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The Wooster Group originated in 1975 with works composed and directed by Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte around Gray's autobiographical impulses (the THREE PLACES IN RHODE ISLAND trilogy).
Jim Clayburgh, Libby Howes, and Ron Vawter began working with the company during RUMSTICK ROAD, and Willem Dafoe and Kate Valk joined at POINT JUDITH. Peyton Smith joined for ROUTE 1 & 9.
The Group has sustained a full-time, ongoing ensemble since this beginning. The company is continually evolving, and with its many artistic associates has created and performed nineteen pieces for theatre, eight film/video pieces, and five dance pieces.
The company members are at the centre of the work. Elizabeth LeCompte has directed all of the pieces and members who have "moved on" periodically return to remount repertory pieces and make new work.
More recently, Ari Fliakos and Scott Shepherd have joined the core company alongside LeCompte and Valk. Fliakos interned with the Group in 1995 and joined the company as a performer in FISH STORY in 1996.
Shepherd first worked with The Wooster Group in 1997 as a performer in THE HAIRY APE and became a part of the permanent company two years later.
The Group has used both personal and Group autobiography, and existing texts as an organising principle for their work. Sometimes the autobiography is foregrounded (POOR THEATER) and sometimes it is submerged (Ron's illness as source material for ST. ANTONY). Sometimes plays are jumping-off points for a piece (Arthur Miller's The Crucible in L.S.D. (...JUST THE HIGH POINTS...), the last eight pages of Chekhov's Three Sisters for FISH STORY).
And, sometimes play as a whole is re-imagined through the prism of their developing aesthetic (VIEUX CARRÉ, TO YOU, THE BIRDIE! (Phèdre), BRACE UP!, the O'Neill plays).
The Performing Garage has been The Wooster Group's permanent home and performance venue since its beginning, and all of their work developed there. It was bought in the early 1970s when Soho was still an empty warehouse district being re-inhabited by artists.
The Wooster Group owns and operates it as a shareholder in the Grand Street Artists Co-op, which was originally established as part of the Fluxus art movement in the 1960s.
Before the formation of The Wooster Group, The Performance Group, under the direction of Richard Schechner, developed and produced work at the Garage. From 1975-1980 the two groups shared the space. Before The Performance Group founding The Performing Garage, 33 Wooster Street was a metal stamping/flatware factory.
THE TEAM
The Company
Bob Bellerue, Zbigniew Bzymek, Enver Chakartash, Mike Farry, Ari Fliakos, Sandra Garner, Clay Hapaz, Teresa Hartmann, Cynthia Hedstrom, Elizabeth LeCompte, Bobby McElver, Leanne Mella, Jamie Poskin, Andrew Schneider, Scott Shepherd, Kate Valk.
Current Associates
Geoff Abbas, Kent Barrett, Lakpa Bhutia, Jibz Cameron, Keith Connolly, Jim Dawson, Folkert de Jong, Alex Delinois, Dennis Dermody, Aron Deyo, Nicholas Elliott, Jim Fletcher, Kevin Hurley, Marin Ireland, Bozkurt Karasu, Bill Kennedy, Alan Boyd Kleiman, Ken Kobland, Koosil-ja, Jennifer Lim, Alessandro Magania, Richard Maxwell, Frances McDormand, Michael McGee, Greg Mehrten, Brian Mendes, Bruce Odland, Daniel Pettrow, Kaneza Schaal, Matt Schloss, Casey Spooner, Jennifer Tipton, Ariana Smart Truman, Gary Wilmes, Omar Zubair.
The Wooster Group
Box 654, Canal Street Station
New York, NY 10013
phone: 212-966-9796
fax: 212-226-6576
mail@thewoostergroup.org
http://thewoostergroup.org/blog/
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.