One-Eighth and IRT Theater’s online workshop presentation

YOVO

October/November 2020

Yovo wanders the urban sprawl and the small villages of the global south, navigating a whirling onslaught of images, interactions, impressions, and obligations as he searches for the post post post. A rigorous, physical, visceral tour-de-force performance of playful and dark buffoonery reimagined as The New Absurd. Anticipate your participation.

Performed in ASL and Spanish

Watch our live recorded show from January 2020 on your own and then join our artists for a Q&A on October 27, 2020 at 8pm EST to discuss the work and its developments.

Make sure to watch the show on your own before coming to the live Q&A. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/yovo

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

VIMEO ON DEMAND RENTAL : October/November 2020
LIVE Q&A WITH ARTISTS: October 27, 2020 8pm EST
LENGTH OF SHOW: 30 min
PRICE: $5.00
(Your contribution will help keep our doors open)

Director|Choreographer|Performer- Daniel Irizarry
Playwright- Robert Lyons
Associate Director- Luane Davis Haggerty
Performer|DASL- Malik Paris
Performer- Carm King

Producer: Kori Rushton
Production Stage Manager- Alejandra Maldonado
Lighting- Ethan Olsen
Costumes- Meghan Healey
Sound Designers– Elia Chuaqui/Charlie Munn

Video Producer- Michael Rushton
Camera Operators- Cano Rojas and Michael Rushton
Editor- David Feinberg
Colorist- Paul Shin
Q&A Moderator- Monique Holt

One-Eighth‘s Journey of Yovo:

This workshop, supported by the DCLA CreateNYC Language Access Fund, explores the process of translating YOVO into Spanish and American Sign Language. IRT is excited to invite the hispanic and Deaf communities to experience the exquisite madness that is Daniel Irazarry and One-Eighth Theatre.

YOVO began as an extended intermezzo performed by Daniel Irizarry for One-Eighth Theater’s production of NUMBNESS, which was developed in the New Ohio / IRT Theatre Archive Residency program and premiered at New Ohio Theatre in Spring 2019. The New Yorker applauded the performer’s “acrobatic abandon—walking up walls, whirling like dervishes,” and their “spirit of generosity.” Thinking Theatre NYC called it “challenging and riveting, a triumph of elliptical storytelling, intense physicality, and exhilarating unpredictability.”

Specifically, Stage Biz called YOVO “a feverish dream of privilege and poverty in a sand pit of post everything” and called Daniel’s performance “Dionysus reincarnated, a prompter of ritual madness, provoker of theatrical ecstasy, clown, berserker… a performer at the very highest level of his craft.”

The New Yorker “….working with acrobatic abandon—walking up walls, whirling like dervishes—in a post-apocalyptic, decidedly unsterile government lab, and “Yovo,” by Robert Lyons, a monologue that Irizarry delivers with equal athleticism.”

Daniel and Robert continued to develop YOVO as a stand-alone performance piece, which Daniel has now performed to great acclaim (in English) at the Gardzienice International Theater Festival in Lublin, Poland, and (bilingually) at the 2nd Encuentro Internacional de Teatro Pueblo Escena in Cuba. Daniel incorporates local musicians and performers to augment the work and employed audience participation to land the piece locally. This workshop will be performed entirely in Spanish and American Sign Language.

ARTIST BIOS –Daniel Irizarry is an international director and actor. He recently directed an adaptation of Gogol’s The Inspector General in NCPA performing space in Mumbai, India. Directed and performed the world premiere of Yukio Mishima’s Busu for Provincetown Tennesse Williams Theatre Festival. He’s known for The Maids by José Rivera (New York Times Critic’s Pick), UBU (Time Out NY Critic’s Pick), The Madman and The Nun performed in Turkey, Poland (Gardzienice) and NYC (Pregones Theatre), An Italian Straw Hat (Essen, Germany), Mouthgasm Chapter 1 (Turkey and Cyprus), Momorato (Tokyo, Japan), and Chekhov’s one-act series (Seoul, South Korea). This year he performs in Piazzola’s Maria de Buenos Aires (Bare Opera at Blue Building in NYC).

