THE EXPONENTIAL FESTIVAL
JANUARY’S BROOKLYN-BASED THEATRE FESTIVAL
~ A pleasure, a mess, a thrill, and a dream. ~
MISSION
Exponential is a month-long January festival dedicated to New York City-based artists working in experimental performance. The participants in this multi-artist, multi-venue festival are committed to ecstatic creativity in the face of commercialism. Exponential is driven by inclusiveness and a diversity of artists, forms, and ideas coupled with utopian resource-sharing, mentoring and the championing of risky, rigorous work in eclectic fields.
HISTORY
Founded by Theresa Buchheister in 2016 to remove the barriers to entry for young artists producing their first shows in New York City, The Exponential Festival is now counted among the current “beacons of experimental work” in New York (The New York Times).
In its inaugural season, the festival partnered with the following venues: Chez Bushwick, The Brick Theater, Cloud City, The Bushwick Starr, and the Silent Barn, where Buchheister's theatre company, Title:Point, was in residence.
A brief introduction to The Silent Barn, written by Producing Director, Nic Adams:
"The Silent Barn functioned mainly as a bar and music venue. Any performance that happened there had to conform to these limitations. As such, the plays were sometimes cast with musicians, the dance concerts were performed on concrete floors, and the shows were scheduled around recording sessions. The artists that came out of this environment had to be loud enough to compete with a band, game enough to work through interruptions, and wild enough to hold everyone's attention. Comedians became a mainstay of The Silent Barn, and soon everyone's plays, dances, and films had a good sense of humor too. From these circumstances, an aesthetic emerged, as well as a visionary artistic leader: Theresa Buchheister."