Downtown and uptown collide this fall at Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center!

Britain’s Turner Prize-winner Mark Leckey, musical legend John Zorn, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s Taylor 2 rub elbows with Obie-winning Les Freres Corbusier, Poland’s Theatre of the Eighth Day, and gender-bent icons Justin Bond and Murray Hill. Off-Off-Broadway favorite Banana Bag & Bodice crosses paths with art-world luminary Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. And to top it off, Bessie-winning Third Rail Projects transforms the Abrons’ landmark Playhouse into a steampunk-inspired haunted house for Halloween.  LOOKS LIKE FUN!

Full line-up after the jump…

Performance 5: Mark Leckey

October 1-3 | 8 pm

In conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art’s Performance Exhibition Series, the Abrons hosts Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Leckey. Part lecture, part monologue, part living sculpture, Leckey’s In the Long Tail (2009) considers 20th century broadcasting and takes on the ‘long tail’ theory of internet-based economics, while speaking from inside an installation that hovers between film set and 3-D manifesto.

The Chase Brock Experience

October 8-10 | 8 pm

October 11 | 5 pm

Hailed by New York Magazine for dances that “mix a witty Broadway sensibility with rock-and-roll zest,” The Chase Brock Experience makes its Abrons’ debut with the world premiere of American Sadness, set to Gabriel Kahane’s self-titled debut album. The evening will also feature Brock’s popular Slow Float, as well as Curious Episode and Junk and Lies.

AUM Fidelity Presents

October 15 | 8 pm

The Abrons hosts AUM Fidelity for a one-night-only showcase of the jazz greats David S. Ware, Darius Jones Trio, and William Parker & The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra.

Incus Festival 2009

October 17 & 18 | 8 pm

Two diverse, breathtaking evenings of musical fireworks to celebrate Incus Records, one of the world’s most important improvisation based record labels. Each night features the musical luminaries Cyro Baptista, Min Xiao Fen, Fred Frith, Milford Graves, Susie Ibarra, George Lewis, Richard Teitelbaum, and John Zorn.

Citizen’s Band: The Debt Rattle

October 22-24 | 8 pm

Set in the desperate world of a 1930s dance marathon, The Debt Rattle finds the resilient Citizen’s Band struggling to make sense of a post-crash social order. Filled with classic and original songs, aerial arts, dance, and a generous sprinkling of the Citizen’s Band’s flair, The Debt Rattle looks to the past to find hope in the future.

Zhang Family Band

October 25 | 3 pm

Presented with Carnegie Hall as part of the Ancient Paths, Modern Voices festival of Chinese culture, the Zhang Family Band combines old tune traditional music with a beautiful array of Chinese puppetry.

Steampunk Haunted House

October 28 & 29 | 6 pm-9:30 pm

October 30 & 31 | 8 pm-11:30 pm

Enter an immersive world of churning gears, mechanical monstrosities, and steam-powered cyborgs in NYC’s newest haunted house. The Steampunk Haunted House sprawls throughout the Abrons’ century-old Playhouse for a terrifying, visually stunning experience of contemporary performance and installation. Conceived and created by BESSIE Award-winner Zach Morris of Third Rail Projects.
Les Freres Corbusier: Incompetent Scumbags
November 3–22  | 8 pm
Just in time for the NYC mayoral race, Les Freres Corbusier offers up Incompetent Scumbags, a part-scripted, part-improvisatory interactive game-show that pits America’s worst mayors against one another. Eight terrible former mayors compete against one another in this negative Olympics for public service.

Fisicofollia

A Performa 09 Presentation

November 5 | 8 pm

Taking its title from the 1913 Futurist manifesto Del Teatro di Varietà (The Theater of Variety), Fisicofollia re-imagines the theatrical atmosphere of the notoriously wild “Futurist evenings” from the viewpoint of contemporary Italian artists.

The History of the Future II

November 6 & 7 | 8 pm

Franklin Furnace, the indispensable presenter, preserver, and proselytizer of the avant-garde, goes back to the future with The History of the Future II, two evenings of archival videos of groundbreaking work interspersed with contemporary and reconstructed performance.

Taylor 2

November 8 | 2 pm

The Abrons celebrates the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s move to the Lower East Side with an afternoon of world-class dance, performing Esplinade and other signature works.

Theatre of the Eighth Day: Wormwood

A Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe Festival Event

November 11–14 | 8 pm

November 15 | 3 pm

A rare remounting of the landmark 1985 production performed by the original Polish cast, Wormwood slips between fantasy and reality to portray life under martial law. Progressing through images that are at once anguished, humorous, and brutally physical, the work prompted the denouncement of Theatre of the Eighth Day by Polish authorities and the company’s exile. Presented in conjunction with the Polish Cultural Institute.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster & Ari Benjamin Meyers: K.62

A Performa 09 Commission

November 18 & 19

Inspired by Orson Welles’ unforgettable film version of The Trial (1962), K.62 is a musical mystery that involves an audience, an orchestra, a little bit of magic, and a lot of imagination. In this dark comedy of missed connections, visual artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and composer and performer Ari Benjamin Meyers collaborate in a new performance that celebrates the angst and anxiety, courage and vision of downtown New York.

Underground at the Abrons

November 20 | 8 pm

The Abrons’ Underground series featuring eclectic emerging artists continues with Jack Rose, Chris Forsyth, and Brooklyn’s Corridors (Byron Westbrook).The result: three artists presenting their own personal and wildly divergent approaches to the guitar.

Nutcracker in the Lower

November 28 & 29 | 3 pm

November 28–December 5 | 7:30 pm

Mark your calendar for the return of Henry Street’s popular holiday tradition, Nutcracker in the Lower. Celebrating its ninth year, this twist on Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet features members of the Urban Ballet Theater and Abrons’ dance ensemble students.

Banana Bag & Bodice: Sandwich

December 2-22 | 8 pm

The creators of the last spring’s critically acclaimed Beowulf: A Thousand Years Of Baggage return to the Abrons with Sandwich, a surreal Christmas cabaret – about eating meat. “Stab whom you have to for a ticket.” Time Out New York.

Justin Bond’s Christmas Spells

December 9-12 | 8 pm

Tony-nominated performance artist Justin Bond returns to the Abrons to work his holiday magic. Performing new songs and old favorites, Justin and his special guests will bring a phantasmagorical blend of cunning Christmas camp and searing seasonal sorcery.
A Murray Little Christmas

December 19 & 20 | 8 pm

Do you hear what I hear? New York nightlife icon Murray Hill is bringing A Murray Little Christmas, his legendary and ribald Yuletide extravaganza to the Abrons. There’s no better way to deck your halls and butter your rum than with this holiday slice of downtown showbiz.

The Abrons Arts Center is a program of Henry Street Settlement, which has brought cultural and artistic excellence to Manhattan’s Lower East Side since 1893. Abrons opened in 1975 to house Henry Street’s visual and performing arts programming alongside arts training. The performing arts program inherits the century-long legacy of the Neighborhood Playhouse, where some of the most adventurous artists have trained, taught, or performed, including Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Dizzy Gillespie, Martha Graham, Alicia Keyes, Alwin Nikolais, Lou Reed, Denzel Washington, and Orson Welles. The Artist Workspace Program has been established to provide performing artists with free rehearsal space to develop challenging new projects and mount public showings of these works-in-progress.

For more information or ticketing visit www.abronsartscenter.org.