Urban Backstage explored spaces in the city that, through accident, intention, design, loss, and/or neglect, allow urban residents to remove their masks, to make mistakes, to hide and/or expose thoughts and actions that may not be allowed elsewhere. The collaborators investigated this backstage quality in the waterfront and urban infrastructure of the Lower East Side, where the mechanics of the city are
generally hidden. In the same way that the distinction between back and front stage is often blurred or eliminated in contemporary performance, this residency generated movement toward making visible these supporting services of the city.
Rachel Stevens
Rachel Stevens is an interdisciplinary artist investigating materiality, media, site, and relationships between social and ecological systems. She is currently working on “Fish Stories Community Cookbook,” a project for Paths to Pier 42 in Lower Manhattan (in collaboration with Meredith Drum) and teaching in the Integrated Media Art MFA program at Hunter College.