FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Jillian Sweeney/Kristina Weise, (646) 470-7804 [email protected] /[email protected]

High resolution images: http://www.immediatemedium.org/media-kits/

ANNOUNCING THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE ASSASSINS CHASE A NEW EXPERIMENTAL THEATRICAL ADAPTATION OF COLLODI’S THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO

A WORK FROM IMMEDIATE MEDIUM CONCEIVED BY MAX DANA WITH ORIGINAL MUSIC BY ALEX BLEEKER (REAL ESTATE) AND G. LUCAS CRANE (WOODS)

CLEMENTE SOTO VELEZ CULTURAL CENTER (107 SUFFOLK STREET AT RIVINGTON) PREVIEWS, APRIL 27-28 OFFICIAL RUN, APRIL 29 - MAY 14

Immediate Medium and Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center present the World Premiere of The Assassins Chase Pinocchio, a new theatrical adaptation of ’s classic coming-of-age tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio. A mash-up of video projections, confetti cannons, falling snow, long-nosed masks, surround sound and psychedelic original music, The Assassins Chase Pinocchio refracts Collodi’s tale through a multimedia prism and introduces Immediate Medium’s interdisciplinary aesthetic and approach to a new, yet very avant- garde audience: children.

Grounded in the the belief that children can process complex works of art in unique ways, The Assassins Chase Pinocchio reacquaints audiences of all ages with Collodi’s original novel and his famed marionette. For many people, Disney’s beloved (and largely sanitized) version of the Pinocchio story is all that they know. Few are aware that, in Carlo Collodi's original story, Pinocchio begins as a mischievous wild child; the Blue-Haired Fairy first appears as a corpse; the Terrible Shark has asthma; and the is swiftly dispatched by Pinocchio with a hammer.

The Asssassins Chase Pinocchio is conceived by company member Max Dana and adapted for the stage by the company of actors, which includes Max Dana as Collodi’s puppet, Liz Vacco as the Blue Fairy and Siobhan Towey and Lisa Clair as the wacky storytellers Dittalini and Polpettina. The production features original music by acclaimed psychedelic rockers Alex Bleeker (Real Estate) and G. Lucas Crane (Woods) and production design by Maki Takenouchi. Drawings by London-based visual artist David Shillinglaw are incorporated into the production and an accompanying coloring/story book.

This limited run will be presented at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street in New York. Press previews are on Wednesday, April 27 and Thursday, April 28 at 8pm. Official run is April 29 - May 14, 2011 (Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm / Saturdays at 3pm and 7pm / Sundays, May 1 and 8, at 3pm). Tickets are $20 adults/$10 kids. (Half-priced previews and Sunday matinees.) Tickets can be purchased online at www.theatermania.com or www.immediatemedium.org.

Founded in 2002, Immediate Medium has a body of over 15 works that span theater, performance art, photography, video, dance and installation. The Assassins Chase Pinocchio is the third in a recent series of literary adaptations that includes Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. (2009), an examination of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, and Doesn’t Everybody Do It In Paris? (2010), a dance theater work exploring Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Reviewers called these productions “relentless” and “thrilling” (The Village Voice), “a rich fusion of live and recorded sounds and images” (Backstage) and “a poetry of performance" (theateronline.com).

Max Dana (Pinocchio/Concept) is a Brooklyn-based performer and mask maker. Initially trained as a playwright at Yale University, Max later studied clowning and physical theater at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and mask design with mask maker Donato Sartori at the Center for Masks and Gestural Structures in Italy. His work has been seen at various international festivals, including the Asia Contemporary Theater Festival, Fusion Festival in Germany, the Prague Fringe, the Edinburgh Fringe, Avignon OFF and La Festival de Primavera in Madrid. He was a co-creator of Attic People's award-winning comedy Drip and collaborated with the French mask company Bus-a-Trois on Volpone and Balade Nocturne. Other credits include Punch & Judy Redux, Les Freres Corbusier's Hell House, Eat Shit And Die With The Joneses, and Immediate Medium's Things Are Going To Change, I Can Feel It., Chuck.Chuck.Chuck. and Doesn’t Everybody Do It In Paris? Max recently created masks for NY premiere of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and Bus-a-Trois’ Au Fin Moka.

Liz Vacco (Blue Fairy) is a Brooklyn-based performer and choreographer. For the past ten years, she has been active in the New York theater and dance communities, performing and creating with Les Freres Corbusier, The Collapsable Giraffe, Fovea Floods, Gold No Trade, The White Horse Theater, Sidra Bell NY and at St. Ann's Warehouse, P.S. 122, Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theater and the Hangar Theater. Liz is a founding member and the Managing Director of IM. She has contributed to all IM works since 2002 as a collaborator, choreographer and performer. She choreographed and directed IM's last full length work, Doesn't Everybody Do It in Paris?

Additionally, she teaches dance, theater and yoga to young children through the New York City Ballet’s Education Department, at Discovery Programs and at City Kids Dance. She has choreographed for student productions at the Browning School and the Imagine Project. She also worked for the non-profit organization, The Children's Aid Society, implementing and expanding the after-school theater program at P.S. 5. This spring, she is releasing an original, interactive dance video for kids ages 2-5 entitled Petite Feet. She recieved a BA from Yale, where she served as Co-President of Yaledancers. www.lizvacco.com

Siobhan Towey (Dittalini) has collaborated and performed with Immediate Medium on Chuck. Chuck. Chuck.. Doesn't Everbody Do it In Paris?, and A Society Circus, a new work examining the life of the Congolese Pygmy Ota Benga which she conceived and created with Immediate Medium Artistic Director J.J. Lind. Some past theatrical work includes performances with Shakespeare Santa Monica; Cleveland, Ajax por nobody and Baal (dir. Jim Simpson) as member of the Bat Theater Company at the Flea; and films such as "Eden Jones" by Eli Rarey, "The Famous Joe Project" Slamdance official selection. Siobhan graduated with a BFA in acting from New York University.

