The Wooster Group's THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR Coming to Z Space

Z Space and piece by piece productions will present The Town Hall Affair at Z Space, April 6-16, 2017. Press opening is Saturday, April 8 at 8pm.

The latest work by the acclaimed New York-based experimental theater group The Wooster Group, The Town Hall Affair is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and based on Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker's film Town Bloody Hall, which documents a rowdy 1971 debate on Women's Liberation held at Town Hall in New York City. The debate participants included distinguished critic Diana Trilling, "saucy feminist" Germaine Greer, and "radical lesbian" Jill Johnston, with Norman Mailer acting as an immoderate moderator.

In The Town Hall Affair the Wooster Group both re-inhabits and derails the original film, redirecting Mailer's pugnacious propensities onto himself and spinning out into Jill Johnston's vision of a revolutionary future.

In addition to the performers, the full Town Hall Affair ensemble includes Zbigniew Bzymek(additional video), Enver Chakartash (assistant director, costumes), Matthew Dipple (assistant director), Gareth Hobbs (sound), Bona Lee (production manager), Erin Mullin (stage manager),Ryan Seelig (lighting), Joseph Silovsky (technical director), Eric Sluyter (sound), Jennifer Tipton (lighting), Robert Wuss (video and projections), and Elizabeth LeCompte, director. LeCompte was recently awarded the 2016 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given annually to an artist who pushes the boundaries of an art form and contributes to social change. LeCompte created the Wooster Group in SoHo in 1975 with Spalding Gray, and has directed over 30 pieces that the prize announcement praised as "startlingly innovative, collagelike works."

IF YOU GO:

Z Space and piece by piece productions present

The Town Hall Affair

Performances:

Thursday, April 6 -Preview, 7pm

Friday, April 7 -Preview, 8pm

Saturday, April 8 - Press Opening 8pm

Sunday, April 9 - 5pm

Tuesday, April 11 - 7pm

Wednesday, April 12 - 7pm

Thursday, April 13 - 7pm

Friday, April 14 - 8pm

Saturday, April 15 - 8pm

Sunday, April 16 - 3pm

At Z Space, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco, CA

Tickets: $35-$75, available at www.zspace.org, 866.811.4111

Founded in 1975, The Wooster Group has made more than 40 works for theater, dance, film, and video under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte. These works include Rumstick Road (1977), L.S.D.(...Just the High Points...) (1984), Frank Dell's The Temptation of St. Antony (1988), Brace Up! (1991), The Emperor Jones (1993), House/Lights (1999), To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002), Hamlet (2007), There is Still Time . . Brother (2007), La Didone (2009), Vieux Carré (2011), Cry, Trojans! (Troilus & Cressida) (2014), and The Room (2015). The founding and original members of the Group are Elizabeth LeCompte, Spalding Gray, Ron Vawter, Jim Clayburgh, Willem Dafoe, Kate Valk and Peyton Smith. The Performing Garage at 33 Wooster Street in lower Manhattan is the company's permanent home, which they own and operate as part of the Grand Street Artists Co-op, a 1960s project of the Fluxus art movement. The company regularly tours worldwide, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. More at thewoostergroup.org.

Z Space empowers artistic risk, collaboration, and camaraderie amongst artists, audience and staff in the service of creating, developing and presenting new work. Operating two venues in San Francisco's historic Mission District, a mainstage and a black box theater, Z Space hosts new works from a variety of performance disciplines year-round. Keystone initiatives include New Work, a development program that supports artists and ensembles from conception to realization of unique works, Word for Word, a resident theatre company that transforms works of literature verbatim to the stage, and Youth Arts, an arts education program promoting literacy and engaging students' creativity. We foster opportunities around the nation for these works and we engage diverse audiences through direct interactions with the process, the projects, and the artists.

piece by piece productions is a non- profit producing organization that was started in 1999 by Wendy Vanden Heuvel. Productions have included: Medea directed by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw on Broadway (associate producer), The Tricky Part (2004 Obie award and two Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Play) by Martin Moran and All The Rage, (Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Solo Show 2013) by Martin Moran produced with Rising Phoenix Repertory and The Barrow Group, The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh, Mabou Mines DollHouse, Emma Rice's Brief Encounter, and Let The Right One In, all in association with St Ann's Warehouse, My Name is Rachel Corrie in association with The Royal Court Theatre, Slipping in association with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Elective Affinities with Zoe Caldwell by David Adjmi, co-produced with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Soho Rep, Lee Breuer's La Divina Caricatura in association with St Ann's Warehouse, La Mama ETC, Mabou Mines, and Dovetail Productions, and Hundred Days by The Bengsons and Kate E. Ryan co-produced with Z Space (TBA Outstanding New Musical 2014). piece by piece productionshas been a producer with co-creators Brian Mertes and Melissa Kievman on The Lake Lucille Chekhov Project since 2010 (Ivanov, Seagull). Film: The Rest I Make Up: Documenting Irene directed by Michelle Memran, (a documentary about the life and work of the playwright Maria Irene Fornes), The Seagull: The Lake Lucille Chekhov Project directed by Brian Mertes. Wendy is an actress, and a teacher, and lives in San Francisco with her husband Brad Coley and their daughter Lila Blue.

Pictured: Scott Shepherd and Kate Valk in The Town Hall Affair. Photo by Paula Court.

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