urban excavations

I love reliving the year through this now annual summary of attendance at live performances and the occasional film screening. For this listing, all that’s required is my entry into a theatre or auditorium where a performance of any kind is held. Home screenings don’t count. My 2013 calendar year listing includes portions of two New York theatrical seasons: 2012-2013 (January-April 2013) and 2013-2014 (May-December 2013). Theatre attendance as a Drama Desk nominator at Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway venues continued full tilt this year, accounting for the majority of events listed here. Occasional visits out of town led to attendance at productions such as Sam Hunter’s world premiere The Few at the Old Globe in San Diego, and visits to venues other than those followed by the Drama Desk led to readings and presentations of all kinds.

A year of plenty and many glories.

January

• (1/3) “Marilyn By Request” Marilyn Maye & Billy Stritch (Metropolitan Room)
• (1/4) Water by the Spoonful (Second Stage)
• (1/5) Mulan (Peter Jay Sharp)
• (1/6) Lea DeLaria (Joe’s Pub)
• (1/8) The Other Place (MTC)
• (1/9) Picnic (Roundabout American Airlines)
• (1/10) City Love Song: Home (59E59)
• (1/13) Working on a Special Day (59E59)
• (1/14) 11th Annual Nightlife Awards (Town Hall)
• (1/15) Young Playwrights Conference Reading Series (Lucille Lortel)
• (1/16) In Acting Shakespeare (Pearl Theatre)
• (1/16) Midsummer (a play with songs) (Clurman Theatre Row)
• (1/17) Collision (Rattlestick)
• (1/18) The Jammer (Atlantic Stage 2)
• (1/19) ToasT (reading, Public)
• (1/19) Bethany (Women’s Project, NY City Center)
• (1/20) Airswimming (Irish Rep)
• (1/22) Stella Adler and America’s Master Playwrights (Harvardwood & DG, Frederick Loewe Room)
• (1/23) Nobody Lives in Times Square (reading, Actors Studio)
• (1/23) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Rodgers)
• (1/24) The Future Is Not What It Was (Walkerspace)
• (1/25) Spirit of Exit Eleven (Lion Theatre Row)
• (1/26) All the Rage (Peter Jay Sharp)
• (1/27) The Man Under (59E59)
• (1/28) The Wonderful Wizard of Song (St. Luke’s)
• (1/30) Women of Will (Gym at Judson)
• (1/31) The Suit (BAM)

February

• (2/1) Bodega Bay (Abingdon)
• (2/2) Le Cid (Storm )
• (2/3) The Pilo Family Circus (New Ohio)
• (2/5) The Magistrate (NT Live, Symphony Space)
• (2/6) An Evening with Marge Champion (Harvardwood)
• (2/7) The Man Who Laughs (Urban Stages)
• (2/8) The Vandal (The Flea)
• (2/9) From White Plains (Signature Studio)
• (2/9) The Mnemonist of Dutchess County (Beckett Theatre Row)
• (2/10) Bunnicula (DR2)
• (2/11) The Great Man (reading, Actor’s Studio)
• (2/12) The Good Person of Szechwan (La Mama)
• (2/14) Donnybrook! (Irish Rep)
• (2/15) Much Ado About Nothing (TFNA, Duke on 42nd Street)
• (2/16) Blood Privilege (Richmond Shepard)
• (2/16) Jesus in India (Theatre at St. Clement’s)
• (2/18) Hamlet (Access)
• (2/20) Katie Roche (Mint)
• (2/21) Passion (Classic Stage Company)
• (2/22) All in the Timing (Primary Stages, 59E59)
• (2/23) The Revisionist (Rattlestick Cherry Lane)
• (2/24) Set in the Living Room of a Small Town American Play (Walker Space)
• (2/26) Clive (The New Group Theatre Row)
• (2/27) Dance and the Railroad (Signature)
• (2/27) Carole J. Bufford (Metropolitan Room)
• (2/28) The Old Boy (Keen Company Theatre Row)

