In today’s paper I reviewed “Can You Hear Their Voices?” a 1931 play performed in a temporary “pop-up” theater on Great Jones St. This is touted as “site-specific” though the connection between the play, which is about the Great Depression, and the storefront it’s performed in is a stretch. The only link is if you think of an empty store as a casualty of our current economic conditions. That’s not very much. And this may seem like a small detail but it’s a telling one: If the actress playing a 1931 debutante has a tattoo on her biceps, you need to cover it either with foundation or with a long-sleeved dress. Otherwise it’s ridiculously ahistorical and becomes the kind of distraction no show needs.
Speaking of site-specific productions, the Made Here site — which originated at HERE — featured some interesting stuff in a recent webisode. The “Uncommon Sites” segment includes Anne Bogart reminiscing about her early site-specific shows, including those for En Garde. Oh, how I miss that company! I’ll never forget Bogart’s “Marathon Dancing,” from 1994. It was staged in the ballroom of the Masonic Grand Lodge on 23rd St and co-starred a young Victoria Clark. (A bit of self-promotion here, with an earlier blog post about site-specific shows in NY.)
Made Here actually is a goldmine about what it’s like to be an artist (in the broadest sense of the word)Â in NYC. And a lot of that involves being resourceful. The first webisode is about day jobs, for instance. Taylor Mac gets right to the point, and asks potential artists to ask themselves, “Is this really my calling? If you think this is really your calling, you need to quit your day job immediately.”