Organization History

The Hotel Savant, a theatre company based in New York City, explores the livid, the uncertain, the magical and sublime: the seminal ideologies of history and mythology and their impact on contemporary narrative. Committed to mounting or developing one original work per year, they utilize a variety of performance techniques that include pageantry, dance and tableau. In addition they are dedicated to reviving obscure and rarely performed texts that correlate to present day topics.

Upcoming works include Men Go Down, an original work by Artistic Director John Jahnke, which will premiere in winter 2010 at 3LD Art and Technology Center. Created in part through residencies at 3LD, The MacDowell Colony and The Park Avenue Armory, Men Go Down is a strange and provocative theatre work that utilizes the construction of a Greek drama and the sensibility of a classic Fairy Tale to examine the ramifications of antique guilt on the modern conscience.

Recent works include Jahnke’s highly stylized The Archery Contest, initially created as a radio play for Art International Radio (AIR), which premiered at Performance Space 122 in fall 2009. It was also developed in residency at 3LD, working with a design team that included Miranda Hardy, Andrew Schneider and Obie winners Kristin Worrall and Peter Ksander.

Other works include Antonin Artaud's The Cenci, which premiered at The Ohio Theatre, New York City in February 2008, in a new translation by Richard Sieburth. The Cenci was created in part through residencies at The Watermill Center and The MacDowell Colony. The Henry Hewes Design Awards nominated the entire creative team for their 'Notable Effects/Production Design'.

In 2006, the Hotel Savant presented their production of Susan Sontag's rarity A Parsifal, which had its world premiere at Performance Space 122. The work was developed through workshops at Chashama and The Public Theater.

Other original New York works include Funeral Games, a musical take on Homer’s the Iliad, which premiered in performance workshop at The Public Theater in 2004, and The Shady Maids of Haiti, inspired by that island's infamous slave revolution of 1803, which premiered at Walkerspace in 2002. Earlier works include their scandalous and violent Mercurius, inspired by the alchemical writings of CG Jung and Lola Montez in Bavaria..., which explored the relation of fame to motivation through its protagonists, Lola Montez and King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Both works were mounted at HERE.