International Human Rights Art Festival Theatre: PopOut by Ari Gold Ari Gold
About This Show
Post-Trumpacolypse, Sir Ari Gold steps out of the shadows of the spotlight to find his lost community. Growing up in the 80s as a singing, closeted, orthodox Jewish boy from the Bronx, Ari is discovered at his brother’s bar mitzvah at age five, landing a Yankee Doodle Dandy’s Give My Regards to Broadway performance on the legendary Joe Franklin Show. Nicknamed “The Prince of Jingles,” Ari becomes a voice of his generation on recordings for Cabbage Patch Kids, Jem and The Holograms and diva icon Diana Ross — setting the stage for the unsung story of America’s First Openly Gay Pop Star. Playing multiple characters and incorporating cameos by his parents Lynn and Sid Gold, Ari Gold brings his funny, paradoxical, and touching pop musical memoir of love, family, religion, sex, and the search for community to POP OUT at the Human Rights Arts Festival.
Directed by David Drake
Sir Ari Gold is a fourth generation lower east sider, a Billboard Top 10 Recording Artist, Independent Music Award Winner, 3x Outmusic “Visionary Award” recipient by the LGBT Academy of Recording Arts, USA Songwriting Competition Grand Prize Winner, & was knighted by the Imperial Court of New York. Ari’s music has been heard on hit TV shows Scrubs and Cougar Town and has been featured on VH-1, MTV, BBC, Top Of The Pops, WWHL on Bravo and LOGO w/ more #1 Videos than any artist. He’s been noted by legends Whoopi Goldberg, Boy George and Clive Davis and received critical acclaim in People Magazine, Vibe, W, V, New York Magazine, Perez Hilton, & OUT100. His writing has been published by Advocate, HuffPo, & Daily Beast. Ari has acted in plays by Tony nominated Colman Domingo and in RuPaul’s cult film Starrbooty. Headlining concerts in Europe, Canada, and in over 40 states including his hometown NYC at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub and Summerstage. His 5th studio albumSoundtrack To Freedom under the collective GoldNation is OUT NOW. www.arigold.com @SirAriGold
David Drake is the Obie Award-winning playwright/performer of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, which was published by Doubleday/Anchor Books, been translated into five languages, received nearly 100 independent productions in 10 countries, and was made into an award-winning feature film. As a director, David has twice a Directing Fellow at Sundance Theatre Lab, last fall David received a residency at the BRIC in Brooklyn to develop his new music-theater piece with Migguel Anggelo and Mau Quios, The Suitcase Project. With the latter, David also wrote and directed Another Son of Venezuela at Joe’s Pub (NY Mag Critic’s Pick). Most recently David directed the NY premieres of both J.Stephen Brantley’s The Jamb at the Kraine Theatre and Bob Bartlett’s Bareback Ink for Hard Sparks theater company at IRT. Other directing credits: Taylor Mac’s Under-the-Radar debut in The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac, and Mac’s Obie-winning The Lily’s Revenge at Here. Recent acting credits: HBO’s Vinyl, as a regular on the web-series Producing Juliet, and costarring with Alan Cumming in Vincent Gagliostro’s upcoming feature filmAfter Louie. David regularly teaches immersive theater courses at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has been a guest lecturer on the art of solo performance at NYU, Colombia, Amherst, and The New School.
“This out dance pop artist packs born-this-way swagger.”- People Magazine
“Before there was Adam Lambert or Sam Smith there was Sir Ari Gold.” – LogoTV NewNowNext “Honest and distinctly original” – The Jewish Journal
“Ari’s personal lyrics attest to the battles he’s been through-he writes from the heart”- Clive Davis
“Gold has long rejected the idea that the only suitable pop star is a neutered one” – OUT100
“A deeply talented performer—Ari shines in the most contemporary of song styles with echoes of more ancient foundations like Vaudeville, or old Broadway on which his modern voice rests. A natural mimic/comic with a gift for spotting the behavioral detail—a gesture, a vocal pattern—that in his skilled and observant hands, becomes iconic. The autobiographical detail is rich, abundant, memorable and most of all, unique.” – James Nicola, Artistic Director, New York Theater Workshop
“Ari is doing for pop music what Obama did for the presidency.” – Whoopi Goldberg
“Ari Gold is a star.” – Boy George
“Brilliant!” – RuPaul
About the Festival
Dixon Place and the Institute of Prophetic Activist Art present: The International Human Rights Art Festival, produced, March 3-5, 2017 at Dixon Place. This is the first human rights art festival in the long and vibrant history of New York City’s cultural scene. The Festival is produced by Tom Block, long-time artist-activist, author of Prophetic Activist Art: Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution, and founder of the Institute of Prophetic Activist Art, an art-activist incubator housed at Dixon Place. Playwright and Director Julia Levine is the Assistant Producer.
The 2017 Festival will involve more than 70 artists presenting 40+ advocacy art events over the weekend, including theatre, visual art, music, dance, installations, workshops, panels, performance, films and KidsFest, to introduce children to the importance of art-advocacy work through hands-on activities. Join us for a weekend of art, advocacy, and celebration, with a happy hour featuring tasty human-rights themed concoctions, human rights trivia, prizes, t-shirts and much more.
video trailer
Sunday, March 5 at 7:00pm
General Admission
$15 in advance
$20 at the door
75 minutes
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