My Favorite Things: Theater Edition
This is the latest installment of Off the Grid’s series, “My Favorite Things,” in which we showcase some of our very favorite spots around the neighborhood, highlighting the incredible architecture, history, people, and businesses of the Village, East Village, and NoHo; read more HERE.
Greenwich Village has been a hot-bed for creative theatrical minds since at least the beginnings of the 20th century. In fact, among the most important of the movements in American theater were nurtured right in the heart of the Village. One of my favorite current incubators for American theatrical literature is the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Among its many goals, Rattlestick is committed to creating theater about and for the West Village, so the theater is particularly interesting to me personally. A home for artists and their ambitious work, Rattlestick produces theater to inspire empathy and provoke conversations in response to the complexities of our culture. And goodness knows our culture is revealing more and more of its complexities at the moment.
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is committed to artistic courage. Its mission is to present diverse, challenging and provocative plays that might not otherwise be produced and to foster the future voices of the American theater. Unique in its dedication, Rattlestick guarantees a second production to any playwright it produces, regardless of the reception of the first.
Rattlestick is a multi-award-winning organization which has produced over ninety world premieres in its past 21 seasons. It has produced the first plays and early works of some of today’s leading voices, including Lucy Thurber (The Hilltown Plays), Sheila Callaghan (Everything You Touch), Adam Rapp (The Hallway Trilogy), Craig Wright (The Pavilion), Jesse Eisenberg (The Revisionist), Samuel D. Hunter (The Few), and Annie Baker, 2017 MacArthur Grant awardee (The Aliens), Craig Lucas (Ode to Joy) Lucas also directed his play.
GVSHP is proud to announce that we will partner with Rattlestick in an upcoming theatrical event about the life cycle of St. Vincent’s Hospital, addressing the core question of how a hospital that served a community through multiple epidemics and disasters ended up as a high end luxury condo. More details SOON!
Below is a selection of Rattlestick’s Awards & Nominations:
2006 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Play for Craig Wright’s The Pavilion
2007 OBIE Award: The Ross Wetzsteon Award in the 2006/2007 Season
2009 Drama Desk and Drama League Nomination for Outstanding Play for Craig Wright’s Lady
2010 OBIE Award for Best New American Play, Director and Performance of Dane Dehaan for Annie Baker’s The Aliens
2013 OBIE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Hilltown Plays
; OBIE Award Best Lighting Design, Eric Southern, The Correspondent
To read more about theater in the Village, click HERE HERE HERE and HERE