We would all like to believe that Ken Larson's "Rent" simply exploded out of the young composer's mind onto the stage, capturing an entire generation's love, angst and dreams in one felt swoop. But the truth is Larson's rock opera was merely a rough draft when he handed it over to producers, and it would endure four years of workshopping, reworking and editing before it finally hit the stage.
It was the New York Theater Workshop that nurtured Larson's vision from the paper to the stage, and set it on its path to sweeping the Tony Awards and grabbing a Pulitzer prize.
For the next three weeks, NYTW will continue its annual tradition of bringing works in progress to Dartmouth College and will allow the community to witness their development. Granted, there is a slim chance you'll see the next "Rent" -- although pieces of it were workshopped at the College in the summer of 1995 -- but you will see some of the most cutting edge theater being developed today.
NYTW co-produced "Angels in America," and workshopped Tony Kushner's follow up, "Slavs!" They've premiered Claudia Shear's "Blown Sideways Through Life," Doug Wright's "Quills" and Mark Ravenhill's controversial "Shopping and F**cking." They're the avant-garde of the theater world, pushing theater to the limits, but never really raising that price tag.
Since the success of "Rent," their non-profit theater on East Fourth Street in New York City has become the go-to place for spotting the next big thing. Their theater is unconventional, to say the least, and with a stable of 250 young writers and directors ready to break out, their work keeps people talking.
This summer, the NYTW serves up a psychotic show biz duo, rain forest humor, Gertrude Stein dramatized and haunting tales of AIDS and struggling black families. This sampling of their work runs the gamut from comedy to drama, musicals to monologues, uplifting tales to the depressing.
Tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Warner Bentley Theater, New York stage veterans Lola Pashalinski and Linda Chapman present their "Gertrude and Alice: A Likeness to Living," which they also star in. The plays tells the story of famed writer Gertrude Stein and her lover/publisher Alice B. Toklas. Constructed from both Stein's literature and Toklas's memoirs, Pashalinski and Chapman present the complex and intimate workings of their before-their-time partnership.
Following "Gertrude and Alice" at 8 p.m. is "True Love," a tale about a group of friends searching for you know what.
Next Saturday the NYTW presents "Back to Baka" at 5 p.m., in which Judith Alexa Jackson tells the story of three women trapped in a rainforest, fighting with each other and the civilization around them.
Following at 8 p.m. is "A Cabaret Evening," in which Justin Bond (who dons drag) and Kenny Mellman resurrect their successful characters, the deranged show-biz duo Kiki and Herb. After years of cracking up and terrifying audience with their characters, the two now try to take their act to new levels of insanity.
"A Cabaret Evening" was written and composed by Paul Scott Goodman, who is currently working on New York Theater Workshop's next big thing, a theatrical version of novelist Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City," an ode to the swinging, cocaine-fueled night life of the 1980s which has been previously made into a Michael J. Fox movie. Goodman will be discussing that and other works at a brown bag lunch on August 11 at noon.
On August 22 at 5 p.m., "Martin and John," a fractured tale about one man coping with the loss of his lover to AIDS, hits the Warner Bentley Theater. The play premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won an award for innovation in theater and outstanding new production.
"Martin and John" stars Sean O'Neill, who also adapted the play from Dale Peck's novel and will be discussing it with students and faculty on August 18 at noon.
At 8 p.m., the opening of America's first all-black college brings up all the problems and struggles of a black family in Greene County, Ohio. "Wilbeforce," written by Keith Joseph Adkins, takes a look at one family and how it copes with its changing times and its unforgettable past.
