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The Strange Recital receives Ben Jorgensen Memorial Fund Award

The Dactyl Foundation is pleased to announce that Brent Robison and Tom Newton, producers/hosts of The Strange Recital, have received a grant  from the Ben Jorgensen Memorial Fund in recognition of the work they have done creating their high-quality literary podcast.

The Strange Recital is an audio anthology of short fiction that “questions the nature of reality” and has been in continuous production since 2016 with over 130 episodes.

Each podcast episode features one writer and runs about 20 minutes. It includes a story reading – the Recital, a brief musical interlude, and an author interview with a twist – the Post Recital. Continue reading “The Strange Recital receives Ben Jorgensen Memorial Fund Award”

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Manny’s Last Stand

Coming in March

Please come out to see our own Ben Monk’s new play
Manny’s Last Stand.
PURCHASE TICKETS or donate to raise money to make the film version, a Dactyl Media production.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/593608

Shooting for television the play Manny’s Last Stand. A burlesque club featuring
an alcoholic comedian who achieves greatness through sobriety. Manny Aarons goes on the wagon. Goes to AA, does yoga, sees a therapist, meditates. He works on new material. We end with Manny’s sold out show at Carnegie Hall. Audience members get orchestra seats and are encouraged to heckle.

March 5 @ 8:45  Wednesday
March 8 @ 7  Saturday
March 9 @ 6  Sunday

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You Can’t Blame Me for Trying! : A Short Play, starring Ben Monk

February 23-26, 2012

Dactyl Foundation recommends the short play, “You Can’t Blame Me for Trying!”, starring Dasha Kittredge and Ben Monk (aka Ben Jorgensen), which is being featured as part of Week 3 of the Players Theatre Short Play and Musical Festival. The theme of all shows, in keeping with the Valentine’s Day holiday, will be “Sex!” (with an exclamation point). There will be FOUR performances:

Thursday, February 23, at 7PM
Friday, February 24, at 7PM
Saturday, February 25, at 7PM
Sunday, February 26, at 3PM

To reserve a ticket, visit the website below and select one of the four performances of “SEX!” listed above.
An important note: when purchasing tickets, you will be asked if you have a “promotional code.” The code is “cast.” Entering it entitles you to a $5 discount. The total cost of a ticket thus becomes $23.12 ($20 for the ticket plus a $3.12 “convenience charge”).

https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/277

(Please note that plays in the festival may contain nudity and that no one under 18 will be admitted to the theater.)

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Support Dactyl When You Make Travel Reservations or Shop Online!

Now you can support Dactyl Foundation’s art-science programs next time you make travel reservations using any one of the major online companies, like Orbitz or Travelocity, or when you make any purchase on Amazon.com. 6% will go to Dactyl Foundation at no extra cost to you. Just use the links below to enter your favorite online site and make your reservation or purchases as you normally would, and Dactyl Foundation will receive a 6% donation. You will see the same low prices as you would if you entered these sites directly.

Next time you make travel reservations online, enter your favorite site through this page Hopetels.com
http://www.hopetels.com/dactyl

Next time you’re buying ANYTHING on Amazon.com, enter through this page
The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature, and Nature

We have an exciting conference and art exhibition on mimicry and crypsis planned for fall 2012. Stay tuned for the call for papers. Thanks for supporting Dactyl.

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Cultivator Playreading Series

Friday, June 25, 2010 5-7 pm
Open Readings with Katalina Mustatea

The aim of The Cultivator series is to give breath and voice to dramatic scripts in progress, and to act as a seedbed for new dramatic writing. The Cultivator invites thoughtful experiments with form and language, and encourages spontaneous, organic collaborations between playwrights and performers. Each script presentation will be followed by a salon-style discussion, where participants and audience can talk freely about the work presented, or else consider the broader implications of theater and performance art in our culture. Part of the weekly CompostModern Discussion Forum at Dactyl, this monthly series will follow the forum’s general scope and format. Continue reading “Cultivator Playreading Series”

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Cultivator Play Reading Series

