Cino Plaque Unveiling, N.Y.C., April 28, 2008

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A crowd for the unveiling of a plaque to JOE CINO. Photo by MARSHALL W. MASON.

Christine Karatnytsky in pink opens the event among Cinoites BOB HEIDE, PAUL FOSTER, and MARI-CLAIRE CHARBA (who shares this photo). Click HERE for Text of Proclamation, plus Ms. Karatnytsky’s story of the event.

Left: MAGIE DOMINIC unveils the plaque. Photo by MARSHALL W. MASON. Right: MARI-CLAIRE CHARBA reads a poem. Photo by Meg Patterson/Dramatic Risks.

What a line-up! From left, half the face of DORIC WILSON, four Unidentified Persons, JOHN GUARE reading proclamation, BOB HEIDE, LARRY LOONIN, PAUL FOSTER, MARI-CLAIRE CHARBA. Photo by Meg Patterson/Dramatic Risks.

PAUL FOSTER, JOHN GUARE, MARI-CLAIRE CHARBA, Peter Craig, BOB DAHDAH, MAGIE DOMINIC, BOB HEIDE, LARRY LOONIN. photo by Meg Patterson/Dramatic Risks.

JOHN GUARE seems to be declaring this Proclamation “Open!” photo by MARSHALL W. MASON

The one, the only H.M. KOUTOUKAS, photo by MARSHALL W. MASON.

Speakers at the event. Clockwise from upper left: ROBERT HEIDE, DORIC WILSON, JOHN GUARE, Christine Karatnytsky wth MAGIE DOMINIC in foreground, MARSHALL W. MASON. Men’s photos by Shay Gines. Ms. Karatnytsky by Meg Patteron/Dramatic Risks.

The reason for it all, image by International Bronze.

Above left: Cino Reunion September 2008. 26 Cino People and a few stragglers from La Mama, The Old Reliable Theatre Tavern, etcetera, hold up photos of absent friends. Photo by Steve Ladner. Right: Proud and happy, I finally see the plaque of JOE CINO I arranged to have installed on the building’s facade. Photo by Terry Talley. Return to first Cino Pictures PAGE.

Peculiar Works and Other Revivals

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PECULIAR WORKS’ wonderful OOB Street Shows, 2006/7

and some other OOB-revival events

DORIC WILSON’s And He Made a Her, done at the Caffe Cino in 1961. Right photo: Barry Rowell.

CLARIS NELSON’s The Rue Garden (Cino 1962). Photo: Bonnie Young.

PAUL FOSTER’s The Recluse (Rehearsed for Cino 1963?, but played at La Mama). Photos: Barry Rowell

LANFORD WILSON’s Sex Is Between Two People (Cino 1965), in Boston 2006.

My Camera Obscura (Cino 1966), photo: Jim Baldassare.

WILLIAM M. HOFFMAN’s Goodnight, I Love You (Caffe Cino 1965), La Mama E.T.C. 2008!!!! GEORGE BIRIMISA’s Daddy Violet (Cino 1967), in Boston, 2006! Photo by Eric Antoniou for The Boston Conservatory.

BOB HEIDE’s The Bed (Cino 1965). Photo: Bonnie Young.

GEORGE HAIMSOHN, ROBIN MILLER, & JIM WISE’s Dames at Sea (Cino 1966). Photo: Barry Rowell.

DIANE DIPRIMA’s Monuments, the last play performed at the Caffe Cino (1968), photo Bonnie Young.

A danced tribute to JOE CINO’s lover, JOHNNY TORREY, ended touchingly with LANFORD WILSON’s Lady Bright (who had just done a segment about loneliness and lovely lads) rushing to cloak the kneeling youth with a cloth. The dance was done to Ravel’s “Bolero,” which was the music Johnny used to strip to after hours at the Cino, and the music Joe himself used for his last dance appearance at Judson Church shortly before he died.

JEAN-CLAUDE VAN ITALLIE’s Interview (Cino at La Mama 1965), a Peculiar Works playreading project, April, 2007, photo Barry Rowell.

