Revolution revisited: WOW pioneers celebrate now

Left: Carmelita Tropicana

Right: Claire Olivia Moed (at left) and Peggy Shaw

(photos: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Moments after the thought crossed my mind, Lois Weaver spoke it: "This is like the high school reunion I always dreamed of!" Then she held up a book to show to the merry, over-spilling crowd of, mainly, lesbians of a certain age (like mine) last night at Dixon Place. Co-edited by Holly Hughes, Carmelita Tropicana and Jill Dolan and published by University of Michigan Press, Memories of The Revolution: Celebrating the first ten years of the WOW Café  features "scripts, interviews, photos, and critical commentary documenting the riotous beginnings of this long-lived experimental theater space for women" founded in 1981.

Last night's gathering was pretty riotous, too, with many shrieks of recognition, hugs, laughter and gratitude for the way WOW nurtured community and encouraged DIY spirit and free expression. This funky, spunky theater space launched some notable careers including performance artist Hughes, poet Eileen Myles and Tony-winner Lisa Kron (Fun Home's book and score). "Coming to WOW," Kron said, "changed everything about my life."

Running close to three hours, the show featured numerous WOW favorites, such as the Split Britches team of Weaver, Peggy Shaw and Deb Margolin (performing their goofy West Side Story/Yiddish theater mashup) and the Five Lesbian Brothers (Moe Angelos, Babs Davy, Dom Dibbell, Peg Healey and Kron), reigniting crushes that we had on all these charming and inspiring performers back in the day. One of the strongest moments, though, was a serene one--Sharon Jane Smith, quietly singing and playing her mandolin, drawing her audience closer and closer.

It's heartening to know that, despite the challenge of surviving in a changing New York, WOW Café still carries on (click here). But it's a little sad to have to give this particular event and its audience a hashtag: #WOWSOWHITE. For the most part, it appeared that younger women and people of color found other things to do last night. Maybe that had something to do with the demographics of the cohort celebrated in Memories and reflected in last night's lineup. Or maybe it was the ticket price (which, to be fair, included a copy of the book).

*****

Don't miss the next Memories of The Revolution event--"Memories of The Revolution: Locating Lesbian Culture in the Age of Queer"--a panel discussion tomorrow, March 2, at 6:30pm at New York University's Bobst Library.

The panel, composed of WOW alumnae in dialogue led by theater historian and critic Alisa Solomon and performance studies scholar Ann Pellegrini, will address the impact of feminist and lesbian voices on the downtown New York culture of the 80s and 90s, and discuss the legacy of WOW for current generations. Karen Finley will introduce the event, and Jessica DelVecchio will open it by performing songs from the period.

Other participants include Alexis De Veaux, Gwendolen Hardwick, Holly Hughes, Lisa Kron, Eileen Myles and Carmelita Tropicana.

RSVP to

rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu 

with your name and title/date of the event.

Bobst Library
New York University
70 Washington Square South (at LaGuardia Place), Manhattan
(map/directions)

*****

Help keep WOW Cafe Theater open for future generations of women and trans artists: CLICK!

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Welcome to Paradise!

Scene from The Grand Paradise,
the new production from award-winning Third Rail Projects
(photo: Darial Sneed)

Elizabeth Carena plays The Siren
in The Grand Paradise.
(photo: Joshua Reaver)

The Grand Paradise--the sexy new confection from Third Rail Projects of Bessie-winning Then She Fell fame--takes place in a cleverly simulated tropical resort. For two hours, "vacationers" get to drift from room to room watching and engaging with a cast of saucy characters in search of the Fountain of Youth.

Immersive physical theater in quirky, lavishly re-designed locations has become TRP's specialty, and the directorial team of Zach Morris, Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett ground it all in dance. Performers clamber all over high and dicey surfaces like mountain goats and handle one another's bodies with gleeful audacity. Dreamy, often ecstatic movement sequences, performed in tight quarters, vie with more intimate, semi-private interludes between resort guests and characters for offering the most delight.

Unlike another critic, I refuse to divulge every last detail of this paradisiacal experience. You should come to The Grand Paradise fairly fresh. A little shyness or bemusement is okay, too. You'll be well taken care of, sweetly so.

