
OPENING SET FOR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16
Les Freres Corbusier, creators of last Spring’s sold-out off-Broadway
hit Boozy: The
Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly,
Robert Moses and the Obie Award-winning
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant,will present Heddatron, written by Elizabeth Meriwether, directed by Alex Timbers,
and produced by Aaron Lemon-Strauss.
Performances begin Wednesday, February 8 at
With Heddatron, Les Freres Corbusier continues its irreverent massacre of historical icons and academic esoterica by taking on famed playwright Henrik Ibsen, the well-made play, and contemporary issues in robotics. Ibsen is thwarted by August Strindberg and his kitchen slut throughout his fevered struggle to write the great feminist drama, Hedda Gabler, while a contemporary housewife in Michigan is abducted by robots and forced to perform Ibsen's masterpiece over and over again.
With real functioning robots portraying half of the parts, alongside humans who will play the other half, Heddatron will be one of the first theatrical productions to use functional robots as actors. Employing robotic automation and text-to-speech software, humans will perform opposite a hunky Lovborg-bot, a clunky Tessman-bot, as well as blinking, smoking, and whirring co-stars who portray Judge Brack, Aunt Julie, and the rest of Ibsen's menagerie.
Called a “punk post-modernist
theater company” by Paper Magazine, Les
Freres Corbusier is known for its exhaustively researched, topically
relevant, comically avant-garde theatrical creations. The company discusses
academic issues in a theatrical frame that is both accessible for an everyday
audience, and bizarrely educational. Its
Village Voice Best of New York 2004 citation declares “high school history
classes and PBS docs could learn a thing or two from the perverse pageantry of
Les Freres Corbusier.” A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology
Pageant transferred Off-Broadway, won an OBIE Award, spawned a cast album
on Sh-K-Boom Records, and the 2004 Los Angeles production was twice extended
and received two Garland Awards: for Best Production and Best Director. Its
most recent show, Boozy—an irreverent
exploration of urban planning—also transferred Off-Broadway, and the full
script was published this fall by Theater
Magazine (Yale School of Drama/Duke University Press). Despite its name, Les
Freres Corbusier is not, in fact, French.
Elizabeth Meriwether's (Writer) play Nicky
Goes Goth, was produced in the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival,
with subsequent productions in
Alex Timbers (Director) is Artistic Director of Les Freres Corbusier and directs all of the company’s works. He is the recipient of OBIE and Backstage West GARLAND Awards. In February, he was profiled in The New York Times as part of a feature on up-and-coming theater artists, entitled “Nine to Watch, Onstage and Off.” He is a 2005 Drama League Fellow and former president of the Yale Dramat.
The robots for Heddatron are designed by Meredith
Finklestein and Cindy Jeffers, artists who collectively run The Botmatrix, a New York-based robotic
art, performance, and outreach group. They exhibit their art machines across
the U.S, and abroad. Most recently, they
staged the first Annual Robot Parade in
The cast of Heddatron includes Carolyn Baeumler,
Sam Forman, Gibson Frazier, Nina Hellman, Ryan
Karels,
The scenic design for Heddatron
is by Cameron Anderson; costume design is by Jenny Mannis; lighting design
is by Tyler Micoleau; video design is by Jacob Pinholster; sound design is by
Bart Fasbender; robot design is by The Botmatrix (Meredith Finkelstein and
Cindy Jeffers).
Since 1993, HERE has been one of
New York’s most prolific producing organizations, and today, it houses New
York’s most daring and unique theatre, art, music, and dance in its recently
purchased facility. Previous works originally produced by HERE include Trey
Lyford & Geoff Sobelle’s Drama-Desk nominated all wear bowlers, Eve
Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist’s Symphonie Fantastique,
the inaugural production of The Dream Music Puppetry Program, Camryn Manheim’s Wake
Up! I’m Fat, and original musical and dance works created and directed by
Kristin Marting. HERE supports the work of artists at all stages in their
careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals, and
subsidized performance and rehearsal space. All work at HERE is curated based
on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision. This production is being
presented through HERE’s Supported Artist Program, which provides artists with
subsidized space, as well as technical and administrative support.
The performance schedule for Heddatron is Tuesday through
Sunday at