by John Stevens
May 2, 2011 9:28 AM
Writers sometimes gain inspiration from real life stories. But finding interesting real life stories to write about can sometimes be challenging. Two playwrights and actors from New York City decided to find inspiration for a play through lives revealed in the belongings tucked inside two local storage units.
Last summer, Joey Rizzolo and Christopher Borg, part of a performance collective called New York Neo-Futurists, set their course for Storage Deluxe in Co-op City to bid on two storage units put up for auction. Finding themselves among professional auction attendees, bidding was competitive and the two only had enough money to win the bids on the two most inexpensive storage units which weren’t of much interest to the well-seasoned bidders. One locker sold for $110, belonging to a working-class couple with three children and the other locker sold for $5 and had belonged to a homeless woman. The first locker inspired the name of the play, “Locker 4173b” and was chock full of everyday family possessions. The second locker contained only a pair of boots and leg warmers, two small bags and a purple umbrella. But it did not take much for Rizzolo and Borg to piece together the previous owners’ lives and find stories to tell.
The play is billed as “an urban archaeological adventure” and is a striking look at the aftermath of the great recession. It is the second locker owned by the homeless woman that contained a journal which translated into some of the most poignant passages in the play. The woman had outlined in raw and colorful language, her difficult past and plans on salvaging her life. In order to figure out who the people were, the two men itemized more than 1,500 items from the units and inputted them into a spreadsheet in order to piece together who the former owners were and what had happened to them. They then wrote the play and cast themselves as the two main characters.
The play alternates between the two storage units and the items are displayed onstage for examination and discussion. The two performers drift in and out of the different roles of the characters during the production which is packed with witty dialogue and comedic banter.
The production is at a Chelsea performance space called the Monkey, on the 12th floor of 37 West 26th Street. Previews run through Monday, and the regular run continues through May 21, with tickets for all dates available online via www.nynf.org.
Sources Used:
Kilgannon, Corey. “Finding the Drama in What Life Has Left Behind.” The New York Times. May 1, 2011.
“NY Neo-Futurists Present Locker 4173b.” BroadwayWorld.com. April 28, 2011.