Beneath the shimmer of a disco ball, lucky contestants dance like they have the world on a string. The year is 1976, an irresistible bassline drives, and the martinis never run dry. What could go wrong? While the contestants nearly lose their minds with the pleasure of being selected, The Host has reconfigured the game. Ripped headfirst from their shrimp cocktail, gameplay unfolds at breakneck speed. Cement punctures the dancehall, the party grinds to a halt, and an inky night belches to the surface.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein are NYC-based experimental dance makers and performers. Intensely physical and visually maximal, the pair’s works are rooted in dance-adjacent physicality but reimagine what choreography can be used to accomplish theatrically. Recent work includes Deepe Darknesse (NYT full page review; New York Live Arts’ Live Artery; The Collapsable Hole; national tour), 1-800-3592-113592 (The New Yorker Magazine “Best Theater of 2024,” with performance collective CHILD, of which Fagan/Engelstein are founding members), Catches No Flies (Exponential Festival), Red Carrots (Exponential Festival), and many more works and experimentations. They are recipients of the 2025 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists in Dance and have been supported by Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC Open), NYSCA Individual artists grants, Mercury Store, and others. Along with their work as a collaborative duo, credits include: Fagan: The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire by Anne Washburn at The Vineyard Theater (choreographer), No President by Nature Theater of Oklahoma (performer), experimental opera HILMA at Tony Award-winning theater The Wilma (choreographer), Open Throat at Little Island NYC (choreographer), THESE DAYS short indie series premiering at Sundance 2021 (choreographer), Promenade by Maria Irene Fornes, dir. Morgan Green (choreographer). Engelstein: American Idle, a 20-person public performance commissioned by Times Square Arts Directed by Maia Chao (choreographer); Adult Relationships by Ben Gassman (dancer/actor); this is the beginning, this is the end by Joanna Kotze (dancer), Oceanic Feeling by Faye Driscoll (dancer), They All Lived There by Isa Spector (dancer), Procession by Alexa West, all i want is what you want (co-director/performer with Jo Warren).

CREDITS

FUNDING + SUPPORT

Friday Night Rat Catchers was commissioned by New York Live Arts and produced and created in association with Immediate Medium. Friday Night Rat Catchers was developed with support from a Foundation for Contemporary Art Grants to Artists Award (2025) and received research and development support from Fisher Center LAB, the residency and commissioning program at Bard’s Fisher Center, and Mercury Store. This project was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The Live Feed creative residency program is supported in part by Partners for New Performance. Supported by a grant from the Jerome Foundation.

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