Actor John McKetta inside 'The Leathershop' || The Lady in Red Converses with Diablo ©2013
IN THE BASEMENT THEATER CO. is a collaborative dance-theater company that uses experimental approaches to structure and narrative, largely employing masks and combinations of music, dance, and movement to broaden its community's experience and understanding of their own personal mythology.
THE LADY IN RED CONVERSES WITH DIABLO
In residency within the confines of a formerly abandoned Brooklyn hospital basement, In the Basement Theater Co. gives you "The Lady in Red Converses with Diablo", an immersive, interactive theater experience for select audiences of 15 people, guiding them through a labyrinth of mock houses, mulch covered bayous and mirror shard lakes in this their original myth. The story is a searing depiction of self-abandonment in pursuit of blind perfection. The score for the piece was written and performed twice a night by folk trio Rabbit in the Rye.
"Joseph Mettler is an extraordinary carpenter. I even hesitate to call him a carpenter, and more of a builder-magician, because in the time that I’ve known him it seems he has built something extraordinary out of seemingly nothing on an almost-daily basis. His talent is in repurposing, refurbishing, and in general taking any materials that have been discarded or deemed un-usable and taking the care and effort to build something beautiful and sustainable out of it. This is why I call him a magician. He literally brings materials back from the dead. I was the co-founder of a theater company called In The Basement Theater Co.. We were selected as artists in residence for a three month long residency in a 10 room former insane asylum basement in Brooklyn, NY. It is entirely thanks to his expertise, creativity and dedication that those 10 rooms became 12. As we were a company functioning on a very small budget, and we needed to build two full “houses” inside our main room, I turned to him for help. He brought down discarded scrap wood from his farm in upstate NY and he found a way to build these entire two house structures out of it. It was a gargantuan effort, and yet he build these “homes” in under two weeks. Extraordinary. We even joked about putting plumbing in the structures, as they seemed practically live-able, aside from them being a theatrical set. One of them even has a porch!
Besides being an expert carpenter, Joseph is a beautiful human being to work with. If you’re lucky maybe you’ll get to hear some of his beautiful music as well. I couldn’t recommend someone more highly if you’re looking for something built, especially because he will repurpose materials and make them look as good as new — a service to our earth, in my opinion! We live in such a consumer-heavy world, that people forget you can recreate and recycle rather than always start from scratch. If you want something authentic, carefully crafted and built with love, Ravelwood is for you."
- Katya Stepanov, Co-Owner of 'In the Basement Theater Company'
