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nytheatre.com's
people of the year - 2005
Who made the theatre scene exciting, challenging, interesting, and enlightening
during the past twelve months? Here are fifteen theatre artists/groups
who bear watching . . .
| P. SETH BAUER: Works
by this prolific, talented young playwright seemed to be everywhere
this year: The Karma Cookie (78th Street Theatre Lab),
the Atrainplays (The Neighborhood Playhouse), Vermouth & Chicken (in Fully
Pact from Playwrights/Actors Contemporary Theater, and Stop
the Lawns in Revenge 2 from TheDrillingCompaNY), among others.
Bauer was the first recipient of the New York Innovative Theatre
Award for Outstanding Short Script for The First Time Out of
Bounds, soon to be published in NYTE's Plays and Playwrights
2006. |
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BLUEMOUTH: One
of the year's single most exciting theatre events was lenz,
by Stephen O'Connell and Sabrina Reeves, the high-energy, enormously
visceral, site-specific interactive play that bluemouth staged,
for two weekends only, at Ye Olde Carlton Arms Hotel. This Toronto-based
troupe is redefining the rules of theatre and how audiences experience
it. They're planning to return to New York in 2006—something
to look forward to. They sit in the middle of a mini-movement
of new Canadian theatre in NYC, which included works by MacIvor,
Fraser,
Sally Clark, Jayson McDonald, and others presented by groups
like the brand-new Spiral, Inc. and Bridge Company, both of which
are
dedicated to bringing Canadian plays to the New York stage. |
| THE BRICK THEATER: Our
only holdover from last year's list is this hot Williamsburg company,
artistic home to some of the city's most adventurous theatre practitioners.
The vibe here remains terrific: Brick's list of hits in 2005 included
John A. Wooden's Dear Dubya: Love Letters to whitehouse.org;
Ian Hill's World Gone Wrong, Peter Petralia's Third
Person, and Cole Kazdin's My Year of Porn (all seen
in the Moral Values Festival); 31 Down's That's Not How Mahler
Died; and Michael Gardner's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. |
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SHARON FOGARTY: As
a playwright/composer, she distinguished herself with two brand
new musicals (or "unmusicals," as she sometimes calls
them)—the rambunctious and irreverent Where Sleeping
Gods Lie and the edgier The Devil of Delancey Street.
As an actor—in addition to playing leading roles in the aforementioned
two shows—she gave a bravura performance in Manhattan Theatre
Source's production of Sally Clark's Saint Frances of Hollywood.
And as a director, she helmed Jason Grossman's It's a Wonderful
(One Man Show) Life. Her work is always provocative and never
dull. |
| STEVEN GRIDLEY: Indisputably
one of the smartest and most innovative young playwright/directors
working in New York's indie theatre scene, Gridley's latest work Still
Life-With Runner was developed at HERE's American Living Room
Festival and then had a successful run this fall at Spring Theatreworks
in DUMBO. His earlier work Sun, Stand Thou Still, meanwhile,
was produced in Norway, at Skidmore College, and (in excerpted
form) at the American College Theater Festival. |
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IMPETUOUS
THEATER GROUP:
Though they're only about a year old, this company—led
by James David Jackson, Josh
Sherman, and Joe Powell—has
already proved themselves one to keep an eye on, with their
impressive FringeNYC debut this summer, VENEZUELA,
and their terrific absurdist satire on Corporate America, OFFICE
SONATA (written by Andy Chmelko), in December. They've
also been stretching the 24-hour play concept with their innovative 47:59 festivals,
in which authors double up, providing second acts to their
colleagues' works in a second marathon day of spontaneous playwriting. |
| DAVID KORINS: Many
of this year's most memorable and inventive sets were the product
of the imagination of this young designer, including Orange
Flower Water (produced by Edge Theater Company, which he co-founded
with Carolyn Cantor), Swimming in the Shallows (Second
Stage), Oedipus at Palm Springs (New York Theatre Workshop), Miss
Witherspoon (Playwrights Horizons), and Dog Sees God (Century
Center), among others. His work seems to be everywhere lately,
and for very good reason. |
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LINCOLN CENTER
