Decker Design

The RSC's theater inside the Armory

Physically, the intimate Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (which devotes itself exclusively to the development and production of new plays) and the imposing, opulent Park Avenue Armory have very little in common. Both spaces, however, serve as truly exceptional venues for drama. Inside the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall through August 14, the Royal Shakespeare Company is presenting five plays in repertory on a full-scale duplicate of the troupe’s newly renovated Royal Shakespeare Theatre (in Stratford-upon-Avon). This event enables audience members to become wholly immersed in a selection of expertly realized productions. Meanwhile, Rattlestick was hosting a series of play readings (works in progress shown in public) throughout last week. The festival’s attendees enjoyed the vital opportunity to experience a diverse group of new pieces in the early stages of their development. Despite differing hugely in both scale and atmosphere, Park Avenue Armory and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater each demonstrate a powerful commitment to nurturing ambitious and accomplished theater.

For further information on the places discussed in this post, please visit the following websites:
http://www.rattlestick.org/
http://www.armoryonpark.org/index.php/programs_events/detail/the_royal_shakespeare_company/

Also, the following link contains a list of theaters that offer readings of new plays: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/theater/21readings.html

Adolf Konrad, packing list, December 16, 1963

The exhibition “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art,” currently on display at The Morgan Library & Museum, gathers together a diverse and exceedingly compelling group of documents. Taken all together, these pieces provide insight into the organizational mechanisms that certain artists put in place to facilitate both their professional and personal lives. Arturo Rodríguez’s visual list of kinds of paintbrushes (1978), which also details in writing the properties of each one, reveals a punctiliousness at odds with images of creativity such the one shown here: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2008/09/05/ba460.jpg. Also, Philip Evergood’s résumé (1959), covered with both typed and handwritten additions, provides boisterous and concrete evidence of a thriving career. Of all the items on display, Adolf Konrad’s singular and thoroughly absorbing visual packing list (1963) exercises the strongest aesthetic appeal. The exhibition, overall, grippingly speaks to the need of each individual, whether an artist or not, to make sense of his or her world.

For further information on this exhibit, please visit https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?id=53

For further information on the artists mentioned in this post, please visit the following websites:
http://www.arturorodriguezart.com/
http://www.hollistaggart.com/artists/biography/philip_evergood/
http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/ArtistKeywords.aspx?artist=85092