The WOW Cafe - WOW Café Theatre

WOW
The
Cafe
tbyAlisaSolomon
The WOWCafe is a force more than a place. Unlikemany East Villageperformance
spaces, WOW,at 330 E. 11thStreet, did not begin as a locationseeking workto produce
butwas bornthe otherway around.Womenwho had been producinga vast varietyof work
all over the East Villagesought a permanenthome. Recently,duringone of theirweekly
open staff meetings, the 15 or so women who make up the Cafe's anarchicorganizing
collectivespoke aboutthe originsof theircafe. IntypicalWOWfashion,women periodically
wanderedin and out. The Cafe's oral history,recountedat this meetingfor the firsttime, is
rich-and long enough thatthe tellers disagree aboutthe details of theirstory.Atthe same
time, WOW'screativelyamorphousorganizationincludes enough newcomers that some
women were surprisedto hear there was an extensive past.
WOWbegan witha dreamshared by LoisWeaverand Peggy Shaw. Touringin Europe
in the late '70s withSpiderwomanTheaterand Hot Peaches, they met several companies
who wanted to performin the UnitedStates. They also attended many women's theatre
festivals in Europeand thoughtit was about time one took place in America."Itbecame
clear,"says Weaver,"thatif it was going to be done, we were going to have to be the ones
Volume29, Number1, Spring1985 (T105)
THEDRAMAREVIEW,
0012-5962/85/010092-10$4.00/0
? 1985 by the MassachusettsInstituteof Technology
THEWOWCAFE
93
to do it."They began to mentiontheirvision to Europeancompanies, makingit clear that
the Americansystem did not permitconditions equivalentto the ones they enjoyed in
Europe;they wouldbe unableto invitegroups intoa theatrethatcould pay even a smallfee
or accommodatethem. "Youwouldhave to come and produceyourselves;that'show we do
it,"Weavertold them. Peggy Shaw, tossing in wry interjectionsthroughoutWeaver'snarrative, adds witha sigh recallingexhaustion,"Wedidn'tthinkthey'd reallyfallfor it. We said
we'd do it, and then, all of a sudden, we had to."
And all of a sudden is how it happened. They had the idea in May 1980, and the first
Women'sOne World(WOW)Festivaltook place the followingOctober.Withoutany personal capitalor funding,and not enough time to applyfor grants, Weaverand Shaw, forming
"AlliedFarces"withJordiMarkand Pamela Camhe, began to workfanaticallyto create a
festivalthat would feature internationalgroups but also highlightnationaland New York
women performers.Acknowledgingthat music and dance already had healthy circuitsin
place, they concentratedon theatre, withthe Europeanfestivalas theirdeliberatemodel.
There, one could pay one admissionto see two or three shows, a movie, sit in a cafe and
talk, and dance afterwards."Wewanted to create that sort of multimediaenvironment,"
says Weaver,"so we did. God only knows how."
One tactic was to amass a crew of volunteers, who became the backbone of the
project.Throughoutthe summerof 1980, they producedbenefits,usuallyin the formof wild
costume parties, in donated spaces. In additionto giving the Festivalexposure, these
benefits acquaintedthe women with the vagaries of producing,accustomed them to the
technicaldemands of theirperformancespace, and collected a following."Wedidn'traise
muchmoney,"Weaversays, "butit didgive us a lot in the long runin termsof exposure and
experience, and we developed an audience."
Workingout of the AllcraftCenter on St. MarksPlace (the old ElectricCircus),Allied
Farces had to put up theirsets rightbefore they went on and breakthem down the same
night. By the time the Festivalarrived,they had acquired an adept technical crew. The
Festivalranfor two weeks withtwo, sometimes three, performancesa nightand occasional
afternoonshows. Groupscame fromEurope,payingtheirown way and sleeping on floors
of friendsof the Festival."Wecouldn'toffermuch,"Weaverexplains,"butjust havinga spot
to performin New Yorkwas a big deal for them. Andwe got them some press. Thatactually
generated enough interestthat they could come back on theirown later,as Beryland the
Perilsdid.""Wecouldn'tpay them,"Shaw adds, "butthey got a lot of attentionand made a
lot of contacts."
