The Wooster Group Presents A PINK CHAIR (IN THE PLACE OF A FAKE ANTIQUE)

The Wooster Group will open their newest piece, A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) at The Performing Garage (33 Wooster Street) in New York City, with performances from April 28 through May 19, with press opening on Wednesday, May 9. The production will come to New York following a run in Los Angeles at The Roy and Edna Disney/CALARTS Theater from April 5-15, 2018.

In A PINK CHAIR, the Group takes on one of the greatest figures in 20th century avant-garde theater: the iconic Polish stage director Tadeusz Kantor. The title A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) comes from one of Kantor's manifestos. It describes a theater that gives the simplest, everyday objects - chairs - hallucinatory power to summon up forgotten history and memory. In A PINK CHAIR, the Group will investigate this theatrical rite of communication with spirits past by exploring Kantor's penultimate production, I Shall Never Return, and through it, Kantor's lifelong obsession with the myth of the return of Odysseus.

A PINK CHAIR began with a commission from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland, which asked The Wooster Group to make a piece in honor of Kantor. The Group first experienced Kantor's works through films and documentaries. They then invited his only daughter, Dorota Krakowska, to join them as dramaturge and guide for A PINK CHAIR. Krakowska was interested in working with the Group on this piece as a way of revisiting her father and his work.
A PINK CHAIR was further developed in a residency last summer at the Bard SummerScape Festival. The piece has since been completed at the Group's theater, The Performing Garage.

A PINK CHAIR is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and composed by the company. It features performances by Zbigniew Bzymek, Enver Chakartash, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Gareth Hobbs, Dorota Krakowska (on video), Erin Mullin, Suzzy Roche, Danusia Trevino, and Kate Valk. Dramaturgy is by Dorota Krakowska; lighting is by Jennifer Tipton and Ryan Seelig; sound and original music by Eric Sluyter and Omar Zubair; musical director: Gareth Hobbs; video and projections: Robert Wuss; additional video by Zbigniew Bzymek and Wladimiro Woyno; costumes by Enver Chakartash; assistant directors: Enver Chakartash and Matthew Dipple; stage manager: Erin Mullin; video cueing system development: Andrew Maillet and Wladimiro Woyno; technical director: Jacob Bigelow; and production manager: Bona Lee.

ABOUT TADEUSZ KANTOR (1915-1990)
Tadeusz Kantor's life and art embody the extremes of the 20th century. Born in the tiny Polish town of Wielopole, he witnessed two world wars and the rise and collapse of Communism in Poland. He formed his first theater company - the Underground Independent Theater - in 1942, staging clandestine productions in German-occupied Krakow. In 1955, he formed a Second Company, Cricot 2, and worked with them as a consistent, evolving ensemble for the remainder of his life. Cricot 2 toured outside Poland to great renown in Europe and Asia beginning in the 1960s. Although he was less well known in the United States, Kantor presented four acclaimed productions at La MaMa between 1979 and 1988. The first, Dead Class, won an OBIE.

Kantor's original training was as a painter and throughout his life he remained engaged with international avant-garde movements in the visual arts. He was committed to theater as a total work of art which "embraces and comprehends all modern art and its ideas, themes, and conflicts" (from Tadeusz Kantor, "The Milano Lessons I").

ABOUT THE Wooster Group
The Wooster Group is an ensemble of artists who create, produce, present and perform new work for theater. The Group creates its work through a distinctive collaborative process with a focus on experimentation and the synthesis of multiple art forms. The Group's theater work is known for its innovative use of lighting, sound, and video technologies. Under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, the Group has remained at the forefront of experimental theater for decades.

The Group's major works include: RUMSTICK ROAD (1977), NAYATT SCHOOL (1978), L.S.D. (...Just The High Points...) (1984), FRANK DELL'S THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY (1988), BRACE UP! (1991), THE EMPEROR JONES (1993), THE HAIRY APE (1996), HOUSE/LIGHTS (1999), TO YOU, THE BIRDIE! (Phèdre) (2002), POOR THEATER (2004), HAMLET (2007), the 360º video installation THERE IS STILL TIME . . BROTHER (2007), the opera LA DIDONE (2009), VIEUX CARRÉ (2011), EARLY SHAKER SPIRITUALS: A RECORD ALBUM INTERPRETATION (2014), THE ROOM (2016), THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR (2017) and THE B-SIDE: "Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons," A Record Album Interpretation (2017).

The Group's founding members were Spalding Gray (1941-2004), Elizabeth LeCompte, Jim Clayburgh, Ron Vawter (1948-1994), Willem Dafoe, Kate Valk, and Peyton Smith. Wooster Group director Elizabeth LeCompte has received fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished Artists Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater, as well as the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and the 2016 Dorothy & Lillian Gish Award. Associate director Kate Valk has received the Guggenheim and TCG/Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships, as well as the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Performing Artist Award. The Group and its members have also won nine Obie Awards, six Bessie Awards, and the National Endowment for the Arts Ongoing Ensembles Grant.

The Performing Garage in the Soho neighborhood of lower Manhattan is The Wooster Group's permanent home and performance venue. The Group owns and operates the Garage as a shareholder in the Grand Street Artists Co-op, which was originally established as part of the Fluxus art movement. The Group regularly tours its productions throughout the United States and internationally.

FUNDING CREDITS
A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) was co-commissioned by the Instytut Adama Mickiewicza, Poland, and the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it premiered at the Bard SummerScape Festival in 2017.

Development and performances of A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) are made possible with support from: the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Program; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the Trust for Mutual Understanding; the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project Transitions Program, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; the Howard Gilman Foundation; the Lucille Lortel Foundation; the James E. Robison Foundation; the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013. Tickets $25-$40; available at www.thewoostergroup.org / (212) 966-3651

The piece also will be performed in Los Angeles at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) from April 5 - 15, 2018. Tickets at www.redcat.org.