The Off-Off Broadway Experience
Second in a series of articles on theatre, especially the birth and growing pains of the Off-Off Broadway theatre movement with links, memorabilia and illustrations, on theatre productions and individuals with which I have been associated or met in theater. The views are strictly my personal experience and do not represent any other individual's life and experience outside of our mutual association.
Your comments in the Comments section provided will be more than welcome. If you find errors or omissions, please make note of same in the Comments section of the post in which they appear -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification, and all Comments will be acknowledged and left as Archive.
ODETTA
In 1971, producer Richard Briggs (who was stage manager of "The David Frost Show" at that time) began a series called “Monday Nights at the Performing Garage”, enlisting performers he had met on the Frost Show, or knew from the past. Odetta would perform on September 13, 1971. The Performing Garage was the space on Wooster Street that had housed “Dionysus in 69” which was on tour, and Richard Scheckner, it’s director and producer had rented the space to the controversial production of “Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ” which was now in its fourth month of a then unheard of six-month Off-Off Broadway run. So Odetta was certainly going downtown that evening!
I set up the lighting that day, which was fairly simple, utilizing the existing instruments with minimal refocus -- Odetta, with her guitar, was the solo performer.When the performance began, one could hear some sort of large vehicles arriving outside of the theatre (sound came through easily as the Performing Garage was just that, a garage with a metal roll-down door). It could not have been ten minutes when the unbelievable sound of a jackhammer began in front of the garage in the street. Consolidated Edison, at 9:00 o’clock in the evening had decided to dig up the street.
Odetta is a very subtle performer -- folk songs rarely get raucous! When the jackhammer started, she simply kept performing for the remainder of the song she had begun. At the end of the song, Richard Briggs made an announcement to the effect that we would pause to find out what was happening -- the jackhammer resumed.There was a conversation outside the theater and Richard Briggs returned, and so did the jackhammer! Richard Briggs went back outside again and when he returned, all was silent, the performance resumed and continued to a successful conclusion minus the accompaniment of a jackhammer.
It was some time later that I found out that Richard had taken the entire box office and dropped it in the hole that Consolidated Edison was in the process of excavating -- telling the workers something to the effect “If you can get that for me in the next hour, let me know by starting that jackhammer again -- I’ll come back out -- otherwise, take a break fellas, we won’t be long.”
Upon the conclusion of the performance, the audience left to the sound of a jackhammer!
Second in a series of articles on theatre, especially the birth and growing pains of the Off-Off Broadway theatre movement with links, memorabilia and illustrations, on theatre productions and individuals with which I have been associated or met in theater. The views are strictly my personal experience and do not represent any other individual's life and experience outside of our mutual association.
Your comments in the Comments section provided will be more than welcome. If you find errors or omissions, please make note of same in the Comments section of the post in which they appear -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification, and all Comments will be acknowledged and left as Archive.
ODETTAIn today’s New York Times crossword puzzle, the 1-Down entry clue is “Gonna Let It Shine” singer -- the answer, of course, is ODETTA. Odetta's name is a frequent entry in crossword puzzles due to the crossword-friendly letters in her name. So today is as good a day as any for her appearance in "The Off-Off Broadway Experience".
In 1971, producer Richard Briggs (who was stage manager of "The David Frost Show" at that time) began a series called “Monday Nights at the Performing Garage”, enlisting performers he had met on the Frost Show, or knew from the past. Odetta would perform on September 13, 1971. The Performing Garage was the space on Wooster Street that had housed “Dionysus in 69” which was on tour, and Richard Scheckner, it’s director and producer had rented the space to the controversial production of “Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ” which was now in its fourth month of a then unheard of six-month Off-Off Broadway run. So Odetta was certainly going downtown that evening!
I set up the lighting that day, which was fairly simple, utilizing the existing instruments with minimal refocus -- Odetta, with her guitar, was the solo performer.When the performance began, one could hear some sort of large vehicles arriving outside of the theatre (sound came through easily as the Performing Garage was just that, a garage with a metal roll-down door). It could not have been ten minutes when the unbelievable sound of a jackhammer began in front of the garage in the street. Consolidated Edison, at 9:00 o’clock in the evening had decided to dig up the street.
Odetta is a very subtle performer -- folk songs rarely get raucous! When the jackhammer started, she simply kept performing for the remainder of the song she had begun. At the end of the song, Richard Briggs made an announcement to the effect that we would pause to find out what was happening -- the jackhammer resumed.There was a conversation outside the theater and Richard Briggs returned, and so did the jackhammer! Richard Briggs went back outside again and when he returned, all was silent, the performance resumed and continued to a successful conclusion minus the accompaniment of a jackhammer.
It was some time later that I found out that Richard had taken the entire box office and dropped it in the hole that Consolidated Edison was in the process of excavating -- telling the workers something to the effect “If you can get that for me in the next hour, let me know by starting that jackhammer again -- I’ll come back out -- otherwise, take a break fellas, we won’t be long.”
Upon the conclusion of the performance, the audience left to the sound of a jackhammer!
No comments:
Post a Comment