About Us
Ben Spatz
Ben has over ten years of experience as a director, performer, and leader of theatrical research. He has been leading the Urban Research Theater project for three years and offers workshops in song-based physical performance around New York City and beyond.
Ben lived in Poland from 2003-2005, as an ensemble performer with the Gardzienice Theater Company and a Fulbright Fellow at the Grotowski Institute. He has also trained with Song of the Goat Theater, Rena Mirecka, Odin Teatret, and the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.
In addition to leading the practice-based performance research of URT, Ben is a doctoral student in theater at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He has a B.A. from the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, where he studied with Hope Weissman and Pedro Alejandro.
Contact: ben@urbanresearchtheater.com
Michele Farbman
As a 16-year practitioner of chanting, meditation, and other forms of internal yoga, Michele finds Urban Research Theater's searching through body and voice to be a welcome compliment to yoga's search for the subtle self.
Michele has lived in New York City for 16 years as a writer, editor and teacher and continues to pursue her narrative and imaginative drive through URT's rigorous practices of physical work and singing.
Contact: michele@urbanresearchtheater.com
Wroclaw Ensemble
Urban Research Theater was based in Wroclaw, Poland in 2004-2005.
This image is from a performance fragment based on The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, with original songs and movement sequences. It was performed by Ania Boratyn, Iza Mlynarz, Malgorzata Przedzak, and Beata Zalewska at the Grotowski Centre and the "Palacik" cultural center in Wroclaw.
Other ensemble members in the Wroclaw group included Bartek Bulanda, Kasia Donner, Daniel Jastrzebski, Marek Konopczak, Monika Kuszewska, Szymon Struzik, and Iza Walkowiak.