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The Wooster Group

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The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged during 1975-1980 from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967-1980) and took its name in 1980 (the 1975-1980 independent productions being retroactively attributed to the Group). The ensemble is since directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and has launched the careers of many actors, including founding member Willem Dafoe. The Group's home is the Performing Garage in SoHo.

Mission statement

For over thirty years, The Wooster Group has cultivated new forms and techniques of theatrical expression reflective of and responsive to our evolving culture, while sustaining a consistent ensemble and maintaining a flexible repertory. Wooster Group theatre pieces are constructed as assemblages of juxtaposed elements: radical staging of both modern and classic texts, found materials, films and videos, dance and movement, multi-track scoring, and an architectonic approach to theatre design.

The Wooster Group has played a pivotal role in bringing technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film and video into the realm of contemporary theatre, and in the process has influenced a generation of theatre artists nationally and internationally. The Group's work is unique because it attracts not only the theatre-going community but also artists and enthusiasts of many other cultural disciplines, such as dance, painting, music, video and film.

The Group has created and performed all of its theatre pieces at The Performing Garage in SoHo, New York City. All pieces in The Group's award winning repertory have toured widely in the US and Europe, as well as to Asia, Australia, Canada, and South America.

Funding

The Wooster Group is a not-for-profit theater company that relies on grants and donations from supporters. It has received multiple grants from the Carnegie Corporation, which has supported more than 550 New York City arts and social service institutions since its inception in 2002, and which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Carnegie Corporation's total donations to nonprofit organizations exceeds $115 million.

Works

Theater

Main

The Road to Immortality

  • Frank Dell's The Temptation of St. Antony (1987)
  • L.S.D. (...Just the High Points...) (1984)
  • Route 1 & 9 (1981)

Three Places in Rhode Island

  • Point Judith (an epilogue) (1979)
  • Nayatt School (1978)
  • Rumstick Road (1977)
  • Sakonnet Point (1975)
  • Hula (1981) and For the Good Times (1982)(two dance pieces)
  • North Atlantic (1984/1999) written for the company by James Strahs
  • Miss Universal Happiness (1985) and Symphony of Rats (1988) written for the company & directed by Richard Foreman

Radio productions

Each radio piece was a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast for a Festival Radio Production.

Audio productions

  • Love Songs Songs from The Wooster Group's To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre) written, performed and produced and by drench (CD - 2002)

Film and video productions

  • House/Lights (DVD-2004)
  • The Wooster Group's The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill (video-1999)
  • Wrong Guys (film-in progress)
  • Rhyme 'Em to Death (video-1994)
  • White Homeland Commando (video-1992) written for the company by Michael Kirby
  • Flaubert Dreams of Travel but the Illness of His Mother Prevents It (video-1986)

Members

Founding members

The Wooster Group's founding members are:

Current associates


Notes

  1. Wooster Group, "Production History since 1975".
  2. Roberts, Sam (2005-07-06). "New York Times: City Groups Get Bloomberg Gift of $20 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-25. Retrieved on August 20, 2007
  3. "Carnegie Corp: NYC Arts & Social Service Orgs Awarded Grants". Retrieved August 20, 2007.
  4. "Guide to the Ron Vawter Papers". New York Public Library. 2002. Retrieved 5 August 2009.

References

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
  • David Savran: Breaking the Rules: The Wooster Group. Reprint. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1990. ISBN 0930452828.

External links

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