The Urban Backstage
Collaborative iLAND Residency
2014-2015

Public walks: Collect Pond, Old Wreck Brook, CSO Theater at Corlears Hook

The Urban Backstage is a year-long collaborative residency hosted by iLAND (Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance) in partnership with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. The residency emphasizes process, research and collaboration between practitioners form different disciplines driven by process and movement strategies developed by Jennifer Monson. The research site originates in lower Manhattan along the East River Waterfront. Public events are a workshop at the iLAND Symposium and walks to and from Pier 42 on May 9th and July 18th, 2015.

The urban backstage is comprised of spaces in the city that, through accident, intention, design, loss, or neglect, allow urban residents to remove their masks, to make mistakes, to expose [or hide] things, thoughts and actions that may not be allowed elsewhere. Water infrastructure is another aspect of the urban backstage. Our research explores the individual’s and the city’s relationship to water, waste, and the physical body. This is mirrored in thinking about the tendrils and buried histories of lost waterways such as the Little Wreck Brook that connected Collect Pond to the East River or the complexity of current water systems, such as the journey of water from the Croton Aqueduct to NYC and then onward to waste water treatment plants or into the East River during CSOs.

The Urban Backstage iLAB Residency group includes Julie Kline (Theater Actor/Director), Clarinda Mac Low (Interdisciplinary Artist), Elliott Maltby (Urban Designer/Landscape Architect), Jeremy Pickard (Eco-Theater Artist), Shawn Shafner (Artist/Educator/Activist), and Rachel Stevens (Interdisciplinary Artist).

The residency is a collaboration between iLAND + Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.