Spalding Gray: A Celebration of his Life and Work

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in New York City presented Spalding Gray: A Celebration of his Life and Work livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 11 April at 3:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 6:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 22:30 GMT / 23:30 BST (London).

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Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941–January 11, 2004) was an iconic New York downtown actor and writer. He is most known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theatre in the 1980s and 1990s. Theatre critics John Willis and Ben Hodges described his monologue work as “trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania.” Gray became famous with his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which was adapted into a film in 1987 by filmmaker Jonathan Demme. Other one-man shows by Gray that were captured on film include Monster in a Box, directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray’s Anatomy, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Gray died in New York City, New York, of an apparent suicide in 2004. 

The evening program will include excerpts from Spalding Gray—Stories Left to Tell, writings by Spalding Gray, conceived and assembled by Kathleen Russo and Lucy Sexton, read by Nora Burns, Lucy Sexton, and Jonathan Walker. With Kathleen Russo, Lucy Sexton, and Ken Kobland. 

Kathleen Russo is the producer of the Special Projects Coordinator at Stony Brook/Southampton where she produces events and a writer’s series. In addition, she produces the podcast/radio show Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin (a Stony Brook/Southampton and WNYC production). She is currently in production on Friends with Words (another podcast/radio show) with bestselling author, Stony Brook faculty member Meg Wolitzer. Past credits include: two movies with academy award winning director Steven Soderbergh (Gray’s Anatomy, And Everything Is Going Fine) and an Obie-award winning play called Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell.

Lucy Sexton works in dance, theatre, and film. Beginning in the 1980s, she and Anne Iobst created, performed, and toured with the seminal dance-performance group DANCENOISE; their work was featured in a retrospective at the Whitney Museum in July 2015. She also performs as The Factress, often in collaboration with Nurse Baby Asparagus, aka Mike Iveson. With Kathleen Russo, she developed and directed the Obie-Award winning Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell at The Minetta Lane Theater. She directed Tom Murrins’s Magical Ridiculous Journey of Alien Comic at Performance Space 122. Sexton has produced two documentaries, directed by Charles Atlas: The Legend of Leigh Bowery for the BBC and Arte, and TURNING with Antony and the Johnsons. She is currently the Executive Director of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies.

Ken Kobland was born in The Bronx, New York, September, l946. Graduated in Art with a minor in Philosophy from Union College, Schenectady, New York, 1969. Attended Columbia University School of Architecture, 1967-68. Since 1975, Mr. Kobland has produced independent film, video and media art works, including a number of performance/media pieces for theatrical presentation in collaboration with The Wooster Group, the New York based experimental theatre. Kobland’s work has been included in numerous film and video festivals such as: Ann Arbor, CinemaTexas, Bellevue, Sinking Creek, Athens (Ohio), Atlanta Film Festival, American Film Festival (Film-as-Art), San Francisco Film Festival (Golden Gate Awards), Black Maria Film/Video Festival, Montreal, Oberhausen (West Germany), Hyeres (France), among others. In addition his work has been represented in group shows in London, Paris, Sidney, Budapest, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Bangkok. www.kenkoblandfilms.com

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected], or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.