Author Archives: aztc_vince

PONTIAC FIREBIRD VARIATIONS (2011)

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PONTIAC FIREBIRD VARIATIONS premiered at the Obie-Award Winning Ice Factory at 3LD in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District. 3 years in development and combining 80s pop culture, parallel dimensions, muscle cars, linguistic variation, mythology and dreams, PFV took one scene from Shakespeare’s RICHARD III (ACT I, SC 4), and explored it in the context of ‘the musical art of variations’ – with 6 murderers pitted against each other in a revving car crash of tragicomic proportions. With live violin and grand piano, PFV wove a narrative of an intricate New York crime family embroiled in an internal battle over whether or not to murder one of their own.

Conceived and developed by Christopher Baker, Adam Belvo, Sean Berman, Isaac Byrne, Darcie Champagne, Jared Culverhouse, Ryan Dorin, Matthew Hancock, Julian James, Michelle Kelleher, Zoe Metcalfe-Klaw, Michael Mason, Will Neuman, Karl Newman, Jake Platt, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, Cole Wimpee, and Charles Yang.

NATIONAL DIET OF JAPAN (2010)

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NATIONAL DIET OF JAPAN was presented at Performance Space 122 (P.S.122) in the East Village of New York City. Borrowing from Native American mythology, Nintendo Games, Zen Garden Rituals, Japanese tea ceremonies, and Parliamentary Processes, NDOJ took the audience through a 45 minute spectrum of political and biological hierarchy and the skinning of a dead rabbit on stage as metaphor for the Human Digestive System- all to a soundtrack of dueling banjos, drum circles, and wind chimes.

Conceived and developed by Adam Belvo, Ryan Hart, Michael Mason, Will Neuman, Karl Newman, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, & Cole Wimpee.

ADVENTURES IN THE OK SKIN TRADE (2011)

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ADVENTURES IN THE OK SKIN TRADE premiered at the Fridge Theater in the Capitol Hill District of Washington D.C. The Baron, The Matron, The Rustler, and The Auctioneer have their final cattle call for the soul of an ex-NFL quarterback who has become badly burned in a barn fire. Encompassing 100 years in the American West, AITOST is a dark, fast-paced parable depicting what lengths lost souls will go to re-attain their true loves. AITOST was the first multi-city touring show presented by Aztec Economy.

Conceived and developed by Adam Belvo, Ryan Dorin, Michael Mason, Julie Morgentaler, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.

KANSAS CITY BOOK OF THE DEAD (2008-2011)

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KANSAS CITY BOOK OF THE DEAD premiered at the Ohio Theater in Soho, Manhattan in 2008 and has had performances since in New Orleans, and bars, backyards, parties, and churches in Brooklyn, NY.  Kansas City, Missouri midwestern culture is transposed with the Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead as we follow a fast-paced journey through memories of devastating football games, haunted chicken factories, hickory pit BBQ, and the rural American soul’s quest for deliverance in the afterlife.

Conceived and developed by Ryan Dorin, Matthew Hancock, Michael Mason, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.

ALABAMA GODDAM (2011)

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ALABAMA GODDAM premiered in New Orleans in November 2011. A companion piece to the above Kansas City Book of the Dead,, ALABAMA GODDAM is a high-speed hurricane story of a twisted family history as played out between two brothers. Through role-playing memories involving Hank Aaron and the Atlanta Braves, Louisiana Burial Mounds, Mississippi River Water, Florida Theme Parks, Tropicana Orange Juice, and one Giant Robot Possum, we’re introduced to a story about a violent storm of childhood-guilt that is ritually expressed. The first rehearsal for the project took place on a Brooklyn rooftop during Hurricane Irene in August 2011.

Conceived and developed by Adam Belvo, Ryan Dorin, Michael Mason, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.

LAVAMAN Live in New York City (2009)

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LAVAMAN  Live  in New York City was presented at the Obie-Award Winning Ice Factory in Soho, Manhattan at the Ohio Theater. A shy comic book illustrator in Queens, NY gradually transforms into the stage persona of his dead twin brother after a surprise birthday visit from a ex-guitarist-turned-day-trading psychopath. LAVAMAN was a punk-rock saga using projected cartoon animations, bodily fluids, and taboo culinary shock to explore childhood tragedy, murder and male aggression in the late 1990’s.

Conceived and developed by Sean Berman, Adam Belvo, Ryan Dorin, Matthew Hancock, Michelle Kelleher, Michael Mason, Karl Newman, Jake Platt, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, Cole Wimpee, and Cameron Yeary.

oKOTOBERSHIP / SHIP OF FOOLS (2009)

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oKTOBERSHIP / SHIP OF FOOLS was a site-specific event produced by Aztec Economy on board a decommissioned steamship, the LILAC, docked off the Hudson River in the West Village in Manhattan, NYC. With cabin rooms filled with visual art, a side mast of video projections and a main deck for live music acts and performance art, oKTOBERSHIP was a vehicle to present Aztec Economy’s short piece, Ship of Fools, which charted the lost-at-sea quadruple mutiny of 4 members on a doomed vessel: a mad Navigator, a sadistic First Mate, an errant Deckhand, and a word-plagued Captain.

Conceived and Developed by Desiree Burch, Michael Mason, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee

Contributions from The Astor Kings, the Dirty Shames, Everywhere Theatre Group, Jamie Leigh Florence, S.S.S.S. and Clay Franklin.

MARFA ~ LIGHTS (2008)

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MARFA LIGHTS premiered in November 2008 in a vacant backyard in Brooklyn, NY. Partnering with The Traveler’s Box (formerly The Sandwich Box Project) out of Denmark, MARFA LIGHTS used numerous bags of sand, tents, and frigid cold temperatures to create an atmosphere of a nativity play in a ghostly desert night where two couples come to terms with insomnia, infertility, sexual deviance, delirium, and death- all in the midst of a mysterious and massive owl migration. But when an unexplained visitor comes into camp, a midwinter’s night dream ensues- complete with a chorus of crickets, pink elephants, UFOs, horoscopes, memories of tennis and the joy of magnets.

Conceived and developed by Adam Belvo, Darcie Champagne, Benjamin Manglos, Michael Mason, Karl Newman, Lacy Post, Julie Rossman, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.