When the Festivalended, the Allcraftmanagement,pleased with its success, offered
its organizers the space to keep going. "'Whydon't we do what?,' we said," explains
Weaver,"butspace was at a premium,and we felt that if someone was offering us a
women's performancespace, we couldn'tvery well refuse."They stayed untilMarch.
In the ensuing months, they produced dance, theatre, and poetry by women every
Wednesday night and sometimes on Thursdaynights, splittingthe receipts with the performers.As word about the space got out, resumes and brochuresfrom performersbarraged them. But just as their reputationwas growing and their procedures were taking
shape, they got lockedout of the AllcraftCenter.One nightthe FlamboyantLadies,a black
lesbian group, performeda show that Weaverdescribes as "very,very hot, very sensual."
"Itwas beautiful,"says Shaw, "buta littletoo sexy for the Center."It happened that near
the end of the show there was a firein the buildingnext door thathad nothingto do withthe
performance,but it caused some damage to the Allcraft.The next time the WOWstaff
came to the space, they found padlocks on the door.
There is no animositybetween WOWand the Allcraftmanager;the women understood
that Allcrafthad been under investigationby the CETABoardthat funded them and were
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afraidof losing money."Therehad been some growingtension, some homophobickindof
tension, because of that,"says Weaver,"butthey reallyhad been generous. We did pay
them a portionof our proceeds butnot nearlyas muchas they could have made ifthey had
rentedthe space out."
Weaver,Shaw, and the currentWOWorganizers do not seem disconcerted by the
implicitindirectcensorshipfromthe CETAfoundation.They had, afterall, if not by design,
acquireda reputationfor producinglesbian work and expected certain attacks. Though
theirpolicywas to produceany workwrittenor directedby a woman, or that presented a
woman's sensibility,many of their benefits depended on creatingenvironmentsthat, depending on the theme, might include such attractionsas kissing booths. However,they
made no deliberate attemptto appeal exclusively to lesbians. "Youdidn'thave to be a
lesbian to get into the shows," explains Shaw, "butmost of the people who came were."
Then she adds jokingly,"Mosteither came that way or ended up that way."
Locked out, in any case, but booked for the next three months, the WOWbrigade
searched for a space and eventuallyfound the ballroomat the UkranianHome on 2nd
Avenue. It was difficultto create a congenial atmosphere in the cavernous, 86-year-old
theatre, but bringingin platforms,foldingchairs, and electricityenabled them to producea
month of Wednesday performancesand some benefits. In the meantime, they made a
connectionwiththe Universityof the Streets when itwas still,in Shaw'swords, "justa tacky
littlestorefront,"and they staged benefits there as well.
By now it was April1981, and time, they felt, to plan anotherfestival.This time, they
knewthey wantedto includean all-daycafe space where performersand spectators could
Thespace was named "WOW
at 330" to signify both its address and the hour "when
girls get out of school and go out looking for fun."
THEWOWCAFE
95
hang out, and they immediatelymade arrangementswithUniversityof the Streets. Wanting
to expand the Festival'sscope, they also booked other spaces. Againthey workedwithout
substantialfunding:The October1981 WOWFestivalbudget amountedto $2-3,000. Each
of its 11 days was packed withperformances:"Pastaand Performance"at Universityof the
Streets every day at 6:00 p.m., mainstage shows at 8:00 and 10:00 at the UkranianHome,
11:00performancesat Theatrefor the New City,midnightCabaretat the Centre Pub, and
occasional filmsat Millenium.Aftera year,WOWhad become a fullpartof the international
networkof women performersand attractedgroups from Finland,Sweden, New Zealand
and all over Europe. Some got money fromtheir own countries, but most came over on
theirown just because they had heard about the previousWOWFestival.
Afterthe second Festival,artistsfeltthatsomethingwas missingand realizedthatthey
did not want to give up the inspirationthat workingtogether had generated. "Itwas like
there was just energy left over,"Weaver explains. "Therehad been a place where you
couldjust dropby and always runintosomeone you knew.Not only people who had been
working,but also people who had been spectators really missed the energy after the
Festivalfinished."So this arbitrarygroup of people-including a huge productionteam of
designers and technicians-who had come togetherfor the Festival,began havingbrunches togetheron Sundays and talkedaboutcreatinga permanentcafe. Accordingto Weaver,
"Thiswas something we always hoped would happen, and it seemed like the perfect
outgrowthof the Festival."
