| The Wooster Group announces upcoming New York season | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 02:41 pm EST 11/22/24 | |
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| THE WOOSTER GROUP'S UPCOMING NEW YORK SEASON THE RETURN ENGAGEMENT OF SYMPHONY OF RATS BASED ON A 1988 PLAY BY RICHARD FOREMAN DIRECTED BY ELIZABETH LECOMPTE AND KATE VALK JANUARY 7 - 25, 2025 AND THE US PREMIERE OF NAYATT SCHOOL REDUX A NEW WOOSTER GROUP WORK DIRECTED BY ELIZABETH LECOMPTE MARCH 8 - 29, 2025 (November 22, 2024 – New York, NY) — The Wooster Group will perform two productions this season at its home base, The Performing Garage: a return engagement of Symphony of Rats, starting in early January 2025, and the US premiere of the Group's latest piece, Nayatt School Redux, beginning in early March 2025. Full listings information is available at the end of this release. SYMPHONY OF RATS Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and Kate Valk, Symphony of Rats is a new work bringing together two leading American avant garde theater artists: The Wooster Group and Richard Foreman. The show is about a President of the United States who undergoes a series of strange encounters of a phantasmagorical kind. It opened with a sold-out run at The Performing Garage in spring 2024, when The New York Times called it "A delightful love letter from one giant of experimental theater to another," and the The New Yorker described it as "The Wooster Group in full flood . . . full of laughter and a radiating sense of pleasure." During Symphony of Rats' recent run in Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Times said it will "delight and derange the theatrical senses." The first production of Symphony of Rats was staged in 1988 at The Performing Garage, with Richard Foreman directing. The Wooster Group has made an entirely new piece by transposing Foreman's text into verse and setting it to a "captivating" (Los Angeles Times) multi-layered sound and video score. In their re-imagining of Symphony of Rats, now set in a sort of hybrid spaceship-museum, The Wooster Group assesses the evolution of technology in relation to what it means to be human. Symphony of Rats is performed by Niall Cunningham, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Andrew Maillet, Michaela Murphy, and Guillermo Resto. The production design is by LeCompte. Sound design and original music are by Eric Sluyter, with songs featuring music by Suzzy Roche. Video design is by Yudam Hyung Seok Jeon with Maillet; the lighting design is by Jennifer Tipton and Evan Anderson; and the costumes are by Antonia Belt. The full ensemble includes: Matthew Dipple (dramaturg), Tavish Miller (technical director), Aaron Amodt (production manager), Clay Hapaz (archivist), Monika Wunderer (general manager), and Cynthia Hedstrom (producer). NAYATT SCHOOL REDUX Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, Nayatt School Redux reanimates Nayatt School, an original 1978 Wooster Group piece. Nayatt School was composed by LeCompte and Spalding Gray. It was the third part of their trilogy, beginning with Sakonnet Point (1975) and Rumstick Road (1977), that was based on Gray's autobiography. The text of Nayatt School included sections from T.S. Eliot's play The Cocktail Party and featured Gray's first foray into the monologue form, launching his influential career as a monologist. In his Nayatt School monologue, Gray described his beginnings in the theater and played LPs from his theatrical record collection, including an LP of The Cocktail Party. Nayatt School culminated in staged scenes from Eliot's play, performed by Gray, Ron Vawter, Libby Howes, Joan Jonas, and four children. Nayatt School Redux begins with a new monologue from Wooster Group member Kate Valk. She reveals newly-restored archival video recordings of Gray in the original production and tells her own story of how she came to work with the company in the late 1970s. Then Valk and the Group's current company channel the final scenes from the original production, deepening its exploration of Eliot's text. In this new version, director LeCompte again displays her mastery of what the New York Times calls "ravishing, meticulous marriages of live and recorded performance." Nayatt School Redux is presented with permission of the T.S. Eliot Estate. Casting information will be announced in a later release. ABOUT THE WOOSTER GROUP The Wooster Group is a company of theater artists led by founding member and director Elizabeth LeCompte. Established in 1975, the Group has created more than 40 theater and dance works and over 20 media pieces. Theater productions include: Rumstick Road (1977), L.S.D. (... Just the High Points ...) (1984), Brace Up! (1991), The Emperor Jones (1993), The Hairy Ape (1996), House/Lights (1999), To You, the Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002), Hamlet (2006), the opera La Didone (2008), Vieux Carré (2009), The Room (2015), The Town Hall Affair (2017), A Pink Chair (In Place of a Fake Antique) (2018), and The Mother (2021), all directed by LeCompte, and Early Shaker Spirituals (2014), The B-Side: Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons (2017), and Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me (2024), directed by founding member and associate director Kate Valk. The Group's work has been included in museum and gallery shows internationally. Among these are three Whitney Biennials, a 2014 installation at the Chronus Art Centre in Shanghai, and commissions for the opening of the new Whitney Museum building in 2015 and the 2006 Dada exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. FUNDING CREDITS Symphony of Rats is co-commissioned by piece by piece productions. The creation and performance of Symphony of Rats and Nayatt School Redux are supported Antonia Belt, Tom Shapiro, and public funds from: the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Major support for The Wooster Group is provided by Rita Ackermann and Hauser & Wirth; the Booth Ferris Foundation; the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; Select Equity Group Foundation; Shubert Foundation; and The Wooster Group's Director's Circle: Antonia & David Belt, Paul Cassidy & Vernon Evenson, Christine Larsen & Vincent Dopulos, Alan Mark & Jeffrey Fraenkel, Frances McDormand, Robyn Mewshaw & Ben Indek, Catherine Orentreich (Orentreich Family Foundation), Tom Shapiro, and Wendy vanden Heuvel. PRODUCTION INFORMATION The Wooster Group Symphony of Rats January 7-11, 14-18, 21-25, 2025 Tuesdays-Fridays at 7:30 pm; Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm Running time: approximately 75 minutes The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013 Tickets, starting at $35, available from www.woostergroup.org / (212) 966-9796 The Wooster Group Nayatt School Redux March 8, 12-15, 19-22, 26-29, 2025 Running time: approximately 80 minutes The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013 Tickets will be available in early 2025 from www.woostergroup.org / (212) 966-9796 WEBSITE & SOCIAL MEDIA Website: thewoostergroup.org Facebook: facebook.com/TheWoosterGroup X: x.com/TheWoosterGroup Instagram: instagram.com/thewoostergroup Vimeo: vimeo.com/thewoostergroup |
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