Malik Paris is a Deaf actor and artist based in Philadelphia. He has been a performer and co-founding member of the ASL poetry performance group “Dangerous Signs” since 2010. He enjoys the range of work done in “Dangerous Signs” from theater for Young Audience performances to Fringe Festival creations. He is most proud of his performance work in Godspell as Jesus, Pippin as Leading Player, and Ronnette in Little Shop of Horrors at Rochester’s Equity Theater, GEVA. This year he won a Kennedy Center Award for his work in Fences at NTID and starred as Don Quixote/Cervantes in Man of La Mancha. He has been recognized with Rochester Theater Award nominations. His favorite New York Deaf Theatre (NYDT) production included: TITUS as Aaron the Moor and Riff Raff in Rocky Horror Picture Show. He also has worked with IRT theater here in NYC.

Robert Lyons has more than twenty New York premieres to his credit. Recent productions include: Idiot (adapted from Dostoevsky) at HERE Art Center, and Death of the Liberal Class (“Essential theatre for the next generation” – Huff Post). He recently completed Zola’s Laboratory, an EST/Sloan Project Commission. Other NYC productions include: Red-Haired Thomas (“a sweetly fractured fairy tale” – New York Times); Doorman’s Double Duty (“A gem!” – New York Times); PR Man (featured in American Theatre Magazine), and No Meat No Irony (“Ralph Nader channeling Preston Sturges – TimeOut/NY). Robert’s work has been developed in residencies at HERE Arts Center, NACL, the Orchard Project, The Playwright’s Center of Minneapolis, MASS MoCA, Bogliasco Foundation, and MacDowell Colony. He is also the Artistic Director of New Ohio Theatre and Creative Director of the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre program.

Luane Davis Haggerty, Ph.D. (Deaf theater consultant, interpreter) has a Ph.D. in Leadership and change through the arts; focused on Deaf theater. She was nominated for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her play “Windows of the Soul”. She is a Principal Lecturer at RIT/NTID and was an original co-founder of the IRT theater. Awards for her direction which has been blending Deaf and hearing actors for over 20 years include: “Emperor Jones“ which won the NYC Off Off Broadway Review Award, ”A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Little Shop Of Horrors” which won Rochester CITY newspaper’s “Best Local Theatrical Production” award. Her recent production for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) “Fences” won the Kennedy Center award for Excellence in Ensemble and three of the actors won nominations for the Irene Ryan acting award.

Carmen King is an actress, director of artist sign language (DASL), and ProTacticle Interpreter. She has performed for New York Deaf Theatre in the past such as “The 39 Steps” and “Dr. Jekyll and Hyde.” As for IRT, she has choreographed, directed, and produced “Movement Festival” a dance performance. Plus, she had done a few small appearances in television and commercial. While not acting, she is usually teaching American Sign Language or interpreting for the DeafBlind community at theatre, events, and conferences. Carmen wants to thank her ASL community for supporting her.

PRESS

IRT Presents a Workshop Presentation Of YOVO performed entirely in Spanish and American Sign Language.
-Broadway World

IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. For info visit irttheater.org.

One-Eighth Theater: Founded in 2008 by Daniel Irizarry and Laura Butler Rivera, One-Eighth Theater creates new, bold, international theatre exploring cross-cultural exchanges that constantly push theatrical boundaries all over the world. Their distinguished history includes a 2018-2019 Archive Residency with New Ohio Theatre & IRT Theater, two Mabou Mines’ residencies, a four-year residency at INTAR, and an original piece in Turkey. Their work has been called “thrillingly kaleidoscopic and boldly physical…an athletic whirl of manic energy” (The New York Times), “gushing with superb physical comedy…gleefully obnoxious and gratifyingly maniacal” (The New Yorker) and “wild, shocking and delightful” (Time Out New York). 11 years + 16 productions + 16 countries = One-Eighth Theater. For info visit oneeighth.org.

IRT Theater and this project is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts, and The Nancy Quinn Fund, a project of ART-NY.