From July 6-25, PS122 hosts the undergroundzero festival.  According to the press release, “undergroundzero offers a unique flying repertory of innovative work by renowned local and international theater makers. Artists bring a production of their choice to this summer laboratory where risk-taking is encouraged and expected.” Sounds fun. Complete line-up follows:

Opening Week (Tuesday, July 6 – Sunday, July 11)

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer

Created & Performed by Tim Watts, Australia

Produced in Association with terraNOVA Collective

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. A multi award-winning one-man micro-epic puppet show that melds technology and multimedia into a touching story of enduring love and the end of the world.

July 7 & 9 @ 7pm, July 8 @ 9pm, July 10 @ 7pm, July 11 @ 3pm – Upstairs Venue

L.A. Party

Written by David Barlow & Directed by Phil Soltanoff

A fanatical vegan slides off the wagon one night, falling headfirst into a wild L.A. bender. Barlow’s spoken story collides with live video in which six performers produce a compelling composite human being. An audience favorite at the Public’s 2010 Under The Radar Festival and Austin’s Fusebox Festival.

July 7, 8, 9, & 11 @ 7:30pm, July 10 @ 9:30pm – Downstairs Venue

The Ring: Inside the Squared Circle, Part 1

Directed by Dave Dalton & Produced by Performance Lab 115

The award-winning company Performance Lab 115 re-imagines Richard Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle with no music and in the idiom of WWF wrestling and other 1980s American iconography, exposing our own decade’s unchecked hubris and greed.

July 7, 8, & 9 @ 9:30pm, July 10 @ 7:30pm, July 11 @ 2:30pm – Downstairs Venue $18

Father of Lies

Directed & Adapted by José Zayas

An adaptation of avant-horror scribe Brian Evenson’s novel offers a chilling look at a priest’s obsession with young boys and the institution willing to cover it up. Based on actual cases of the abuse of young boys by Mormon lay clergy.

July 7 @ 9pm, July 8 @ 7pm, July 9 @ 9pm, July 10 & 11 @ 5pm – Upstairs Venue

The National Diet of Japan

Directed by Cole Wimpee & Produced by Aztec Economy

Seven actors endure ecstatic torment and sublime debasement when they confront the transience of organic life, while traveling a course based on Zen garden arrangements and the human digestive system.

July 10 & 11 @ 5:30pm – Downstairs Venue

The Last Burlesque Show in the World

Presented by Pinchbottom Burlesque

An epic metaphysical journey through the twisted muscle of the human heart, the jagged crevices of the creative mind, the amorphous discord of the libido, and the insouciant profundity of pants-dropping. Starring Pinchbottom co-creator Jonny Porkpie, along with a host of Pinchbottom favorites, in the ultimate Pinchbottom show.

July 10, 17, & 24 @ 9pm – Upstairs Venue $25

Half Awake and Falling Through the Sky (Reading)

Conceived & Directed by Mercedes Murphy, Written by Mercedes Murphy & Heather Benton

Theatre Trouve presents the first reading of a new play based on found text, misdirected emails, and vengeful blog postings from the world of international law. Follow the email chain of the Tokyo office of “Clinger, Steeme & James” through online suicide clubs, cocaine, cancer, adultery, and public urination as the lawyers and staffers crash into individual and collective crises of doubt.

July 11 @ 7pm – Upstairs Venue $5 Suggested Donation

Week Two (Monday, July 12 – Sunday, July 18)

Quiet To Departure

Choreographed & Performed by Leigh Evans

Acclaimed performance artist Leigh Evans’ new work is an inquiry into perceptions of the self and other and the illusory nature of form using Butoh dance, voice, and video. Reflection, refraction, and shadow reveal simultaneous transparency and visibility in this journey of self and memory.

July 13, 14, 16, 17, & 18 @ 7:30pm, July 15 @ 9:30pm – Downstairs Venue

Aspettando Nil (Waiting for Nil)

Conceived & Directed by Fabbiana Iacozilli, Produced by Compagnia Lafabbrica, Italy

(Italian with English Subtitles)

From one of Italy’s premier experimental theatre companies comes a ferocious, hilarious feminist critique of Italian gender attitudes in the age of Berlusconi, inspired by Waiting for Godot. A mother and a daughter prepare for the arrival of the daughter’s bridegroom. And prepare. And prepare.

July 14, 16, & 17 @ 7pm, July 15 @ 9pm, July 18 @ 5pm – Upstairs Venue

Are We Here Yet?

