Urban Backstage explored spaces in the city that, through accident, intention, design, loss, and/or neglect, allow urban residents to remove their masks, to make mistakes, to hide and/or expose thoughts and actions that may not be allowed elsewhere. The collaborators investigated this backstage quality in the waterfront and urban infrastructure of the Lower East Side, where the mechanics of the city are
generally hidden. In the same way that the distinction between back and front stage is often blurred or eliminated in contemporary performance, this residency generated movement toward making visible these supporting services of the city.
Julie Kline
Julie Kline is a Brooklyn-based actor, director, writer, and producer of new works for the theater, in both professional and community-based contexts, and a practitioner and teacher of inter-generational and senior theater. Recent work includes developing and directing the award-winning solo show MAGDALEN, based on the stories of the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, and conceiving and directing SENIORS AND THE CITY – original theater works based on the life-stories of Manhattan seniors, as part of two years of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s SPARC residency.