Lisa Clair (Polpettina) is a Brooklyn-based actress and playwright. Her NY Credits include, original works Love Monster and upcoming Regarding Hot Air Balloons at Dixon Place/ IRT, Automotive with East River Commedia at PS122, Reconstruction and Auto Da Fe with International WOW Company and Vendetta Chrome with Clubbed Thumb. In Minneapolis, MN, Lisa performed for several seasons with the Theater de la Jeune Lune, also Ten Thousand Things Theater, Mixed Blood Theater and the Children's Theater Company. She holds a degree from Bard College and studied Clown at the Burlesk Center in Locarno, Switzerland with Pierre Byland.

Alex Bleeker (Music) plays bass in the pop band Real Estate. He also works in the theater as a performer and video artist. Recent New York appearances have included Sibyl Kempson's Potatoes of August at Dixon Place and Mike Taylor's Not Knowing at The Kitchen.

G. Lucas Crane (Music) is a sound artist, performer and musician. He tours and works in the studio as a musician and producer with the bands Woods, Castanets, Grizzly Bear and Wooden Wand. His work focuses on information anxiety, media confusion and recycled technology. Collaborations include sound design for the Performance Thanatology Research Society’s production of History of Heat and The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen at the Ontological Hysteric Theater in New York; a full US tour with Woods; a European tour with drone collective Vanishing Voice; a production of Oh What War at HERE Arts Center with the Juggernaught Theater company; a ghost story album with Baltimore experimental vocalist Ric Royer; machine design with New York electronic instrument company CasperElectronics; and solo performances as Nonhorse in the US and Europe. He also co-runs Silent Barn, an experimental art and performance space in Queens, New York City.

Maki Takenouchi (Production Design) is a Production Designer based in New York City. Professional set design work for advertising campaigns include Urban Outfitters, Target, Keds, and Kohler. Prop styling credits include magazines like Vogue, Town & Country, and the New York Times Magazine. Film credits include Garry Marshall’s upcoming New Year’s Eve, Jodie Foster’s The Beaver and set design for a documentary feature on Vidal Sassoon (2009).

Maki Takenouchi is the Executive Director of IM and recently designed both the sets and costumes for Chuck.Chuck.Chuck., which was awarded a Bel Geddes grant for Production Design. She is the 2009 recipient of the Made-in-NY Mentorship Program for Production Design in film, and is currently mentored by Production Designers Mark Friedberg and Debbie De Villa. She has a BA in Fine Arts from Yale University, where she studied sculpture with Jessica Stockholder.

David Shillinglaw (Illustrations) is a North London-based visual artist. David was born of British parents in 1982 in the Middle East, which may explain his thirst for travel and exhibiting in galleries worldwide. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2002 he has exhibited in galleries in Japan, China, Holland, and keys cities such as NY, London, Berlin and Istanbul. David has worked amongst some key members of the Urban Art community, assisting Dalek during his residency at Elms Lester in 2009, as well as exhibiting in group show ‘Art For Haiti’ in February 2010 which also featured work by Matt Small, Remi Rough, Jaybo Monk, Pure Evil, D*Face, amongst other notable artists.

In October 2010 David’s first published book, Colourful Condition, was launched at agnés b headquarters in Covent Garden. Colourful Condition is a perfect bound, 100-page book of selected works with a Foreword by notorious street art writer King Adz and an Introduction by gallerist Drew de Soto. David’s work moves between street and studio, from small handmade books to paintings on canvas and large-scale wall murals. David has enjoyed applying his fine art practice to a number of other contexts, which include theatre set designs and album cover design. Past commissions include illustrations for The British Council Annual Report.

About Immediate Medium: Founded in 2002, Immediate Medium is a non-profit performance collective dedicated to creating new works of experiential art that challenge formal distinctions between theater, performance, film, dance and sculpture. Immediate Medium has a body of over 15 works that span theater, performance art, photography, video, dance and installation. Past venues include the Collapsable Hole, P.S. 122, the Tank, chashama, HERE, Gershwin Hotel, IRT and, in its debut as a company, Clemente Soto Velez (CSV).

JJ Lind (Artistic Director) is a Brooklyn-based director, performer and artist and the Artistic Director of Immediate Medium. He has directed at the Collapsable Hole, Flea Theater, Tank and IRT in New York City, the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, CT and the Secret Theater in New London, CT. JJ is the co-founder of Immediate Medium and has served as its Artistic Director since its inception. His recent works with the company include Chuck. Chuck. Chuck., its adaptation of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, and Things Are Going to Change, I Can Feel It., both of which he conceived and directed.

Outside of Immediate Medium, he has also collaborated with the photographer Joseph Maida on a video/photo installation entitled Celebrity, which was shown at Riva Gallery in Staged/Unstaged (cur. Lauri Firstenberg, Artists Space) and with composer Jacob Cooper on Timberbrit, a new avant garde opera which premiered at Incubator Arts Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery last fall. JJ is a graduate of Yale University with a degree in Theater Studies. Professionally, he currently works as the Director of Development for New York Live Arts, the merger of Dance Theater Workshop and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

The Assassins Chase Pinocchio was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support was provided by the Nancy Quinn Fund, a project of A.R.T./New York.

# # #