The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project
Celebrating the visionaries who created New York's vibrant Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.
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Elise Stone and Craig Smith
Actors, Directors, Producers, Jean Cocteau Repertory, Founders, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble
Interview #217
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"I think we, as an industry, as a field, as artists, need to wrestle with what it means to really be in the fabric of our communities - as opposed to being a consumable. That challenge is the challenge that leaders of arts organization are facing today."
"They didn’t see the magic there. I’m grateful I did see it. I still often disagree with people when I see someone not famous but unique and think there’s something there that wants to express itself and intrigues you... A play should be saying something new I haven’t heard before."
"Every show tells you what it wants to be. And you have to be open to what the various demands are... There will always be Off-Broadway. There is an immediacy to an intimate theatrical performance which cannot be matched on Broadway...It’s a much less abstract event than something which is football fields away (even though they’re live people). It’s not the same thing as looking an actor in the eye or being looked at in the eye by an actor."
"That’s what I wanted it to be (New York Theatre Workshop). I wanted it to feel like an adventure, be unpredictable, yet something holds it together... and it’s wide ranging. Most of the time people come together to make war. In theater people come together to make beauty."
"If you are having doubts (about starting a theater) don’t do it. You must know the ‘why.’ Write down over the course of months everything you know and think you know about theater...Why you’re doing this and what you think theater is for. Put it away until you’ve forgotten what you wrote...Bring it out and edit it down to 3 or 4 paragraphs."
Ozzie Rodriguez
Actor, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of the Archives + Resident Director - La MaMa
Interview #208
READ MORE >>"There was no limitation. It didn’t matter how old you were...where you came from...what color you were...or how much money your daddy had...or what your education was. If you had a dream she was gonna let you try to make it a reality...This is the importance of La Mama, why it set into motion so many things."
"Language is the opposite of loneliness. – THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE (1993)"
Clinton Turner Davis
Director, Dramaturg, Educator, Production Supervisor, Consultant, Playwright, Writer
Interview #206
READ MORE >>"For me, that’s what theater is. It’s a large, creative, extended family of artists, globally."