NATURAL STUDIES

thingNY returns to the Brick with a double bill made up of Joseph White's You Against Nature and their latest collectively written opus, Mouthful, as part of the eclectic Exponential Festival.

You Against Nature is a new opera from the genre-fluid librettist and composer Joseph White who the Times calls “magical… mulchy… ribald… outlandish…” You Against Nature is based on the French decadent classic Against Nature, and situates a self-isolating aesthetic explorer in the present day. Expect forty minutes of homilies on modern-day alone time, attempts at life-hacking, and nihilistic indulgence taken to extraordinary lengths, performed by five singing, storytelling instrumentalists.

Mouthful is the latest collaboratively composed experimental opera from thingNY. Situated in the orbit of a large communal table, the ensemble explores digestion and excretion: of food, of blood, of ancestry and linguistic transmission. Each performance is different. With switching roles, in-ear monitors and instruments, the performers act as transmitters of each other’s songs, languages and choreography: reckoning with various degrees of appropriateness and appropriation, comprehension and (mis)translation. 

In conjunction with these performances, thingNY simultaneously presents a new multimedia gallery show at the Brick Aux:
Aug. 15-31: TO TONGUE-TIE


MASK POLICY:
Part of what lets us present work to an audience at the current moment is to have a fully masked audience. If you don't have a mask, a KN95 will be provided for you.
Most of us have had our various long term health struggles, and for some of us that includes having bodies that make us particularly vulnerable to Covid and other airborne diseases. We can’t do this alone: the performing part and the keeping ourselves safe part. We need your participation in both.
These pieces are about trying to live in isolation and about trying to situate yourself within a community that stretches over time [and might come together around a table]. Being able to perform these pieces in a room with all of you is something we do not take for granted - in fact we’ve made some recent work for people to experience on their own, and so we were excited to build Mouthful to be experienced collectively.
Thank you for joining us this evening. This performance couldn’t happen without you.

THU AUG 15 @ 8pm
FRI AUG 16 @ 8pm
SAT AUG 17 @ 3pm
SAT AUG 17 @ 8pm

The Brick
579 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn NY

TICKETS

You Against Nature
[world premiere]
by Joseph White

Performed by:
Paul Pinto
Gelsey Bell
Dave Ruder
Andrew Livingston
Erin Rogers

Mouthful
[world premiere]
Written and performed by:
alejandro t. acierto
Isabel Castellvi
Dave Ruder
Paul Pinto
Andrew Livingston
Gelsey Bell

In conjunction with:
To tongue-tie
A multimedia gallery show
@ Brick Aux
Aug 15-31