New York City Players is a
not-for-profit New York City-based
experimental theatre
Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu plays as a rejection of both the age in particular ...
company founded in 1999 by playwright and director
Richard Maxwell to present his work. The company has produced approximately 30 new plays in New York and has toured in over 20 countries.
Among their notable productions are ''Ode to the Man Who Kneels'' and ''People Without History'', the latter at the
Performing Garage in
SoHo, Manhattan. The company's works have also been presented at
Performance Space New York
Performance Space New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profitable arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building.
Origin
The former eleme ...
,
The Kitchen
The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was foun ...
, and
Soho Rep
The Soho Repertory Theatre, known as Soho Rep,The official website'now use "Soho", with a lowercase h, as do most articles from th''New York Times''/ref> is an American Off-Broadway theater company based in New York City which is notable for prod ...
in New York, and in Paris, Brussels, Dublin, London, and Germany.
Aside from the works of Maxwell,
the company has also created a limited number of works through partnerships with other artists and companies, including ''Devotion'' with choreographer
Sarah Michelson, ''The Early Plays'' with
The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, an ...
,
and ''Open Rehearsal'' at the 2012
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
.
The company runs two programs, the American Playwright Division, which produces plays written and directed by emerging playwrights, and the Incoming Theatre Division, a program which provides resources and production support to immigrant New Yorkers to develop their stories into theatrical works.
Productions
Plays by Richard Maxwell
* ''Billings'' (1996)
* ''Flight Courier Service'' (1997)
* ''Burger King'' (1997)
* ''Ute Mnos v. Crazy Liquors'' (1998)
* ''House'' (1998)
* ''Cowboys and Indians'' (1999)
* ''Showy Lady Slipper'' (1999)
* ''Boxing 2000'' (1999)
* ''Caveman'' (2000)
* ''Drummer Wanted'' (2001)
* ''Joe'' (2002)
* ''Showcase'' (2003)
* ''Henry IV Part 1'' (2003)
* ''Good Samaritans'' (2004, 2017)
* ''The End of Reality'' (2006)
* ''Ode to the Man Who Kneels'' (2007)
* ''People Without History'' (2009)
* ''Ads'' (2010)
* ''Neutral Hero'' (2010)
* ''Open Rehearsal'' (2012)
* ''Isolde'' (2013)
* ''The Evening'' (2015)
* ''Paradiso'' (2018)
American Playwrights Division
* ''Vision Disturbance'' (2008) - written by Christina Masciotti and directed by Richard Maxwell
* ''Dreamless Land'' (2011) - written and directed by Julia Jarcho
* ''House of Dance'' (2013) - written and directed by Tina Satter
* ''Really'' (2016) - written by Jackie Sibblies Drury and directed by Richard Maxwell
Incoming Theatre Division
* ''I Came From There, I Am Here Now'' (2016) - directed by Tory Vazquez
* ''The Second Wedding of Yasmin Blessing to Jeff Jackman Jr.'' (2017) - directed by Tory Vazquez
* ''Immigration Stories'' (2018) - directed by Tory Vazquez
Source:
References
Notes
Bibliography
*Gorman, Sarah (2011) ''The Theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players'', New York: Routledge,
External links
*{{official website, http://www.nycplayers.org/
Theatre companies in New York City