Mark Russell

Part One took Place on April 18, 2023

Part Two took Place on May 9, 2023

Mark Russell is a Director, Producer, Artistic Director and Producing Artistic Director of PS 122 and Under the Radar. Both venues acquainted New York audiences with the work of then unknown artists such as Karen Finley, Harry Kipper, Ethyl Eichelberger, Eric Bogosian, John Zorn, Tim Miller, Stephanie Skura, John Bernd, Abbe Bogart, Pat Oleszko, Meredith Monk, John Leguizamo, Spalding Gray, Steve Buscemi, Yoshiko Chuma, Blue Man Group and hundreds more. PS 122 (initially ‘Public School’ turned into ‘Performance Space’), was created in 1980 by Charles Moulton, Charles Dennis, and Tim Miller. Russell became the Artistic Director from 1983 to 2004 after first performing there. In 2005 Russell launched Under The Radar at The Public Theater continuing the process of bringing unknown artists and their performances to an eager public. Some of the shows coming out of PS 122 are: AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA (1980), SHORT STORIES AND SOCIALLY RESTRICTED SIGN LANGUAGE (1980), LIVE BOYS (1981), SURVIVING LOVE AND DEATH (1982), AS YET UNTITLED/SOME KIND OF DANCE (1983), BERLIN ZOO(1983), LOST AND FOUND (1983), THEY WON’T SHUT UP (1983), AVOIDING FALLS IN THE HOUSE(1984), DARTS (1984), GO WEST JUNGER MAN (1984), HAMLETTE (1984), INGEO: HOW THEY GOT THERE (1984), QUEEN ELIZABETH, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (1984), THE SOIREE OF O or CLOTHING AS A FECUND THOUGHT (1984), 24 HOURS (1984), BUDDY SYSTEMS (1985), FULL MOON TERROR WEEKEND (1985), YOUR HELPING HAND (1985), HOT HOUSE IMPROVISATIONS (1985), I’M AN ASS MAN & A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT (1985), MALDOROR’S GREY LARK (1985), NEW STUFF (1985), SAINT JOAN (1987), DUMB TYPE (1988), STUNT (1988), MINTANAKA (1993), POPPO AND THE GOGO BOYS (1993), FOUR SCENES IN A HARSH LIFE (1994), THE BIRTH OF ANNE FRANK (1995), EDDIE IZZARD @ WEBSTER HALL (1996), HOT KEYS (1996), and HOWIE THE ROOKIE (2001).

Russell, born in Wisconsin and raised in Austin, Texas, started doing theater in Sidney Lanier High School. His mother took him to plays and he had an uncle devoted to theater who introduced him by the age of 13 to the avant-garde playwrights. The first play was Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss which led Russell to the work of Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski and the concept of ‘Poor Theater.’ While working at the Kosciuszko Foundation in their theater division he went to Poland and spent time working with Ryszard Cieslak, Grotowski’s major actor and collaborator. Here the concept of ‘Plastiques’ and ‘Poor Theater’ opened his view to a different kind of theater. When he returned, Russell immersed himself in the downtown theater’s golden period viewing such groups as The Performance Group, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, St. Mark’s Church, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Riverside Church, The Open Theater, and companies led by artists such as Meredith Monk, Robert Wilson, Jerome Robbins, and Merce Cunningham. ‘I quickly realized I was not cut out for the American theater,’ so he ended up working with dancers whose fluid body/space/text language was closer to what he had seen as developmental practices used in Poland. He went to PS 122 to hang out with dancers and perform. He found he had a gift and an eye to sculpt work being done there. Soon he became the Artistic Director of the space allowing budding artists to find their voices creating what we now familiarly term Performance Art. Russell has also worked in collaboration with theaters and companies other than PS 122 and UTR/The Public such as: The Foundry Theater, The Belarus Free Theater, The Apollo Theater, The Performing Garage/Wooster Group, Elevator Repair Service, Japan Society, Dance Theater Workshop, Devised Theater Working Group, La Mama and many more in the United States as well as abroad.

