Eye and Ear Theater

Last updated

The Eye and Ear Theater Company was founded in 1979 by Ada Katz, wife of the painter Alex Katz; Roy Leaf, vice president of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; and theater director Mac McGinnes, as a non-profit theatrical production company.

Contents

Description

Inspired by the poet and artist theaters of the 1950s and early 1960s, such as John B. Myers' Artists' Theatre and the Judson Poets Theatre of Greenwich Village, the organization sought to encourage artistic collaboration through Off Broadway productions of plays written by poets with sets and costumes designed by painters and sculptors. It was run by a Board of Directors which was composed of the company's founders along with Bob Holman, Susan Davis, Beth DeWoody, George Schneeman, and later Joanne Cassulon, Mark Charles, James Kraft, Rosie Levai, Michael O'Brian, and Paul Chupf. [1] The Board dealt with fundraising, production, administration, and publicity. It also set the company's artistic goals, and in pursuing them relied on the assistance of an Advisory Board, which included noted poets, choreographers, and artists like John Ashbery, Edwin Denby, Laura Dean, Paul Taylor, Red Grooms, and Jennifer Bartlett. The members of both bodies were volunteers who contributed resources like office space and secretarial services in addition to their time. Their work would be supported by a paid administrative staff beginning in 1985. The poets and artists were paid for their work and the sets and costumes used in the company's productions remained the property of the theatre company, which on occasion lent them to art exhibitions. Much of the organization's funding came from individuals, corporations, and foundations, as well as state and federal grants, including The National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund, the Samuel and May Rudin Foundation, the Kulcher Foundation, the Leonhardt Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.

Season productions

The Eye and Ear Theater Company strove to produce three plays per season, each developed through collaborations between poets, visual artists, and theater directors, usually with the assistance of other specialists. Among the company's productions are works from both contemporary and past poets. The organization's first production, City Junket written by Kenward Elmslie and designed by Red Grooms, opened in 1980 accompanied by a smaller staging of Litany by John Ashbery with sets by Alex Katz. The next season saw the production of Edwin Denby's Four Plays by Edwin Denby, a play originally written for one of Andy Warhol's uncompleted film projects, with sets designed by Elizabeth Murray and costumes by Judith Shea under the direction of Bob Holman. Also produced were The Heroes by John Ashbery with sets by Jane Freilicher and Shopping and Waiting by James Schuyler on a set designed by Alex Katz. In 1982 the company staged Ed Friedman's The White Snake using sets and costumes designed by Robert Kushner followed in 1983 by Paid on Both Sides by W.H. Auden designed by David Hockney. In 1984 Eye and Ear produced the single-act drama Desire Caught by the Tail by Pablo Picasso with sets developed by Linda Benglis. The next year the company produced a play it had commissioned from the poet Alice Notley, Anne's White Glove, on a set designed by Jane Dickson. In 1988 the company produced Kaddish written by Allen Ginsberg and designed by Eric Fischl. [2]

Archives

Archived records for the Eye and Ear Theater exist to 1996. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fulton Opera House</span> United States historic place

The Fulton Opera House, also known as the Fulton Theatre or simply The Fulton, is a League of Regional Theatres class B regional theater located in historic downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is reportedly the oldest working theatre in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stagecraft</span> Technical aspect of theatrical, film, video production

Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and procurement of props. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it is primarily the practical implementation of a scenic designer's artistic vision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Foreman</span> American dramatist (born 1937)

Richard Foreman is an American avant-garde playwright and the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Holman</span> American poet and poetry activist

Bob Holman is an American poet and poetry activist, most closely identified with the oral tradition, the spoken word, and poetry slam. As a promoter of poetry in many media, Holman has spent the last four decades working variously as an author, editor, publisher, performer, emcee of live events, director of theatrical productions, producer of films and television programs, record label executive, university professor, and archivist. He was described by Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The New Yorker as "the postmodern promoter who has done more to bring poetry to cafes and bars than anyone since Ferlinghetti."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Theatrical Productions</span> Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company

Disney Theatrical Productions Limited (DTP), also known as Disney on Broadway, is the stageplay and musical production company of the Disney Theatrical Group, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, a major division and business unit of The Walt Disney Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Katz</span> American artist (born 1927)

Alex Katz is an American figurative artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints. Since 1951, Katz's work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. He is well known for his large paintings, whose bold simplicity and heightened colors are considered as precursors to Pop Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stagehand</span> Person who works backstage at a performance

A stagehand is a person who works backstage or behind the scenes in theatres, film, television, or location performance. Their work include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Theatre of the Deaf</span> American theatre company

The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967. It is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original works. NTD productions combine American Sign Language with spoken language to fulfill the theatre's mission statement of linking Deaf and hearing communities, providing more exposure to sign language, and educating the public about Deaf art. The NTD is affiliated with a drama school, also founded in 1967, and with the Little Theatre of the Deaf (LTD), established in 1968 to produce shows for a younger audience.