March

• (3/1) Grug (42nd Street Studios)
• (3/1) Henry IV (Pearl)
• (3/2) Belleville (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (3/2) Talley’s Folly (Roundabout, Laura Pels)
• (3/3) Jackie (Women’s Project NY City Center)
  
• (3/3) Jackson Heights 3am (777)
• (3/4) Kia Corthran interviewed by Todd London (LPTW at NYPL/PA)
• (3/5) The Madrid (MTC NY City Center)
• (3/6) Ann (Vivian Beaumont)
• (3/6) The Wild Bride (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (3/7) Cinderella (Broadway)
• (3/8) Detroit ’67 (Public)
• (3/9) Hit the Wall (Barrow Street)
• (3/9) The North Pool (Vineyard)
• (3/10) Isaac’s Eye (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (3/10) Old Hats (Signature)
• (3/11) Last Man Club (Axis)
• (3/12) Class Dismissed (reading Players Club)
• (3/13) Performance and Justice (symposium, John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
• (3/13) Liza Minnelli and Alan Cummings (Town Hall)
• (3/14) Honky (Urban Stages)
• (3/15) The Flick (Playwrights Horizons)
• (3/16) Piggy Nation the Musical (Snapple Theater Center)
• (3/16) The Lying Lesson (Atlantic Theater Company)
• (3/16) Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Cort)
• (3/17) Bello Mania (New Victory)
• (3/17) For Love (Irish Rep)
• (3/19) Hands on a Hardbody (Brooks Atkinson)
• (3/20) Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Golden)
• (3/22) Drama Desk Panel: The Art of Storytelling (Sardi’s)
• (3/22) Neva (Public)
• (3/23) The Mound Builders (Signature)
• (3/24) Lucy Loves Me (Intar)
• (3/26) Happy Birthday (Clurman Theatre Row)
• (3/27) Three Trees (West End)
• (3/27) Saga (Baruch Performing Arts Center)
• (3/28) The Norwegians (Drilling Company)
• (3/29) F#%king Up Everything (Elektra)
• (3/30) Lucky Guy (Broadhurst)
• (3/30) The Last Five Years (Second Stage)
• (3/31) Kinky Boots (Al Hirschfeld)

April

• (4/1) Finks (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (4/2) Good With People (59E59)
• (4/3) Totem (Cirque du Soleil Citi Field)
• (4/4) Buyer & Cellar (Rattlestick)
• (4/5) Matilda (Schubert)
• (4/6) The Last Will (Abingdon)
• (4/6) Golder $ Mythyka (New Ohio)
• (4/7) Bullet Catch (59E59)
• (4/7) The Call (Playwrights Horizons)
• (4/8) Sleeping Rough (The Wild Project)
• (4/9) Futurology (St. Clement’s)
• (4/10) Kafka’s Monkey (Baryshnikov Arts Center)
• (4/10) The Nance (Lincoln Center Theatre)
• (4/11) Motown The Musical (Lunt-Fontanne)
• (4/12) The Big Knife (Second Stage)
• (4/13) Julius Caesar (BAM)
• (4/13) The Dance of Death (Lucille Lortel)
• (4/14) The Assembled Parties (MTC)
• (4/14) Jekyll and Hyde (Marriott Marquis)
• (4/15) Macbeth (Barrymore)
• (4/16) Orphans (Shoenfeld)
• (4/17) A Trip to Bountiful (Stephen Sondheim)
• (4/17) Testament of Mary (Walter Kerr)
• (4/18) Memory Show (Duke on 42nd Street)
• (4/19) La Ruta (Working Theatre St. John the Divine)
• (4/20) I’ll Eat You Last (Booth)
• (4/20) Here Lies Love (Public)
• (4/20) Pippin (Music Box)
• (4/21) Memory Show (Duke on 42nd Street)
• (4/27) Show People & Here Today: Selection Of Scenes and Songs (Lang Recital Hall)
• (4/28) Panel: Dramaturgy in Unconventional Settings (LMDA, St. Peter’s School, Philadelphia)
• (4/29) Drama Desk Nomination Announcement (54 Below)

