Belles of the Ball: Studio 42 & TheaterMania.com
Host A Hit
August 29, 2002, NYC
The first annual STARVING ARTISTS BALL was teeming with avid attendees from the moment the doors at The Culture Project opened. So popular, this inaugural event, that the downstairs space at 45 Bleecker was quickly rendered a standing room only who’s who of the new, young, up and coming, off-off-Broadway scene. Lest readers think that the evening was all about theater, this was a celebration of the arts in general. There were installments by various artists peppering the décor. Familiar to my eyes were the decorative masks utilized in MultiStages recent production of The Palace of Loneliness.
Featured in this loose evening, a seemingly virtual lesson in deconstructing conventions, were the heartfelt presentations by Lewis Black and Charles Busch. Speaking from the heart, from the gut, but seldom from the gutter, these two stalwarts of the stage offered their succinct and singular viewpoints in the brief formalities of the evening. With Mr. Black lending a fiery smattering of comedic entertainment, and the multi-talented Mr. Busch presenting the keynote address, this ambitious invention was full of the vital ingredients that can lead these youthful entrepreneurs to ultimate success.
The event, designed to mark the establishment of the Starving Artist Award, is intended to be an annual addition to the NYC arts scene.
Kessa De Santis
Related Stories:
Review of Studio 42’s Klytaemnestra’s Unmentionables (2001)
Info on Atelier, a workshop production (2002)