Now in its fourth season, the Prototype Festival has become an essential part of the New York cultural season. Featuring cutting-edge new chamber opera and music-theater works, shows are almost always sold out, and many of the people you see in the audiences are some of the top composers, performers, and directors in the music-theater universe. They know it’s the place to see brave and electric new work. So if you haven't picked out your shows already, you should go to the Festival site right now.
Originally presented almost exclusively at HERE (in Soho), this year’s schedule has spread across Manhattan and Brooklyn to venues including 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, HERE, National Sawdust, and the French Institute Alliance Française.
Last year premiered the chamber opera masterpiece The Scarlet Ibis (Stefan Weisman and David Cote), and featured the still-evolving Aging Magician (Paola Prestini). This year’s shows are Angel’s Bone (Du Yun and Royce Vavrek), Dog Days (David T. Little and Royce Vavrek), The Good Swimmer (Heidi Rodewald and Donna Di Novelli), The Last Hotel (Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh), Saga (Gregory Frateur and Nicolas Rombouts), Bombay Rickey (performed by the eponymous Brooklyn band), and La Reina (Jorge Sosa and Laura Sosa Pedroza). This year's festival will also feature the New York premiere of David T. Little's Dog Days, which had its world premiere to high acclaim back in 2012.
Performances run through January 17; tickets and information available here.