The Divine Sister Returns

Charles Busch's hilarious comedy, The Divine Sister, which had workshop production at Theater for the New City earlier this year is returning for a commercial engagement beginning September 12th at the Soho Playhouse on Vandam Street. The Divine Sister is a throwback to Busch's early, Theatre-In-Limbo plays like Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party and Times Square Angle and stars, along with Charles Busch himself, Alison Fraser, Amy Rutberg, Jennifer Van Dyck, Jonathan Walker and Julie Halston.

For tickets and info: www.divinesisteronstage.com

OHIO INTERRUPTED @ 3LD

It was announced today that the Ohio Theater/Soho Think Tank will live on as OHIO INTERRUPTED at 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center in Lower Manhattan. This is probably a win-win since it was announced earlier this year that 3LD may be facing eviction from its MTA-owned building at 80 Greenwich Street. The Ohio Theater on Wooster Street will definitely be missed, though. It was a one-of-a-kind venue, that let directors and adventurous companies make use of its depth, barn doors opening on to Wooster Street and numerous pillars. It's sad to think that in a few weeks Ludlow Lad will no longer be entering those doors.

Coming Soon: Hater (7/21-7/24/2010)

The final season of the ICE FACTORY series at the OHIO THEATRE brings:

HATER freely adapted and directed by Samuel Buggeln from Moliere’s The Misanthrope
The cast features Merritt Wever ("Nurse Jackie"), Noah Weisberg (Enron, South Pacific), Maria Christina Oliveras (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Zoe Winters (The Importance of Being Earnest) and Colby Chambers (Dog Eats God).

"Lust. Betrayal. Air kisses. What happens when the Hater hates himself for loving? A speed-punk score with kick-ass dance. A mise en scene for the glamorously debauched. An amphetamine fueled, post-post simulacra of the French classic. A comedy of manners for the very rude" (July 21-24).

For Tickets + & Info: CLICK HERE

Charles Ludlam on Film: Anthology Film Archives (8/19-8/22/2010)

In one of the most momentous underground-film-related developments in recent memory, two films by the legendary playwright, counter-cultural figure, and founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Charles Ludlam, were discovered last year safely tucked away in Ludlam’s partner Everett Quinton’s closet. Rescued from oblivion through the efforts of filmmaker Ira Sachs and Butt Magazine contributing editor Adam Baran, curators of the Queer/Art/Film series, they were screened publicly for perhaps the very first time this past winter at the IFC Center. Their re-emergence is cause for great celebration, and we’re overjoyed to be presenting them both in a weekend of encore screenings, along with a selection of other movies made with Ludlam’s participation. These films are a bona fide revelation, and their discovery represents the restoration of a crucial and heretofore lost chapter in the history of underground film.

Charles Ludlam
THE SORROWS OF DOLORES
80 minutes, video. With Everett Quinton, Minette, Arthur Kraft, Lola
Pashalinski, John D. Brockmeyer, Black-Eyed Susan, and Richard
France.
&
MUSEUM OF WAX
22 minutes, video. With Charles Ludlam, Everett Quinton, and Richard
France.

Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.
Thursday, august 19 through Sunday,
August 22 at 7:00pm nightly.

---
José Rodriguez-Soltero
LUPE
1966, 50 minutes, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology with support from
the Andy Warhol Foundation for the visual Arts.
Thursday, August 19 at 9:15pm

---
Mark Rappaport
IMPOSTORS
1979, 110 minutes, 16mm. With Charles Ludlam.
Friday, September 17 through
Thursday, September 23 at 7:15pm &
9:15pm nightly. additional screenings on
Saturday and Sunday at 5:15pm
---
Andrew Horn
DOOMED LOVE
1983, 75 minutes, video. With Bill Rice, Allen Frame, Rosemary Moore, Charles Ludlam, Black-Eyed Susan, and Jim Neu.
Saturday, August 21 at 9:15pm

For more info: www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

The Octoroon: 7/3/2010

I finally got to see Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' The Octoroon: An Adaptation of The Octoroon Based on The Octoroon at PS122. As anyone who follows off-off Broadway may already know, the production has been plagued with problems. First, the show lost its original director, Gavin Quinn (co-founder of the Irish company Pan Pan). I assume this happened because the playwright didn't like what the director was doing with his script. At that point the playwright took over the directing duties and the production proceeded.

