06/03/2023
We join with our community to mourn the Public Theater’s dismissal of the Under The Radar Festival, and the devaluing of this essential platform for theater artists, artistic directors, practitioners, devotees, and thinkers from around the world.
In early 2013, Mark Russell and Meiyin Wang came to see our show The Record at The Invisible Dog Art Center. They - in a real bonkers move - invited us to do The Record at the 2014 UTR festival. For the decade that followed we presented four other projects at the festival, with Mark’s support. It was and is an inimitable relationship that has deepened and grown over time. UTR was our home. The relationship expanded and stretched and was a far cry from the “one-and-done” transactional thing that seems to be the mode these days.
We may never know another relationship like this in our lifetime as artists, with someone like Mark who – along with Meiyin and Andrew and Jonathan Grenay – has continued to advocate, support and (most importantly) to produce us. He has been our lighthouse. He came to the worst of our rehearsals and said “yeah, the piece sucks right now but keep working on it.” We sat in a tiny office with no legroom so many times. Mark would look us deep in the eye and say ‘Let’s do this!’ The eye contact was a kind of promise. Let’s make something together.
Of course, before we were even making work as 600 HIGHWAYMEN we were going to see shows at UTR, shows that gave us this remarkable feeling - “oh, this is possible!” We will never forget Kassy’s “Liga”, David Cale’s “We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time”, Richard Maxwell/Christina Masciotti’s “Vision Disturbance”, NTOK’s full marathon of “Life and Times”, Lola Arias. Many others. These were and remain formative experiences. To see these harebrained, brave, totally radical works changed us.
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In the U.S., there is a strange infantilization of the weirder artists (“downtown,” “experimental,” “fringe,” “independent,”, whatever – blahblah boxes boxes boxes) and what their needs are. “They need THIS kind of development; they won’t be ready until they get past THIS kind of half-step, or THIS kind of preparatory test.” But what we actually need are full-blown productions. Chances to put our work up in larger-than-tiny rooms for an expansive, engaged audience.
Mark and Meiyin offered us that chance, and it radically changed who we are as people and as artists. Through UTR we’ve built personal and professional relationships that have filled us with purpose and with a feeling of family. UTR helped us make work that we were and are so proud of. It helped us create an international network so we could tour extensively. It gave us an income from our work – something we never thought possible in our wildest, underfunded-American dreams.
Under the Radar never actually “belonged” to the Public Theater. Weird art always survives. Something new will emerge. Something beautiful to take hold and provide meaningful opportunities for the weird ones, the uncategorizable ones, the unmarketable ones. The artists still in their formative years (aren’t we always in our formative years?). The artists who are, we hope, right now watching shows in dark rooms, thinking about some crazy idea they have and how it would never work … but maybe ..? Who feel hungry to be a part of something.
Most of all: thank you, Mark, for everything you have done and continue to do for us and the field. Thank you for all the years of the festival and, before that, thank you for the PS122 years so that, as stupid undergrads, we had a place to see weird s**t every single night of the week. Thank you for inviting us in, for saying “let’s do this”, for letting us be a part of your vision.
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Michael & Abby (600HWM)
