TERRANOVA COLLECTIVE PRESENTS THE 7TH ANNUAL SOLONOVA ARTS FESTIVAL MAY 5-22

For the seventh consecutive season, terraNOVA Collective presents its annual celebration of solo performers with the soloNOVA Arts Festival.  The soloNOVA Arts Festival is the premier festival for solo performers in New York City. The 7th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival will feature comedy, dance theatre, storytelling, music, multi-character thrillers, musical comedies, bilingual cabaret, animation, multimedia, and puppetry.

“We’re returning to Performance Space 122 this year, and the eclectic genres represented will certainly feel at home there,” said Artistic Director Jennifer Conley Darling. “The competition this year was of the highest quality, and we’ve certainly chosen the best of the best.”

The festival celebrates innovative individuals who push the boundaries of what it means to be an artist, aims to redefine the solo form and uniquely invigorates the audience through the time-honored tradition of storytelling.  This year, eight performers round out the mainstage offerings.

“Every year we feel the festival gets a little sharper,” Lead Curator James Carter said.  “We’re presenting two world premiers along with first time shows to our festival.  The line up has never been stronger.”

The 7th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival will run May 5-22 at Performance Space 122 (150 1st Ave at 9th Street). Performance dates and ticketing will be announced in March.

Violent.  Tender.  Erotic.  Submissive.  Abandoned.  The worlds of pop music, myth and video collide in Jesse Zaritt’s movement-based quest for love, connection and the self.

Daniel MacIvor’s celebrated chiller returns to the New York stage with Avery Pearson stepping into the skin of 16 characters.  Peeling back psychological layers to reveal the heart of an individual experience, MONSTER dissects the true nature of evil.

”Monster is Mr. MacIvor’s suggestion that the dark side is as intrinsic to our natures as consciousness itself.  It not only aspires to creeping you out, it also wants you to examine your own voyeuristic impulse to keep staring after the ax falls.” The New York Times

Attempting to enter the “real world,” new college graduate Bridget is rejected from employment at Chuck E. Cheese and hired as a stripper at DejaVu in Ypsilanti, MI.  Everything seems trashy, unfair and exciting until she falls for a co-stripper named Sky. The irreverent and poetically charged Bridget learns to sell her body while buying what her irresistibly midwestern competitors have to offer.  And there’s pole dancing.

“Bizarre, character-shifting performance artist Erin Markey is so totally out there that she fits in perfectly with the OHP aesthetic.  Key song: A funny-creepy version of Jeremiah’s ‘Birthday Sex,’ performed in the diaper, bonnet, bib and voice of a newborn baby.” Adam Feldman, Time Out NY

For 45 years, Daniel Berkey suffered the ravages of schizophrenia with attendant addictions to sex, heroin and alcohol.  At the age of 51, he experienced complete remission.  This is his story.

Sexy.  Bold.  Bilingual.  Take a journey through the emotional life of migrants with songs ranging from tango to rock.  Unraveling the psychological toll of displacement, Casiano ferociously and personally criticizes the role of newcomers and probes their responsibility toward their own countries.

Alvin Sputnik is Earth’s last hope.  He must venture to the bottom of the ocean to find his wife’s lost soul and save humanity.

“An endearing Australian solo show…A seamless blend of live drawing projected on a round screen accompanying simple animation, Mr. Watts creates a vivid new theatrical world on a slim budget.”

Black President or not, racism continues to make a comeback.  And W. Kamau Bell is here to make (non)sense of it all.  Irreverent and thoughtful, The W. Kamau Bell Curve skewers pop culture, news pundits and the man himself, Barack Obama.  According to Comedy Central, Kamau told the very first Obama joke way back in 2005

“Smart, stylish, and very much in the mold of politically outspoken comedians like Dave Chappelle and Margaret Cho.” San Francisco Weekly (though he was more excited that they called him “handsome.”)

“W. Kamau Bell is the most important guy doing comedy right now. Do yourself a favor and go see him. He’s got the most astute, hilarious and completely righteous material going and he’s going to be a legend in his own lifetime like Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. Think Bill Hicks but slightly taller.” Margaret Cho

Arrested and locked up for writing hot checks, a ten-year-old Texan girl loses her way in a reality where even the adults themselves are lost. Shontina Vernon merges childhood stories with searing songs of fear and juvenile justice.

Shontina Vernon’s voice is “Blood chilling.” The Oregonian

TERRANOVA COLLECTIVE is a vibrant playground for artists devoted to innovative new and original theatrical works. Its multi-layered development process, solo arts festivals, and productions serve to nurture and liberate our community at large.