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Theatricide: Life on the Street
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Aside from mimes, off-key troubadours, and couples battling it out in front of Starbucks, I find the whole concept of street theatre intriguing. Granted, the acoustics are always a challenge, unsolicited sound effects are a given, and spontaneous dialogue from unscripted “characters” can be counted upon to occur. And yet, all these elements are part of street theatre’s scruffy charm.
Which brings me to this summer’s all-too-brief, multiple-venue, way-off-off-Broadway production entitled OFF Stage: the East Village Fragments.
Fair warning: this is no rinky-dink, self-indulgent collection of dubious performance art. Rather, it comes from the Peculiar Works Project, the group responsible for last year’s West Village theatrical tour.
(Left to right): Catherine Porter and Nick Matthews
in Tom Eyen’s Why Hanna’s Skirt Won’t
Stay Down, directed by Mark FinleyThis year, we’re introduced to a company of 80 accomplished actors and 17 directors who have created an evening of theatre unlike any other in the city. In short, it involves a walking tour that takes audiences to a series of actual sites where landmark off-off-Broadway productions were mounted in the '60s & '70s. Short scenes from these shows are acted out, while between stops, additional original performances take place.
So as not to spoil the fun of discovery, I’ll only say that among the pieces presented are selections from some truly legendary works, including Robert Patrick’s Camera Obscura, Israel Horovitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx, Leonard Melfi’s The Bird Bath, and Sam Shepard's Cowboys. Oh yes, bonus: there are some musical interludes.
(Left to right, foreground): Shoshanna Richman and Joey
Auzenne in James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt McDermot’s
Hair, directed by Robert Bartley
This, my friends, is a total -- and historic -- crash course, guaranteed to reignite in you the kind of passion for innovative theatre that you probably haven’t felt since college and Theatre 101.
The tours, which begin at Astor Place (8th & Lafayette Sts., on the traffic island housing the bigger-than-life sculpture known as “The Cube”), wend their way throughout the East Village to end up -- roughly 2-1/2 hours later -- at La MaMa E.T.C. Tours leave Thurs. through Sat. at 7, 7:30, 8 and 8:30pm (weather permitting.) Click here for more info.
Posted on June 26, 2007 - by
Browse: Off-Broadway | Special Performances
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About the Author: City Guide Theatre Editor Griffin Miller moved to New York to pursue an acting/writing career in the 1980s after graduating magna cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then, she has written for The New York Times, For the Bride, Hotels, and a number of other publications, mostly in the areas of travel and performance arts. She currently is the theatre and spa editor for Promenade Magazine as well as theatre editor for all NYMetroParents publications. An active member of The New York Travel Writers Association, she is also a playwright and award-winning collage artist. In addition, she sits on the board of The Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Griffin is married to Richard Sandomir, Sports Media reporter for The New York Times.
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