{{Short description|Off-off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City}} {{Infobox Theatre |name = The Performing Garage |image = File:Performing Garage 33 Wooster Street.jpg |image_size = |caption = The Performing Garage in 2014 |address = 33 Wooster Street (SoHo) |city = New York City |country = United States |designation = |latitude = |longitude = |architect = |owner = The Performance Group (1968-1980), The Wooster Group (since 1980) |capacity = 60 |type = Off-off-Broadway |opened = 1968 |years_active = <!--not until closed--> |rebuilt = |closed = |other_names = |production = |current_use = |website = }} The '''Performing Garage''' is an off-off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City. Established in 1968,<ref name=NYT1970/> it is the permanent home of the experimental theater company originally named The Performance Group (under Richard Schechner) that morphed in 1980 into The Wooster Group<ref name=WG-Garage/> (under Elizabeth LeCompte), and their primary performance venue.
Since 1978, it also hosts their annual "Visiting Artist Series" or "Emerging Artist Series". Located at 33 Wooster Street, it seats approximately 60.<ref name=TONY>{{cite web|title=The Performing Garage|url=http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/theater/120298/performing-garage|access-date=February 19, 2012}}</ref> Actors such as Willem Dafoe debuted in earnest here<ref>Dafoe was a member of Theatre X for some<!--sources say 2 or 4--> years, then moved to New York in 1977 and joined the Performing Garage in late 1977 or early 1978 (see Wooster, "Production History") "during the making of ''Nayatt School''"{{cite web |url=http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/history.html |title=THE WOOSTER GROUP - History and Mission |access-date=2009-03-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828045445/http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/history.html |archive-date=2008-08-28 }} (1978), one of the plays of the emerging Wooster Group (of which he was in 1980 a founding member).</ref> and regularly come back.<ref>For instance, Dafoe played at the Garage in ''LSD'', ''Just the High Points'', ''The Road to Immortality'', ''North Atlantic'',[http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/willem_dafoe_biog/2.html]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, up to 2001 in ''To You, the Birdie!! (Phèdre)''[http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/projects/birdie/still_8.html]{{cite web |url=http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/earlier.html |title=The Wooster Group (Earlier) |access-date=2009-03-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829141539/http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/earlier.html |archive-date=2010-08-29 }}.</ref>
==History== The location was originally not a garage but a metal stamping/flatware factory,<ref name=WG-Garage>Wooster Group, "The Performing Garage".</ref> back when SoHo was an empty warehouse district being colonized by artists. It was acquired in 1968 by its first artistic and theater director, Richard Schechner.
The Performing Garage was established there in 1968<ref name=NYT1970>NYT (1970). [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E01E2D81638EE34BC4B51DFB566838B669EDE "Dionysus in 69"], ''New York Times'', March 23, 1970.</ref> as a home for Schechner's company The Performance Group (1967–1980), starting with ''Dionysus in 69''<ref name=NYT1970/> (1968). Because of the group's name, the theater is sometimes erroneously called ''the Performance Garage<!--redirected-->''.
In 1975, some members began to develop their own productions and perform them at the Performing Garage but not under the name of The Performance Group, starting with ''Sakonnet Point'' (1975).
In 1980, Richard Schechner resigned as director and the Performing Garage became home to the troupe renamed The Wooster Group under Elizabeth LeCompte, with their 1975–1980 independent works being retroactively considered<ref name=WG-Chrono>Wooster Group, "Production History since 1975".</ref> productions of the new Group.
The Performing Garage is owned and operated by the Wooster Group as a shareholder in the Grand Street Artists Co-op<ref name=WG-Garage/> (originally established as part of the Fluxus art movement in the 1960s).
Located at 33 Wooster Street, it is one block north of Canal Street and one block east of West Broadway in SoHo, New York.<ref name=WG-Garage/>
Spalding Gray performed the 1987 film version of his concert film ''Swimming to Cambodia'' at the Performing Garage, the film was directed by Jonathan Demme.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thewoostergroup.org/spalding-gray|publisher=The Wooster Group|title=Spalding Gray}}</ref>
==Artist series== Since 1978,<ref name=VV1999>Village Voice 1999.</ref> the Performing Garage has hosted an annual "Visiting Artist Series".
In 1999,<ref name=VV1999/> they started an "Emerging Artist Series", a three-week program intended to spotlight up-and-coming multimedia performers by granting three individuals or groups a week of rehearsal time and a weekend of performances<ref name=VV1999/> in the Performing Garage. Selected among 20 candidates,<ref name=VV1999/> the first series featured:
; 1999<ref name=VV1999/> * Elliott Earls<!--sic-->, ''Eye Sling Shot Lions'' * Radiant Pig (country mystic folk-art band) * Radiohole, ''A History of Heen: Not Francis E. Dec, Esq.'' — about Francis E. Dec
==References== ===Notes=== {{reflist}}
===Sources=== * Citysearch. [http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/11304386/new_york_ny/the_performing_garage.html "The Performing Garage"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060706162142/http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/11304386/new_york_ny/the_performing_garage.html |date=2006-07-06 }} (editor's review), consulted in March 2009 * Village Voice (1999). [https://web.archive.org/web/20090805000319/http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-07-13/theater/garage-music/ "Garage Music"], ''The Village Voice'', July 13, 1999. * Wooster Group. [http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/tpg.html "The Performing Garage"], consulted in March 2009 * Wooster Group. [http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/chrono.html "Production History since 1975"], consulted in March 2009
==External links== {{wikiversity|Performance art}} * [http://www.thewoostergroup.org/twg/tpg.html The Performing Garage]'s page
{{SoHo, Manhattan|state=collapsed}} {{coord|40|43|20.2|N|74|0|10.62|W|region:US-NY|display=title}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Performing Garage, The}} Category:Off-off-Broadway Category:1968 establishments in New York City Category:Performance art in New York City Category:SoHo, Manhattan