The Wooster Group is a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based

experimental theater Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu plays as a rejection of both the age in particular ...

company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's

The Performance Group The Performance Group (TPG) was an experimental theater troupe that Richard Schechner founded in 1967 in New York City. TPG's home base was the Performing Garage in the SoHo district of Lower Manhattan. After 1975, tensions led to Schechner's res ...

(1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, and took its name in 1980; the independent productions of 1975–1980 are retroactively attributed to the Group.Wooster Group
"Production History since 1975"
The ensemble is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and has launched the careers of many actors, including founding member

Willem Dafoe Willem James Dafoe (; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, t ...

. The Group's home is the

Performing Garage The Performing Garage is an Off-Off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City. Established in 1968, it is the permanent home of the experimental theater company originally named The Performance Group (under Richard Schechner) that morphed in 1980 i ...

at 33 Wooster Street between

Grand Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and comm ...

and Broome Streets in the

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was deve ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. As of 2014, the company consists of 16 members. In addition, there are 29 "Associates". The Wooster Group is a

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

theater company that relies on grants and donations from supporters. It has received multiple grants from the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

. The Wooster Group are characterized by their extremely experimental style, often incorporating aspects of

audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service ...

such as interactive

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

, live stream, recorded sound and pre-recorded video into their performance work. Their performances are often of classic texts such as

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

and

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...

Founding members"About the Company:Founding and Original Members"
on the Wooster Group website

* Elizabeth LeCompte *

Jim Clayburgh Jim Clayburgh (born 23 May 1949) is a scenic designer. He was a founding member of The Wooster Group and served as the group's resident designer from 1975 to 1994. He currently lives in Brussels, Belgium, where he founded the company JOJI INC with ...

Spalding Gray Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s a ...

(d. 2004) * Peyton Smith * Kate Valk * Ron Vawter (d. 1994)

Current Company

Irfan Brkovic Irfan Brković is a Bosnian interdisciplinary artist based in New York. He is a Member of The Wooster Group. Career In the early 2000s Irfan founded audio visual collective Fa11out. After receiving his degree from Academy of Drama in Bosni ...

* Matthew Dipple * Mike Farry * Ari Fliakos * Clay Hapaz * Cynthia Hedstrom * Gareth Hobbs * Elizabeth LeCompte * Bona Lee * Michaela Murphy * Erin Mullin * Monika Wunderer * Scott Shepherd * Eric Sluyter * Kate Valk

Awards and honors

The Wooster Group has won nine

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the ...

s, six Bessie Awards, and the 1985

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Ongoing Ensembles Grant."History:Selected Awards"
on the Wooster Group website

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wooster Group, The American artist groups and collectives Performance art in New York City Theatre companies in New York City Performing groups established in 1975 1975 establishments in New York City

Founding members"About the Company:Founding and Original Members"on the Wooster Group website

Current Company

Awards and honors

Further reading

References

External links

Founding members"About the Company:Founding and Original Members"
on the Wooster Group website