ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

For Prelude 2026, clown artist Alex Tatarsky will use the audience as test subjects to collect data on some new experiments. Possible areas of investigation include: the Garden of Eden as a story of eviction. The hauntedness of furniture. A cross country travelogue on the history of American magic. Boxed mac n cheese as a state of mind.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Called “a hilarious, finely tuned absurdist” (TheaterJones) and “outrageous and profane” (NYTimes), Alex Tatarsky makes performances in the uncomfortable in-between zone of comedy, dance-theater, performance art, and deluded rant – sometimes with songs. Tatarsky experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufman’s daughter and used to perform as a mound of dirt. Original evening-length solo works include Americana Psychobabble (La Mama, Jacob’s Pillow), Buttplug Gnome (Gibney Dance), Untitled Freakout (The Kitchen) and the improvised project MATERIAL, featured in the Whitney Biennial. They frequently collaborate with musician Shane Riley and are currently touring their solo shows DIRT TRIP (MoMA PS1), a decomposing performance-lecture about fear of clowns and fear of compost, and Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Best of 2024 ArtForum, NYTimes, New Yorker), a hellscape bildungsroman about Tatarsky becoming convinced they are a small German boy. Upcoming: Sad Boys on tour at Hancher (Iowa City), On The Boards (Seattle), Vesper (Atlanta).

Photo credit: Walter Wlodarczyk