Theater News

Wooster Group Releases DVDs of Brace Up!, Emperor Jones and House/Lights

The Wooster Group has released videos of three of its productions — Brace Up!, The Emperor Jones, and House/Lights — on DVD, with individual discs priced at $350-$400 each, or $900 for the set of three.

The Brace Up! disc presents the company’s 2003 production of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, translated by Paul Schmidt and directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, with performances from Kate Valk, Peyton Smith, Scott Shepherd, Ari Fliakos, Anna Köhler, Beatrice Roth, Ron Vawter, and Willem Dafoe. Along with video of the piece, the disc contains an archival video of a presentation from 1993.

The company’s The Emperor Jones is brought to disc in a re-conception by Christopher Kondek and LeCompte and features Valk (in the title role) as well as Dafoe. The piece’s original music comes from David Linton. Additional material on this disc includes archival recordings of the Wooster’s stagings of the play from 2009, 2006, and 1992.

House/Lights, from 1999, comes to DVD in a newly remastered version. The piece is a fusion of Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights and Joseph Mawra’s B-movie classic, Olga’s House of Shame. This DVD also includes On Tour, a documentary by Ken Kobland, and Zinger File, company commentary that can be heard while the video plays.

For further information, or to purchase, visit www.thewoostergroup.org.