RUTH YORCK’s Lullaby for a Dying Man (Cino 1964), a Peculiar Works playreading project, April, 2007, photo Barry Rowell.

BOB HEIDE’s “The Bed” at Yale (!!!) 2009.
Photos copyrighted by Clayon Patterson 2009.

More Venues Inspired By The Cino

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Painting of one of the most important early gay theatres (1977-2009), THEATRE RHINOCEROS’, first home at 330 Grove Street, San Francisco. It opened with LANFORD WILSON’s The Madness of Lady Bright. Shared by co-founder Lanny Baugniet.

Harvey Fierstein, THEATRE RHINOCEROS co-founders Lanny Baugniet and Allan Estes, and director J. Kevin Hanlon. “The Rhino,” as it was called, premiered Harvey’s Fugue in a Nursery.

THE W.P.A. THEATRE on the Bowery. Created by Virginia Aquino, Harry Orzello, Albert Poland, and Martin Reymert. Joseph Renard’s The Word of God. Center, Gary Swartz.

Joseph Renard’s A Boy Name Dog Left: Joseph Renard W.P.A.

Josef Bush’s Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, directed by Hugh Gittens W.P.A.

Tony Bastiano’s second, downstairs theatre, BASTIANO’S STUDIO, NYC, early 1970s–Andy Milligan’s play, Bitch, based on his “lost” movie, The Bitch. Like most Milligan productions, it has an interesting history. It first featured actress Estelle Getty, whom Andy fired for being late to a rehearsal. He changed the character’s gender and played it himself. Alas, we have no photos of him in the play, nor any of Joe Davies and Clio Young, who also appeared. We do, however, through the generosity of Gary Swartz, have this shot of Gary with the actresses (l. to r.) Emily Casanova, Sandra Kane, and Patricia Earnest (the blonde).

KING’S HEAD THEATRE PUB, London. Created by American Dan Crawford. My Play-By-Play, 1975. L. to R.: Robin Asquith, Frank Thornton, Sheila Hancock. Like so many of my plays, this one about the rivalries and jealousies that go on in the minds of actors onstage was based on things I observed at the Cino (listening to actors grumble in that tiny dressing room).

CHARLES STANLEY as LANFORD WILSON’s Lady Bright, Mercury Theatre, London, 1968, with David Groh watching. The play toured with Lanford’s Home Free with CLARIS NELSON and MICHAEL WARREN POWELL (picture HERE). Both were directed by MARSHALL W. MASON.

THE TRAVERSE THEATRE, Edinburgh, founded by American, Jim Haynes, in 1963. Right photo: Slab Boys by John Byrne, 1978.

SCHAUSPIELHAUS, Vienna, opened 1974 with Kennedy’s Children.

Venues Inspired By The Cino

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3 famous venues have their own rich sites:
LA MAMA, TOSOS II, and THE GLINES HERE and HERE.

Smitty (J. Smith) behind the counter at his L.A. DEJA VU coffeehouse theatre, with the stage set for Ross McLean’s Nelson 76, which much predated “The Simpsons.”

Nelson 76: 4th cast member from the left is Ned Van Zandt.

William Houck’s Birds of Prey opened my Heterosexual Series at Smitty’s next-door FIFTH ESTATE. Merrill Harris’ BAR DYKES and Carol Nelson’s POM-POM made a rich and controversial double bill. Photos: Sarah Smiley

Ken Livingstone’s GALIMAUFRY Theatre, Vancouver, Wayne Robson, Elizabeth Murphy, semi-nude in my Camera Obscura. Scandal, top left, this PAGE.

Carol Nelson “Marilyn Monroe,” comforted by Irma St. Paule “Georgia O’Keeffe” in my The Beaux Arts Ball. N.Y.’s THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY.

Ann Sachs settles the unsettling west in my Mirage at Antoni Bastiano’s THE PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP CLUB, New York, directed by Ted Mornel, photo by James D. Gossage.

I’m sitting between Ron Hitchcock and Daryl Hale with the company at their AT THE DRAMA SHELTER theatre in Chicago. Daryl was Joe Cino’s friend in New York.

