Two years ago, Elizabeth LeCompte, the group’s director and leading light, decided it was time. The company began working on the play and last fall staged preliminary performances in New York; next week it begins a full (albeit brief) run in Los Angeles.
But it has now hit a serious, and unusual, obstacle.
1 comment:
I think I am siding with the Wooster Group theatre company on this issue. Based on this article, I feel that the Pinter estate is being a bit hypocritical and their actions toward the Wooster Group seem unfair. The Wooster Group properly licensed the performances in New York City, and has a reportedly clean track record with the Redcat arts center in Los Angeles. Based on this, it seems unlikely that the Wooster Group would have been making egregious errors in their plans for Los Angeles and other touring performances. What appears to have been a communication error seems to have turned into an unnecessarily large issue, due to the Pinter estate’s motives to have strict control over Pinter’s work. I am curious as to the full details of this situation and exactly what communications went between the estate, the licensing agent Samuel French Inc., and the Wooster Group. From this article, the Pinter estate’s actions seem excessive and reminiscent of corporate bullying. I think it is a bit silly that the estate claims they would have withheld the rights for a West coast performance. Given the short run, I agree with the Wooster Group that this probably would have little negative effect on the work’s commercial potential. Furthermore, it is disappointing to see the estate acting in this aggressive manner; the Wooster Group is clearly a small, experimental operation making art for art’s sake—not an operation trying to profit unjustly off of Pinter’s work.
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