Really, it's all for you--the piped-in '70s-style lounge music, the mystery beverages (which can be declined), the self-help advice about setting sail for your "geography of desire." At the core of all the breathless phenomena and bustle is a genuine, and quite gentle, invitation to free your mind--or your ass, as Funkadelic would have it, which will serve up the same result. Whether you find the means of delivery provocative and motivational or hokey depends upon you.

Like Then She Fell (still running), The Grand Paradise might end up running and running and running some more, but the stated end date is March 31. Get all information, schedule and tickets here.

The Grand Paradise
383 Troutman Street (near Jefferson Street station), Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Skakespeare as we like it: out in the parking lot

"Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown
more than your enemies."

Jane Bradley plays Rosalind in As You Like It.
(photo: Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

In its new home, outback of The Clemente, The Drilling Company's popular Shakespeare in the Parking Lot summer series brightly powers ahead with a Victorian steampunk As You Like It. This en plein air, in-the-round romantic comedy--with its multiple lovers and lasses--has tasty delights, chief among them detailed and zestful performances from Jane Bradley (Rosalind), Elaine Ivy Harris (Celia), Emmanuel Elpenord (Oliver) and Alessandro Colla (Touchstone). Of these, Bradley and Colla seem particularly resourceful--Colla remaining comically inventive and an unsinkable Bradley at sharp physical and vocal energy from start to finish.

Of course, this Lower East Side Forest of Arden has--for its adaptable players and equally adaptable audience--some unique features. Shakespeare's wit and Clancy's motley crew must compete with sirens and churning helicopters and Mr. Softee trucks, odd smells from takeout dinners and the occasional SUV driver scattering viewers as he attempts to back into the street.

Getting to the lot in a tardy fashion means you might have to peer around heads and bodies as you strain to follow the speaking actors. The rare, welcome cool breezes of a mid-July evening carry away the cast's less-robust voices. And if an actor turns the other way or speaks into his partner's neck....well, what did he just say?

But all of that is to be expected, part of the Shakespeare in the Parking Lot homemade fun. Quick costume changes behind a handy car. Simple strings of lights to relieve the dark when night settles in. Creatively shabby costuming and sometimes balky props that add to a feeling of intimacy, of something wonderfully weird and kind of sweet gifted to a neighborhood. And it's all free.

As You Like It runs through July 26 with performances at 8pm. Running time: Two hours. Bring your own chair, if you'd like. And--wonder of wonders!--Shakespeare in the Parking Lot now has its own Port-O-San!

Parking lot behind The Clemente
(The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center)
114 Norfolk Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Other Shakespeare in the Parking Lot productions this season:

Macbeth, directed by Hamilton Clancy, at The Clemente parking lot, July 30-August 15

Romeo and Juliet at Bryant Park, directed by Dave Marantz, July 17-August 2

The Taming of the Shrew at The Clemente parking lot, directed by Alessandro Colla, September 4 to 20

Click here for complete information and schedules.

A panel on creating and sustaining the arts on the Lower East Side

The Lo-Down
and Educational Alliance's Manny Cantor Center

co-presented an April 28 discussion:

The State of the Performing Arts

on the Lower East Side

Traven Rice (left) and Ed Litvak
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

The two founding publisher/editors of The Lo-Down--
a print and online publication covering Lower East Side news and culture--
introduced the evening's program.

Hosted by Educational Alliance's Manny Cantor Center,
panelists from La MaMa, Abrons Arts Center, Elevator Repair Service and Dixon Place
discussed their organizations' missions and challenges
in light of the changing development and demographics of the Lower East Side and of New York City as a whole.

John Collins, founding Artistic Director, Elevator Repair Service
with Traven Rice
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Collins says his troupe "owes everything to that downtown spirit"
of venues like La MaMa where ERS maintains its office space.
"It's a willingness to take a risk, to fail,
to try things where no one knows what the outcome will be," Collins says.
"Significant careers get launched, a kind of faith gets expressed, in these venues."

Jay Wegman, Director, Abrons Arts Center
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

As part of a social service agency (Henry Street Settlement) where provision of community and youth education has always taken precedence,
Grand Street's Abrons Arts Center has struggled to effectively market its arts offerings to potential local audiences.