THE DRAMA SHELTER theatre in Chicago poster for my Judas.

Steve Schemmel (in green shirt), brought me and Quentin Crisp to Phoenix.

Steve (center) starred as “Pontius Pilate” in my Judas at his JANUS THEATRE (left, David Weiss; right, unidentified player).

Moira Fine, Yvonne Bryceland (South Africa’s finest actress) and me in THE SPACE/DIE RUIMTE in Capetown. Photo by her husband/partner Brian Astbury.

THE SPACE/DIE RUIMTE in Capetown poster for my Kennedy’s Children.

At NORMAN HARTMAN’s OLD RELIABLE THEATRE TAVERN. Connie Clark and Joe Pichette in William M. Hoffman’s comic revue, Uptight.

At NORMAN HARTMAN’s OLD RELIABLE THEATRE TAVERN. Lamar Alford and Barbara Montgomery in Neil Flanagan’s comic-book production, Pudd’n'head Wilson.

Unidentified and Denny Leone in my A Bad Place to Get Your Head, DOVE COMPANY, NYC.

Lynn Oliver sprawls before 1st man Lou Trapani, 3rd man Ron Carrier, 4th man Andy Milligan, 6th man Gary Swartz who shared this photo, 7th Ned Van Zandt, 8th Harry Orzello in Joe Renard’s World War Zero at Andy’s TROUPE THEATRE.

Tyrone Clark and Aaron Mason, shall we say, confront? in my Untied States at Denver’s CHANGING SCENE.

My Blue Is For Boys played four Cino-inspred venues. Here’s the cast of the fourth production at Elaine Gold’s CORNER LOFT in New York, 1986.

Moving On In Many Ways

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You can see lovely EDITH LAURIE’s photo with actress CLARA HOOVER in Ms. Laurie’s 1964 Cino show, The War Against Women, in the right picture in the third row on this PAGE. It seems Ms. Laurie did not live long after that, for in 1966 her parents dedicated the Edith Laurie Experimental Theater in her memory at Brandeis, where this portrait hangs.Painting: Aaron Berkman.

Cino People MICHAEL SMITH (author.director) and DONALD L. BROOKS (scenic designing) did a play, Trouble, at Theater for the New City in — THE CINO THEATER!!!! See more stills and read the play HERE.

2005 introduced the Cino Award from New York Innovative Theatre Awards.
ROBERT HEIDE presents the first one to, appropriately, DORIC WILSON.

The Vampire Cowboys Troupe won the CINO FELLOWSHIP from Innovative Theatre for 2006

Santa Barbara 2007. MICHAEL SMITH’s son Alfred with Laurel Lyle in Michael’s play, Bad Dog, and Susan Keller in Michael’s 1966 Cino play, More, More, I Want More, script HERE.

One of numerous “EVENING AT THE CINO” entertainments from theatres and colleges around the country (this from Chicago). I’ll post more logos and flyers as I find them.

Above, a plaque recently mounted on the building at 31 Cornelia Street. Unveiling and celebration photos HERE.

May 25, 2007: DONNA FORBES/DESETTA and DAVID CHRISTMAS of the Caffe Cino Dames at Sea (1966) introduce BOB DAHDAH (right), who directed it, honored as “The Father of Off-Off Broadway,” at Peculiar Works Project’s A Bang for Your Buck! reception and gala show.

July 8, 2007, NYC: TV show “In the Life” stages a Cino reunion at the Po Restaurant on the former Cino site. a: LANFORD WILSON, b: ROBERT PATRICK, c: BOB HEIDE, d: DORIC WILSON, e: WILLIAM M. HOFFMAN, f: MARSHALL W. MASON, g: CLARIS NELSON, h: JOHN GILMAN.

Clockwise from top left: GLENN DUBOSE, LARRY LOONIN, PAUL FOSTER, and DANIEL HABEN CLARK are among the many people already interviewed by director/producer Mark Waren for his projected Cino documentary, Do What You Have To Do.