IT’S SHOWTIME!
Pestilence, the long awaited trilogy
conceived & directed by Jack Waters begins with a premiere run at
La Mama Downstairs Theater.
February 20th - March 1st, 2020
This is the latest and most ambitious live art collaboration in the partnership of
Peter Cramer and Jack Waters. Known for their challenging and innovative interventions in art and politics, GENERATOR is a homecoming - a return to their theatrical roots when La Mama presented two of their earliest performance works in 1987.
GENERATOR is the first installment in the three part cycle titled Pestilence - a process merging art, social practice, and technology by combining theater, moving image, light, sound, music, choreography, drama, and immersive interactive media. 10 Studies for Pestilence were staged in Venice, Berlin and NYC as preludes to this exploration.
Pestilence is an expressionistic meditation on epidemics as cultural phenomena. It's about how virus infects and affects us all from the perspectives of our personal and collective experiences of AIDS. Your engagement and support will help us to engage others in how to respond critically, actively, and responsibly in a predominating culture of apathy and denial towards a broader capability to imagine actual change.
![]()
What We Need
We financed the pre-production phase out of our pockets spending approximately $25,000 so far in cash and volunteer labor. Our goal now is to raise another $18,000 to transform La MaMa's Downstairs Theater lobby into a sensory anteroom that channels light, sound and moving image into a musical action-drama created in the adjacent theater. Our DYI modus insures that we will get the job done. Your support will guarantee that this will happen without undue sacrifice of health and spiritual well-being.
To Cover The Costs Of
-
Rehearsal Studios $1000
-
Performers fees Cast of 3 singer/actor/dancers $6000
-
Technical Fees (lighting, sound, projections) $7000
-
Sets, Costumes, Props, Puppetry $1000
-
Installation Materials $ 500
-
Promotion $1500
-
Crew (Load in/load out and stage hands) $1000
-
Interactive Media Coding $ 500 (to be paid from earned sources)
-
Videography Studio and fees $1000 (to be paid from grants)
Short of reaching our entire goal we will prioritize funding from donations for performers fees, technical fees, props, and set materials in that order.
MORE ON THE PRODUCTION
A biomorphic video synthesizer and a sonic web sculpture by Pestilence composer
John Michael Swartz will be connecting threads leading to a time-based performance in the theater. Peter Cramer and Mike Cacciatore will create projections activating objects that function as artwork in the installation environment. Moved to the theater by GENERATOR'S chorus of singer/dancer/actors, these objects will then function as props and set elements. Together, the theater and lobby will create a hybrid environment oscillating between static restful ease and kinetic hyper-energy. You. have. to. be. there.
NYOBS is a "queer skinned kitchen band", the driving force of this musical opus. This quartet of Mike, Peter, John, and Jack - is augmented by an ensemble of players and downtown celebrity guest artists to be announced.
What You Get
You get to join us on this journey. To be a part of something different that truly makes a difference. Contributors over $25.00 will be acknowledged in the program. Your donation will also get you a fabulous perc including the Pestilence Comics series and collages by
Gordon Stokes Kurtti (1960 -1987). Gordon, a founding artist of Allied Productions, Inc. died of AIDS related causes at 27 years old. Under the nom de plume “Sketch Louée” Gordon would make portraits of the weekly acts appearing at the One Night Stands series at La Mama in 1987 when artists from Allied Productions, Inc. revived La MaMa's nascent cabaret space by introducing La MaMa to performers from the Pyramid Club and other nightlife venues of the vibrant downtown '80s scene.
These and the other percs we offer make terrific holiday gifts for the creatively inclined. Our campaign is hosted by Allied Productions, Inc., a non profit organization. Your donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law: a great way to make those year-end charitable deductions! ![]()
The comic book series is a set of 10 issues in a graphic novel format functioning as the Pestilence cycle's combined libretto and storyboard. Comics 1 - 5 are currently sold at Printed Matter, Inc and the Allied Productions, Inc. Web Store. Comic 6 is currently in production. 7 - 10 will be completed after Fall 2020.
The Impact
We know that truly interesting, radical, new ideas conflict with conservative ideology.
We know that thinking about plague, virus, epidemic, and extinction is a hard sell to those conditioned by mainstream status-quo thinking. But we know that YOU know there’s not much time left on the planet to continue entertaining destructive, apathetic, illusionary ways of being. The Pestilence cycle is optimistic about what CAN be based on our belief that
life is a continuing set of possibilities. Starting with pre-history Pestilence is futuristic about how things CAN be when we use our power of imagination; If we operate with our senses, brains, and intuition as complete and unified beings. When we work AND play together. And by the way: We know that you share our wicked sometimes dark sense of humor. Pestilence is hella’ hilarious, serious fun. This will not happen without you. Join us!