"80% of our audiences comes from outside this neighborhood," says Wegman.
"This is a neighborhood of families--people in the 30s and 40s who [come off work] and just want to go home and stay home."

Under Wegman's focus, though, Abrons has become an acclaimed presenter of cutting edge productions.
Artists want to be shown there, and audiences travel from all over to see them.

Ellie Covan, Founder/Artistic Director, Dixon Place
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

"It's hard to be a multi-genre space," says Covan.

That includes the usual slate of theatrical genres plus puppetry, burlesque, circus, vaudeville
and probably anything else you might or might not imagine.

 "We do it all. The funders are confused, the press is confused," she says.
"But it's part of our mission to be inclusive and cast a wide net."

Dixon Place also gets a big bang from drinkers' bucks at its popular bar.
"I wish this would catch on here like it has in London, in Europe," says Covan.
As long as patrons keep drinking, Covan's venue will keep ticket prices low and stay open as
"a place for artists to figure out what they're doing."

As for Essex Crossing, the city's glitzy, mixed-use development project
that will include, among other features, the Andy Warhol Museum,
Covan and her colleagues expressed no concern about potential competition.

"I don't feel competition with other spaces for audiences," says Covan. "Bring it on!"
And Wegman concurs, eager for more foot traffic that might help everyone's fortunes.

Nicky Paraiso, Director of Programming, The Club at La MaMa
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

With the loss of legendary founder Ellen Stewart in 2011,
La MaMa is "an older, established institution revitalizing itself without giving up its mission," says Paraiso.

Paraiso admits that he "never studied to be a curator." Instead, he took his cues from Stewart, who told him,
"Baby, you know all these people! What do you want to do, Baby?"

It was a trial by fire. Under the leadership of Stewart's successor, Mia Yoo, Paraiso continues his practice of talking and working closely with artists.
He tells them, "We will find a way to help you--like young, gay playwrights who don't find a home in more conventional Off-Broadway theater."

He cites La MaMa's intergenerational mentorship initiatives as an important part of the organization's mission, mentioning his pleasure at watching how generous Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver, in particular, have been with younger artists at La MaMa.

"I'm helping artists because I am one."

For information on future events at Manny Cantor Center, click here.

City says No to House of Yes

Curtain Falls on a Club for Clowns and Comics
by Marc Santora and Julie Turkewitz, The New York Times, August 20, 2013

Park yourself in front of Shakespeare

Municipal Parking Lot
at Ludlow and Broome Streets
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

No, it's not.

It's a theater.

Because I say it is. 

And so does The Drilling Company whose open-air "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot" production of Cymbeline plays out across the asphalt now through July 27.

But as muggy summer evening gives way to night, and a few SUVs pull into parking spaces, the magic charm starts to wear off just a bit. 

But not before Hamilton Clancy's talented ensemble, the Lower East Side vibe and Con Edison ("Thanks for the street light," says Clancy) conspire to build up that charm over a straight two-hours and fifteen-minutes of charged action.

Keldrick Crowder as Cymbeline, King of Britain, with audience
(photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Lightsabers at the ready
L-r: Mark Byrne, Skylar Gallun and David Sitler
(photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Cheekily anachronistic elements--like characters wielding lightsabers or snacking on a bag of chips--appear to be remnants of time-shifting ideas Clancy had for this production. But their appearance in this vestpocket of the urban everyday has a funny way of making the players look like neighborhood kids gathered to put on a show. In this case, pretty sophisticated, highly trained kids. But kids, nonetheless, making do with their makeshift platform stages and curtains and props. And Clancy's actors--notably Andy Markert as comically apoplectic Cloten and the electric Mark Byrne as Guiderius--foreground a heady playfulness in Shakespeare's overstuffed plot that wins out over other elements like romance and horror. 

Amanda Dillard as Imogen, the princess
(photo by  Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Playing Shakespeare outdoors and unamplified runs the risk of losing choice words to the air. Some of Cymbeline's performers were largely inaudible when out of range. Amanda Dillard (Imogen) delivered nearly everything at irritating screech pitch. But Philip Rossi's Posthumus Leonatus and Lukas Raphael's Iachimo, the two enemies, have wonderful voices that project just enough while retaining suppleness and subtlety. The same can be said for Byrne. For the show's vocal champion, though, see Keldrick Crowder, Cymbeline himself, who has a voice like solar wind and body language to match. If you go, you might catch a glimpse of Crowder "offstage," practicing what looks like qigong and silently mouthing his upcoming lines before heading back for the final scene. All part of the fun!

