What's new: As part of the "Under the Radar" theater festival, Elevator Repair Service will read every word of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous work in "Gatz".

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Mark Russell left his position as artistic director of Manhattan’s acclaimed venue PS 122 last June, after 21 years, but that doesn’t mean he is any less passionate abut promoting edgy, innovative work that breaks the bounds of traditional theater.

The curtain will rise on his collaboration with Arts at St. Ann’s - "Under the Radar," a four-day mini-festival starting Jan. 7.

The festival, which he produced with Arts at St. Ann’s artistic director Susan Feldman, will run through Jan. 10, primarily at the St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO and in a few additional locations. Russell chose those days because they coincide with the Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ Annual Members Conference in Manhattan.

"These people decide what tours. I wanted them to have a chance to see this work," Russell told GO Brooklyn.

"Under the Radar" features a selection of performances by artists and companies that Russell expects will soon move onto the radar.

"Many of these shows go on tour to places like San Francisco and Houston where they play in very small, alternative spaces - that’s real contemporary theater," said Russell. "I look for work that speaks to me, that hits me in the gut, that challenges me, that changes my perception of theater and the world.

"I want New Yorkers to see these pieces. I think it will be kind of fun to see three or four pieces in a day," he said. "In one weekend, you can see the cream of the crop of some of our most innovate theater artists. I wanted to create a buzz around them."

The festival kicks off with Cynthia Hopkins’ "Accidental Nostalgia," which was presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse last season and will have an extended run there this January.

"I wanted to do the first version of ’Accidental Nostalgia,’" said Russell. "It was originally going to be at PS 122, but it needed more resources than we could provide."

Accompanied by her alt-country band Gloria Deluxe, playing a blend of garage-rock, honky-tonk and cabaret music, against a videoscape by Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg, Hopkins tells the story of Cameron Seymour, neurologist, amnesiac, wanderer and Sufi. She draws on both her imagination and her childhood in Georgia to create this fantastic tale.

Russell calls Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s "Word Becomes Flesh" a "compelling, heart-wrenching work about his process of becoming a father." Joseph is both a spoken-word performer and dancer. He has been seen on HBO’s "Def Poetry Jam," where he has demonstrated his ability to combine language with movement.

Herbert Siguenza’s "Cantinflas" is one of the comic’s first solo outings away from the Los Angeles-based Culture Clash, said Russell, who called Siguenza "an incredible mime." Performing in both Spanish and English, Siguenza pays tribute to the late Mario Moreno, (stage name Cantinflas) known as the "Charlie Chaplin of Mexico."

In The Civilians’ "Gone Missing," a six-member cast plays more than 30 characters telling stories about things lost and found. The show features Michael Friedman’s music, which Russell said sounds like what would happen "if radio did a musical cabaret."

Russell admits that Ethel’s "Streaming Ethel" comes "from left field." The string quartet blurs the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, blues and other musical styles. Which may be why Russell - who says he "wanted something that would clear the palate, something really different" - chose this group.

There are many who consider F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" to be the great American novel. The experimental theater group Elevator Repair Service tackles the novel, reading every single word of it, in "Gatz" [at The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster St. in Manhattan, (212) 529-7875].

As Russell explains the show, "A guy comes into an office setting obsessed with reading ’The Great Gatsby.’ People around him begin inhabiting the characters." Gatz will be read in two parts.

The Foundry Theatre takes on another literary icon - Dostoyevsky’s "Crime and Punishment,’ in "K.I. From ’Crime’" [at The Freight Entrance Theater, 208 W. 37th St. in Manhattan, (212) 868-4444]. Performed in Russian and English by Moscow’s Oksana Mysina, the show depicts the last moments of Katerina Ivanovna, a minor character in the Russian novelist’s work.

"I wanted to give a peek at some of the work that’s going on around the world that we never see in this country," said Russell. "Oksana Mysina’s performance is a tour de force."

Big Dance Theater’s "Plan B" [at the DUMBO Stable, 16 Main St. at Water Street, (718) 422-0303] weaves the secret tapes of Richard Nixon and the biography of Kaspar Hauser, famous wild child of 19th-century Germany (a foundling, who, it was rumored, came from a royal lineage) with the choreography of Annie-B Parson.

"I wanted to give everyone a chance to see this piece," said Russell.

In fact, Russell wants New Yorkers to see all eight pieces and "to participate in the whole festival."

Said Russell, "That’s why we made everything low cost friendly and festive."

"Under the Radar" runs Jan. 7-10 at various venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Tickets for the performances at St. Ann’s Warehouse are $15 to $25. A $40 "Under the Radar" festival pass provides admission to all shows at St. Ann’s Warehouse plus a $10 discount to all off-site performances. Shows are presented on a rotating schedule. St. Ann’s Warehouse is located at 38 Water St. at Dock Street in DUMBO. For more information about shows at St. Ann’s Warehouse, call (718) 834-8794 or visit www.artsatstanns.org.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group