BRIEF HISTORY
THE WOOSTER GROUP evolved from a small group of people in 1975 who made the trilogy, THREE PLACES IN RHODE ISLAND,
around the autobiographical impulses of Spalding Gray. That original group included Gray, Elizabeth LeCompte and Jim Clayburgh.
Ron Vawter began performing with the company in RUMSTICK ROAD and Willem Dafoe joined during the making of NAYATT SCHOOL.
Kate Valk first began working with the Group during POINT JUDITH (an epilog) and Peyton Smith joined for ROUTE 1 & 9.
Elizabeth LeCompte has directed all of the pieces. Group members and associates who have "moved on" periodically return to remount repertory
pieces and make new work.
The Group has used both personal and group autobiography, and existing plays as an organizing principle for their work.
Sometimes the autobiography is submerged (Ron Vawter's illness and Willem Dafoe's film career as source material for FRANK DELL'S THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY).
Sometimes plays are jumping off places for a piece, such as Arthur Miller's The Crucible in the Group's L.S.D. (...JUST THE HIGH POINTS...). And, sometimes a
play as a whole is re-imagined through the prism of our developing aesthetic: TO YOU, THE BIRDIE! (PHÈDRE), BRACE UP! (Chekhov's Three Sisters),
and the O'Neill plays THE EMPEROR JONES and THE HAIRY APE.
The Performing Garage has been the Group's permanent home and performance venue since its beginning and all
of their work has been developed there. It was bought in the early 1970's when Soho was still a deserted warehouse district being re- inhabited by artists. The Group owns it as a shareholder in the Grand Street Artists Co-op, which was originally established as part of the Fluxus art movement in the 1960s.
The Performing Garage is a flexible space with possible seating of up to 99. Prior to becoming The Performing Garage 33 Wooster Street was, contrary to its name, a metal stamping/flatware factory.
Neighboring 35 Wooster was known for many years as The Envelope. It too served as a theater for The Wooster Group and many visiting artists.