May

• (5/4) This Side of Neverland (Pearl)
• (5/5) Kunstler (Hudson Stage Company)
• (5/8) Drama Desk Nominee Party (Essex House Ballroom)
• (5/9) Surviving Mommie Dearest (Snapple Theater Center)
• (5/10) Bull (59E59)
• (5/11) A Family for All Occasions (Bank Street)
• (5/11) The Golden Dragon (New Ohio)
• (5/12) Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Kazino)
• (5/12) Old-Fashioned Prostitutes (Public)
• (5/13) Core Values (Ars Nova)
• (5/15) Nikolai and the Others (LCT)
• (5/20) Macbeth (Barrymore) [2nd visit]
• (5/22) Caucasian Chalk Circle (CSC)
• (5/23) EST Marathon A (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (5/25) A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney (Soho Rep)
• (5/26) Different Animals (Cherry Lane)
• (5/29) EST Marathon B (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (5/30) These Halcyon Days (Irish Arts)
• (5/31) The Master Builder (BAM Harvey)

June

• (6/1) Good Television (Atlantic Stage 2)
• (6/1) Bunty Berman Presents (Acorn Theatre Row)
• (6/2) Gross Indecency (Abingdon)
  
• (6/2) Sontag: Reborn (NYTW)
• (6/4) The Tutors (Second Stage Uptown)
• (6/5) A Picture of Autumn (Mint)
• (6/6) Occupation (TBG)
• (6/7) I’m A Stranger Here Myself (York)
• (6/8) Venice (Public)
• (6/9) The Boat Factory (59E59)
• (6/12) Three Kinds of Exile (ATC Linda Gross)
• (6/13) The Silver Cord (Theatre at St. Clement’s)
• (6/14) Far From Heaven (Playwrights Horizons)
• (6/15) Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick)
• (6/15) The Comedy of Errors (Public Shakespeare in the Park)
• (6/16) Basilica (Cherry Lane)
• (6/18) Stop the Tempo (Arlene’s Grocery)
• (6/20) Somewhere Fun (Vineyard)
• (6/21) Reasons to be Happy (Lucille Lortel)
• (6/22) The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin (Roundabout Laura Pels)
• (6/22) The Banana Monologues (Acorn Theatre Row)
• (6/23) Explorers Club (MTC City Center)
• (6/23) Dirty Great Love Story (59E59)
• (6/24) Harvardwood: Jack Viertel on Today’s Theater (NY Institute of Technology)
• (6/25) Cornelius (59E59)
• (6/26) Gibraltar (Irish Rep)
• (6/27) Tea For Three (Urban Stages)
• (6/28) A Cautionary Tail (The Flea)
• (6/29) The Henrietta (Metropolitan Playhouse)
• (6/30) Choir Boy (MTC City Center)

July

• (7/3) Cuff Me (Actors Temple)
  
• (7/5) Rantoul or Die (Cherry Lane)
• (7/7) Two  Character Play (New World Stages)
• (7/7) It’s Just Sex (Actors Temple)
• (7/10) The Weir (Irish Rep)
• (7/12) Serious Money (Atlantic Stage 2)
• (7/13) Unlock’d (Duke on 42nd Street)
• (7/13) Forever Tango (Walter Kerr)
• (7/14) The Castle (Atlantic Stage 2)
• (7/14) Around the World in 80 Days (New)
• (7/17) The Civil War (Lucille Lortel)
• (7/17) Siren’s Heart (Actor’s Temple)
• (7/17) Me and Jezebel (Snapple Theatre Center)
• (7/18) The Designated Mourner (Public)
• (7/19) Bill W. and Dr. Bob (Soho Playhouse)
• (7/20) Wanda’s Monster (Vineyard)
• (7/20) Storyville (York)
• (7/21) Nobody Loves You (Second Stage)
• (7/23) Dancing on Nails (Theatre 80)
• (7/24) Murder for Two (Second Stage Uptown)
• (7/25) rogerandtom (HERE)
• (7/26) Shida (Ars Nova)

