Five Songs for Fillmore Ave (7/16-7/18/21)

Five Songs for Fillmore Avenue was the world-premiere of a new site-specific performance that combined theatre, cinema, and live music. Buffalo-based musician, John Toohill (Night Slaves; Radiation Risks; Alpha Hopper) took over a converted gas mart on Fillmore Avenue with a box full of tapes, loops and a new live band to attempt to understand his place in the universe through deep listening and cultural deprograming. Video of his performances was projected onto the side of the garage with video by Brian C. Milbrand and lights by Buffalo’s Eclectric Oil and Light.

Five Songs for Fillmore Avenue is being written, directed, and designed by Kenneth Collins, the Artistic Director of New York City’s Temporary Distortion (“The hallmark of this company is a tight integration of style and substance.” - The New York Times), as part of a Creative Arts Initiative residency at the University at Buffalo. This project will be available as a digital experience, a recorded album, and as a distanced, live outdoors performance in the courtyard of the Torn Space design studio.

Kenneth Collins is an interdisciplinary artist living in New York City and working internationally, specializing in theatrical design and postdramatic performance.

He is the founder and Artistic Director of Temporary Distortion, a genre-bending performance group whose work explores the potential tensions and overlaps found between practices in visual art, theater, cinema, and music. He works across and between disciplines to create installation-based performances, visual art, films, albums, and works for the stage.

His work with Temporary Distortion has been seen in the United States, Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

Temporary Distortion explores the potential tensions and overlaps found between practices in visual art, theater, cinema, and music. The group works across and between disciplines to create performances, installations, films, albums, and works for the stage that have been shown in over 25 cities in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States.

Interdisciplinary artist Kenneth Collins formed Temporary Distortion in 2002 when he began staging intimate performances in claustrophobic, life-size shadow boxes in New York City. Temporary Distortion’s recent work has focused on long-duration, installation-based performances featuring live music, during which spectators are encouraged to come and go throughout all-night events.

Temporary Distortion is based in New York City, where its work has been presented at The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater and Performance Space 122. The Company’s work has also been presented internationally at: Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane, AU), Exit Festival (Paris, FR), Gare Saint-Sauveur (Lille, FR), LiFE (Saint-Nazaire, FR), Mois Multi (Quebec City, CA), On the Boards (Seattle, WA), Prague Quadrennial (Prague, CZ), Salzburg Festival (Salzburg, AT), SPAC (Shizuoka, JP), Théâtre de l’Agora (Évry, FR), Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse, FR), Theatre Junction (Calgary, CA), Theatre National de Toulouse (Toulouse, FR), Trafó (Budapest, HU), Usine-C (Montreal, CA), and Via Festival (Maubeuge, FR).

Articles discussing Temporary Distortion’s work have been published in Contemporary Theatre Review, The Drama Review, The New York Times, TheatreForum, Live Design, Real Time Arts, and The Brooklyn Rail, with an upcoming profile in Chance Magazine.

Torn Space Theater is housed in the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle on Fillmore Avenue in Buffalo. The Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle is a non-profit private club founded in 1895. It is the oldest Polish American organization in Western New York and is the oldest surviving Polish library in Buffalo. The library holds about 12,000 volumes with 400 hand-copied plays. The bar serves over 50 different imported beers with a large Polish selection. The “Circle” is also home to a large annual Dyngus Day party, as well as other cultural events. Torn Space Theater is located in the Historic Polonia district, only five minutes from Downtown Buffalo and three minutes from the Larkin District. Throughout the season, Torn Space hosts several fundraisers, parties and special events ,featuring the tasty drink selection at Mickie’s as well as food from Buffalo favorites. The upstairs space is home to our Speakeasy Series that regularly presents distinguished speakers for each production.