Meeting with Jeff Stark // Nonsense NYC // 2010

0:15 This way to your left and then you’re going to want to take a right on Cork Street and then down into the subway station of bur Hall it’s um the Uptown platform of the 45 in the center of theat for let the begin everybody my name is Jeff Stark and uh I live in New York City I edit a weekly email list called nonsense NYC that’s about independent and unusual events in New York and uh I also produce events and and make things happen my name is Jeff Stark and

0:57 Uh look your father he plays by bullies rules right I can’t fight a war against a bully I’m one guy with a big mouth and it’s a very nice mouth IRT is a is a period drama uh melodrama that takes place uh in 1904 when the subway system is being built in New York City this is 86 Street everybody this is our stop we’re going to step off the train and just stand against the wall right we have very very little money so in in fact what happens is artists tend to put up their own money for for for

1:37 Something so it would cost you maybe $10,000 to rent a space just to have a play so why not just do it on the subway um a weird event the weirdest events that we’ve had recently for some reason um Taxidermy is kind of a big fad right now and people uh taking the skins off of animals and making uh puppets out of them um this is for some reason uh very popular right now so I keep listing these things we list uh been listing a thing called the death

2:23 Bear which is a a large bear who will come to your house uh if you’re sad or if you’ve lost someone recently and this person will comfort you and then we you know list that standard warehouse parties and independent fashion shows and uh uh multimedia events that you know are kind of the stock in trade for when we do theater on the subway we take a the most pedestrian experience in New York City this thing that we completely take for granted which is mass transit and and and try to change it and hopefully you

3:07 Know when it works um whenever the people who have come to see the play walk by that location in the future they say oh this isn’t this isn’t just the subway station this is this was a ballroom this is something magical and um and then for the piece that we’re working on right now the Sweet Sheet this is a place that’s sort of Forgotten and has has is is being to rot by history it’s been abandoned since 1936 and it’s falling apart and I think we’re able to bring an audience into this place and show them something that’s that’s forgotten and and show them something that they haven’t seen before and and I think that people are sort of overwhelmed by by the space and and

3:47 Overwhelmed by the way that we’re using it which is full of love and and respect for this thing that is rotting and falling away it’s a dystopic Sci-Fi uh story based on a rick Moody story called the albertine notes and it’s set um in the near future uh in Manhattan after a a huge bomb has gone off um and 20% of the population is addicted to a drug called albertine that allows them to experience the past with Perfect Memory recall in in the story uh a young reporter a guy named Kevin Lee gets an assignment to find out whether

4:30 Or not it’s true that you can get to the Future on this drug so what happens is this crazy Philip K dick type story of memories within a memory and you can’t really tell where linear time exists or if it exists at all so we’ve sort of taken this nonlinear story and tried to present it in a in in a huge nonlinear space the bridges are blown out and as you pull along the section of the island I’m guessing Village used to be to me if you if you don’t use public space uh um if you if you take it for granted even for just a second it’s it’s uh it’s it’s something that can disappear it’s like freedom of speech you know if if you’re not if you’re not testing it at all times uh you stand a good chance of losing it