August

• (8/5) I Forgive You Ronald Reagan (Beckett Theatre Row)
• (8/6) Summer Shorts A (59E59)
• (8/7) Unbroken Circle (St. Luke’s)
• (8/7) First Date (Longacre)
• (8/8) Reality (David Bowie documentary) (FSLC Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center)
• (8/9) Summer Shorts B (59E59)
• (8/10) Soul Doctor (Circle in the Square)
  
• (8/11) Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare in the Park)
• (8/15) Harbor (Primary Stages 59E59)
• (8/17) Awake and Sing (Walker Space)
• (8/19) Avi Hoffman’s Still Jewish After All These Years (Triad)
• (8/21) The Cheaters Club (Amoralists at Abrons Art Center)
• (8/23) Killers and Other Family (Axis)
• (8/24) Scarcity (Cherry Lane Studio)
• (8/25) Where We’re Born (Rattlestick)
• (8/27) Ashville (Cherry Lane)
• (8/28) Final Analysis (Signature)
• (8/29) Stay (New Ohio)
• (8/31) Breakfast with Mugabee (Signature)

September

• (9/3) The Hatmaker’s Wife (Peter Jay Sharp)
  
• (9/5) The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle (59E59)
• (9/7) Brenda at the Chelsea (Acorn at Theatre Row)
• (9/7) The Tempest (Delacorte)
• (9/8) Fetch Clay Make Man (NYTW)
• (9/10) stop.reset. (Signature)
• (9/11) You Never Can Tell (Pearl)
• (9/13) The Recommendation (The Flea)
• (9/14) I Can See Clearly Now the Wheelchair on my Face (59E59)
• (9/15) Romeo and Juliet (Richard Rodgers)
• (9/17) The Old Friends (Signature)
• (9/18) Philip Goes Forth (Mint)
• (9/19) Women or Nothing (Linda Gross)
• (9/20) Natural Affection (Theatre Row Beckett Theatre)
• (9/21) Waiting for Godot (New Yiddish Rep, Castillo Theatre)
• (9/22) Arguendo (Public)
• (9/22) Mr. Burns (Playwrights Horizons)
• (9/25) The Glass Menagerie (Booth)
• (9/25) Dreams of the Penny Gods (Lark, reading)
• (9/26) The Film Society (Theatre Row Clurman)
• (9/27) Bad Jews (Roundabout Laura Pels)
• (9/28) Bike America (St. Clement’s)
• (9/29) A Man’s World (Metropolitan Playhouse)

October

• (10/1) Tamar of the River (Baruch Performing Arts Center)
• (10/3) Sarah Flood (The Flea)
• (10/4) A Night with Janis Joplin (Lyceum)
• (10/5) Bronx Bombers (Duke)
• (10/6) Jericho (59E59)
  
• (10/6) Lady Day (Little Shubert)
• (10/7) Feeling (New Ohio)
• (10/10) The Few (Old Globe, San Diego)
• (10/19) The Winslow Boy (Roundabout American Airlines)
• (10/19) A Time to Kill (Golden)
• (10/20) Romeo and Juliet (CSC)
• (10/20) Fun Home (Public)
• (10/22) Big Fish (Neil Simon)
• (10/23) Anthem (Baryshnikov Arts Center)
• (10/23) Julius Caesar (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (10/24) Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep)
• (10/25) Betrayal (Barrymore)
• (10/26) The Play’s the Thing (Storm @ Theatre of the Church of Notre Dame)
• (10/26) The Snow Geese (Friedman)
• (10/27) The Model Apartment (59E59)
• (10/27) Diamond Lil (Don’t Tell Mama)
• (10/28) Year of the Rooster (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (10/29) Graphic Lesbians: Lisa Kron and Moe Angelos with Sara Warner (CUNY Grad Center)
• (10/30) The Hour of All Things (reading, Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (10/30) Eager to Lose (Ars Nova)
• (10/31) The English Bride (59E59)

