Dixon Place

Place Matters Profile

By Michelle Pena

Dixon Place–an avant-garde theater dedicated to promoting the development of original works of theater, dance, literature, and performance art–is its own most significant work-in-progress.

Upon walking through the entrance to Dixon Place’s new location on Chrystie Street, the first thing you may notice are the dim lights. You walk a little further past the bar on the right lined with mis-matched chairs and a chalk-written menu on the back wall and then into the lobby–adorned with rich, oriental rugs and chairs that seem to come from every decade, and encased by deep, golden yellow walls. You might even want to say that the lobby gives off a musty, European feel, and chances are that if you share this observation with the staff, they’ll graciously receive it as a compliment. What you’re standing in isn’t only the lobby of Dixon Place, but doubles as the smaller of two performance spaces in the venue which seats about 40 people, and was designed to recall the European salons of the 17th and 18th centuries. You might see various visual or video art pieces featured in this space, or hear a more intimate literary reading or acoustic performance if you’re there during the evening. The ticket office is up ahead on the left, and if you go through the opposite doorway and follow the nude women running down the wall next to the staircase, you’ll end up in the larger of the two performance spaces–a bi-level theater which can be manipulated to seat between 70 and 150 audience members.

Dixon Place presents original works of theater, dance, literature, and performance art, and has, since its inception in 1986, always been primarily focused on showcasing developing works and works-in-progress. Past programming ranges from philosophizing potatoes to a contemporary and experimental take on social dancing. The theater has also served as a launching pad for now-well known stars, such as John Leguizamo, the Blue Man Group, Reno, and Eve Ensler, and often serves as a space where the likes of Frank Maya and David Cale, among others, can test out new material.

But Dixon Place’s most significant work-in-progress thus far has to be itself. Established in New York City twenty-three years ago, Dixon Place just opened its own space on Chrystie Street earlier this year (2009)–one that is entirely legal and not encroaching upon someone else’s living room. This professional and permanent–at least for the time being–venue is a far cry from how Dixon Place was first established in 1985. Ellie Covan, Dixon Place’s founder, studied acting as a child but later left the theater to train in animal medical technology. She eventually worked as a laboratory technician working with a heart specialist in Houston, ultimately leaving the job and returning to acting after the numerous deaths she had to face in the profession. However, Ms. Covan–a self-proclaimed “social recluse”–didn’t quite fit in with the theater crowd at the University of Texas in Austin where she went to study, and left for New York to play Jane Bowles at an obscure Off Off-Broadway theater. Not long after, she followed in the footsteps of her title character, Ms. Bowles, and traveled to Northern Africa.

Shortly after her explorations in Morocco, Covan found herself in Paris, where she knew no one, save two people. One of these was an American businessman acquaintance who was leaving for New York and offered to let her stay in the apartment he was subletting for free. The other was an artist acquaintance who would unexpectedly inspire Ms. Covan and change her life. She urged Ellie to host a dinner party on a Tuesday night, to which twelve guests arrived with food and were subsequently entertained with a reading of Ms. Covan’s first short story. From then on, Ms. Covan continued to host readings and dinners in the businessman’s apartment, creating a sort of impromptu salon through which she discovered her enjoyment in hosting and bringing people together.

When Ms. Covan returned to New York, she was persuaded into moving into an East Village storefront and, in a attempt to recreate her experience in Paris, devised a six-month reading series entitled “Tuesdays at Dixon Place” which would feature others’ written works. Before the six months were up, Covan realized that this side-project of hers would become her career, and in April 1986, she started the reading series once more in her living room, and added performance artists and bands on the weekends. By 1990, Dixon Place had outgrown its space in the East Village storefront, and Covan moved to 258 Bowery, taking the theater with her. In its new home, Dixon Place was able to accommodate about 60 people and was a well-known institution in the New York theater scene. But Covan began to feel the weight of hosting a theater in her living space–often an intern would be living with her, in addition to the staff that also worked there; yet with more performance spaces closing, Dixon Place became more valuable than ever, especially since few were as devoted to process and works-in-progress as Covan was. She tried to establish some boundaries and allotted a maximum of one hour for rehearsals in an attempt to retain a semblance of a personal life.

A loss of privacy was not the only difficulty for Covan when it came to Dixon Place, however. After nearly ten years at its Bowery location, funding and space concerns became more and more urgent, until finally in the Spring of ’99–during an unexpected acceptance speech Covan delivered after receiving an Obie Award for service to the community–she announced that the lease for the theater was ending and she had not been able to find a new space after a year of searching. But within a few weeks of Covan’s announcement, the Vineyard Theater offered her their old space on 26th Street. The new location was a relief for Covan–not only for keeping Dixon Place in business, but also allowing Covan to separate her professional life from her home life. Dixon Place retained its identity regardless of moving out of Covan’s home and was adorned with street chairs and lamps and was as homey as its founder’s living room.

Only three years after settling into the Vineyard Theater, financial problems arose again. The rent tripled, and the Vineyard opted not to renew their lease, and Dixon Place decided to move back downtown. Its offices were housed once again in 258 Bowery, but all of the shows were held “in exile,” or in various venues throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn–venues such as University Settlement, Judson Church, WAX, HERE, and the Slipper Room.”

Covan and her colleagues eventually decided to build Dixon Place a permanent–and entirely legal–home. After a tremendous fund-raising effort and numerous grant applications, construction on Dixon Place’s new location at 161A Chrystie Street began. The building process proved to be trying as construction and economic obstacles presented themselves, but Dixon Place pushed onwards, and after twenty-four years of being housed in someone’s living room or sharing another venue’s space, the theater had its own fully functional home.

In a 2005 interview, however, Covan said of the new space, “We have already kind of outgrown it,” and proceeded to list the various amenities encroaching on the theater’s space–the sound proofing equipment, bathrooms, and offices–to name a few. Covan seems to anticipate further growth and constant evolution, despite the venue’s intended permanence–almost as though being a work-in-progress is a part of the theater’s very nature. [Posted, August 2009]