Who: Joshua William Gelb, Sanaz Ghajar, Veronica Jiao, Nehemiah Luckett, Nate Stevens, Raja Feather Kelly
What: Live performance series from an East Village closet
Where: Joshua William Gelb YouTube channel
When: Thursday, July 16, free, 7:00 (encore at 9:00)
Why: Feeling claustrophobic? Wait till you get a load of Joshua William Gelb. During the pandemic, the writer, director, performer, and librettist has been presenting short, livestreamed works from his 2′ x 4′ x 8′ converted closet in his East Village apartment, making creative use of the space in a series he calls Theater in Quarantine. Among the pieces you can still catch on his YouTube channel are Franz Kafka’s The Neighbor, Hypochondriac! (based on Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid), Scott R. Sheppard’s Topside, and box thrree. spool five. a piece of krapp, from Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. On July 16 at 7:00 and 9:00, Gelb will premiere closet works v.2, featuring choreography by regular collaborator Katie Rose McLaughlin and guest artists Sanaz Ghajar, Veronica Jiao, Nehemiah Luckett, Nate Stevens, and Raja Feather Kelly, offering a whole new interpretation of digital space.
In a statement, Gelb (The Black Crook, A Hunger Artist) explained, “I often think about Peter Brook’s invocation of the empty space when standing in front of my closet. How can this utilitarian container, so uncomfortably small, so disproportionate in its aspect ratio, become a stage for the imagination? And it’s here I find the central metaphor, and perhaps appeal, of the entire project — it’s about as obvious as you might expect — that my attempts not only to make art in this confinement but to exist whatsoever, are not so dissimilar from what many of us are experiencing. There is frustration, and boredom, and lots of loneliness. But there is also great potential and for once an expanse of time that we have the chance to fill not with mere anxiety but with the thoughtful, rigorous creative impulse.” The series, held in conjunction with the Invisible Dog Art Center, continues August 13 and September 12; admission is free, but you can donate to the project here. Also on the schedule for Theater in Quarantine is The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy on July 30, an adaptation of Stanisław Lem’s Star Diaries directed by Jon Levin and written by Josh Luxenberg; and the spoken-word chamber opera Footnote for the End of Time on August 27, based on Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “The Secret Miracle,” directed by Levin and with music by Alex Weston inspired by Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.