THE WOOSTER GROUP NAYATT SCHOOL REDUX (Since I Can Remember)

DIRECTOR’S NOTE Our work on this piece began when filmmaker Ken Kobland and I set out to make an archival video reconstruction of The Wooster Group’s 1978 piece Nayatt School. Nayatt School featured Spalding Gray’s first experiments with the monologue form and included scenes from T.S. Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party. Nayatt School was the third part of a trilogy of pieces that I directed that were made around Spalding’s autobiography: his family history, his life in the theater, and his mother’s suicide.

As Ken and I worked with the Nayatt School materials, we found that the surviving video and audio recordings were too fragmentary, and their original quality too poor, to make a full reconstruction.

So I decided to remount Nayatt School with our present company – especially while a few of us, who were there, could still remember. We could at least fill in the gaps for an archival record and, at the same time, demonstrate our process for devising our work.

Of course, in reanimating Nayatt School, we have discovered that when it is placed in a new time and context, new possibilities and resonances emerge. I recognize that we are not just making an archival record — we are in the process of making a new piece. That is the work in progress that you are about to see.

work-in-progress theatro-film THE PERFORMING GARAGE May 2019 NAYATT SCHOOL REDUX (Since I Can Remember) with Ari Fliakos, Gareth Hobbs, Erin Mullin, Suzzy Roche, Scott Shepherd, Kate Valk, Omar Zubair Composed by the Company Director: Elizabeth LeCompte Lights: David Sexton, Jennifer Tipton Sound & Original Music: Eric Sluyter, Omar Zubair Original 16mm Nayatt School Film & Graphics: Ken Kobland Video: Wladimiro Woyno, Irfan Brkovic Costumes: Enver Chakartash Stage Manager: Erin Mullin Assistant Directors: Matthew Dipple, Michaela Murphy Technical Director: Jacob Bigelow Technical Assistant: Danasia Miller Production Manager: Bona Lee Producer: Cynthia Hedstrom Archivist: Clay Hapaz

Excerpts from The Cocktail Party used with permission of the T.S. Eliot estate.

Thanks to Niall Cunningham, Tony Oursler, Jennifer Tipton, and to Sandra Berdick and Hanna Novak

NAYATT SCHOOL (1978) was composed by Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte in collaboration with Libby Howes, Bruce Porter and Ron Vawter. Elizabeth LeCompte was the director.

It was performed at The Performing Garage and the Mickery Theater in Amsterdam during 1978 and 1979. It was revived in 1982 as part of a Wooster Group restrospective.

The original 1978 company included performers Spalding Gray, Libby Howes, Ron Vawter, Joan Jonas, Ursula Easton, Tena Cohen, Michael Rivkin, Erik Moskowitz, Vicky Raab, and Gabrielle Lansner. Design: Elizabeth LeCompte and Bruce Porter. Lights: Jim Clayburgh. Stage Managers: Gabrielle Lansner and Vicky Raab. Technical Director: Bruce Porter. Kate Valk and Willem Dafoe performed in the 1982 revival.

This work-in-progress theatro-film of NAYATT SCHOOL REDUX was recorded at The Performing Garage in 2019.

Filmed and Edited by Ken Kobland Film Sound Mix by Eric Sluyter Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte