A closing night party to celebrate the 241 artists and companies featured in the first ten years of PRELUDE and to ring in the decade to come.
PRELUDE will provide transportation to the Closing Night Party on Friday 10/4 leaving from outside of CUNY at 9:30pm. In order to assure a seat on one of our party buses, you must sign up in advance. Sign up sheets will be available in the Segal Lobby throughout the entire festival.
The FRANKY Award: Kate Valk
Named in honor of MESTC Executive Director and PRELUDE founder Dr. Frank Hentschker, the FRANKY Award was created to recognize an artist who has made a long-term, extraordinary impact on contemporary theater and performance in New York City.
We are thrilled to present the first annual FRANKY Award to the incomparable Kate Valk. Kate’s dear friend and frequent collaborator, Paul Lazar, will present the award.
For Kate’s complete bio, click HERE.
Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble
Photo by Maria Baranova
Everything One in the Disc of the Sun
Artist Statement: Under the cosmic glow of an LED pyramid, The Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (ROKE) sings, chants, recites, and dances forgotten hits from the VHS vaults of self-help gurus, cult leaders, corporate speakers, politicians, mediums, and extraterrestrial channels, along with original songs, entombing the relics of a future civilization in lyrical self-preservation.
Artists Involved: Sean McElroy, Tei Blow, Siobhan Gandy, Leanne Grimes, and Maria Baranova (documentarian)
Company: Led by installation/performance artists Tei Blow and Sean McElroy, the Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble re-performs the work of self-help gurus, motivational speakers, and their own pyramid-themed musical compositions in a gold-clad site-specific spectacle.
Upcoming for ROKE: Show at Jack, Brooklyn Oct 25–Nov 2 2013
Erin Markey
Photo by of Amos Mac
About Erin Markey: Erin Markey creates comedic performances and original music for stage and video. Major works include Puppy Love: A Stripper’s Tail (P.S. 122), The Dardy Family Home Movies by Stephen Sondheim by Erin Markey (San Francisco Film Society), Looking for Limbo (Lincoln Center Director’s Lab) and currently, the recurring Erin Markey at Joe’s Pub with Kenny Mellman (Public Theater). She was a featured artist in the critically acclaimed Our Hit Parade (Joe’s Pub). She has shown other work at New Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Under The Radar, 54 Below, Ars Nova and received NYFA’s 2012 Cutting Edge Artist Fund Grant. As an actress, Markey is a company member of Obie Award-winning Half Straddle, has performed with Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, and starred in Tennessee Williams’ Green Eyes, receiving Boston’s Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Performance. She was a series regular on TV’s Jeffery and Cole Casserole (LOGO Network). She is currently an artist in residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX).
Neal Medlyn
Photo by Max Tannone
Champagne Jerry
Champagne Jerry, also known as Neal Medlyn, is a great rapper who likes snacks, books, sexual intercourse, and rhyming. Champagne Jerry was born when Neal Medlyn’s friend Max Tannone who had success with a Jay-Z /Radiohead “Jaydiohead” mashup album some years back, wrote and asked if he would want to write raps. It quickly became an all-consuming new project with Neal writing original underground-y contemporary hip hop songs in a style all his own, using the name Champagne Jerry, a nickname Bridget Everett gave him one fateful night when he walked around drinking an entire bottle of champagne. Featuring original songs, created with producer and remix master Max Tannone, Adam Ad Rock Horovitz, Carmine Covelli and others, Champagne Jerry is the most significant occurrence in all of our lives. He has performed to at Joe’s Pub and BAM, among others.
Artists Involved: Neal Medlyn/Champagne Jerry; Farris Craddock, Hype Engineer and Sergeant at Arms; Max Tannone, Producer, DJ, and Senior VP of Innovation; Gillian Walsh, Ghost of Champagne Past; Sophia Cleary, Executive Associate
Lead Artist: Neal Medlyn is also a performance artist best known for his series of pop star-inspired performance pieces, presented in New York and on tour throughout the U.S. and Europe. His work has been presented at the New Museum for Contemporary Art, the Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop and many others. He has collaborated with a wide range of other artists, including Karen Finley and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys (Neal & Bridget Are F**king and Adam is Watching at Le Poisson Rouge), among others. Along with Kenny Mellman and Bridget Everett, Medlyn was a co-creator and co-host of Our Hit Parade, the popular monthly show at Joe’s Pub, which has been named among the top cabaret shows in New York for three years. He was also active in the dance community as a dancer and a Bessie Award-winning sound designer, working with artists Miguel Gutierrez, Adrienne Truscott and David Neumann, among others.
Upcoming for Champagne Jerry: August 15, 2013, 9:30PM at Joe’s Pub, as well as monthly online premiers
Littlefield Performance + Art Space
Located on Degraw Street between Third and Fourth Avenues
622 Degraw Street
Brooklyn, NY
Subway
Take the F or the G to the Bergen Street Station.
Bus
In Brooklyn, take the B65 Bus to Smith Street/Bergen Street.
Car
For detailed driving directions from your point of departure, click here.