Prototype Festival Unveils 2023 Season

By David Salazar

The Protoype Festival has announced its 2023 slate.

For the 10th anniversary of the festival, the company is kicking things off with the East Coast premiere of “In Our Daughter’s Eyes,” a work about “the journey of [a father] as he wrestles with truly becoming a man that his daughter would be proud of.” The Du Yun and Michael McQuilken work stars Nathan Gunn. Kamna Gupta conducts.

Performance Dates: Jan. 5 – 15, 2023

Emma O’Halloran’s “Mary Motorhead” and “Trade” will be performed in a double bill. The former work features a convicted murderer telling her history to the audience. Naomi Louisa O’Connell stars. “Trade” relates the story of “a rent boy and his closeted client in working-class Dublin, both trapped within their own lives.” The work stars Marc Kudish and Kyle Bielfield.

Tom Creed directs and Elain Kelly conducts.

Performance Dates: Jan. 7 – 14, 2023

Next up is the experimental opera “[Morning / Mourning]” by Gelsey Bell. Per the official webiste, “an ensemble of five vocalist/multi-instrumentalists witness and guide the audience through the changes on Earth as forests grow back, new species evolve, and the human-made world erodes away.”

Performance Dates: Jan. 5 – 15, 2023

Silvana Estrada’s “Marchita” will star the the Ka’y Ha’ Quartet.

Performance Dates: Jan. 12-14, 2023

Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “The All Sing ‘Here Lies Joy’ will get a world premiere at Duffy Square in Times Square. Soloists will be announced at a later date.

Performance Dates: Jan. 8, 2023

David Lang and Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “Note to a Friend” will be co-presented with the Japan Society. Yoshi Oida directs.

Performance Dates: Jan. 12 & 14, 2023

Audiences will be able to stream Stefanie Janssen and Michaël Brijs’ “Undine.” Here is a rundown of the plot, per the company’s official website: “The mermaid Undine is addicted to hard plastic! In search of her daily dose, she ends up moving between an aquarium and a hydroponic garden in an apartment building in the middle of a city. There she meets the deeply unhappy Rodmenia, the wife of a tailor, and her neighbor Anselmo, an eccentric philosopher… Undine’s arrival shakes Rodmenia and Anselmo out of their respective ruts. The two neighbors become obsessed by the mermaid. Her magic world, in which she manipulates and seduces, stirs up an unprecedented desire for something glorious. Whereas Rodmenia sees this as a chance to escape her lonely, depressing existence and take charge of her own life, Anselmo sees Undine as a trophy, and the answer to the philosophic questions upon which his life has foundered. They each abandon themselves to their excessive desires, with far reaching consequences.”

Streaming Dates: Jan. 5 – 15, 2023

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