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A Year of Readings
Last spring, we began a year-long artistic journey through this historic alternative theater movement with a free, bi-monthly play-reading series. This exploration into the origins of Off-Off Broadway will examine what made these works significant, and why they are still important today.
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Israel Horovitz's "The Indiant Wants the Bronx" with Al Pacino (c), in workshop at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, 1966
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The reading series launched in May at SoHo's HERE Arts Center, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Village Voice Obie Awards with a marathon of Obie-winning plays. In July, important gay and lesbian plays were read in the Hot! Festival at the renowned performance space, Dixon Place. In the coming months, we'll present staged readings at several local establishments, including libraries, churches, bars, community gardens and other funky downtown locations. Each reading will focus on a particular theme, such as "The Women of OFF," "American Myth", and "Plays in Cafés". |
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To complement the reading series, Peculiar Works is enlisting several of the original playwrights, directors, producers, performers and other important figures to discuss their work and share stories from the time period. These post-reading “talk-backs”, along with the feedback we receive from the audiences, will help us determine which plays, and which 5-10 minute excerpts of those plays, to include in the full, traveling performance event.
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Israel Horovitz's "The Indian Wants the Bronx" reading at HERE Arts Center, 2005
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Peculiar Works believes that the opportunity to hear the great plays of Off-Off Broadway and meet talented artists and performers from both then and now will be an entertaining and educational tribute to an often-ignored movement in NYC’s artistic history.
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