Rumstick Road

New York: Jeffrey Richards, Circa 1977. Two vintage publicity photographs from the debut staging of the 1977 play—one showing playwright and actor Spalding Gray and actor Ron Vawter, the other showing Vawter and Gray with Nancy Reilly, Kate Valk, and Peyton Smith. Mimeo snipe affixed to the verso of one photograph, and the other with the stamp of photographer Nancy Campbell.

An avant-garde multimedia production and meditation on the nature of autobiography, staged by experimental theatre ensemble the Wooster Group at the Performing Garage in Soho. The Wooster Group emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group in the mid-1970s, and fostered the careers of several prominent actors, including founding member Willem Dafoe. The theatre continues to stage productions today.

Written by Gray in response to the suicide of his mother, "Rumstick Road" formed the second part of Gray's "Three Places in Rhode Island" trilogy. The production was reconstructed by video in 2012, by Wooster Group director Elizabeth LeCompte, archivist Clay Hapaz, and filmmaker Ken Kobland.

Gray is best remembered today for his long-form, autobiographical monologues, including "Swimming to Cambodia," later adapted by Jonathan Demme for film in 1987, as well as his monologues "Monster in a Box" and "Gray's Anatomy," adapted by Nick Broomfield and Steven Soderbergh, respectively.

8 x 10 inches. Near Fine.

[Book #170487]