NHTC Takes It to the Streets

UPDATE UPDATE: The Meter Theater website is up—be sure to sign up for emails with secret, insider information about the project, including time and place of performances.

UPDATE: The lineup of Meter Theater shows has been announced!

NHTC, in partnership with New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas, presents “METER THEATER”, an innovative take on street theater performed in parking spaces. “METER THEATER” will perform every day of the 2007 festival (June 9–23), playing in various locations around the city, before and after other Festival programming.

“We are delighted to be partnering with such a like the International Festival of Arts and Ideas,” says NHTC Creative Director T. Paul Lowry, “which is known for bringing the world’s most innovative artists to New Haven. We humbly suggest that when they come, they’ll find that New Haven is home to some pretty innovative theater itself.”

In this case, the innovation involves the presentation of nearly a dozen new plays. All aspects of the production—sets, props, costumes, actors—will occupy one metered municipal parking space and perform to an audience standing on the sidewalk. (NHTC has pledged to obey all posted signs and parking regulations.) Each presentation begins with an actor depositing one quarter into a metered parking space, and when the time runs out, the play is over.

“Our company takes old forms and makes them new again,” says NHTC regular Matthew Wrather, a director and performer of “METER THEATER”. “Street theater, including mime, music, and commedia dell’arte, all of which which we are using, is a tradition as old and rich as ‘art’ theater. We hope that this little twist—performing in parking spaces—can update and revitalize the tradition for contemporary audiences, many of whom might not be into ‘theatre’ per se. And we hope it somehow highlights the need for affordable performance and rehearsal space for local theater companies like ours.”