Friday, April 30, 2010 5-7 pm
with Katalina Mustatea, Don DiPaolo and Amy Staats

The aim of The Cultivator series is to give breath and voice to dramatic scripts in progress, and to act as a seedbed for new dramatic writing. The Cultivator invites thoughtful experiments with form and language, and encourages spontaneous, organic collaborations between playwrights and performers. Each script presentation will be followed by a salon-style discussion, where participants and audience can talk freely about the work presented, or else consider the broader implications of theater and performance art in our culture. Part of the weekly CompostModern Discussion Forum at Dactyl, this monthly series will follow the Continue reading “Cultivator Play Reading Series”

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Cultivator: Play Reading Series

Friday, March 26, 2010 5-7 pm
The Beauty of Fragments: Talks with and about the NYC performance group Radiohole

The aim of The Cultivator series is to give breath and voice to dramatic scripts in progress, and to act as a seedbed for new dramatic writing. The Cultivator invites thoughtful experiments with form and language, and encourages spontaneous, organic collaborations between playwrights and performers. Each script presentation will be followed by a salon-style discussion, where participants and audience can talk freely about the work presented, or else consider the broader implications of theater and performance art in our culture. Part of the weekly CompostModern Discussion Forum at Dactyl, this monthly series will follow the forum’s general scope and format. Continue reading “Cultivator: Play Reading Series”

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Staged Reading of “The Model” by Katalina Mustatea

Friday Jan 15th, 2010, 7:00-8:30

“The Model” is the first in a play reading series hosted by Dactyl Foundation. The aim of the series is to give breath and voice to dramatic scripts and to act as a seedbed for new dramatic writing.

‘We found her at the corner of Houston and 2nd Avenue, propped against a dumpster and looking a bit lost. She had the long legs and even features typical of her kind, and was dressed in a glamorous evening ensemble that looked rather out of place in the middle of Continue reading “Staged Reading of “The Model” by Katalina Mustatea”

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Dorion Sagan, reading and magic

Friday Oct 12, 2007 7:00-9:00 PM

Notes from the Holocene: A Brief History of the Future

In a thought-provoking, humorous, and engaging style, Dorion Sagan, the eldest son of Carl Sagan and evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, combines philosophy, science, magic, an understanding of illusion, and the fantastical writings of Philip K. Dick to probe the deep questions of existence. Operating on the precept that the universe if far Continue reading “Dorion Sagan, reading and magic”

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Budoflux

March 26, 2002

Kill With A Borrowed Knife: A Lecture-Performance of BudoFlux
Presented in association with PJ Novelli and the Tuesday Night Forum Series.

Kill with a Borrowed Knife is an ancient martial arts stratagem. It means making use of an opponent’s resources for one’s own gain: for example, using U.S. passenger planes to attack the United States. Budoflux uses this and other stratagems to introduce the integrated performance language of martial arts/dance presenting brief, theatrical actions based on the nature of conflict.

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Diane Torr

Feb 5 2002

Diane Torr in Discussion. Drag King Ambassador to the World.

Diane Torr will present her work as a performance/installation artist whose investigations into sexuality and identity over the past 20+ years have produced pioneering performances, which have toured throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Eurasia. Working as a go-go dancer in the working men’s clubs and bars of New Jersey from 1978-81 gave Diane the opportunity to explore “contemporary notions of the erotic” and the representation of women’s sexuality. This experience instigated a series of performances and films that reinvent the erotic. Taking on a male persona in one of these performances, AROUSING RECONSTRUCTIONS (1982), at St.Marks Church, New York, was the beginning of an ongoing exploration into gender and identity. She is presently working on a series of monologues written by the French surrealist artist, Claude Cahun, some of which she performed at the Maison Francaise and Dixon Place.

Diane is a graduate of Dartington College of Arts, England and a fellow of the Whitney Museum Independent Studies Program, and is matriculated in the MFA program at Bard College. Her movement/bodywork background includes the study of Release Technique, Contact Improvisation, Aikido and Shiatsu. She holds a third degree black belt in Aikido from New York Aikikai. Her work has been the subject of profiles in G.Q., The Washington Post, High Performance,Village Voice, The Manchester Guardian, German Vogue., etc. and is documented by BBC2 in its Q.E.D. series. Diane is a recipient of grants from NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, Joyce Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Art Matters, Artist Space, Yorkshire and Humberside Arts, RE.AL Lisbon Research Residency.