Next, on the eve of opening, an actor in the cast sent an e-mail (I assume to his private “list”) venting his frustration with the production, calling it a “trainwreck” and trashing the play and the playwright/director. Said email was then published on the Village Voice “blog” which seems to have been revived only to post this e-mail. Over one hundred comments followed that posting and a public scandal began.

What I didn't know until seeing the show last night was that the actor who sent the email actually departed the show along with another actor (the man in “red face” in many of the promotional photos for the show).

So what was left to present to an audience you may ask? Actually the show asked that same question, several times, throughout the seventy-five minutes on view at PS122. What I saw was a very smart, exploration, not only of this 19th Century play but of the creative process. I have no doubt what was presented was not the show Branden Jacobs-Jenkins envisioned when this journey began, but what he made of the hand that was dealt him was the theatrical version of turning lemons into lemonade. Many of the scenes that obviously we written for two actors were played with one, the playwright himself opened the show, playing the part of the native-american putting on “red face” while explaining the opening of the show, sealed envelopes with questions from the the playwright/director were delivered to the actors on stage, who would break character and answer the questions as themselves.

Bravo the the actors who remained with the show. They were all excellent and knew there was some very good and valuable work being done.

I hope this version of the show remains somewhere. It is as interesting a theatrical archive as The Octoroon itself. Perhaps under the title: The Octoroon: An Adaptation of The Octoroon Based on The Octoroon an Unintentional Deconstruction of The Octoroon.

2010 OBIE AWARDS

OBIE WINNERS 2010

The Sustained Achievement Award
David Greenspan

Best New American Play (w/check for $1000)
Annie Baker, CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION and THE ALIENS

Performance
Ensemble, CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION (Playwrights Horizons)
(Reed Birney, Tracee Chimo, Peter Friedman, Deirdre O’Connell, Heidi Schreck)

Dane DeHaan, THE ALIENS (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)

Jonathan Hammond, THE BOYS IN THE BAND (Transport Group)

Marc Damon Johnson, THE BROTHER/SISTER PLAYS (Public Theater)

Laurie Metcalf, A LIE OF THE MIND (The New Group)

Wendell Pierce, sustained excellence of performance

Juliet Rylance, AS YOU LIKE IT (Bridge Project/BAM)

Rocco Sisto, sustained excellence of performance

Playwriting
Enda Walsh, THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM (Druid Theatre / St. Ann’s Warehouse)

Directing
Sam Gold, CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION (Playwrights Horizons) and THE ALIENS (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)

Pam MacKinnon, CLYBOURNE PARK (Playwrights Horizons)

Design / Music

Steven Dufala and Billy Blaise Dufala (machine design), MACHINES MACHINES
MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES MACHINES (rainpan 43 /
HERE Arts Center)

Stephin Merritt (music + lyrics), CORALINE (MCC Theater)

Tyler Micoleau, sustained excellence of lighting design

Neil Murray (sets and costumes), Malcolm Rippeth (lighting), Gemma Carrington and Jon Driscoll (projection design), BRIEF ENCOUNTER (Kneehigh Theatre / St. Ann’s Warehouse)

Special Citations
Ariane Mnouchkine & Théâtre du Soleil, LES ÉPHÉMÈRES (Lincoln Center Festival)

Taylor Mac, THE LILY’S REVENGE (HERE Arts Center)

The Ohio Theatre

Hoi Polloi and Rachel Chavkin, THREE PIANOS
(Hoi Polloi: Alec Duffy, Dave Malloy, and Rick Burkhardt) (Ontological)

Philippe Quesne and Gaëtan Vourc’h, L’EFFET DE SERGE (Vivarium Studio / Under the Radar)

Chris Wells, SECRET CITY

The Ross Wetzsteon Award (w/check for $1000)
Foundry Theatre

Obie Grants

Harlem School of the Arts

Ontological Incubator

Vampire Cowboys

Now Playing: MILK

Emily DeVoti's MILK is currently being served at HERE courtesy of the fabulous New Georges. Set in the 1980s, milk has a lot of period music, a fantastic set (by Susan Zeeman Rogers) that cuts HERE's upstairs space diagonally in half, and a terrific lead performance by Jordan Baker. Milk may do a body good, but MILK is good the the brain and the soul.

For Tickets + Info: www.here.org