Jonathan Marc Sherman is an American playwright, poet, and actor. He submitted plays for several years to Young Playwrights Inc.'s National Playwrights Competition before they did a staged reading of his one-act, Serendipity and Serenity in 1987, followed by a full production of his next play, Women and Wallace (1988).

The Ovation Awards are a Southern California award for excellence in theatre, established in 1989. They are given out by the non-profit arts service organization LA Stage Alliance and are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Winners are selected by a voting committee of Los Angeles area theater professionals who are selected through an application process every year. The Ovation Awards ceremony has been held at different theatres throughout the Los Angeles area, including the Ahmanson Theatre and the Orpheum Theatre. Hosts for the ceremonies have included Nathan Lane, Lily Tomlin, and Neil Patrick Harris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Costume designer</span> Person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show

A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume designer works alongside the director, scenic, lighting designer, sound designer, and other creative personnel. The costume designer may also collaborate with a hair stylist, wig master, or makeup artist. In European theatre, the role is different, as the theatre designer usually designs both costume and scenic elements.

John Wulp was an American scenic designer, producer, director, and artist.

<i>The Gas Heart</i> Play written by Tristan Tzara

The Gas Heart or The Gas-Operated Heart is a French-language play by Romanian-born author Tristan Tzara. It was written as a series of non sequiturs and a parody of classical drama—it has three acts despite being short enough to qualify as a one-act play. A part-musical performance that features ballet numbers, it is one of the most recognizable plays inspired by the anti-establishment trend known as Dadaism. The Gas Heart was first staged in Paris, as part of the 1921 "Dada Salon" at the Galerie Montaigne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Brainard</span> American poet

Joe Brainard was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book and album covers, theatrical sets and costumes. In particular, Brainard broke new ground in using comics as a poetic medium in his collaborations with other New York School poets. He is best known for his memoir I Remember, of which Paul Auster said: "It is ... one of the few totally original books I have ever read."

The Ivey Awards were an annual award show, celebrating Twin Cities professional theater. Established in 2004, the non-nomination based awards served to recognize outstanding achievements within the past theater season in direction, performance, design, etc. The awards were founded by Scott Mayer and administered by a panel of local theater professionals and theater patrons. The Iveys ceased in 2018 due to lack of funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatrical makeup</span> Makeup as used by theatrical performers

Theatrical makeup is makeup that is used to assist in creating the appearance of the characters that actors portray during a theater production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada Katz</span> Wife and model of American artist Alex Katz

Ada Katz is the wife and model of Alex Katz. Perhaps best known for appearing in over 1000 of her husband's paintings including Black Dress (1960), Katz was also a biologist at Sloan Kettering, as well as one of the founders of the Eye and Ear Theater.

<i>Horse Eats Hat</i> 1936 farce play co-written and directed by Orson Welles

Horse Eats Hat is a 1936 farce play co-written and directed by Orson Welles and presented under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project. It was Welles's second WPA production, after his highly successful Voodoo Macbeth. The script, by Edwin Denby and Welles, was an adaptation of the classic French farce The Italian Straw Hat by Eugène Marin Labiche and Marc-Michel.

Black-Eyed Susan is an American actress based in New York City, New York.

Lola Pashalinski is an American theatre artist known for her work as a founding member of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company.

References

  1. Yarrow, Andrew L. "Theatrical Life on the Lower East Side" The New York Times, May 1, 1988.
  2. Klein, Alan. "Desire Caught by the Tail" The New York Times, June 10, 1984
  3. "Guide to the Eye and Ear Theater Archive 1965-1996 (Bulk 1980-1988) MSS.195". NYU Digital Library Technology Services. May 22, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2018.