This ad hoc brunchcommitteebegan to organize benefits at Club57: costume affairs
likethe FreudianSlip partyto whichguests came dressed in lingerie,a DebutanteBall,and
"X-ratedXmas"-which brough back one of the most controversialperformersfrom the
Festival.Diane Torr,a performanceartist making her living as a go-go dancer in New
Jersey, created a piece with her colleagues in which they danced and talked about their
lives. Manywomen were upset by the show, Shaw thinks,"becausethey didn'tknowhow to
act, how to react, or how to be with these women. A lot of women loved it, but many
Never shying away fromcontroversy,they invitedTorrto workon a
objectedto it politically."
benefitin whichshe performedfor an all-womenaudience and invitedthem to participate.
Otherbenefits includeda MedicalDrag Ball attended by people in costumes drippingwith
blood and gore, who danced with their I.Vs. Club 57, an old horrormovie house in the
basement of a churchat 57 St. Mark'sPlace, was one of the firstclubs inthe area to feature
crazy theme parties. Appreciativeof WOW'spurpose and zaniness, they rentedthem the
space for $75 a night.
These benefits had financial,albeit modest, success. "Allof a sudden we had five or
six hundreddollarsin our hands that had been raised for a cafe, so we started lookingfor
spaces," says Weaver, "and one afternoon we found 330 E. 11th. We had to talk the
landlordinto rentingit to us because he didn'treallywant any littlelesbian theatre in his
building.""Wetold himwe wanted it for a women's resource center,"Shaw explains, "but,"
adds Weaver,"hetook one lookat us and said, 'Oh.I have a son who'sgay.'We had learned
by then that you have to be up frontrightfromthe start because we didn'twantto put our
hearts into something and end up disappointed."
Since opening in March1982, the WOWCafe has presented innumerablepoets, performers, plays, films, videos and art exhibits. Continuallyreconsideringthe Cafe's purposes, the staff molds its flexible shape to meet its constituents'changing interests and
needs. They began literallyas a cafe, serving coffee and toasted brie sandwiches, simply
as Mo Angeles says, "because we had called it a cafe. So we had to serve coffee."
The space was named "WOWat 330" to signify both its address and the hour,as
Weaverputs it, "whengirls get out of school and go out lookingfor fun."Itwas open from
3:30 until11:00p.m.-a feasible prospectsince everyone on the staff had a key-and truly
Thefirstthing the organizers did was construct a platform at one end of the room. The
stage, barely 10 feet wide, fronts a backstage area filled with old props, bits of
costumes and chunks of sets.
became a social center."Butwhat we reallywanted,"says Weaver,"wasa women'sperformance space. We also wanted a hangout,a girls'social club."Unsureof theirinstitutional
identity,the dozen or so amorphouslyorganizedstaff (anyone who showed up to an open
staff meetingautomaticallyjoinedthe staff)arguedover whetherto have a pool table, what
color to paintthe ceiling, and whetherpaintingsshould be left on the walls duringperformances. "Weeventuallylearned,"Shaw says, "thatyou could do anythingyou wanted in
the space when nobody else was there."Every time they would come in, they explained
laughingly,someone else's paintingswould be newly hung.
Withoutexplicitlydeclaringtheirintentionsfor330, its organizersexpressed theirplans
when one of the firstthings they did was to constructa platformstage at one end of the
roomand hang a curtain.The stage, likethe entirespace, is barely 10 feet wide. Withits
floorof octagonal ceramic tiles, patternedalong one side, the rooms seems like it might
have been someone's vestibule or, even earlier,half of a dining room. Now, impossibly
narrowand maybe 20 feet long, it hardlycontainsa dozen or so rows of foldingchairs.The
homemade lightboardof household dimmerssits in the center of the room,controllinga
handfulof small,outdoor-typereflectorlamps-all the electricalsystem can accommodate.
The backstage area is a ten feet by ten feet jumbleof old props, bits of costumes, and
chunks of sets. The Cafe's originalexcuse, an enormous coffee maker,is stashed in a
corner.
