The Caffe Cino Project

Directed by Jeff Grace

In 1958, a gay owned and operated coffeehouse known as the Caffe Cino opened in New York’s Greenwich Village and slowly began staging works by budding young playwrights. This café-turned-theatre initiated the rise of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway movement. Utilizing detailed forensic design, the Department of Theatre will reconstruct the Cino coffeehouse inside Knox’s Studio Theatre in order to present the following four productions originally produced at the Caffe:

The Bed – by Robert Heide

An existential consideration of boredom, inaction, and existence in the relationship of two homosexual lovers as they struggle to get out of bed.

A Funny Walk Home – by Jeff Weiss

A mother and father learn the consequences of enforced therapy as they welcome home the son they committed to an institution as a young boy.

Who Killed My Bald Sister Sophie? – by Tom Eyen

Two sisters reveal the truth behind their sibling rivalry as lies and confessions unfold in the surreal atmosphere of memory.

Daddy Violet – by George Birimisa

Actors contemplate their identity through improvised exercises that invoke horrific images of the Vietnam War.

Further, in the spirit of historical Off-Off-Broadway, the Caffe Cino Project will also host one week of performances of two student-directed and student-written new plays.