Organization History (Page 3)

Patroclus during the Trojan War, an episode central to Homer's The Iliad. The musically sonic and tableau-laden work explores the military events that open the door of the protagonists' romantic isolation to chaos, destruction, and death. The work will make its formal debut in 2009.

In 2006, the Hotel Savant presented their highly publicized production of Susan Sontag's never-performed play A Parsifal, which had its world premiere at PS122. Revisiting his love of staging obscure and fragmentary texts, Mr. Jahnke presented the terse and highly visual deconstruction of the Wagner opera through the permission of the Sontag estate. The work was developed through Chashama's AREA Space Grant Program and a workshop at The Public Theater.

Due to the success of this work, Jahnke established a relationship with Editions Gallimard in Paris to pursue his long-term goal of staging Antonin Artaud's notorious Theatre of Cruelty play, The Cenci. Commissioning Richard Sieburth of The French Institute/NYU to translate the difficult text, the Hotel Savant was fortunate enough to gain the approval of the Artaud Estate to stage the first American translation of the play. Based on an infamous trial and Shelley's controversial play of the same title, Artaud's version of the Roman scandal of 1599 takes on a venomous tone in his clipped account of incest, patricide and Catholic oppression. The work was created in part through a residency at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center in May 2007.

Another new work, The Archery Contest, an abstract sex comedy of secular insurgence, which investigates an isolated American community's rejection of antiquated Puritan dogma, began development as a radio play for Art Radio WPS1.org Web Radio Station. Working with Sound Designer Kristin Worrall to create a soundscape that complements the theatrical nature of the text, Part 1 of the play was recorded in studio in the fall of 2007, and Part 2 was recorded in development performance at PS122 in November 2007. Both are available online at WPS1.org. Studio versions of Part 3 and 4 will appear when the work premieres in complete theatrical form at PS122 in October 2009.