Inits earlydays, the Cafe kept afloatby sellingfood and memberships.For$60 a year,
members got half-priceadmissions to performances.Althoughthis was not much of a
WOWCafe's space is narrowand perhaps 20 feet long, permitting only a dozen or so
rows of folding chairs to be set up for productions.
bargainsince performanceswere not yet very regular,it offered patronsa way to support
the Cafe where they "hungout."Membershipreached 120 withina few months. Performance bookingremainederraticuntilHollyHughes emerged to take on the managementof
the Cafe. She instituteda numberof regularevents that increased the Cafe's visibility,
broughtmore regularcustomers, and attractedmore writers,comics and actors. She orchestrated a numberof brunches, for instance, and created the popular"TalkingSlide
Show,"where artistswould show theirslides and talkabout theirwork.Varietynights also
caught on, providingopportunitiesfor many inchoate artists to workon materialwithout
having to face the risks and mechanics of mountingentire productions.Countless East
Villageperformersgot theirstart in these casual shows. Hughes herselfdeveloped her first
piece, "Shrimpin a Basket,"at the Cafe, and then "Wellof Horniness,"which went on to
become a popularLowerEast Side cult piece, playingat the PyramidClub,LimboLounge
and on WBAIRadio.TammyWhynot,a characterin Split Britches'most recent play, UpwardlyMobileHome, firstappeared at a talent night.AndCarmelitaTropicana,a persona
created by AlinaTroyano,was born almost by accident. Troyano,drawnto the Cafe because of its sense of humor,went on for an emcee who did not show up one nightand, she
proclaims,never came off. Recentlyshe performedat the Chandalierand the Limelight.
Afterabout a year, HollyHughes was exhausted by her non-paying,full-timemanagement of the Cafe and decided to leave. Therefore,in the spring of '83, the roughly15
women who still comprised WOW'scollective managementcalled a retreatto determine
their next steps. "Whathappens, unfortunately,when one person is in charge of all the
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details,"Weaversays, "isthat the collective sort of vanishes and leaves all the littledecisions up to that one person. So we had to regroup.This meetingwas reallya turningpoint
for the Cafe."
The women who gatheredfor the weekend were tiredand knewthat somethinghad to
change. "Wewere no longer just a cafe," says Weaver."Nowwe wanted to be serious
about being a performancespace, a culturalcenter."So they sat arounda big table, and
each person recommendedwhat she wouldliketo see happen in the comingseason. They
drew up a month-by-monthlist of the suggestions-and producedevery one of them the
followingyear.
Worriedabout Hughes' departure,the WOWcollective remaineduncertainabout the
Cafe's definitionand wondered whether all of its functionscould coexist gracefully."We
wanted to be an art space, a theatrespace, a hangout,and have as much inputfromthe
communityas possible," Troyanoremarks, "buthow do you maintainthat?"As usual
though,things fell into place. Because they had sketched out a calendar for the season,
Weaverbelieves, "eachmonthjust materialized.Itwasn'tas if anyone was there holdingus
to it, itjust sort of happened because the calendarhad to be filledin each monthahead of
time, so we just did it; it was prettymagical."
Thatmagic was replacedby a less ethereal if equallypowerfulforce in Fall1983 when
Susan Youngtook over as bookingmanager."Ihad just moved here,"she relates. "Ididn't
knowany of these women, I hadn'tseen any WOWFestivalsor reallyknew that they had
existed. But I came here and saw Split Britchesperformand knew immediatelythat this
was where I wanted to work."Since then, she has been designing WOWproductionsand
carryingout day-to-daymanagerialtasks. Underher direction,informedby the collective,
the Cafe has turned in slightlynew directions.Whilecontinuingto book anyone who requests space, Younghas also set up some regularevents whose managementshe turns
over to the groups involved.Each Sunday nightfromSeptember 1984 untilChristmas,for
example, is directedby the Asian Lesbians of the East Coast. "Insteadof takingindividual
bookingsfora jam session here, a filmshowingthere, we decided thatthis groupwouldput
together its own evenings. The outcome has been incredible:films, videos, poetry readings, music."This arrangementalso serves a growingaim of the Cafe-to reach out to a
more raciallymixed audience.
