Woodbury's What Ever: An American Odyssey in 8 Acts gets its most prominent New York forum to date at P.S. 122, running Sept. 4-21. Woodbury has been nursing the sprawling multi-character, eight-part piece for going on a decade. Previously, it was seen at the Lower East Side's Surf Reality and at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
In the eight-hour work, Woodbury weaves a complicated, cross-country Dickensian yarn featuring 10 major characters and 90 supporting players. P.S 122 will be dividing the play into four evenings, each two acts long. Theatregoers are invited to attend one or all of the segments. What Ever is directed by Dudley Saunders.
Following Peggy Shawn's To My Chagrin, running Oct. 2-26, P.S. 122 will welcome back monologuist Spalding Gray and his latest autobiographical show, Life Interrupted. The work has a rocky history. Under a different title, Black Spot, it was scheduled to run at P.S 122 on Mondays during the fall of 2002. However, the entire run was canceled when the famously neurotic, monologuist was checked into a mental hospital. According to the New York Post, Gray was found near his Sag Harbor, Long Island, home contemplating a jump from a local bridge. The police and his wife, Kathy Russo, talked him down. Russo told the Post that Gray has been suffering from depression since a 2001 head-on collision in Ireland.
Ironically, Life Interrupted centers on the crash. Gray was celebrating his 60th birthday when traveling in Ireland in 2001. According to press materials, the crash happened on the day after the longest day of the year. The monologue also features bits on Irish culture, socialized medicine, a further operation in the U.S. and Gray's family's move into a bigger house—scheduled moving day: Sept. 11, 2001.
The remainder of the P.S. 122 season runs as follows: Courtesan Tales by Nicole Blackman, Oct. 7-Nov. 1
Paradise? by Kari Horas, Nov. 6-9
Placid Baby by Sam Kim, Nov. 13-16
A Dream Deferred by the Niles Ford Dance Collective, Nov. 20 30
Solo Me by the Croatian dance company BADco., Dec. 4-7
Intimacy in Transition by Chris Elam and the Misnomer Dance Company, Dec. 11-21
House of No More by Big Art Group, Jan. 2-Feb. 1, 2004
Instructions for Forgetting by Forced Entertainment, Jan. 8-25
The Life and Times of Barry Goldhubris by Larry Goldhuber and David Brooks, Feb. 5-22
Accidental Nostalgia by Cynthia Hopkins, Feb. 26-March 7
Cold Comfort by Karen Sherman, March 11-14
131 by Kathy Profeta, March 18-28
Coming Out of the Night with Names by Human Future Dance, April 1-15
An untitled work by Karen Finley, May 13-30
