The Wooster Group Work Book

The Wooster Group has consistently challenged audiences and critics alike with their extraordinary performance works, many of which are now recognised as ‘classics’ of the contemporary stage.

The Wooster Group Work Book accesses, often for the first time, the company’s rehearsal methods and source materials, as well as the creative thinking and reflections of director Elizabeth LeCompte and her main artistic collaborators. Focusing on six performance pieces, Frank Dell’s the Temptation of St. Antony (1987), Brace Up! (1990), Fish Story (1994), House/Lights (1999) and To You, the Birdie! (Phedre) (2002), this new volume gathers together an astonishing range of archival material to produce a vivid and personal account of how the company makes its work.

This book’s intricate layering of journal extracts, actors’ notes, stage designs, drawings, performance texts, rehearsal transcriptions, stage-managers’ logs and stunning photographs traces a unique documentary path across the practice of the Wooster Group, one that will be an indispensable resource for all those with an interest in contemporary performance and its impact on contemporary culture.

Highly accessible to the student, scholar, theatre-goer and practitioner, and including three contextualizing essays by Andrew Quick, this book offers a series of remarkable insights into the working practices of one of the world’s leading performance companies.

Andrew Quick is a Senior Lecturer in Theater Studies at Lancaster University. He is co-editor of On Memory (2000), Time and Value (1998) and Shattered Anatomies (1997). He is also a founder member of Leeds-based performance company, imitating the dog, where he writes and directs.