Home Is Where the Heart Is

June 2013

SOMETIMES A WHOLE THEATER leans forward and up, like a great set of hands is gathering the audience, and lifting. I don’t know anything else like it. The triumphant roar of the crowd at a baseball game comes close, but that surge is physical,… READ ON

SLANT

Love or Money

May 2013

SPRING IS HIGH GALA SEASON IN NEW YORK. So many parties, so many drinks, so many conversations, so many of them about money. Getting it, giving it, never having enough of it.  This quote just about sums it up: “I want you to look at this… READ ON

SLANT

Once Upon a Time

May 2013

“THE PROBLEM WITH SCIENCE is all facts are manipulated.”  The woman was talking to her friend in Kaffismiðja Íslands, a small, homespun café in Reykjavik. Good lattes and buttery croissants. The woman was Scottish, I think. Let’s … READ ON

SLANT

East of Eden

February 2013

Critic and writer Claudia La Rocco recently caught up with the pioneering performance art journalist Cynthia Carr in SoHo. They talked about her latest book, Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz (Bloomsbury, 2012), and… READ ON

SLANT

Everyday People

February 2013

“BRILLIANT,” the man behind me at the Kitchen exhaled, to himself and his date and anybody else within earshot on this particular Sunday afternoon, during the final performance of Claude Wampler’s N’a pas un gramme de charisme. (Not… READ ON

SLANT

Candid Bergen

BIT Teatergarasjen’s Oktoberdans

November 2012 BERGEN, NORWAY

AUDIENCE MEMBERS napping on bunk beds; interpretive dancers and musicians in fanciful costumes and face paint; a relentlessly humble anti-capitalist affair as would warm Dave Hickey’s heart. You might guess this was some serious baby boomer… READ ON

DIARY

Catch as Catch Can

“Catch 50” at the Chocolate Factory

May 2012 LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK

AT 6 PM there were little kids occupying the front row of cushions, helping out the performers. By the top of the 7 PM show, one of our hosts was already facedown and motionless on the stage. During the 8 o’clock stretch, six mini–Krackel… READ ON

DIARY

Performance Anxiety

The Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference

January 2012 NEW YORK

“I’M GOING TO HAVE MY EYES CLOSED for a little bit. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not with you.”  So spoke Jennifer Lacey, the highly regarded American choreographer who has been based in Paris for the past twelve years. It was … READ ON

DIARY

P.S. I Love You

P.S. 122’s Old School Benefit

June 2011 NEW YORK

GIVEN THE MANY OUTRAGEOUS SPECTACLES that have occurred on the stages of Performance Space 122—the bodily liquids spilled, the obscenities flung about, the highly questionable (and perhaps illegal) acts—it’s funny to think that one of… READ ON

DIARY

Body Shop

The annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters

January 2011 NEW YORK

ANYONE WHO THINKS there’s nothing to buy or sell in the performing arts has never been to APAP. The annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference in New York, which this year fell from January 7 to 11, features over one thousand… READ ON

DIARY