Theaters Are Dark, but Actors Lighten Up

August 6, 2003
By ERIK PIEPENBURG

If your typical American high school drama club grew up and
moved as an ensemble to Manhattan, the reunion might look
something like the Green Room.

By word of mouth, this five-week-old event on Monday nights
at the Gramercy Park Hotel has caught on among theater
people - actors, playwrights, directors and theater
groupies - as an opportunity to hobnob and talk about the
industry.

This week, John Tartaglia, the effervescent puppeteer from
the recently opened Broadway musical "Avenue Q," and Ken
Kleiber, host of the late-night cable access show "That's
Kentertainment!," were going head to head with Carol
Channing impersonations. Observing the duel was the actress
Andrea Reese, dolled up in a Jackie Kennedy Onassis
ensemble that she wears during her one-woman show, "Cirque
Jacqueline," which will open later this month at the Jean
Cocteau Repertory Theater.

She caught the attention of the musical star Craig Bierko,
who was walking by with the performance artist Karen
Finley. "It's good to see Mrs. Kennedy around," he said.
"She was an underestimated mother." Ms. Finley was fresh
from performing her Liza Minnelli tribute piece, "Make
Love," at Fez.

At a corner table under an oversize canopy sat Martha
Plimpton and Peter Frechette, co-stars of "Flesh and
Blood," at the New York Theater Workshop.
They were discussing "Matt and Ben," a hit two-woman show
about the friendship between the actors Matt Damon and Ben
Affleck playing at P.S. 122. Then the stars of "Matt and
Ben," Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, came by to meet
them. "We're usually not so obnoxious," Ms. Withers gushed.

Well, if there was a roof. The Green Room is held alfresco
at the hotel's rooftop lounge, an L-shaped space with
wicker patio furniture, stretches of topiary and an
18th-floor panoramic view of the city skyline from
Lexington Avenue and 21st Street.

"It's just lovely out here; you can smoke and everything,"
Ms. Plimpton said, though she wasn't smoking.

The crowd is a mix of young and old, gay and straight,
united by an almost obsessive love of theater. Admission is
free and there is no velvet rope. The promoter Chip Duckett
came up with the idea - a party "for cool, smart, creative
people" - out of a yearning for the hip New York of the
60's, when Andy Warhol's Factory gave downtown artists,
moneyed benefactors and hangers-on a place to mingle
without fear of being turned away by attitude or pretense.

"It's about Karen Finley hanging out with the people from
`Avenue Q' and both camps finding something in common,"
said Mr. Duckett, who began promoting parties in the
1980's. "In what other situation would they have talked?"

At 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday the party was still in high gear.
Peter Debruge, a writer for AOL Moviefone, sat cross-legged
on a chintz-covered stool debating with a group of friends
whether or not to approach another table of good-looking
young men, who were debating the ebbs and flows of the cult
film "Skidoo."

"I'm not an actor," Mr. Debruge said. "But I appreciate
beautiful actors."

Mr. Duckett was surveying the party in full swing. "We
called it the Green Room because that's where theater
people relax," he said. "That's why this exists."

Copyright 2003  The New York Times Company

Go back to the Press page