THEATER: Several of New York's high-profile nonprofit
theatre companies had watershed years in 2005 (e.g., La MaMa:
Ellen Stewart's Perseus, Arthur Adair's Three Sisters,
Michael Baron's The Whore of Sheridan Square). But
none presented more significant work than LCT. Their year began
with
Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty's flawed but earnest Dessa
Rose; continued with the Craig Lucas-Adam Guettel The
Light in the Piazza, which, with its luminous leading performance
by Victoria Clark, revived hope in the future of serious American
musical plays; and then peaked with Wendy Wasserstein's uncompromising
look at contemporary mores, Third. |
| MARK LONERGAN: He
started the year with the stunning full-length dance work Powerhouse and
ended it with the remarkable and innovative physical comedy theatre
piece This Way That Way. Lonergan's vision and talent
mark him as one of the great theatre directors of the next decade
or so. Whatever he does is worth a look. |
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SUSAN O'CONNOR: One
of downtown theatre's best-kept secrets finally made her (richly
deserved) off-Broadway debut in Urban Stages' splendid production
of Daniel MacIvor's Marion Bridge. O'Connor—seen
earlier this year in Brad Fraser's dark comedy-drama Snake
in Fridge—got unanimous raves for her portrayal of
an odd young woman who is trying to assert her own quirky individuality
in the face of two strong-willed older sisters who have come
to
visit when their mother becomes terminally ill. More great performances
lay ahead for this remarkable, versatile young actress. |
| AUSTIN PENDLETON: One
of contemporary theatre's authentic Renaissance Men, Pendleton
batted a triple this year, directing Barbara Dana's War in
Paramus with sensitivity and intelligence for Abingdon Theatre
Company; penning one of the year's most entertaining and thoughtful
new plays, Orson's Shadow at the Barrow Street Theatre;
and topping himself with a terrific turn at the Broadway Cabaret
Festival where he performed a knockout "Miracle of Miracles," re-creating
the role of Motel the Tailor that he originated in Fiddler
on the Roof more than 40 years ago. Is there anything this
guy can't do? |
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SIX FIGURES THEATRE
COMPANY: Of the many theatre works this year inspired
by and/or reflective of the current situation in Iraq, few packed
the emotional wallop of Baghdad Burning. Based on a
blog by an anonymous Iraqi woman living through the war, this
play by Kim Kefgen and Loren Ingrid Noveck brought the conflict's
impact on ordinary individuals home to NYC audiences in a very
personal and visceral way. We hear it may be coming back. Six
Figures, currently helmed by artistic director Cris Buchner,
also produced their biggest and best Artists of Tomorrow
Festival this fall, providing developmental runs to a variety
of worthy new plays, solo shows, and performance works. |
| STOLEN CHAIR
THEATRE COMPANY: Led by director Jon Stancato, this
young movement-based troupe is rapidly becoming one of our most
reliably entertaining and engaging companies. In Commedia
Dell'Artemisia they superimposed a Moliere-style slapstick
farce on a Renaissance rape trial; in The Man Who Laughs they
staged a Victor Hugo melodrama as a live silent movie. But there's
no gimmickry afoot here--their work demonstrates the power of
theatre in surprising ways. Kudos to ensemble members Jon Campbell
and Jennifer Wren and house playwright Kiran Rikhye. |
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THEATER TEN TEN: New
York's longest-running off-off-Broadway company (they started up
more than 50 years ago) had one of their most fruitful seasons
in recent memory, including two classy revivals of seldom-seen
masterworks (Shaw's The Apple Cart and Turgenev's A
Month in the Country, both directed by David Scott) plus a
chipper re-creation of British Music Hall called A Little of
What You Fancy. The company's artistic director is Judith
Jarosz. |
| UNOFFICIAL NEW
YORK YALE CABARET: Another group making an impressive
debut this year is this ambitious company helmed by co-artistic
directors Mahayana Landowne and George Tynan Crowley. Composed
of Yale alumni, they're in the middle of an exciting first season
that has already included an impressive original play by Crowley
(Most Happy) and the American premiere of a Malaysian
work called Three Children. |
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