In 2011, after the Wooster Street constructing was bought, the Ohio was reincarnated as the New Ohio. Cumulatively, the two levels noticed a jaw-dropping profusion of downtown artists (Taylor Mac, Mimi Lien, Knud Adams, Sam Gold, Lee Sunday Evans, James Ortiz) and firms (the Mad Ones, Half Straddle, Target Margin, New Georges, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Rude Mechanicals, Clubbed Thumb, Ping Chong and Company, Elevator Repair Service, Vampire Cowboys, the Talking Band).
The reveals Lyons remembers most fondly embrace “Surrender,” by International WOW; “Boozy,” from Alex Timbers; and “Particularly in the Heartland,” by Rachel Chavkin and the TEAM. Back in 1988, Lyons recalled, Anne Bogart’s “No Plays No Poetry” put the Ohio Theater on the map.
As for the rented area that was house to the New Ohio, it’ll stay a theater, renamed 154 and run by the nonprofit ChaShaMa. In the coming season, 154 will host the firm Out of the Box Theatrics, which focuses on marginalized communities.
Three days after the remaining efficiency of “Ultra Left Violence,” Lyons organized two chairs on the New Ohio’s immaculate empty stage and sat down for an interview. These are edited excerpts from that dialog.
What’s your individual favourite reminiscence of these 30 years?
Definitely one of them was once we did the Vaclav Havel competition, and he got here to the [Ohio Theater] two or three nights in a row. Edward Einhorn did the competition. I directed one of the reveals, and Havel got here and noticed it. Then he simply frolicked, and I purchased him a beer at the concessions, and he was telling me about this play he was working on.