PS122 Presents the Fall 2010 Avant-Garde-Arama!, Kicks Off 10/1

Avant-Garde-Arama! gets an Our Hit Parade infusion as Bridget Everett and Kenny Mellman come aboard as guest curators and hosts for what is Performance Space 122's longest running interdisciplinary festival! Bridget and Kenny have outdone themselves with bringing in an all-star rockstar line-up of downtown heavyweights to populate these two fantastic evenings, so fasten your seatbelts and plan on coming both nights:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1:

MCs: Bridget Everett & Kenny Mellman Performance Shorts by: Erin Markey, Jenn Harris, Julie Atlas Muz, The Kitty Litter and Corn MoBand: TBA
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2:

MCs: Bridget Everett & Kenny Mellman Performance Shorts by: Reggie Watts, Erin Markey, Amber Martin, Adrienne Truscott, The Kitty Litter and Myles KaneBand: TBA

More guests will be announced! In addition, the top of each evening will feature a signature extravagant welcome from the epic and glittery Salley May, AGA coordinator.
More about AGA:

In the spirit of the Back-to-School theme that Bridget and Kenny have draped around the evening, let's review what "Avant-Garde-Arama!" is, shall we? Each evening features a different bento box of performance shorts - each seven minutes or less. AGA is PS122's longest-running interdisciplinary mini-festival.

And each evening features a phenomenon known as "Forty-Second Street" where the audience can sign up to take the stage for - you guessed it - 40 seconds during which they can do anything they please in between (or around) the vaunted pillars of the upstairs theater at PS122.

And each evening is capped off with a band and rabble-rousing party, so plan on staying late and dancing.

On top of all that, "Avant-Garde-Arama! Our Hit Parade" is destined to throw open wide the doors of PS122's building and is the on-site kick off of PS122's 30th Anniversary Season (following the off-site season opening of Hotel Savoy on September 30).

Sneak Peek:

Julie Atlas Muz presents an excerpt from a brand new piece, "The Cleaning Lady Has Something to Say (Part 1)". After cleaning 15 years worth of decadent living, eyelashes, empty bottles of champagne, full ashtrays, used condoms, spilt nail polish bottles and broken chandeliers, one of Ms. Muz's alter egos has had enough of living in the background. The Cleaning Lady is a brutal, tough, formal and clean
perspective. Nothing messy. Full-frontal dance. Nothing dirty. Artists performing include: Lauri Hogan, Darlinda Just Darlinda, Dirty Martini, Ede Thurell, Bunny Love, Kenball Zwerin, Antonio Ramos, Saori Tsukada and Jeremy X. Halpern.

Host Bios:

Bridget Everetthas been dubbed "Wynona Judd meets Melissa Etheridge, via the local bar floozy, on a rocket ship out of Twin Peaks" by The Village Voice's Michael Musto. Having grown up in Manhattan, Kansas, Bridget received her degree in vocal performance at Arizona State University. Soon after, she promptly abandoned it all to move to New York, sing karaoke and work as a waitress. Bridget played Lynn Chenney in Taylor Mac's Red Tide Blooming at PS122. She is the co-host of Automatic Vaudeville at Ars Nova, has performed on "The Murray Hill Show" at Mo Pitkins, sung with the Isotoners, with Jim Andralis and Larry Krone, and plays R. Kelly's sister in the show "Neal Medlyn Plus Kenny Mellman Equals R. Kelly". You can also catch her wearing gold lame in Times Square alongside the Varsity Interpretive Dance Squad in Moby's music video "new york, new york."

Tony-nominated Kenny Mellman was the co-creator and "Herb" half of the internationally acclaimed duo Kiki and Herb. His solo show "Kenny Mellman is Grace Jones" has played in New York, London, Portland, Philadelphia, and both Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. "At Least It's Pink", the show he co-wrote with Bridget Everett and Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) was one of Time Out New York's top 10 Cabaret shows of 2006. He is an Obie, Bessie, Glammy, Glaad Media and MAC award-winning performer. He wrote a children's musical for the Soho Theatre in London and in 2008 wrote and performed a workshop of his musical "Say Seaboy, You Sissyboy?" at Dixon Place as one of their Mondo Cane Commissions. With Bridget Everett, Neal Medlyn, Brendan Kennedy and Ada Calhoun, he created "Our Hit Parade", which was named one of the best cabaret shows of 2008 and continues as a monthly show at Joe's Pub. He wrote the music and lyrics and played the score for Jennifer Miller's "Cracked Ice" at PS122. Recently, he was named one of Time Out New York's 40 favorite people in NYC.

Joint Line producers: Lauren Brown, Eileen Goddard, and Nick Bixby
AGA Coordinator: Salley May

Performance Space 122 is one of New York's ultimate destinations for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media and celebrating its 30th Season Anniversary! PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance. PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs. www.ps122.org