NEW YORK CITY: Irondale Ensemble Project has announced its 2015–16 season, a lineup that includes cabaret performances, a dance festival, and an adaptation of four Shakespeare works.
The season will begin with King Lear (Oct. 12–13), a coproduction with California ensemble theatre Independent Eye. A two-person take on the Bard’s late tragedy, Lear stars Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller as the King and his Fool, with 28 hand- and finger-puppets standing in for the remaining cast of characters.
The Cabaret Series (Oct. 16, Nov. 13, and Dec. 18), a close examination of performance art and improvisation, will follow.
Returning for its sixth year is Irondale’s FLICfest (Jan. 18–30, 2016), New York City’s first festival dedicated exclusively to the production of feature-length dance. Panel discussions, workshops, and the dance works of six emerging choreographers will be featured.
Irondale will close out the season with The 1599 Project (April 13–May 28, 2016), a four-hour compilation of Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. The protagonists of the four plays, all of which were composed in the final year of the 16th century, have been reimagined as a single “uber-character” whose identity shifts between texts. Eight years in the making, the play is based on James Shapiro’s book A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599 and has been adapted for the stage by director Jim Niesen and the Irondale Ensemble.
