Late last year, John Zorn announced that The Stone, his experimental performance space on Avenue C at Second Street, would close in its current location in February 2018. Zorn told the Times that he hoped to find another venue. Now, as The Village Voice reports, Zorn and the Stone are taking up residence in the New School's Glass Box Theater on West 13th Street beginning in March 2018.
Here's the Voice with more:
In a physical sense, the move seems radical — from an unmarked windowless former Chinese restaurant at the far end of the East Village to a sleek climate-controlled space featuring a glass wall facing a busy Greenwich Village street.
“Nothing else will change,” Zorn said. He will continue as artistic director of the nonprofit venue, with musicians doing all the curating and volunteers providing support. Artists will continue to receive all revenue from tickets, which will remain priced at $20. The seating capacity — 74 — will stay the same. “And our aesthetic will not alter one bit,” Zorn said.
For Zorn, the move isn’t one of need, his club’s lease wasn’t up. “It was simply time for a change,” he said.
And via the news release on the move:
Beginning in March 2018, The Stone at The New School will operate five nights a week, presenting one show a night in The Glass Box Theater, a ground level performing arts space surrounded by windows to the street and Arnhold Hall lobby and designed as part of the gut renovation of much of Arnhold Hall, led by the architectural firm Deborah Berke Partners.
Starting this June, in anticipation of the formal move to The New School, The Stone at The New School will present two shows a week on Friday and Saturday evenings...
The news release includes a full listing of the weekend shows that will take place beginning in June.
The Stone opened in 2005, and has played hosted to an estimated 7,000 performances.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: The Stone said to be closing in 2018; new venue in the works
This is obviously a big loss to the neighborhood, but even as an occasional attendee and an even more occasional performer there, I can appreciate JZ's desire to shake things up a bit.
ReplyDeletegot to admit I like its location ow; out of the way and slightly seedy (well maybe a few years ago). plus the manhole cover outside that someone fixed up to look like a frying pan with eggs...:)
ReplyDeleteTorture Garden is a masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteThe Stone fails in two locations and he's rewarded with a third location. Wack.
ReplyDeleteSupport underground music besides noise, avant garde, and jazz, John.
I think the New School students should run the venue not a guy who doesn't attend NS and never did or will.
I doubt he will even be able to see out those grimy windows. Check out all the dirty glass on the New School. Can't they find a window washer? It's starting to look like The Old School already.
ReplyDeleteSad. Of course the aesthetic changes. It's much cooler to go to a dark, quiet corner in Alphabet City. The feeling of culture will be lost.
ReplyDeleteBS 5:26pm. I got news for you: Alphabet City never had real live music venues outside of A7 which closed in the early '80s and Pyramid whose live music show heyday was through I'll say '92 and even they didn't have a ton of shows (fun fact: Nirvana's first NYC show was at Pyramid.) Shows in Tompkins don't count and neither do stinky squats who didn't flyer their shows.
ReplyDeleteMost of the East Village live music venue action happened west of or just off Avenue A: CBGB, Coney Island High, Continental, Downtown Beirut, Mercury Lounge, The Bank, Spiral, Nightingale's, Lizmar Lounge etc. Even today the only real EV live music venue left is Bowery Electric on the Bowery.
"The Stone fails in two locations . . . "
ReplyDeleteHuh? Putting on two shows a night, 6 days a week, for years and then one show a night, 6 days a week, for a few years is failing? I've been to the Stone dozens of times when there were twice as many people in line as seats. I've never seen an empty house. Seems to me that putting on hundreds and hundreds of shows, in a place that is only about the shows, counts as a resounding success. The music at the Stone covered a wide, wide range of styles, intentions, people, etc. but I'm hard pressed to think of any place in town that put more music on a stage than the Stone. For my ear, it was easily the most ambitious schedule in the city. I have no idea what your criteria might be for success but I can't see how the Stone, on its own terms, could have been more successful.