Showing posts with label PS 122. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PS 122. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

On 9th Street, wind sends sidewalk-bridge plywood onto 2 cars below

Two cars parked on Ninth Street at First Avenue were damaged when a piece of plywood from the adjacent sidewalk bridge came crashing down during last night's thunderstorm.

EVG reader Danny shared these photos. As the top pic shows, some more debris landed just across the street. Luckily there weren't any reports of injuries, but the cars took a hit... one worse than the other...
As Danny noted, the sidewalk bridge here outside PS 122 has seemingly been up forever...

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Posthuman league: Fall season getting underway at Performance Space New York



The fall season at Performance Space New York starts tomorrow (Thursday!) night with the Posthuman Series.

First up is Annie Dorsen’s "meditation on deadpan comedy and melancholy in a virtual sex chat room, and Mette Ingvartsen’s tireless quest to reconcile thinking, dancing, and feeling."

Performers during the Posthuman Series the next three months include:

American Artist, Caitlin Cherry, Nora N. Khan, and Sondra Perry.
Underground Resistance
Che Gossett
Carolee Schneemann
keyon gaskin and sidony o'neal
Donna Haraway
Ron Athey

Find more details and ticket info at the Performance Space New York website.

The venue is at 150 First Ave. and Ninth Street.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Performance Space New York unveils fall season


[Image via Instagram]

The fall season at Performance Space New York is titled the Posthuman Series.

Here's what to expect, in part, at the former PS 122 on First Avenue at Ninth Street starting later next month:

For the next three months you are invited to join artists in exploring worlds that extend beyond human perspective, disrupting traditional conceptions of humanity. Rather than positioning human consciousness as the primary source and content of all art making, the contributions to the Posthuman Series often blur distinction between ‘the human’ and its other: namely nature, technology, animals, and gods.

In light of dramatic technological and scientific developments such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, the idea of an autonomous human being with agency over the world is rapidly becoming obsolete. Are you really more in charge of your communication than the algorithms and language programs in your smartphone? Is the artificial organ that keeps you alive not a part of your body?

The season begins on Sept. 27 with Annie Dorsen and "The Slow Room." This link takes you to the full schedule and more details about the Posthuman Series.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Avant-Garde-Arama at Performance Space grand re-opening


[Alexandra Tatarsky]

Photos and text by Dan Efram

Performance Space New York — formerly PS 122 — celebrated its grand reopening with a free night of their longest-running program "Avant-Garde-Arama" on Sunday night.

The multi-stage show welcomed hundreds of people to check out the wonderful renovated venues in the building on First Avenue at Ninth Street and kick off its new season in earnest. You can find the full list of performers here.


[Pharmakon]


[Cornelius Loy]


[Pat Oleszko and Brooks Leslie]


[Murray Hill backstage]


[Charles Dennis]


[Salley May]


[The audience]

Performance Space is hosting an East Village Series through June. Find that schedule here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

PS122 is now Performance Space New York, returns to 1st Avenue starting tonight


[Photo from Dec. 1 by Steven]

Performance Space 122 (PS 122) has changed its name to Performance Space New York as it returns to its its newly renovated home on First Avenue and Ninth Street for the inaugural performances in the refurbished space.

The announcement came yesterday in a series of posts on Instagram...

Heart of East Village, 150 First Avenue, Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10009

A post shared by Performance Space New York (@performancespacenewyork) on




The New York Times has a preview of the new space in this article.

The rebranding process, as the new name indicates, involves an effort to make Performance Space more welcoming to a wider audience. In its grungier former life, which began in 1980 when a group of artists took over an abandoned schoolhouse on First Avenue, the space fostered a certain sense of community, but it didn’t quite scream “come in.”

And some thoughts from new executive artistic director Jenny Schlenzka...

"If our audience could be a representation of the city, that would be a huge success," she said, noting that downtown dance and theater audiences tend to be predominantly white. But the idea of separate audience-building initiatives doesn’t interest her. "I've been in these meetings about 'Oh, we need to diversify our audience,' and it’s always, 'Let's do a side program' or 'Let's do a community day.' But I don’t want a community day. I want the community to be the main program."

Performance Space New York hosts its first show here tonight with the start of the annual (and last) Coil festival. Find that program here.

The East Village Series runs from Feb. 17 to June 30, and "will examine the history of Performance Space and its neighborhood, reflecting on forces that have shaped them: gentrification, the AIDS epidemic, and punk and club culture."

Ms. Schlenzka likened it to “the way that in psychoanalysis, you have to know your past to free yourself to conquer the future.”

Nostalgia, she added, is off limits: “We have this amazing past that in my opinion not enough people know about. But it can drag us down, and that’s a fine line to navigate.”

Find more about the East Village Series here.

Aside from Performance Space New York, the 122 Community Center will house the Alliance for Positive Change, Mabou Mines, Painting Space 122, and a fifth tenant to be announced.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue

Friday, December 1, 2017

122CC signage arrives at the refurbished 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue


[Photo by Steven]

Performance Space 122 will return to its newly renovated home on First Avenue and Ninth Street in January, as the Times recently reported.

Ahead of that, the new 122CC signage has arrived at the First Avenue entrance of the 122 Community Center. (Thanks to EVG reader Dennis for the tip!)

The building will also house the Alliance for Positive Change, Mabou Mines, Painting Space 122, and a fifth tenant to be announced.

As for PS 122, they will inaugurate the refurbished space with the 13th Coil Festival from Jan. 10 to Feb. 4.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Report: PS 122 returns to the East Village in January



Performance Space 122 will return to its newly renovated home on First Avenue and Ninth Street in January.