Atthe same time, cafeniks are beginningto rethinktheirpolicyof allowinganyone with
an interestto book the Cafe, not only because they want to puttheirenergy intoproducing
theirown work,but also because they are sometimes displeased withthe results. "Westill
want to providea producingservice to the community,"
says Young,"butwomen come in
expectinga great deal and don'tgive anythingback to the space. Thereare a lotof women
who aren'tregularshere who come in and perform,put holes in the wall, breakour lightboard, and split, and don't even think of ever coming to a staff meeting or even to a
performanceby anotherwoman."
More abstract issues such as the risks that works will be artisticallybad, politically
inconsistentwiththe Cafe's tacitfeminism,or just poorlyexecuted increasinglyconcern the
staff. Yet they would rather tolerate occasional disasters than auditionwomen for the
space; that, they believe, would amount to censorship. "We'realways criticizedfor not
Shaw complains."We'retold, 'Nowthatyou've been aroundyou have to have
auditioning,"
But we feel the minuteyou start auditioningyou become just like anybody
work.'
quality
else."
These issues may become less pressing as the Cafe moves towardits year-longgoal
of puttingon work from withinits own community-a prioritynot as cliqueish as it may
sound since anyone who hangs aroundis absorbed into that community.Facingsome of
the difficultiesposed by outside performers,Youngexplains, "Wewondered,why are we
Peggy Shaw being fitted for a costume, for a WOWCafe performance.
breaking our backs producing so many other women when our own work is not a priority?"
This past season they decided to rectify the situation and to make concrete proposals for inhouse bookings. Just as booking a calendar the year before provided the structured impetus to keep the Cafe going then, this new commitment generated creative work and pushed
WOW women toward inventing and finishing new projects.
The most experienced of the WOW regulars is the Split Britches company, comprised
of Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw and Deborah Margolin. Their recent work-in-progress, Up-
wardlyMobile Home, has been shown twice at the Cafe, once in the Springof '84 and
again, further developed, in the Fall. Though there is probably no such thing as a typical
WOW performance, Split Britches crystallizes some of the distinguishing qualities from
which one might be able to infer a WOW sensibility.
UpwardlyMobileHometakes place in 1986 afterReagan's re-election.Threeactors in
a theatrecompany,who are preparinga productionof a 1920s hit, Shanghai Gesture, are
camping out under the Brooklyn Bridge, homeless. There, one woman peddles her old
clothes, another sells instant coffee over the phone, and all three fantasize, argue and
rehearse their show. A bizarre sense of humor combines with a barrage of intersecting
ideas to create a complex criticism of American myths. Formallyinventive, the piece follows
a day in the life of these actresses, with overlapping monologs, songs and play-within-aplay sequences.
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Lois Weaver(above), one of the Cafe's organizers, calls their approach "afeminist
esthetic because its details are often forgotten or stepped over in male-dominated
work."
OtherWOWproductionsso far lack SplitBritches'dramaticsophistication.ButHeartof
the Scorpion, "a lesbian HarlequinRomance"by Alice Forrester,also reflects some of
WOW'stypicalenergetic zaniness. Forrester'sproductionalso came out the Cafe's recent
push to produce more in-house work.Anotherreason for this shift in emphasis is that the
Cafe mightlose its lease at 300 E. 11thwhen itcomes up forrenewalin March."Wewanted
to be sure we wouldstillhave definitioneven ifwe lose the space,"explainsWeaver,"sowe
created a numberof regularprojectsto fall under the umbrellaof WOWProductions."In
additionto SplitBritches'and Forrester'swork,these projectshave includedthe LowerEast
Side Girls'Chorus,a loose collectionof women who got together to sing; "Holl'sDolls,"a
group directed by HollyHughes that is currentlyworkingon a new version of Bye Bye
Birdie; "HighFiberComedy,"featuringthe comic Reno; and the WorkingGirlsRepertory,a
newly-formedon-going women's repertory.WorkingGirlsRepertorypremieredin December withan adaptationof Hans ChristianAndersen'sThe Snow Queen, adapted by Shaw
and directed by Weaver.Incorporatingstory-tellingtechniques with dramaticrepresentation, the play offers a subtlyfeministrevisionof the fairytale.
