The Wooster Group

Biography

The Wooster Group is an ensemble of artists who, under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, have collaborated on the development and production of theater, film and media pieces. Considered America's leading experimental theater group, the New York-based Group is renowned for its complex and compelling "televisual" stage productions. The Wooster Group's core members include Jim Clayburgh, Willem Dafoe, Spalding Gray, Elizabeth LeCompte, Peyton Smith, and Kate Valk.

The Wooster Group has played a pivotal role in bringing technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film and video into the realm of contemporary theater. Constructed as assemblages of juxtaposed elements, their pieces also combine radical restagings of classic texts, found materials, dance, multi-track scoring, and an architectonic approach to design. The Group's strategy of layering diverse elements finds dynamic expression in their highly innovative works in film, video and new media.

The Wooster Group has received numerous awards, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Village Voice OBIE Award for "fifteen years of sustained excellence." LeCompte received an NEA Distinguished Artists Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in American Theater, and in 1995 was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for outstanding creative achievement in her work with the Wooster Group. The Wooster Group's film and video works have been included in numerous exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and the New York Film Festival.