A man in a suit and bowler hat sits at a table, watching a woman in a white dress and hat play the violin. The scene is dimly lit, with mannequins and a ladder in the background.

Prep School: A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique)

The Wooster Group is a company of artists who make work for theater, dance, and media. Founded in 1975 by Elizabeth LeCompte – still the Group’s artistic director – and Spalding Grey, the Wooster Group has been a NYC stalwart and widely influential on generations of artists. With A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), they take on one of the greatest figures in the 20th-century avant-garde theater: the iconic Polish stage director Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990).

Learn more about the company’s history, current members, and the Group’s prolific body of work.

RELATED EVENTS
A group of actors in eclectic costumes perform dramatically on stage; some shout or gesture, while others wear hats or props, including a red clown nose and a cone hat, against a dark theatrical backdrop.
  • Sat Feb 1 – Sun Feb 2, 2020

The Wooster Group: A Pink Chair (In Place of a Fake Antique)

  • Theater
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OFFICE HOURS

Gwendolyn Alker talks with Ari Fliakos and Erin Mullin on The Wooster Group’s “A Pink Chair.”

indefinite article

Marc Robinson on the Wooster Group

Inferences never ripen into certainties, nor are the ruins replaced by convincing replicas.

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Two actors perform on stage; one wears black and supports another dressed in silver, who leans back dramatically. A woman in white stands blurred in the background, also acting. Stage lighting highlights the scene.

GET INTO IT

The Wooster Group’s “Dailies” – short snippets behind-the-scenes, organized into monthly playlists – are an absolute treasure trove. Here are some selections from the making of A PINK CHAIR – there’s more where these came from. Exploration recommended.

Liz reads from Kantor’s writings [05.25.17]

A PINK CHAIR – hands raised [05.06.17]

A PINK CHAIR – Performer Diary – Z [05.13.17]

titling The Kantor Project: A PINK CHAIR [12.3.16]

GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY

Recommended readings to accompany the Indefinite Article by Marc Robinson.

  • Tadeusz Kantor, A Journey Through Other Spaces. University of California Press, 1993.
  • Michal Kobialka, Further On, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre. University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
  • Krzysztof Miklaszewski, Encounters with Tadeusz Kantor. Routledge, 2013.
  • Magda Romanska, Kathleen Cioffi (eds.), Theatermachine: Tadeusz Kantor in Context. Northwestern University Press, 2020.
  • Noel Witts, Tadeusz Kantor (Routledge Performance Practitioners). Routledge, 2018.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Elizabeth LeCompte by Linda Yablonsky

“The people I haven’t worked with try to understand everything I say. It’s a big mistake. I’ll throw in just anything to manipulate a situation.”

BOMB Magazine | Oct 1, 1991(opens in a new tab)
EXTRA CREDIT

The White Book by Han Kang

We’ve picked a book to complement each show in our season. We’ve got novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and memoir.

Why this book? While on a writer’s residency, a nameless narrator wanders the twin white worlds of the blank page and snowy Warsaw. A fictional journey inspired by an older sister who died in her mother’s arms, a few hours old.

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The cover of “The White Book” by Han Kang features a black-and-white photo of a person’s shadowy hand touching a billowing white sheet, with minimalist gray text on a pale background.