Ifthe Cafe has not declaredany manifestosto define the natureof WOWproductions,
some common themes and esthetics have emerged. Feminismand lesbianismappear in
the shows not as issues butas givens. Ifthere is an overridingartisticimpulse,says Young,
"it'ssimplyto inventfromwhat we have. We can't affordto go out and buy things, so our
limits determine our creativity."What is true literallyof the sets and costumes applies
equallyto the materialof the plays-it is drawnfromthe women's lives. The stylisticresult
is an attentionto detail,an approachWeavercalls "afeminineesthetic because its details
are oftenforgottenor stepped over in male-dominatedworks.Butlittleparts of our lives are
as importantas the big climacticevents that usually make dramas."Often, for instance,
they workfromsimple images or from examininga single day in a character'slife. Their
methodof workingalso reflects a feministintentionwithits implicitrejectionof mainstream
hierarchy;jobs are defined and individualstake responsibilityfor specific tasks, but every-
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101
one contributesto creative processes in discussion, and anyone can become part of the
Cafe staff simplyby choice.
Workingwithinlimitationsmay be a fruitfulchallenge, Shaw is quickto pointout, but
she thinksthey woulddo just as well withplentyof money and a big space. Butchances are
they won't ever have to worryabout money crampingtheir creativitybecause they have
slim prospects of ever acquiringmuch cash flow. Membersof the WOWstaff disagree
about applyingfor grants. Some, like Troyano,believe that no one wants to bothersitting
down to write proposals. Angelos likes the idea of grants, but found when she did some
research that "thekinds of things I thoughtwe might be able to get money for were not
reallythe kindsof thingswe wantedto do."AndShaw worriesthat"grantschange you. You
get grants, people come in and judge you, and you start thinkingthat you better not do
anythingthat will make them take your grant away.""Butchand femme night?"someone
chimes in referringto a past extravaganza,"Forgetit."
To compensate, WOW still throws benefits now and then; some of the best ones, the
staff claims, have been rent parties. And some of them have been knownto beg on the
our friendsintowritingchecks."Itdoes not help that
street, in Shaw's words, "guilt-tripping
the Cafe has been robbedperiodically."Don'tpublishthat we just boughta new projector,"
Angelos jokes. The life of Cafe propertyhas averaged three or four months. They had
speakers for only a monthand have lost many bicycles. Shaw says, "Theyused to come
here and even drinkour beer, throwthe cans on the floor,and leave the toiletseat up. But
that stopped many months ago. Things feel safer."
The Cafe is even safer in a figurativesense. Anyone is encouraged to get up and
performat WOWand, says Weaver,"thatencouragementcreates a freedom to express
oneself. Once a performerfeels safe, you can trainher."Troyanoagrees and considers the
support she gets from her WOWcolleagues a crucialelement of her progress. "People
here will be criticalof your work,"she says, "butthey'llcriticizein a positive way that's
helpfulwhen you go out to performin the other theatreworld."
Thoughseveral of the WOWwomen referto "therealtheatreworld,"they do not really
feel isolated or illegitimate.A number of WOWtechnicians and designers are hired by
Equityproductions,and the Cafe is known as a resource for good stage managers and
technicalpeople. Butwhat gives WOWits strengthis its independence:It needs no external sanctioningin order to survive because it has a loyal, criticalaudience of women of
variousbackgroundswho consider the Cafe vital. "Wedo want criticism,"Weaverpoints
out. "Wedon'twant to be ghettoized,butwe also likethe safe, growingatmosphere.""It'sa
place to learnthe craft,"says Troyano,"whileyou'redoing it."Above all, Weavercontinues,
"theWOWCafe is communitytheatrein the best sense-it's creatingtheatreof, for and by
the community.Ifwe have a big show to puton, we don'tgo outside to finda moretalented
actress, for instance, or a more talented and expensive lightingdesigner. We pull all the
resources fromthe communityas it continues to formitself."That'swhy WOWwillsurvive
even if they have to leave 330 E. 11th.WOW'scommunityis definedby a force biggerthan
geography.
Alisa Solomon writes about performance for The Village Voice, American Theatre, Performing Arts
Journal, and other publications.