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The Ontological-Hysteric Theater (OHT) was founded in 1968 by Richard Foreman with the aim of stripping the theatre bare of everything but the singular and essential impulse to stage the static tension of interpersonal relations in space.
The OHT seeks to produce works that balance a primitive and minimal style with extremely complex and theatrical themes. The core of the company's annual programming is Richard Foreman's theatre pieces, of which he has made over 50 in the last 42 years.
Foreman’s trademark “total theatre” unites elements of the performative, auditory and visual arts, philosophy, psychoanalysis and literature for a unique result.
Foreman's style is not meant to be ‘cerebral', but rather, the density of his compositional theatre is an attempt to viscerally reflect and process everything that he has inherited from his explorations in twentieth-century thought and art. Foreman engages in what the poet John Keats famously described as “negative capability” - i.e. "when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason."
He seeks to make work that unsettles and disorients received ideas and opens the doors for alternative models of perception, organisation, and understanding. Of course, as times, technologies and experiences change, strategies must shift as well.
In 2005 Foreman began the second chapter in his work with the introduction of the digital video and film media as dominating forces in his redefinition of ontologically hysteric theatre.
Since taking up its home at the Ontological Theater at St. Mark was in 1992, the OHT has nurtured a new generation of artists who share Foreman's goals and passion for theatre.
Through internship, staffing, summer residencies, the Obie Award-winning Blueprint Series, and other curation efforts, the OHT was a starting point for many artists making their mark in New York City and internationally including David Herskovitz, Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater, Damon Keily Artistic Director of American Theater in Chicago, Radiohole, Elevator Repair Service, Pavol Liska, NTUSA, as well as Richard Maxwell, Sophie Haviland, Bob Cucuzza, DJ Mendel, Ken Nintzle and Young Jean Lee.
Since 1993 the emerging artist's program at the Ontological took many forms, including the Obie-winning Blueprint Series for emerging directors.
In 2005, the OHT reorganised the programs under the name INCUBATOR, creating a series of linked programs to provide young theatre artists with resources and support to develop process-oriented, original theatrical productions.
By 2010, the program had quadrupled in size, involving a range of artists and increased support. The programs included the centrepiece Residency program for premieres, two annual music festivals, a regular concert series, a serial work-in-progress program called Short Form, and roundtables and salons aimed at keeping Incubator artists involved year-round. In May 2010, the Incubator received an OBIE grant.
In early 2010, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater announced that it would leave its permanent home, St. Mark’s Church, and that the Incubator would take over the space and operate year-round. The Incubator Arts Project grew out of the Incubator and now operates in the former Ontological Theater.
"Ontological-Hysteric Theater"
Performing Artservices, Inc.
260 West Broadway
Suite 1
New York, NY 10013
http://ontological.com/INFO/information.html
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.