JV Squad

Joshua William Gelb is an independent theater artist based in the Lower East Side who, along with an extended group of regular collaborators, builds work under the production company JV Squad. Throughout the current shelter in place orders, Gelb has converted his closet into the Theater in Quarantine. This new performance laboratory is dedicated to the exploration of the theatrical experience in the digital space in hopes of understanding how artists can adapt to the digital form without sacrificing the integrity of the live theatrical event, as well as navigating how we can continue to responsibly collaborate as we social distance.

 
With an eye for the highly theatrical verging on the cinematic, Gelb’s work is known to feature striking integrations of music, movement, clowning, and dance, eschewing fourth-wall realism for a theater imbued with the expansive performativity of the circus, or the Broadway musicals on which he was raised. Through a combination of relentlessly energetic physical storytelling and vibrant theatrical spectacle, JV Squad's productions plumb texts both old new, resulting in an inclusive audience experiences that is experimental, visceral, dramaturgically challenging, and always surprising. 
 
Previous productions include the re-imagining of the infamous 1927 film The Jazz Singer, commissioned by Abrons Arts Center, as well as the sesquicentennial production of America’s supposed first musical, The Black Crook, also created in residence at Abrons. Other works include an immersive retelling of the Nutcracker ballet, Clara/Not Clara (Knockdown Center) and a psychedelic, semi-autobiographical treatise on capitalism, Party in the USA (Incubator/Endinburgh Fringe).