A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique)

NYU Skirball will present The Wooster Group’s acclaimed A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, running January 23 – February 2, 2020 at NYU Skirball. 

In A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), the celebrated Wooster Group takes on one of the greatest figures in 20th century avant-garde theater: the iconic Polish stage director Tadeusz Kantor. Kantor’s only daughter, Dorota Krakowska, serves as dramaturg and guide in this theatrical rite of communication with spirits past. 

The primary source materials for A Pink Chair are a film of Kantor’s late work, I Shall Never Return and, through it, the myth of the return of Odysseus, which was a lifelong obsession of Kantor. The title A Pink Chair (In Place of a Fake Antique) comes from one of Kantor’s manifestos. It describes a theater that gives simple, everyday objects – for instance, chairs – hallucinatory power to summon up forgotten history and memory. 

A PINK CHAIR is composed by the Group and directed by Elizabeth LeCompte. It features performances by Zbigniew Bzymek, Enver Chakartash, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Gareth Hobbs, Dorota Krakowska (on video), Andrew Maillet, Erin Mullin, Suzzy Roche, Danusia Trevino and Kate Valk; dramaturgy by Krakowska; set by LeCompte; lighting by Jennifer Tipton and Ryan Seelig with lighting associate David Sexton; sound and original music by Eric Sluyter and Omar Zubair; video by Robert Wuss and Bzymek; additional video by Wladimiro Woyno, Irfan Brkovic and Maillet; costumes by Chakartash; the choir music director is Hobbs; the stage manager is Mullin; the assistant director is Matthew Dipple; the technical director is Bill Ballou; the production manager is Bona Lee; and the producer is Cynthia Hedstrom. 

ABOUT TADEUSZ KANTOR (1915-1990) Tadeusz Kantor’s life and art embody the extremes of the 20th century. Born in the tiny Polish town of Wielopole, he witnessed two world wars and the rise and collapse of Communism in Poland. He formed his first theater company – the Underground Independent Theater – in 1942, staging clandestine productions in German-occupied Krakow. In 1955, he formed a second company, Cricot 2, and worked with them as a consistent, evolving ensemble for the remainder of his life. Cricot 2 toured outside Poland to great renown in Europe and Asia beginning in the 1960s. In the United States, Kantor presented four acclaimed productions at La MaMa between 1979 and 1988. The first, Dead Class, won an OBIE. 

ABOUT THE WOOSTER GROUP The Wooster Group is an ensemble of artists directed by Elizabeth LeCompte. The Group’s theater work is known for its innovative use of lighting, sound, and video. The Group creates its productions through a distinctive collaborative process with a focus on experimentation and the synthesis of multiple art forms. The Group’s founding members were LeCompte, Spalding Gray (1941-2004), Jim Clayburgh, Ron Vawter (1948-1994), Willem Dafoe, Valk, and Peyton Smith. 

The Group’s works include the following pieces directed by LeCompte: Rumstick Road (1977), Nayatt School (1978), L.S.D. (...Just The High Points...) (1984), Frank Dell’s The Temptation of St. Antony (1988), Brace Up! (1991), The Emperor Jones (1993), The Hairy Ape (1996), House/Lights (1999), To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002), Poor Theater (2004), Hamlet (2007), the 360o video installation There Is Still Time . . Brother (2007), the opera La Didone (2009), Vieux Carré (2011), The Room (2016), The Town Hall Affair (2017), and Since I Can Remember (2019). Valk has directed Early Shaker Spirituals: A Record Album Interpretation (2014) and The B-Side: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons,” A Record Album Interpretation (2017). thewoostergroup.org/a-pink-chair 

A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) was co-commissioned by the Instytut Adama Mickiewicza (Poland) and the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it premiered at the Bard SummerScape Festival in 2017. 

ABOUT NYU SKIRBALL NYU Skirball, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of New York City’s major presenters of international work, and has been the premier venue for cultural and performing arts events in lower Manhattan since 2003. The 800-seat theater, led by Director Jay Wegman, provides a home for internationally renowned artists, innovators and thinkers. NYU Skirball hosts over 300 events annually, from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theater and performance arts to comedy, music and film. 

NYU Skirball’s unique position within with New York University enables it to draw on the University’s intellectual riches and resources to enhance its programming with dialogues, public forums and conversations with artists, philosophers, scientists, Nobel Laureates and journalists. nyuskirball.org. 

TICKETS A PINK CHAIR will play January 23, 24, 25, 30, 31 and February 1 at 7:30 pm, with matinees on January 25 & 26, February 1 & 2 at 3 pm. Tickets begin at $35 and can be purchased online at www.nyuskirball.org, by calling 212.998- 4941, or at the box office, Tuesday – Saturday from 12:00 pm– 6:00 pm. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.