A couple of months ago I went to the Fez Reading Series tribute to Charles Bukowski, which was great. It featured Jonathan Ames, Mike Daisey, Amy Sohn and a bunch of other downtown notables waxing on (and off) about Bukowski. At one point in the show this fellow got out of the audience and did some of Bukowski’s poems, dead-on, like a rocket, out of nowhere. Brought down the house. That guy, I later found out, was Steve Payne who had been doing a solo show of Bukowski’s work, I think it was called South of No North. Well, Steve Payne is back, doing some of Bukowski as a fundraiser for the 29th Street Rep on December 5 at the Huron Club, Soho Playhouse’s new downstairs space. Looks like fun.

29th Street Rep (Tim Corcoran and David Mogentale, co-artistic directors) presents Bukowski from Beyond, a special benefit featuring the writing of Charles Bukowski, adapted and directed by Leo Farley and starring Steve Payne.  Bukowski from Beyond takes place on Sunday, December 5 at 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM at the Huron Club, the newly renovated downstairs space at the Soho Playhouse. 

The Huron Club is located at 15 Vandam Street (between 6th Avenue and Varick Street). Tickets are $20 through SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com.  $25 cash at the door.  For more information, visit 29th Street Rep’s award-winning website www.29thstreetrep.com.

Charles Bukowski is recognized for his brazen, raw voice and his candid,
gritty portraits of the human condition.  29th Street Rep company member
Steve Payne recreates his spell binding portrayal of the notorious writer
(as he did in 29th Street Rep’s long running Off Broadway hit South of No
North) for a visceral evening of Bukowki’s poetry and prose.

“We hope that this evening wets everyone’s appetite for 29th Street Rep’s
signature style of theater,” says co-artistic director David Mogentale.  “We
have narrowed down our play choices for our February production, but finding
the appropriate brutal play is almost as harrowing as Steve Payne’s
Bukowski!”

Steeped in the history of Old New York, 15 Vandam Street housed the Huron
Club at the turn of the Century under “Battery” Dan Finn.  A popular
nightclub for the Tammany Hall machine, the Huron Club was later frequented
by the infamous Mayor of New York Jimmy “Beau James” Walker, known as “The Night Mayor” due to his predilection for jazz clubs and chorus girls.

Charles Bukowski, one of America¹s best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, was born in 1920 in Andernach, Germany to an American soldier father and German mother and brought to the United States at the age of three.  He was raised in Los Angeles, where he remained for 50 years.  In
1944, he published his first short story when he was 24 and began writing
poetry at the age of 35.  During his lifetime, he published more than 45
books of poetry and prose, including the novels Post Office (1971), South of
No North (Stories of the Buried Life) (1973), Factotum (1975), Women (1978),
Ham on Rye (1982) and Hollywood (1989).  His most recent books are
posthumous editions of Living on Luck, Selected Letters  1960s ­ 1970s,
Volume 2 (1995), Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories (1996) and Bone
Palace Ballet: New Poems (1997).  In 1988, his screenplay Barfly was made
into a major motion picture with Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke.  He died in
San Pedro, California on March 9, 1994 at the age of 73, shortly after
completing his last novel, Pulp.

Leo Farley (director) is a Founding Member of 29th Street Rep whose past
directing credits include Tracers (revival of the 1980¹s Vietnam play),
which was named one of the “Ten Best Theater Experiences of 1997” by Alexis
Green in InTheater Magazine, Charles Bukowski¹s South of No North (2000),
which he also co-adapted for the stage, the critically acclaimed High Priest
of California (2003) by Charles Willeford and Adrian Hall’s In the Belly of
the Beast Revisited (2004).  South of No North, High Priest of California
and In the Belly of the Beast Revisited were honored with a videotaping for
the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts Theater Archives.

Since 1988, 29th Street Rep has produced some of the most intense and gritty
plays to hit New York City audiences.  The original producers of the hit
play Killer Joe, 29th Street Rep has mounted 77 full-scale productions, most
notably Adrian Hall’s In the Belly of the Beast Revisited, Rona Munro’s Bold
Girls, Charles Willeford¹s critically acclaimed High Priest of California,
the sold-out Off Broadway revival of Sam Shepard¹s Fool for Love, the
long-running cult hit South of No North (based on the short stories of
Charles Bukowski), Avenue A, Bobby Supreme and Bible Burlesque (with Edward Norton).  With a strong company of actors at its core, 29th Street Rep has gained a reputation for pushing the artistic envelope, challenging audience
expectations and presenting some of the best “brutal” theater in New York
City.