Following the success of 3 Stories To The Ground, Funkopolis returned to New York only two months later with their staging of AUDIOPLAY TWO: SAFE, a 1960's radio play brought to visual life by director Tim Brown. An allegorical exploration of the context of safety -- physical, mental, emotional, psychological, social, personal -- the piece became was our first experience with longtime friends Peculiar Works Project, who presented it as part of the 1998 BIG ART in Small Places Festival at Charas/El Bohio Cultural Center in the East Village.
1998 BIG ART in Small Places Festival
Peculiar Works Project
Charas/El Bohio Cultural Center
New York City, New York USA
September 1998
Studio Theatre
Towson University
Baltimore, Maryland USA
May 1998
Gail Brown
Michelle de Leon
Gabriel Shanks

For the New York City performances:
Damion Clark
Shannon Maddox
Gabriel Shanks

Director Tim Brown
Playwrights Jakov Lind
Stage Manager Craig A. Young (NYC)
Production Photography Tim Brown
Scenography Craig A. Young
Sound Design Tim Brown
Lighting Design Tim Brown and the ensemble
  • To our knowledge, this is the only theatrical presentation of this radio play in history.
  • The production was illuminated completely with hand-held lights -- flashlights, floodlights, strobes, etc. -- operated by the actors in performance.
  • While the Baltimore production was staged in an actual theatre, the New York production took place in a pitch-black basement area of Charas/El Bohio, which lent the piece an eerie texture. With the actors' lights, it was impossible to see.
  • This piece marked Funkopolis' last collaboration with two company regulars: co-founder Damion Clark, who moved to Atlanta to pursue his doctorate, and Craig A. Young, who afterwards accepted a teaching position in Buffalo. Both are dear friends, and sorely missed.

Reading this site, one might think Funkopolis is an enormous operation; the truth, unfortunately, is not so. Here's a rare 'behind the scenes' photo, captured just minutes before the beginning of the Big Art Festival in New York City, where AUDIOPLAY: SAFE had its professional debut. The one person not dressed in black is longtime collaborator Gail Brown -- she's not in this performance, and coincidentally, she's the only one smiling. Clockwise from Gail is Tim Brown (crouching and barely visible), Damion Clark, Gabriel Shanks, Shannon Maddox, and, in the foreground, award-winning scenographer Craig A. Young. Interesting to note: the two people smoking in this photo, Gabriel and Craig, have since given up the vice. The other four people in the photo who are not smoking, however, continue to smoke like fiends to this very day.

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