November

• (11/1) Maeve’s House (Irish Arts Center)
• (11/2) The Seagull (Culture Project)
• (11/2) After Midnight (Brooks Atkinson)
• (11/3) Grasses of a Thousand Colors (Public)
• (11/3) Nothing to Lose (Signature)
• (11/5) The Downtown Loop (3LD Art and Technology Center)
• (11/6) Juno and the Paycock (Irish Rep)
• (11/6) Domesticated (Mitzi Newhouse)
• (11/7) In the Wine Time (Castillo)
• (11/8) Richard III (Belasco)
• (11/9) The Mutilated (New Ohio)
  
• (11/9) Twelfth Night (Belasco)
• (11/10) All That Fall (59E59)
• (11/10) My Big Gay Italian Wedding (St. Luke’s)
• (11/12) Norway Plays (Theatre for a New City)
• (11/13) Disaster! (St. Luke’s)
• (11/13) La Soiree (Union Square)
• (11/14) The Landing (Vineyard)
• (11/15) The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters (Playwrights Horizons)
• (11/16) The Greatest Pirate Story Never Told (Snapple)
• (11/16) Small Engine Repair (Lucille Lortel)
• (11/16) Pirira (Westside)
• (11/17) The Preacher and the Shrink (Beckett, Theatre Row)
• (11/17) Sunset Baby (Bank Street)
• (11/19) Witnessed by the World (59E59)
• (11/20) Lies My Father Taught Me (Baruch Performing Arts Center)
• (11/20) A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Walter Kerr)
• (11/21) Wonderful World of Oz signing (Books of Wonder)
• (11/21) The Last Saint on Sugar Hill (National Black Theatre)
• (11/22) And Away We Go (Pearl)
• (11/23) Regular Singing (Public)
• (11/23) This is My Office (Chashama)
• (11/24) Macbeth (Beaumont)
• (11/24) How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them (Rattlestick)
• (11/26) Family Furniture (Flea)
• (11/27) A Mind-Bending Evening of Beckett (Irish Rep)
• (11/27) Sorry (Public)
• (11/29) Self (Metropolitan Playhouse)
• (11/30) That Hopey Changey Thing (Public)
• (11/30) Sweet and Sad (Public)

December

• (12/1) One Night (Cherry Lane)
  
• (12/1) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (TFANA, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn)
• (12/2) What’s It All About (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (12/3) Waiting for Godot (Cort)
• (12/4) Taking Care of Baby (New York City Center @ The Studio)
• (12/4) No Man’s Land (Cort)
• (12/5) The Jacksonian (New Group @ Acorn)
• (12/6) Little Miss Sunshine (Second Stage)
• (12/7) Too Much Too Much Too Soon (Roundabout Blackbox)
• (12/7) How I Learned What I Learned (Signature)
• (12/8) Mother Africa (New Victory)
• (12/8) Becoming Dr. Ruth (Westside)
• (12/8) Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love (Flea)
• (12/10) Every Day A Visitor (Clurman)
• (12/11) A Christmas Carol (St. Luke’s)
• (12/11) Love, Linda: The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter (York)
• (12/16) Nutcracker Rouge (Minetta Lane)
• (12/17) Handle With Care (Westside)
• (12/18) The Night Alive (Atlantic Linda Gross)
• (12/18) The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons)
• (12/19) Bayside! The Musical (Theatre 80 St. Marks)
• (12/20) Strawberry and Chocolate (777 Theatre)
• (12/21) Cherie (Signature)
• (12/21) Analog.Ue (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (12/22) Mayhem and Majesty (59E59)
• (12/23) Cirkopolis (Skirball Center)
• (12/24) Le Jazz Hot (59E59)
• (12/26) The Commons of Pensacola (MTC City Center)
• (12/27) Barb Jungr: Dancing in the Dark (59E59)

© Martha Wade Steketee (December 30, 2013)