Wasn’t it just yesterday theatre buffs were crowing about a renaissance downtown, what with the opening of 10th Avenue Theatre and, hot on its heels, Ion Theatre at New World Stage on 9th? When Ion Theatre opened in June with plays by Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, the two theaters in back-to-back proximity were hailed as fertile incubators for a new theater district with plenty of room for the avant garde and for other theaters without a permanent home.
All that has changed. The first clue that something was amiss was the delay in the opening of Ion’s staging of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” originally slated to open right after Thanksgiving, then moved to Nov. 30.
The inbox Monday, Nov. 27 contained a note from Ion Executive Artistic Director Claudio Raygoza that states “The Grapes of Wrath” will be presented for six performances only, Wednesday-Monday, Dec. 6-11, not at New World Stage, but at 10th Avenue Theatre (930 10th Ave.).
“Last week,” said Raygoza, “[Producing Artistic Director] Glenn Paris and I were visited by a series of city building inspectors and structural analysts who informed us that the initial assessment of our building’s suitability for public assembly had recently come into question.”
Ion has been asked to bear the burden of proving the building suitable, a lengthy and costly process that involves structural analysts and engineers, according to Raygoza, who says “the cost is far outside our means. We’ve not given up, but there has been a great deal of bending by all involved to see this project through. Though we had some assurances by the city at first that we’d be able to open ‘Wrath’ at New World on the 30th, waves of conflicting information have ensued.”
Thus, the better part of sense and valor seemed retrenchment, which Ion has effected, rescheduling the production, now at 10th Avenue Theatre, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 6-Saturday, Dec. 9, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10 and 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11.
What happens with other small theater companies, such as Asian American Repertory Theatre, which have scheduled productions at New World Theatre in 2007? Homeless gypsies once more, one supposes, just like Ion itself.
Meanwhile, 6th@ Penn producer Dale Morris announced that his not-for-profit has received a grant of $15,000 to continue to produce the play “I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda,” which will tour schools, community centers, religious facilities, and other venues over a two-year period. Morris reports that the theater will receive its first City TOT (transient occupancy tax) funding of $12,000 beginning in July.
“6th @ Penn has had a long, hard struggle,” he said. “There are good days ahead.” Let us hope those good days extend to Raygoza and others as well.
“As a theater we will find a way to move forward,” Raygoza said. “This is just sort of an obstacle, that we don’t have a space again. We’re really pushing to give ‘Grapes of Wrath’ as much value as we can because of the hard work everyone’s put into the project.”