the liminal stage
1991 - 1994
At a cocktail party in the Spring of 1991, a group of mostly recent graduates from Kenyon College, decided to stage a new play written by a fellow graduate, who was working toward his Masters in playwrighting at Columbia University. And so, Paco V Put To Sleep, the first of many plays we would present over the next three years, found its way to an Off Off Broadway premiere. We formed a theatre company, disbanded it to start another, and after doing two productions at Theatre Off Park (now Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre) ultimately settled in a loft at 2 Bleecker Street, on the corner of Bleecker and Bowery. There we produced, in one form or another, nearly a dozen plays, live music events, arts shows and rather wild ‘happenings.’
Directly across the Bowery from the world-famous CBGB, the liminal stage carved its niche in the Off-Off Broadway universe. Several of us would go on to professional careers in the industry: I would go on to direct and then become a Broadway producer and general manager; another would act On and Off Broadway, and have a hugely successful career creating documentary theatre; another would become an A-Lister in the voice over world; and one would go on to work in some of the best producing offices in town and later be in charge of booking some of the biggest touring shows in the U.S. and abroad.
Sadly, no production photos exist from these shows, save for some rehearsal photos of our most ambitious works: a co-production with The Culture Project of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlow. It was directed by me and starred John Gould Rubin, Erik Jensen and Christopher Cook.
My other directing credits with liminal include: Something About Baseball, by Quincy Long, (Theatre Off Park), Downtown by Jeffrey Hatcher, Feeding the Moonfish, by Barbara Weichman, Mamet’s Women by Frederick Stroppel, The United Way, (author unknown), The Hypocrisy of Bureaucracy, by Hank Wagner, and Liberal Ironies, written by me.
