Press
"[The National Theater of the United States of America]
turn[the Chautauqua lectures] this bizarre footnote in American
history into a timely, beautiful meditation on the relationship
between the arts, urbanity, community and economics"
The New Yorker
>full article (PDF)
"[NTUSA], This mischievous gang of innovators represents
some of the best attributes of downtown 'experimental' theater"
John Del Signore, Gothamist
>full article (PDF)
"[Chautauqua is] jaunty, stimulating new experiment"
Jason Zinoman, The New York Times
>full article (PDF)
>additinal press
Description
Recently awarded the 2007 Spalding Gray award honoring
innovative theatrical vision, the NTUSA is an ensemble theater
company that democratically creates new works for traditional
and non-traditional spaces. In the past seven years, their
focus on theatrical environment has been matched by a devotion
to the exploration of American history and the history of
American entertainment. The NTUSA's theatrical creations
are intensely visual and densely layered spectacles which
are laced with the questions and arguments they bring to
the exploration of each subject. This multiplicity of image
and argument invites a complicit audience to engage with
each piece as an active participant.
>more info
NTUSA Biography
In 2007, the NTUSA received the second Annual Spalding
Gray Award honoring innovative theatrical vision for
a work in progress entitled Chautauqua!. The piece
is derived from the lecture series of the same name traveling
the country in the 1920's and 30's and will be presented
at PS122, The Walker Center in Minneapolis and UCLA Live.
The NTUSA's 2006 premier of Abacus Black Strikes Now:
The Rampant Justic of Abacus Black at PS122 earned
them a Village Voice OBIE award. Additionally, an adaptation
of Moliere's Don Juan, which was presented as a
workshop to limited audiences at chashama's space in Long
Island City, Queens, was also presented and will premier
in early 2008 at the Chocolate Factory.
At The Stable in 2004, the company prepared its return
to the ESB-Dublin Fringe Festival with Placebo Sunrise
and work-shopped material for a new work. They also provided
space for companies and individuals whose work went on to
be seen at St. Anne's Warehouse, Symphony Space, the Brooklyn
Museum, the Ice Factory Festival, and PS122.
In 2003, in residence at Nest Arts in DUMBO, Brooklyn,
the NTUSA created What's That On My HEAD!?! Conceived
as a theme park ride, the show's audience rode a mobile
platform pushed and pulled through space, visiting sets
on all sides. HEAD!?! explored multiple visions
of the American Dream, alternate versions of accepted history
and the culture's dual tendencies towards complacency and
revolt. The show was extended twice and ran for ten weeks.
The NTUSA was awarded Arts International's DNA project
Grant in 2002 and remounted Episode #23 at the
ESB-Dublin Fringe Festival. The NTUSA also offered a one
night only special presentation of Jack Russell's Superconfidence
Seminar! at Galapagos in Brooklyn.
As chashama artists-in-residence, the NTUSA created Episode
#17 of our Fathers, Garvery & Superpant$: Placebo
Sunrise, converting a vacant storefront on 42nd Street
into a 1950's era Havana-style nightclub in 2001. An audience
of forty followed the amnesiac heroes from Episode #23
on a paranoiac holiday, sipping custom 'placebo' cocktails
in vertical tiers of seating. The show ran for three and
a half months to sold-out houses and was hailed as one of
the years 10 best by Time Out New York.
During their inaugural year in 2000, the NTUSA launched
their production Garvey and Superpant$: Episode #23,
for which a lavish, miniature 1930's era vaudeville theater
was constructed in the basement of a dilapidated deli in
Times Square. The piece was a popular and critical success,
and firmly established the company on the New York theater
scene.
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