This just in from the Jeff ‘Pudgy’ Glaser, reporting that the Classical Theater of Harlem is planning to stage ‘Waiting for Godot’ this Fall on the streets of the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. I’ve never heard of anything like this. Must read:

“I went to the Gala for the Classical Theatre of Harlem two nights ago. They are going to do”Waiting for Godot” in November in NOLA. They are not sure of the exact where’s and when’s, but last I heard they were just going to do it on a random street corner in the Lower 9th Ward.

The director’s name is Christopher McElroen. He is pretty brilliant, and completely unafraid. If he is not the best director in New York, he is certainly in the top 5. He doesn’t do much outside of the Classical Theatre of Harlem. He did one show at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), but most of his time and resources go to CTH. I told him you were interested in blogging about the project, and he said for you to please go ahead. Here the NY Times Review on the original “Godot” production in Harlem.

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/theater/reviews/03godo.html

Interesting side note on the production: Samuel Beckett is dead, but when he was alive he was very particular about productions of his plays. He detailed everything very specifically in his scripts from punctuation, to stage directions, to pauses. If a production did not follow his vision, he would not grant the rights or in some cases try to have the performance cancelled. He was a freak about people doing the play exactly as he laid it out. In that same vein, his estate is very picky about giving out the rights and having productions follow the blueprint of the script. Even though it got rave reviews, the Beckett estate was not happy with the CTH production, so Chris didn’t put his name on the application for the rights. You may not want to blog about this part until they actually get the rights in hand.

Here is a bio for the company (They have a better one in their programs. I’ll see if I can dig that up).
http://www.classicaltheatreofharlem.org/AboutCTH.html

One of the actors in the company is from the Lower 9th. His name is Wendell Pierce. He was in their original production. He is on the HBO series The Wire, and he is a hell of a nice guy. Here is his IMDB page.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0682495/

Let me know if you have questions. As it gets a little closer, and I get some specifics I’d be happy to supply you with more info Beckett, CTH, and the production. In fact I can even write you a guest blog spot, if you’d be interested.”

WILL REPORT MORE AS IT HAPPENS