INTERVIEW: Chris Wells brings personal stories to new show at Dixon Place
Chris Wells is ready to hold an artistic vigil at Dixon Place in New York City. The Obie-winning performer who heads The Secret City has crafted a new show called It Will All Work Out, and it promises to be another dynamic offering from the “art church.” That means audience members can expect plenty of stories, plenty of singing, plenty of dancing, plenty of high energy, plenty of costumes and plenty of deep feelings.
“I think they can expect, in some ways, an old-fashioned floor show,” Wells said in a recent phone interview. “There will be a live band with five members in it, and then there are three singer-dancers in addition to me. There are fantastical costumes. It’s very bright and colorful, and there are stories, which I’ve written and I will perform. And there are also original songs with choreography.”
Wells hopes that audience members walk away from the production, which begins performances Friday, April 14 and runs through Saturday, April 29, learning about him personally and also appreciating the universal message that the cast will focus their efforts on.
“Through the writing of these stories and the organization I founded in New York, which is called The Secret City, I started to see that the practice of making things — creative practice, I guess I’d called it — has taught me that things that used to cause me great anxiety or that I used to worry about or things I never thought would ever happen for me, actually started to work out,” he said. “Over the course of my life, I’m sort of a recovering worrier and a recovering fear-based person, so the show suggests that there is, in general, a positive force that we can tap into. And especially in these times, it’s a very joyful, affirming message in the show.”
Joining Wells will be Susan Hwang, Janelle Lawrence and Juliet Garrett. Jeremy Bass provides songs and musical direction, while Elliot Peterson has choreographed the show. The band features Bass, Marlon Cherry, Ryan Rumery and Jennifer Maidman.
This ensemble seems to be truly why It Will All Work Out and The Secret City exist. They are a collaborative group of performance artists, and “each event has a visual art component, food offering, live music, guest performances, storytelling, community interaction, silent meditation, The Secret City Singers, special outfits and JOY, which is central to the mission of The Secret City,” according to their website.
The organization has now expanded to Los Angeles, and the idea began with Wells’ feeling that New York was lacking a community space for artists.
“I started the organization with the idea of providing community gatherings for all kinds of artists and people who love the arts, so what’s happened over the 10 years since I started the organization is that it’s grown into a dynamic, robust and raucous celebration,” he said. “There’s a live band, and there’s a choir. And there’s a variety of artists and performers who share their work, and the setting is sort of a combination between a tent revival and a salon and a cabaret. And it kind of toggles back and forth between these tones of very high-energy exuberance and then very focused and quiet introspection, and now we program here in New York quarterly. We program in Los Angeles quarterly, and have a big summer revival in Woodstock, [New York].”
One of the highlights from the last decade for Wells has been winning a special Obie Award in 2010. It was such a surprise that the performer needed to write a story about the experience.
“It wasn’t at all in my expectation that we would be honored in such a way, especially from a very prestigious theatrical award,” he said. “So we were invited to the ceremony, and I had no idea that we were actually going to get one. So in the story I talk about I wasn’t necessarily going to go that night because I wasn’t necessarily feeling it, and then I went. And then I got it. It was a huge surprise and a wonderful honor.”
For each event that Wells creates, he writes a story. These stories, which have grown in number over the years, have provided enough material for his forthcoming memoir and also supply the narrative backbone to the Dixon Place show. He has a thorough (and artistic) record of the past 10 years, and he’s already looking at the next decade.
“We’re starting to speak to presenters around the country and build a national tour so The Secret City would actually go national,” he said. “A huge part of our mission is connecting people and celebrating the idea that we are inherently connected, which is something I think art does in general, and then the services really promote that. So I’m excited to take it to more people.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
It Will All Work Out, written and performed by Chris Wells, will play Dixon Place at 161A Chrystie St. in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
