The Wooster Group to Stream Productions of HAMLET, HOUSE/LIGHTS and More

Having postponed the world premiere in Vienna of its production of Bertolt Brecht's The Mother, The Wooster Group is retrenching at home in New York to develop and fund new work for an era of physical distancing. They will also offer online streaming of their groundbreaking work and initiate an ambitious fundraising effort.

For the first time, The Wooster Group has opened its online archives to the public for free. Starting May 4, videos of five of the company's most beloved and influential productions will be available to stream on its website: Brace Up!; Hamlet; Rumstick Road; To You, the Birdie!; and House/Lights, which in 2019 was named one of the best American plays of the previous 25 years by The New York Times. Additionally, two of the group's media pieces-the film Flaubert Dreams of Travel but the Illness of His Mother Prevents It and the video Channel J, both of which were first featured in the company's 1988 production of Frank Dell's The Temptation of Saint Antony-are currently available to stream for free, and will remain up through May 15, at www.thewoostergroup.org.

Remote rehearsals are already underway for the ensemble's first new production since the pandemic, an audiovisual adaptation of Daniel Paul Schreber's book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. Schreber's memoir has been a renewing source of scandal, delight, and insight since its 1903 publication-an apt vehicle for The Wooster Group's refractory process. Commissioned by Hauser & Wirth, the production will open this fall at The Performing Garage, the Group's cherished home and performance venue, which has been closed to the public since March. But rather than reopen as a conventional theater space, the venue will be re-envisioned as an intimate installation space that celebrates social connection, while respecting the demands of physical distancing.

The Wooster Group is also initiating a vigorous fundraising campaign beginning May 5. Like all arts organizations in New York City, The Wooster Group has faced severe financial challenges over the past six weeks. The postponement of The Mother, which was to premiere at the Vienna Festival this June and subsequently tour Europe, eliminated one of the company's primary sources of revenue: box office and touring. With the cancellation of the annual Spring Benefit, the company is now embarking on an ambitious campaign to sustain their full-time company during this time.

The Wooster Group is a deeply collaborative ensemble that has pioneered theatrical innovations in sound, lighting, video, and performance since 1975. One of the last remaining vestiges of the SoHo it helped reinvent as the city's artistic nerve center, The Wooster Group remains tenacious in its advocacy and creation of the future of experimental theater.

More information about the Group's historic work streaming online:

All of these works will be available at www.thewoostergroup.org from May 4 to May 15.

• Rumstick Road: A unique video reconstruction of the landmark 1977 production that established The Wooster Group's reputation.

• Flaubert Dreams of Travel but the Illness of His Mother Prevents It.

• Channel J: A fusion of Gustave Flaubert's La Tentation de Saint Antoine with New York's long-canceled nude public-access talk show.

• Brace Up!

• House/Lights: Named one of the best American plays of the past 25 years by The New York Times

• To You, the Birdie! (Phèdre).

• Hamlet.

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