BEN SPATZ
Artistic Director
Ben Spatz is Artistic Director of Urban Research Theater, a New York based performance company that develops original interdisciplinary works out of long-term embodied research in song, movement, and poetry. Ben's work is firmly grounded in the embodied craft of performance and the desire to create new spaces for sharing the value of practice-based knowledge. Ben's solo project RITE OF THE BUTCHER premiered at the United Solo Festival (Theatre Row, 2011) and will be performed this summer at Cave Arts (New York City), Leeds University (United Kingdom), Teatro Ya Ya Ya (Segovia, Spain) and the Annual Conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (Washington, DC). This is the first in a triptych of three solo pieces exploring the intersection of power and fantasy through the notion of apotheosis or becoming-god. Ben is also in the early stages of developing a new ensemble project based on traditional Jewish songs and Martin Buber's TALES OF THE HASIDIM.
Over the past three years, in close collaboration with Italian actor-director Maximilian Balduzzi, Ben created and performed in PLAYWAR (Abrons Arts Center, 2012) and THEATRICALE: A TRAGEDY (Lincoln Center Atrium and The Living Theatre, 2011). His work has also been seen at Movement Research at Judson Church, Here Arts Center, Medicine Show Theatre, Occupy Broadway, and elsewhere. From 2003-2005, Ben lived and worked with the Gardzienice Theatre Company of Poland, performing in ELEKTRA and METAMORFOZY at venues including the Hebbel Theater (Berlin, Germany) and the Merlin Shinhaz Theater (Budapest, Hungary). The following year, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, where he encountered the work of Eugenio Barba, Peter Brook, Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini, Rena Mirecka, and Zygmunt Molik. Since that time Ben has continually searched for ways to make rigorous explorations of performance craft relevant in the urban and hyper-mediated context of New York City.
Ben is a current Artist-in-Residence at Movement Research (2010-2012) and a resident artist at Cave Arts (2011-2012). He has taught acting and performance courses at multiple campuses in the CUNY system, where he is also an advanced doctoral candidate writing a dissertation on embodiment, actor training, and performance technique. Ben's scholarly work and publications are deeply connected to his artistic practice, and one of his goals is to build bridges between academia and performing arts institutions. Ben has led private workshops and guest classes at Yale University, Cave Arts, Theaterlab, the Institute for Arts and Psychotherapy, the Genesis Project, and elsewhere in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New England. He has presented both scholarly and artistic work at major academic conferences (ASTR, ATHE, MATC, CORD, PSi) and his writing has been published in both academic and artistic journals (New York Theatre Review, Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Ecumenica). He is a member of the Grotowski Institute's Project to Support Young Scholars and the recipient of several grants and fellowships including the Manhattan Community Arts Fund administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Contact: ben [at] urbanresearchtheater.com