Directed by Anna Brenner (Winner of the 2009 undergroundzero “Audience Choice” Award)

Enter the American mind: afraid, allergic, associative, contradictory, and forever searching. Five characters created from the interviews, memories, and observations of the ensemble struggle to connect with each other and the intangible, exposing an uncanny American landscape.

July 14 & 16 @ 9pm, July 15 @ 7pm, July 17 @ 2pm, July 18 @ 3pm – Upstairs Venue

The Concretes (after Vladimir Sorokin)

Directed by Alexandru Mihaescu & Produced by Green Hours Theater, Bucharest, Romania

(Romanian with English subtitles)

In a Moscow of the future, pseudo-anarchist youth gorge mindlessly on a classical literature virtual reality game. A multi-media theater adaptation based on Vladimir Sorokin’s science fiction novel Le Concretes that skewers globalization, the future, and the political apathy of the young.

July 14 & 16 @ 9:30pm, July 15 @ 7:30pm, July 17 & 18 @ 5:30pm – Downstairs Venue

Creating Illusion

Written & Performed by Jeff Grow, Directed by Jessi D. Hill

Produced in association with terraNOVA Collective

Seeing is believing… but perception can be manipulated for beauty or deception. Magician Jeff Grow takes you on a journey where elegant sleight of hand and insight into human behavior collide to dismantle everyday experience and tempts us to question: Why do we choose to believe the unbelievable? Winner of the 2009 Innovative Theatre Awards for “Outstanding Solo Performer” & “Outstanding Performance Art Production”.

July 17 @ 5pm, July 18 @ 7pm – Upstairs Venue

The Human Voice (La Voix Humaine)

An opera by Francis Poulenc, Directed by Shoshana Currier, Performed by Kristina Wilson

A desperate woman attempts to confront her lover as he leaves her – over the phone. In this version of Francis Poulenc’s solo opera; based on the play by Jean Cocteau, we are in close proximity – yet voyeurs – to the stark realities of loss.

July 17 @ 9:30pm, July 18 @ 3:30pm, July 24 @ 9:30pm, July 25 @ 5:30pm  – Downstairs Venue

Final Week (Tuesday, July 20 – Sunday, July 25)

Blue Dress Reduction

Written by Eliza Bent, Jasmin Hoo, & Elizabeth Stevenson

Directed by Meghan Finn

A wedding weekend in the English countryside reunites three childhood friends in an odyssey of modern female friendship. Storytelling, video, song, and dance intertwine in this highly satirical romp full of revelations, ‘wedding weed,’ sleazy groomsmen and mishaps.

July 20, 21, 23, & 24 @ 7:30pm, July 22 @ 9:30pm – Downstairs Venue

The Parting Glass

Produced by axis ballymun, Ireland, in association with terraNOVA Collective, Written by Dermot Bolger

Three friends all pushing 50 gather in the Stade de France on November 18, 2009 to cheer on Ireland in the World Cup play-off only to see their hopes of a championship dashed by French soccer star Thierry Henry’s left hand. With caustic wit, acclaimed Irish playwright Dermot Bolger gives sharp insights into the last two decades of Irish history through these stories.

July 21, 23, & 24 @ 7pm, July 22 @ 9pm, July 25 @ 2pm – Upstairs Venue

From Dawn till Night (The Earth is Uninhabitable Like the Moon)

Directed by Doris Mirescu & Produced by Dangerous Ground Productions (winner of the 2009 undergroundzero “Best Production” Award)

As the past closes in and the quest for humanity becomes increasingly difficult, a woman revaluates her place in the world. A multimedia experiment based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1978 film In A Year With 13 Moons and Dangerous Ground’s third Fassbinder adaptation.

July 21 & 23 @ 9pm, July 22 @ 7pm, July 24 & 25 @ 5pm – Upstairs Venue

Forever Art

Directed by Johanna Zielinski & Produced by Theater Bielefeld, Germany

(German with English Subtitles)

Actor John Wesley Zielmann channels Andy Warhol in a solo show that imagines the master-of-pop-art’s thoughts on the uniqueness and permanence of art.

July 21 & 23 @ 9:30pm, July 22 @ 7:30pm, July 24 @ 5:30pm, July 25 @ 3:30pm – Downstairs Venue

AutoMotive (American Trilogy part 1) Work-in-Progress

Directed by Paul Bargetto & Produced by East River Commedia

East River Commedia presents the first draft of a trilogy exploring American Identity. The search begins in the ubiquitous American machine – the automobile – with appearances by Henry Miller, James Dean, Jayne Mansfield, Curtis Turner and Dwight Eisenhower.

July 24 @ 2pm, July 25 @ 7:30pm – Upstairs Venue