Newyorkland is an intertextual assemblage that combines cop movies, popular TV police procedurals and firsthand accounts of real-life police officers. Director Kenneth Sean Collins’ personal interviews with police officers in his immediate family are mixed with found text and William Cusick’s explorations of cinéma vérité, documentary realism and pure fiction.
Newyorkland follows four police officers struggling with the demands of their chosen profession, the day-to-day realities of life as a cop and the high costs of working within the fraternal and secretive society of the NYPD. Merging film, performance and visual art, the production is staged in one of Temporary Distortion’s signature boxlike installations.
Newyorkland is available for touring in 2013/14.
“The hallmark of this company is a tight integration of style and substance.”
The New York Times
“Newyorkland passes their other, already high bar.”
TimeOut NY
“Newyorkland is a fascinating window into a cop’s often isolating experiences.”
The Seattle Times
“It’s one of the most honest works of theatre you will ever see.”
NYTheatre.com
“What is remarkable about the performance is its amplification of your senses, so that you begin a sensory immersion into Newyorkland.”
The SunBreak
“A compelling, self-contained world from which it’s impossible to avert one’s eyes… an original and important evening of theater.”
Crosscut
Newyorkland Trailer:
Newyorkland Trailer from Temporary Distortion on Vimeo.
