Plays on Location

“Edifice complex.” That’s the diagnosis playwright Edward Albee gave to American arts organizations—more specifically, it seemed, to nonprofit regional theaters—when he spoke at the Westminster Town Hall forum in 2005. Though the pun drew laughs, Albee followed with a hard, damning statistic. “Ninety-five percent of the money we give as a country does not go to creative artists; it goes into buildings and organizations,” he pointed out. “But great music, great art, great theater can be performed on the streets. It does not need a fancy theater to occur.”

At the time of Albee’s talk, lovely new facilities for a number of local arts organizations were in the works, with designs by pedigreed architects (Guthrie Theater, Walker Art Center, MacPhail Center for the Arts), or plans to rehabilitate historic quarters (Ritz Theater Foundation, Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts & Education Center). Other historic theaters renovated in earlier years include a “building preservation fee” in the price of most tickets (Southern Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune).

For many theater artists (or almost anyone lacking a development staff, really), the costs of renting one of these facilities are prohibitive. One way around that, though, is to get creative about where and how to stage work—to find a site that’s not devoted exclusively to performance. The origins of site-specific theater are often traced to the now-disbanded New York troupe En Garde Arts. For a time during the mid-’80s and through the ’90s, this company was staging work in such unconventional settings as the Chelsea Hotel and a pier on the Hudson River. Other companies followed suit, expanding on the Shakespeare-in-the-park tradition and looking to public spaces, cultural landmarks, and art galleries as performance venues—places that are far less expensive than theaters, and sometimes free.

An upcoming site-specific production is Cityceased, a theatrical walking tour of South Minneapolis’s Lakewood Cemetery that opens September 1. Four actors and a musician will enact an ethereal piece of fiction that considers the histories of both the cemetery and the people buried there (which includes many notable figures, although this play won’t call attention to any particular graves). It’s a novel idea, but Kristopher Lencowski, the show’s director, acknowledges that economics had much to do with spawning his unusual show. “I’ll be totally honest—the cemetery isn’t charging us anything,” said Lencowski, an approachable twenty-seven-year-old with wide, fiery blue eyes. “I’m a young director, and it’s expensive to get a theater. As a point of comparison, my friend rented the Ritz [the rehabbed theater that reopened in Northeast Minneapolis last year] and it cost her $3,500 for one weekend. I’m running four weekends and it cost me nothing.”

At the same time, from the perspective of Lakewood Cemetery, Cityceased might add up to something of a public relations opportunity. Not only is it good form to support the arts, but hosting this show could also serve to demystify the cemetery for the public, and even enhance appreciation for its acreage. In fact, the press release for Cityceased includes an enthusiastic quote from Lakewood’s president, Ron Gjerde, Jr.: “It is our hope that these performances encourage thinking and conversations about the significance of remembering those we’ve lost. We think the beauty and peacefulness of Lakewood will provide the perfect backdrop for such a conversation.”