GOD BLESS! GOD BLESS!  I apologize for disturbing you here on the uptown #6 train.  I'm sure when you got on at Astor Place you didn't expect to have to listen to another homeless sob story - But these are tough times all over with the economy in the toilet... and as a patriotic, capitalistic American, and a veteran of the funding wars, I do believe that the rich have to get richer and the poor get poorer.  That's the American Dream, and without dreaming the American Dream, how will we ever get to sleep in this system?  But sooner or later, no matter how many fiscal AMBIENS we take, sooner or later something wakes us up.

Now I believe in Karl, and I'm just as into surplus value as J.P. Morgan Chase, and of course rent, profits and interest rates are the only plays to run on Broadway this cash culture season- But when you actually find yourself out on the street... you take pause...

It's true.  At the end of our fortieth season, yes FORTY, Mabou Mines will be homeless.  We have to vacate our home at the 122 Community Center for two and a half years while the city upgrades the real estate.  And while we're grateful for the upgrade, we find ourselves riding out a perfect storm in the bosom of the MTA... as the nadir of the economic downturn collides with the city's construction schedule... If this were LA, at least we could live in the car.

So here we are, America's oldest experimental theater, begging on the subway.  This time it's not for a new production... yes, we have them coming... But in reality, now it is for life support while we wait it out.

In spite of my dark glasses, crutches and tin cup (every theaters "begging drag") we really do have some hot prospects cooking in 2011:

• Peter & Wendy returns to NYC - May 5-22 www.newvictory.org
• A new version of The Glass Menagerie developed with Duke University (February in Durham NC).
• Julie and Liza's CORN; Ruth's Imaginary Invalid; and Lee's lifelong opus La Divina Caricatura on the way...
• Finally, in April, a blowout event to celebrate our 40th Anniversay at the Paula Cooper Gallery - where it all began...

But before I get off the train and go to work, I've got to find a flophouse and a slice of pizza... So...God bless, God bless... If you have any change just drop it into the cup and have a nice day.

Love,
Mabou Mines

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