Who We Are
Jack, a graduate of the Juilliard dance division is known for his performance in the starring role of Jason Holiday in the critically acclaimed and popular hit 2015 film Jason And Shirley. Jack co-wrote his character and composed the music and choreography for Jason’s musical number. Entered into the collection of New York City's Museum Of Modern Art, Jason And Shirley was directed by Stephen Winter and co-starred writer Sarah Schulman as the iconic film maker Shirley Clarke.
Peter studied with Margaret Craske at the Manhattan School of Dance, and at Skidmore College under famed ballerina Melissa Hayden. Co-founders of the non profit arts collective Allied Productions, Inc., former co-directors and archivists of the radical Lower East Side cultural center ABC No Rio, and present founder/hosts of the renowned East Village community garden and cultural venue Le Petit Versailles, Peter and Jack have created, performed and exhibited internationally. Their New York City performance venues include Franklin Furnace, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, Performance Space New York, and Bronx Academy Of Art And Dance. Their films have screened at MoMa, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre George Pompidou, and the Pacific Design Center. Queer festivals they’ve shown at over years include MIX NYC, Frameline (San Francisco) , NewFest (New York City), Outfest (Los Angeles), BFI Flare (London), and Glitch (Glassgow).
John is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Liberal Arts with concentrations in classical music (cello/piano) multimedia, and visual art (photography/history). Through his solo performance work, and in collaboration with NYOBS, John has developed wireless, motion-controlled electronic instruments from affordable, readily-available materials. These instruments will be utilized in his score for the Pestilence Cycle.
Mike, after studying English and Fine Arts at NYU, spent several years touring and cutting an album with the band Griffin and The True Believers (as bassist/guitarist), and performing at the New Museum and Joe's Pub with members of the Half Straddle theater company. Mike is a self-taught electronics tinkerer and builder of unconventional instruments, interested in the connecting thread between entirely digital and entirely acoustic instruments (plus their hybrid offspring), and how they inform one another in the sonic domain. He is invested in presenting music technology as accessible and understandable to all, instead of maintaining an intimidating distance between creators and listeners.
Among the venues NYOBS has recently played are the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mercury Lounge, Performance Space New York and Microscope Gallery. Peter, Jack and John are artist alumni of MIX NYC, the premiere festival of experimental queer media and performance founded in 1987 as The New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival.
Project Time Line
- 2019 Production of GENERATOR starts
- 2018 Pestilence Comics premiere launch at Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair
- 2017 GENERATOR’s libretto development begins
- 2015 NYOBS begins GENERATOR’s musical development
- 2014 NYOBS is born at the Punk Island Music Festival in Staten Island
- 2013 Public showcase of the Pestilence Process at Emily Harvey Gallery, NYC
- 2013 HPSCHD participation in the team of moving image artists at EyeBeam
- 2013 Harvestworks Digital Media Lab residency developing immersive media and sonic tones
- 2010 Return residency at Emily Harvey Venice, Italy to develop the book and concept
- 2009 Narrative/Scenario written by Jack Waters in residency at Yaddo
- 2006 The Pestilence Project is conceived at Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice
![]()
Jack and Peter acknowledge the support of Franklin Furnace, Visual AIDS, and Danspace Project for their continued support. We also thank Ted and Mary Jo Shen and our pre-production phase Indiegogo supporters for their generosity.
Risks & Challenges
We participate in sustaining a culture of resistance by being visibly and vocally different. For Jack, as a black queer person with AIDS, this has not - relative to someone identified with the dominant culture with comparative experience - readily wrought great recognition or reward. In an era where pharmaceutical treatment and prophylactic prevention allows the face of AIDS to lie largely masked and undercover Jack and Peter have been public; out, and proud about their serio-status. The challenges resulting from the dearth of material resources and limited acknowledgement are met in part by our insistence on being joyfully celebrant. We are continually joined by new generations of creative radicals whom we learn from as we mentor. As we learned from, and are continually inspired by those that preceded us, this continual regeneration - that we see as our queer heritage - is a perfect example of the Pestilence process. The knowledge that we have gained by experience is coupled with our insights on current and developing models of approach, gained in loving and mutually respectful relationships to youthfully exuberant collaborators. As in most familial conditions, these chosen communities are not without conflict. Reward comes with the willingness to seek resolution through the creative process.
Other Ways You Can Help
This project is ongoing. It’s pure fantasy in a REAL way, and in a GOOD way. Its about process. For real. We're looking for people to document this process. We'd love you to come and join us in rehearsals, meetings, workshops, at our theater buildup, and after the take down and beyond with your cameras, recorders, notes, critical feedback and by spreading the word.
We also need volunteers for crew, and for the various stages of production including costume assistance, stage management, production management, video making and film production. Get in touch with us and contribute by any means you have available.
Please get the word out and make some noise about this campaign.
PLEASE use the Indiegogo share tools!
