SURROGATE Comes to New York Live Arts This Month

New York Live Arts will present the World Premiere of Ashley R.T. Yergens’ SURROGATE, a premature birthday celebration for a frozen embryo and an extremely loose re-imagination of Oprah Winfrey’s 2008 interview with Thomas Beatie the “Pregnant man.” 

SURROGATE will be presented in the New York Live Arts Studios (219 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011 - 3rd floor) from Thursday, June 13th through Saturday June 15th at 8pm. A Stay Late Conversation moderated by Larissa Velez-Jackson will take place following the June 14th performance, and Audio Description and CART Captioning will be available on June 15th. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at NewYorkLiveArts.org or 212-924-0077, on sale now. Please see additional ticketing options below.

SURROGATE dives into transmasculine experiences surrounding pregnancy and in vitro fertilization (IVF) while exploring the parallels between a choreographer living through others’ bodies and an intended parent birthing through another’s. With today’s critical conversations around trans perspectives, SURROGATE offers a complicated, absurdist take, highlighting the complexities of modern society. Structurally adjacent to nightlife cabaret, the performance confronts the surrogacy process and scrolling the algorithm through the container of dance with text, at times, built directly from real comments on social media. Yergens is joined by collaborators and performers Maddie Schimmel, Justin Faircloth, Nicola Gorham, and Mur in this intimate and partially auto-biographical invitation. Lighting design is by Jennifer Fok.

Yergens last presented new work at Live Arts in the 2016-2017 Fresh Tracks emerging artist program. The Live Feed creative residency program is a laboratory for the development of new commissioned work. Live Arts’ 2023-2024 season confronts the current critical moment, in which the changing social, political, and cultural tides call to deepen its vision as a conduit for engagement through art. 

Standard pricing is on a variable scale, with a minimum of $15 made possible by Con-Edison. Live Arts offers a standard ticket price, as well as options to pay more or less. LiveCore artists, Students and Seniors receive 20% off select tickets. Limited $10 student rush tickets day of the show, pending availability. 

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