The latest “junk spectacular” from the company that brought you 2015’s sold-out New York Times Critic’s Pick BAMBIF*CKER / KAFFEEHAUS.
Little Lord is a Brooklyn-based theater and performance company that traffics in “the stuff theatrical dreams are made of.” This fall we will premiere our TENTH original production at New York City’s Abrons Arts Center!
A mad riff on Rip Van Winkle, Hungry Eyes, and the fear of being forgotten.
October 19 – November 5, 2016
NOW IS THE TIME to pledge your support! Your contribution helps Little Lord take full advantage of this amazing opportunity to bring you intelligent and irreverent theater at a top profile venue.
New York City, 1809: an older gentleman of questionable mental health goes missing. Now, over 200 years later, Diedrich Knickerbocker has reemerged in the Catskills, hiding out in the decayed ruins of a once legendary Borscht Belt resort. When his anxieties finally manifest themselves as terrifying garden gnomes, and his vengeful liver-eating bird-woman of a wife crashes through the ceiling, our modern/ancient hero is thrust from the mundane into the mythic. After being initiated into ghostly rituals of aggressive indulgence, and spun ad nauseum on a Carousel of Progress marked in Mambo Time, Diedrich Knickerbocker is forced into the ultimate existential showdown. No room? MAKE ROOM!
Inspired by Prometheus Bound, The Book of Ecclesiastes, Dirty Dancing, Borscht Belt memoirs, and the writings of Washington Irving, NOW IS THE TIME. NOW IS THE BEST TIME. NOW IS THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE is an epic treatise on trying to leave one’s mark on a world that never stands still. Coleslaw included.
Expanding from the “absurdist linguistic orgy” (NYTimes) that was BAMBIF*CKER / KAFFEEHAUS, Little Lord is thrilled to premiere NOW IS THE TIME. NOW IS THE BEST TIME. NOW IS THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE at Abrons Art Center in New York City’s Lower East Side.
Running for three weeks this fall, this will be Little Lord’s first full production in Manhattan in over 5 years. Brooklyn, we love ya, but we’re heading back DOWNTOWN!
Abrons Arts Center is a seminal part of New York’s theater scene and history, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them on this production. This is a fantastic step for Little Lord’s visibility and momentum, and comes at a perfect time after the successes of 2015’sBAMBIF*CKER / KAFFEEHAUS.
With the help of many brilliant artistic collaborators, Little Lord has spent several years researching and developing NOW IS THE TIME. Our extended developmental process is deeply rewarding and has allowed us to flex our artistic muscle in a mission to bring you irreverent, intelligent, and unexpected performances. This process also requires TIME, SPACE, PEOPLE, and YOUR SUPPORT.
We’ve been very fortunate with TIME and SPACE – over the past year we’ve been granted over 80 hours of rehearsal space courtesy of the A.R.T./New York’s Creative Space Grant program, and a one-week residency with Drop Forge & Tool in Hudson, NY. Best of all, this month we are excited to be in the theater itself for two weeks — trying out all of our crazy ideas before they premiere in the fall. We’ve also been very blessed with PEOPLE – over 30 smart, generous, creative, beautiful folks have been joining us “in the room” to help piece this project together.But we absolutely cannot continue the work we do without YOUR SUPPORT…
Little Lord’s shows are “junk spectaculars” – built using layers upon layers of found text, pop culture detritus, upended performance conventions, and thrift store treasures. Big, big theatrical ideas are realized with small-sized resources. So, what does that actually mean?
It means $30,000. Yup, thirty thousand dollars.
We have $18,000 accounted for — thanks to people who have already donated, the Mental Insight Foundation, the Nancy Quinn Fund, and Little Lord’s projected box office share. That means we have $12,000 left to raise.
Please consider pledging your support today. Levels of giving are suggestions only. You can give any amount your heart desires. ANY and EVERY gift is an enormous help to us.
The best part is…YOUR SUPPORT isn’t just monetary! If you aren’t able to give right now, there are many other ways you can help:
Did you know that Washington Irving, hailed as the “Father of American Literature,” had an alter-ego by the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker?
In 1809, in what was arguably the first viral marketing campaign, Washington Irving placed a series of fake missing person ads in New York newspapers. A crusty Dutch historian named Diedrich Knickerbocker had disappeared, leaving behind a massive manuscript entitled, “A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.” The story caught fire, the book was a success, and Irving’s fictional narrator eventually became an epithet for all New Yorkers.
Beginning with the creation of the world, and continuing to the foundation of America, “A History of New-York” forges an early national identity and mythos. But that’s not all that Knickerbocker supposedly wrote — you may know him better from “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” — two stories that have not only become classics of American literature, but have also become part of our collective folk history, too.
We are a nation with a tradition of writing our own history, choosing our own history, and creating more of our own stories as we continue to build the mythos of America. As artists, how do we present a constantly shifting story? How do we tie what we create in the theater to the world outside? How do we reconcile disparate influences and sources?
How do we cope with constantly creating fleeting moments? Will creating our own myths preserve us or destroy us? Who made the goddamn coleslaw?
WHO IS LITTLE LORD?
LITTLE LORD is a Brooklyn-based company that develops and produces smart, lively, and unexpected performances. Focusing on offbeat adaptations of classic or neglected texts, Little Lord plunders the theatrical canon in order to forge new plays from old parts. Founded in 2007 by co-artistic directors Michael Levinton and Laura von Holt, Little Lord’s work has been praised as “thought-provoking,” “fearless in its weirdness,” and “scrappy creative brilliance.”www.littlelord.org.
Ransacking the traditions of camp and pillaging faulty nostalgias in order to create a false sense of comfort and security for audiences, Little Lord’s work ultimately seeks to uproot the familiar – simultaneously celebrating the ridiculous, while exhuming troubling truths underneath the glee. In exploring this darker underbelly of the human condition – rough edges, visible seams, et al – Little Lord holds a funhouse mirror up to our shared cultural memories in order to subvert, challenge, and delight audiences with the possibilities of the theatrical form.
Recently: NYTimes Critic’s Pick “BAMBIF*CKER/KAFFEEHAUS” (The Brick, Brooklyn, 2015), “Pocahontas, and/or AMERICA” (Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn, 2013), “Babes in Toyland” (The Brick, Brooklyn, 2011; OHIO Theatre Ice Factory, NYC, 2009), “JEWQUEEN” (UNDER St Marks, NYC, 2011), “(oh my god I am so) THIRST(y)” (Incubator Arts Project, NYC, 2010; Chocolate Factory Theater, Long Island City, 2009), “BALABUSTAS, a queer yiddishkeit Thesmophoriazusae” (HERE Arts Center, NYC, 2007), and “The Barbesteia: Curse of the House of Malibu” (OHIO Theatre, NYC, 2007).
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NOW IS THE TIME video and photos: Whitney G-Bowley, all rights reserved. Collage work and Little Lord video: Michael Levinton.
Producing theater always comes with risks. With nine productions under our belts, we are well aware of the challenges we face. However, we are dedicated to making this show happen. Our staff has well over a decade of producing experience, and as such, we know how to meet challenges calmly and with innovative solutions. We are confident that our practical knowledge and creative problem-solving skills combined with your support will allow us to create a professional entertainment experience for our audience.