As Playbill noted, PS 122 will inaugurate the refurbished space with the 13th Coil Festival from Jan. 10 to Feb. 4.

And the Times has a rundown on other 2018 highlights, including the debut of a semiannual themed series of performances:

It begins with an exhibition, marathon reading and more events inspired by the neighborhood’s punk culture of the 1970s and ’80s and in tribute to the postmodern punk writer Kathy Acker, who died in 1997. The space has also commissioned new works from the choreographers Sarah Michelson and Yve Laris Cohen, who will create a site-specific piece for the organization’s new theater.

Other performances include a revival of “Them,” which had its brazen debut at Performance Space 122 in 1986 in response to the AIDS crisis, featuring the choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones, the guitarist Chris Cochrane and the writer Dennis Cooper.

PS 122, which opened in the former school in 1980, has been presenting performances from other venues since gut renovations — including the addition of an elevator, new stairwells and full ADA compliance — started in February 2013 at the 122 Community Center. New amenities for PS 122 include two state-of-the-art theaters. They also have a new executive artistic director in Jenny Schlenzka.



The building will also house the Alliance for Positive Change, Mabou Mines, Painting Space 122, and a fifth tenant to be announced.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center


[Photos by Steven]

The northeast corner of First Avenue and Ninth Street is finally free of the sidewalk bridge. Workers finished removing it yesterday.







The gut renovation — including the addition of an elevator, new stairwells and full ADA compliance — started in February 2013 at the 122 Community Center.

The Department of Cultural Affairs owns the building, and Deborah Berke Partners designed the overhaul of the former public school to better house four arts groups and one community-service organization.

I'm not sure now when everyone, such as PS122, are expected to return to the building. PS122 has been presenting performances from other venues the past four years; its temporary offices are in Greenpoint. (PS122 opened in the space in 1980.)

Eventually, this is what the final product will look like...


[Deborah Berke Partners]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue



The 122 Community Center on First Avenue at East Ninth Street is in the midst of an extensive, multi-year gut renovation.

Among other upgrades to the infrastructure, the former school will have new stairwells, an elevator and full ADA compliance. The renovation also opens the building by creating space for public use, including an outdoor courtyard, a large gallery and other shared spaces for meetings and community gatherings.

The city is paying for the upgrades — estimated at $35 million — as part of a code renovation to the circa-1894 building. The Department of Cultural Affairs owns the building at 150 First Ave. and leases it out to 122CC, the nonprofit organization managing the space. The AIDS Service Center NYC, Mabou Mines, Painting Space 122 and PS122 are the four organizations that comprise the space.

Last Tuesday, Community Center reps led a group of people, including several local media outlets, on a behind-the-scenes tour of the site. EVG contributor Stacie Joy was along for the preview and shared these photos of the work in progress.









































The building is slated for completion in the spring of 2016. Find more information about the renovations here.

Friday, April 25, 2014

RIP Derek Lloyd


[Image via PS 122]

Derek Lloyd, a popular figure in the local theater community, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 45.

Officials at PS 122, where he worked as director of production, released the following statement last evening:

There are those in theater who are content to make things possible. Derek made them better.

Thousands of artists, and tens of thousands of audience – whether they knew it or not – benefited from the passion, love and care with which he approached getting live performance on stage. This was matched only by the passion for his wife, Mary Rose-Lloyd, his family, his cats, his cooking and the Mets.

He was a mentor and teacher to hundreds of young technicians and artists, a designer, a sparkie wrench head techie of the highest order. Derek raised the bar of what PS122 could do for its artists, and enabled them to create stronger, better work. He pushed us all to be better and to do better. With little equipment and very modest infrastructure he made PS122 somewhere people wanted to work, wanted to create. He said yes to impossible dreams.

Performance Space 122′s current transformative renovation would quite simply not be happening without him. Derek spent the last seven years dreaming of what could be in these new spaces, and was a passionate advocate for the possibilities they offered.

Derek was a true, loyal friend to many. A big, gruff hugger who unashamedly teared up when he saw injustice. Not all will understand this but as we say – he had a heart as big as Phar Lap’s.

We will miss him, and are poorer for his loss.

Here is his official bio at PS 122's website:

Derek is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. After 10 years of working with some of Australia’s best experimental theater and dance companies he began touring Australia, China and New York. Shortly after re-locating to the US, he took a position as a technician at Performance Space 122 in 2000, eventually becoming its Director of Production ... Derek has had the great honor of working with the exciting and challenging artists that PS 122 presents, and looks forward to taking PS 122 into the future.

Memorial services are pending. However, there is an informal gathering of friends Sunday from 7:30 pm on. Friends are meeting at Dixon Place for the announcement of the Tom Murrin Performance Award (a friend and colleague to Derek) and proceed from there up First Avenue to the East Village. Follow Little PS’er Nyc on Facebook or @PS122 on Twitter to meet en route.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Renovations set to begin at PS 122



A tipster passes along word that all the tenants of the PS 122 Community Center at 150 First Ave. are out of the building now, and construction on the DCA-funded interior code renovations will start any day now. Yesterday, PS 122 officials turned over the keys to the contractor. The building at East Ninth Street will undergo a three-year renovation.

Per the tipster: "The project is exciting, and will be a great asset to the neighborhood. This isn't some private developer coming in and taking a piece of East Village history away."

PS 122 will use space in Greenpoint for its office, and employ venues around the city for its various productions. (Read more about all this in a recent article at TheaterMania.)

Among other things, the renovated space, first put to use by PS 122 in 1980, will have an elevator, new stairwells and full ADA compliance.

Find a sneak peek of one of the new floor layouts here. Find more updates and the performance schedule at the PS 122 website here.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010