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En Garde Arts
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En Garde Arts is a New York City-based theatre company with a focus on site-specific theatre. It was founded in 1985 by artistic director Anne Hamburger. Self-described as an artist-centric company, the company supports playwrights, directors, composers, and designers in creating new work from the ground up. En Garde's productions have earned six Obie Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Special Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Edwin Booth Award.
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En Garde Arts in the 1980s and 1990s
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From 1985 to 1999, Hamburger commissioned playwrights, directors and composers to create theatrical pieces for architectural sites and neighborhoods. The roster of En Garde's alumni artists includes playwrights Charles L. Mee, Mac Wellman, María Irene Fornés; composers David Van Tieghem, Jonathan Larson; directors Michael Engler, Tina Landau, Anne Bogart, Reza Abdoh, Jim Simpson and Bill Rauch; and actors Carl Hancock Rux, Fiona Shaw, Fisher Stevens, Tyne Daly and Jefferson Mays. Audiences followed their work to a variety of locations, including Central Park, the Meatpacking District, Penn Yards, East River Park, Pier 25, the Chelsea Hotel, the Victory Theater (New Victory Theatre), and the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets in Lower Manhattan.
In 1989, En Garde produced a series of three plays at the Dairy, Belvedere Castle and Bow Bridge in Central Park. Obie Awards for Best New American Play and Best Director were given to Bad Penny playwright Mac Wellman and director Jim Simpson. The following year, Wellman's play Crowbar became the first legitimate theatrical production to be held in 42nd Street's Victory Theatre in 60 years. Crowbar was produced prior to 42nd Street's redevelopment, so a group of volunteers cleaned the interior to make way for Mac Wellman's new play. Directed by Richard Caliban with music by David Van Tieghem, Crowbar won Obie awards for En Garde Arts and actor Elżbieta Czyżewska, and was granted a special award by the Outer Critics Circle.
En Garde continued to produce work throughout the 1990s. Reza Abdoh and Mira-Lani Oglesby's work Father Was a Peculiar Man took place over nine distinct locations through the Meatpacking District. In an abandoned Victorian hospital on West 106th Street, Charles L. Mee's Another Person Is a Foreign Country confronted the social marginalization of unconventional people. Director Anne Bogart's cast included a blind choir with seeing-eye dogs, a group of emotionally disturbed rock musicians, and a man and woman, both 3’ tall, all staged against the Gothic, empty Towers Nursing Home (New York Cancer Hospital).
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In another piece, Hamburger used the New York Stock Exchange as a backdrop for JP Morgan Saves the Nation by composer Jonathan Larson.
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Production history
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Awards
Obie Awards (6): Bad Penny (Best New American Play: Mac Wellman) 1990; Bad Penny (Best Direction: Jim Simpson 1990; Crowbar (Performance: Elzbieta Czyzewska) 1990; En Garde Arts (Obie Grant) 1991; Orestes (Performance: Jefferson Mays) 1994; The Trojan Women (Performance: Sharon Scruggs) 1997[17]
Drama Desk Awards (2): The Waste Land (Outstanding One Person Show, Unique Theatrical Experience) 1997[18]
Outer Critics Circle Awards (1): Crowbar (Special Award) 1989-90[19]
Edwin Booth Award, 1995
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