Mentioned in Interview

Elena Alexander, Laurie Anderson, Lemon Anderson, Jo Andres, Antony and the Johnsons, Lola Arias, Peter Askin, Ron Athey, Eugenio Barba, John Bernd, Blue Man Group, Anne Bogart, Eric Bogosian, Jo Anne Bonney, Ronald K. Brown, David Cale, Guillermo Calderon, Ann Carlson, Ryszard Cieslak, Joseph Chaikin, Leonora Champagne, Yoshiko Chuma, Dennis Cooper, Kelly Copper, Charles Dennis, Daveed Diggs, Ethyl Eichelberger, Rindi Ekhart, Brian Eno, Tim Etchells, Oskar Eustis, Karen Finley, Kamilah Forbes, Richard Foreman, Norman Frisch, Furuhashi, Kama Ginkas, Allen Ginsburg, Whoopie Goldberg, Marga Gomez, Spalding Gray, Jerzy Grotowski, Wynn Handman, Keith Haring, Danny Hoch, Fred Holland, Holly Hughes, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Eddie Izzard, John Jesurun, Bill T. Jones, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Tadeusz Kantor, John Kelly, Harry Kipper, Andrew K. Kircher, Kevin Kline, Lisa Krone, Gabrielle Lansner, Beth Lapides, Young Jean Lee, John Leguizamo, Daniel Lepkoff, David Leslie (The Impact Addict), Pavol Liska, Derek Lloyd, Lydia Lunch, Kirk Lynn, Taylor Mac, Donna Ann McAdams, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Agosto Machado, Jeff McMahon, Deb Margolin, Richard Maxwell, Sarah Michelson, Tim Miller, Meredith Monk, Jennifer Monson, Charles Moulton, Diedre Murray, Tom Murrin (The Alien Comic), Toshiki Okada, Pat Olesko, Mark O’Rowe, Diane Paulus, Mariano Pensotti, Harvey Perr, Albert Poland, Rimini Protokoll, Toshi Reagan, Susan Rethorst, Peter Rose, Jay O. Sanders, Richard Schechner, David Schweizer, Little Jimmy Scott, Lucy Sexton, Sam Shepard, Peggy Shaw, Scott Shepard, Stephanie Skura, Roger LeVerne Smith, Huck Snyder, Annie Sprinkle, Ellen Stewart, Min Tanaka, Kae Tempest, Diane Torr, Carmelita Tropicana, Claude Walter, Melyin Wang, Lois Weaver, Jeff Weiss, David White, Robert Wilson, Mia Yoo, John Zorn, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Apollo Theater, Avant Garde Arama, The Back Door, Back to Back Theatre, Belarus Free Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Chelfitsch Theater Company, Dance Theater Workshop, Dancenoise, Devised Theater Working Group, Doug Varone and Dancers, Elevator Repair Service, Forced Entertainment, The Foundry Theater, Franklin Furnace, Gob Squad, HERE, Hip Hop International Theatre Festival, Irving Plaza, Japan Society, The Kitchen, The Kosciuszko Foundation, Minnesota Music Hall, The Living Theatre, Motus Theatre, Mudd Club, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, NYSF/The Public, Nuyorican Poets Café, PS 122, The Performing Garage/Wooster Group, Pyramid Club, Riverside Church, Rude Mechs, Siti Company, Split Britches Theater Company, St. Ann’s Warehouse, St. Mark’s Church, The Talking Band, The Universes, Under the Radar, Webster Hall, Williams College at Bennington, AFTERNOON TEA, APOCALYPSIS CUM FIGURIS, AS YET UNTITLED/SOME KIND OF DANCE, AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA , AVOIDING FALLS IN THE HOUSE, BEING HAROLD PINTER, BERLIN ZOO, BIG ROOM, BIRTH OF ANNE FRANK, BLACK LIPS, THE BROTHERS SIZE, BUDDY SYSTEMS, A BUNCH OF EXPERIMENTAL THEATERS, CALL CUTTA IN A BOX, THE COLD RECORD, COME CLEAN, COUNTY OF KINGS, DARK DISABLED STORIES, DARTS, THE DAY I WAS BORN, DUMB TYPE, FIVE CAR PILE-UP, FIVE LESBIAN BROTHERS, FOUR SCENES IN A HARSH LIFE, FULL MOON SHOW, FULL MOON TERROR WEEKEND, GATZ, GENERATION JEANS, GO WEST JUNGER MAN, HAIR CUTS BY CHILDREN, HAMLETTE, HAVING FUN IN THE DARK, HOT HOUSE IMPROVISATIONS, HOT KEYS, HOW I GOT THERE, HOW THE RENT GETS PAID, HOWIE THE ROOKIE, I’M AN ASS MAN & A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT, INGEO: HOW THEY GOT THERE, ISHMAEL, THE KITCHEN, THE LIFE AND TIMES, LIPSTICK TRACES, LIVE BOYS, LOST AND FOUND, MALDOROR’S GREY LARK, THE MUSE, NEW STUFF, NO DICE, OPEN MOVEMENT, THE PAST IS A GROTESQUE ANIMAL, THE POETICS, POPPO AND THE GOGO BOYS, QUEEN ELIZABETH, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, SAINT JOAN, SHORT STORIES AND SOCIALLY RESTRICTED SIGN LANGUAGE, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, THE SOIREE OF O or CLOTHING AS A FECUND THOUGHT, SPACE HEAT (Benefit), STRAIGHT WHITE MEN, STUNT, SURVIVING LOVE AND DEATH, TERMINUS, THEY WON’T SHUT UP, TO THE MOON, TOAST, 24 HOURS, WARHOL OFF THE WALL, WORDS BECOMES FLESH, YOUR HELPING HAND.

The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project

Mentioned in Interview