JOHN STEPPLING's essay on the causes of our theater's irrelevance, and what to do about it: "New York’s Mayor Lindsay gave money to theater artists during the “Fun City” years, and off-off Broadway was one of the results. Maria Irene Fornes, Sam Shepard, Murray Mednick, Ronnie Tavel, Cafe Cino, LaMama, etc. etc. etc. This marked the last collective radical experimental theater movement of any sort in the U.S."
There she hung, the "Mona Lisa," small frame, big reputation, enigmatic smile, the whole thing, but "Stage Raw" couldn’t get close because of the rows and rows of people – layers really – separating Lisa from the eyes of this beholder with the incessant flashing of iPhone cameras, as though they could actually capture The Real Thing.
This is the second in a two-part series of moments remembered by people who either recorded them, or engaged in an activity best described by actress-director Jillian Amenante, “Putting on a play in L.A. is like trying to build a snowman in Florida.” -- SLM