How crowds and spaces affect PigPen Theatre Company’s work

A play’s identity changes based on where you see it and whom you see it with. The same production seems different in a large, empty theatre than it does in a crowded basement, and that’s half the beauty of live performance. One way or another, everything and everyone makes an impact.

For proof, just look to PigPen Theatre Company’s production of The Nightmare Story. A dark fable about dreams that spring to life in the woods, the show premiered in a tiny downtown venue as part of 2010′s FringeNYC Festival. Until the end of the week, however, it’s playing at The Irondale Center, a massive converted church in Brooklyn.

The audience has been just as variable. Often, PigPen plays to adults who see theatre all the time, but on four Thursday afternoons, TDF has sponsored special matinees through its Stage Doors program. Those performances are for local students who almost never see shows.

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Tips for getting the most from FringeNYC

The fifteenth annual FringeNYC festival runs from August 12-28, and as always, it’s a smorgasbord of theatre, dance, comedy, and performance art. With so many shows to choose from, the festival can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips on how to become a Fringe expert.

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From revivals of old favorite to meetings with new artists, this year’s Fringe is already going strong

You’ve got to love the scrappiness of FringeNYC. As it presents over 200 theatre and dance productions, the festival always seems energetic and raw, like it’s running on excitement and artistic ambition.

However, it takes an enormous amount of work to create that bohemian vibe, and planning for this year’s festival began just weeks after last year’s ended.

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How the fest celebrates everything from Beckett to Van Damme

Every January, just as a sizable number of Broadway theatres find themselves without inhabitants, off-Off Broadway basks in an explosion of creative energy. From January 5-16, for instance, The Public Theater will once again host Under the Radar , a festival of cutting-edge performance with performances at the Public and six other spaces.

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Elisabeth Gray and a talking oven bring the poet back to life

Truman Capote once described a sheet of paper he spied in a young woman’s typewriter. It read, “Sylvia Plath, I hate you/ And your damn daddy/ I’m glad, do you hear/ Glad you stuck your head/ In a gas-hot oven.”

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