Arts & Entertainment

A Performance Space of Their Own

By Samhitha Saiba

Spectrum staff

Four women glide across a black floor, bodies twisting and leaning into one another under a pink glow of light. Audience members watch from the edges of the room, some rising every now and then to drift to a different corner. Their eyes stay trained on the dancers.

It’s closing night of “In Search Of,” choreographer Karen Kitchell’s first production at the East Village’s WOW Café Theatre. “Intimate.” That’s how Kitchell described the half-hour performance that involved dancers pulling audience members into center stage and transforming the night into an immersive experience.

WOW—short for Women One World—grew out of the desire to forge a community for female artists who wanted to make their plays, poetry, and dances known and shared. Since its inception, WOW has grown to include transgender artists and non-binary ones who are exclusively one gender or the other.

“A lot of people have a lot of feelings and personal attachments to [WOW] because, for a lot of us … this has been like a home space,” said Phoenix Sweeney, house manager for Kitchell’s show.

Launched 38 years ago, WOW, according to its website, is the oldest running performance space for women and transgender artists “in the known universe.” “In Search Of” dancer Bleu Zephra Santiago, 24, has been coming to WOW every Tuesday since she became its fill-in bartender more than four years ago. “Sometimes as an artist you need to know that you can do it yourself,” Santiago said, noting the independence and accessibility a place like WOW offers to its artists. Membership in the collective is free and open to artists with varying degrees of experience.

For that Thursday night’s performance of Kitchell’s show, some audience members were getting their first taste of WOW theater. “I have no idea what to expect. But I’m excited,” Elias Ruben, 23, said.

Emily Stolp, who also was in the audience, said she had seen shows with some similarities to “In Search Of,” but that the choreography was uniquely Kitchell’s: “The way that the choreography was adapted for the bodies, rather than bodies adapted for choreography, was beautiful.”

As WOW continues to attract artists determined to deliver performances that defy conventions, the theater’s directors remain optimistic about WOW’s future. “It’s gone through a lot of phases,” Sweeney admitted. “But I don’t see it dying.”