Admission is free, though donations are happily accepted. Bring cold drinks and fans. Come early for a good seat, or bring your own chair. And, no worries: Friendly nearby bars and restaurants welcome you to make a pit stop, if need be.

Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm through July 27. For information, click here or call 212-873-9050.

For information on The Drilling Company's upcoming "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot" production of Richard3, click here.

Municipal Parking Lot

Ludlow and Broome Streets, Manhattan (one block south of Delancey Street)

(map/directions)

Steve Ben Israel, 74

Steve Ben Israel, Performance Artist, Dies at 74
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, June 16, 2012

Watch this space!

BMW Guggenheim Lab to Open as Pop-Up in East Village
by Carol Vogel, The New York Times, August 1, 2011

BMW Guggenheim Lab Web site

No Space Too Dilapidated for a Show
by Alexis Soloski, The New York Times, August 3, 2011

St. Ann's Warehouse confirms move

Brooklyn Theater Group St. Ann's Warehouse Says It's Leaving Dumbo
by Marlon Bishop, WNYC Culture, July 20, 2011

New warehouse for St. Ann's

St. Ann's Warehouse Approved to Take Over Tobacco Warehouse

by Erik Piepenburg, The New York Times, November 18, 2010

A lot of Shakespeare

'Julius Caesar' - Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Looks at a Dictator

by Anita Gates, The New York Times, August 5, 2010

Isherwood's 15-hour investment

'The Demons' - Peter Stein Takes Dostoyevsky to Governors Island

by Charles Isherwood, The New York Times, July 12, 2010

Theater one-on-one

Where Every Seat Is Front Row Center

by James Barron, The New York Times, May 13, 2010

Dostoyevsky marathon set for Governors Island

12-Hour Dostoyevsky Play on Tap for Lincoln Center Festival

by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, March 10, 2010

Melanie Joseph: city as stage

“I don’t believe theater can change the world. People can — through rigorously created art that can reveal to those watching what their politics are and through an interrogation of ideas that massages empathy, the place where all great politics comes from.”  -- Melanie Joseph, artistic producer, The Foundry Theatre

City as Stage, Audience as Family
by Celia McGee, The New York Times, January 13, 2010

The Bronx is up

Busing Audiences to the Bronx
Alexis Clements, The L Magazine, September 2, 2009

Theater all over the place

Presenting New York Theater Where It’s Least Expected
by Erik Piepenburg, The New York Times, July 28, 2009

St. Ann's will lose space

St. Ann’s Warehouse Is Looking for a New Home
by Patrick Healy, ArtsBeat, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

Awaiting a new "Place"

Dixon Place: A Workspace in Progress
by Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, November 2, 2008

Paul Lazar is out of this world!

Just five minutes from Grand Central Station, there's a curiously-enchanting world known as 1965UU, created in all its fabulous fabulosity by playwright Mac Wellman from his book of imaginary tales about real asteroids--A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds--and directed by Stephen Mellor.

1965UU is a tiny world inhabited by the likes of the looming, mean, lustily-flatulent Albedo, the delicious but elusively-speedy Rosalind, and a thoughtful, heartsick but resilient soul, Ravenelo, played by Paul Lazar. Lazar--co-founder, with Annie-B Parsons, of Big Dance Theater--gives one of his cherishable performances as the focus of the piece, acting like a spinning wheel that refines Wellman's textual flights of absurd fancy through every well-considered, masterfully-coordinated inflection of movement, glance and voice. Supporting Lazar in what is considered a solo performance are narrator Heather Christian, dancer Kate Marks, and actors Ed Jewett and Daniel Manley.

Now through October 4, the asteroid 1965UU will be in residence at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City, which is certainly as good a place as any for a miniscule space body that appears to be a long, metallic platform spanning the length of the performance space.  Get yourself a front-row seat, and see a show in which, thrillingly, sparks really fly!

For tickets, directions and more information, click here.