The show is a proof-of-concept showcase of Real-Time Acting, a new convention and acting technique for postmodern theater that has been developed by Paul Binnerts and Nancy Gabor.
From an article in Broadway World

Nancy Gabor and Paul Binnerts at La Mama
March 23, 2025 opening night of “Above Ground – Not Exactly a Comedy” at La Mama ETC, NYC
photo: C Maile

March 13 – March 23, 2025
La Mama The Club
74 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets:Adults: $30
Students/Seniors: $25
To purchase tickets and more info, Click HERE

To Find out more about supporting the production, click. Acting in Real Time.com

Photo: Ethan Mass

LA MAMA EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE CLUB
presents
ABOVE GROUND – NOT EXACTLY A COMEDY
a production of the senior acting workshop
You’re Never Too Old to Play,
directed by Nancy Gabor and Paul Binnerts

___________________________________________________

(DIRECTORS’ NOTES):
ABOVE GROUND – NOT EXACTLY A COMEDY
Looking in the mirror, one of the players says: “I’m old…
older… old…” She can’t decide, as if she has a say in the aging
process she is facing. Her performance is one of ten ‘vignettes’
about aging and getting older in ABOVE GROUND, NOT
EXACTLY A COMEDY. Ten stories about how the actors deal with
this undeniable fact of life. They are their personal experiences
with old age, illness and loss, mixed with childhood memories.
Without attempting to ‘play’ the children they once were, enriched
by improvisations, music and dance, these memories give their
stories a lightness, that reflects their present vitality.
____________________________________________________

(Catchphrase):
“Stories about how it is to get old…older, remembering how it
was to be young.”
____________________________________________________
______

(Two Quotes):
”… it was like sitting in an amphitheater in ancient Greece
and for the first time understanding what it means to be
human inside of time.” (Christina Maile)

“Participating in a workshop by Nancy Gabor and Paul
Binnerts is like being in one room with Joseph Chaikin and
Bertolt Brecht at the same time.” (Greg Taubman)

____________________________________________________
__
(Bios Nancy and Paul)
Paul Binnerts
After a study Dramaturgy, Paul explored the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht in
experimental performances: The Measures Taken, 1972 (w. composer Louis
Andriessen), The Exception and the Rule, 1976 (w. composer Heiner Goebbels) and
more recently Man is Man, NYU 2007.
As a director/playwright he won European awards with: Black Box, The Same Sea
(based on Amos Oz’ novels) and Mephisto (based on Klaus Mann’s novel). The Same
Sea was first produced in Toni Morrison’s The Atelier at Princeton University, 2004.
Original plays in English: A Very (c)old Case, Part I & II (2009/10), Lost & Found,
Scenes from the Flood, Westbeth, Home to the Arts, NYC, 2013.

Teaching credits on acting and directing include Universities and Drama schools in The
Netherlands, UK, USA, Germany and Japan.
His book on acting: Acting in Real Time (Univ. of Michigan Press, 2012), describes the
techniques and the history of this contemporary form of acting.
His last novel: Labyrinth of Lies is published in Dutch, 2021, and in German 2022

Nancy Gabor
After a traditional conservatory training, Nancy joined Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theater and was
part of the ensemble which created ‘The Serpent.’ At La Mama she was part of the company
which created the original Medea with Andrei Serban and Liz Suedos. She had a long
relationship with Ellen Stewart who she loved and admired.
As a director she went on to collaborate with Joseph Chaikin, directing him in The War in
Heaven (Chaikin/Shepard) and Struck Dumb (Jean Claude-Van Itallie), at the American Place
Theater. They collaborated on an adaption of Beckett’s Texts for Nothing and played in
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Other representative plays as a director are Chekhov’s The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters,
Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba.
She was an acting teacher at Amsterdam Theater School, Purchase Conservatory, Princeton
University, Warren Robertson, De Trap and Het Collectief, Amsterdam, workshops
In Amsterdam, Lyon, France, and private coaching in NYC.
Nancy and Paul were master teachers in the La MaMa summer program in Umbria, along with
Kristin Linklater in 2013.
The Core Technique which is the basis of Nancy’s work stimulates the actor to become present
on stage.
She started You’re Never Too Old to Play to explore the creative possibilities with older people.
Nancy believes that everybody can play, and that age is no barrier.

You’re Never Too Old to Play, an improvisation and storytelling workshop began in 2019 at Westbeth –home to the arts, and is conducted by Nancy Gabor, colleague and director of Joseph Chaikin, and Paul Binnerts, internationally acclaimed Dutch theater director and writer. The workshop was open to anyone over 65 who wanted to play, actors and non-actors alike.

In “Above Ground – Not Exactly a Comedy”, the 10 actors, who have been part of the group since the beginning, share their experiences of aging through improvisation, storytelling and dance. Adding their memories of childhood, recalling moments of happiness and sadness, their stories evolve into 10 vignettes framed by music.

Directed by Nancy Gabor and Paul Binnerts

Cast:
Ilana Abramovitch
Susan Binet
Nora Galer
Jonathan Ned Katz
Christine Koenig
Gloria Miguel
Sally Plass
Joanne Riel
Lorraine Marx-Singer
Harold Thomas

Soundtrack: Paul Binnerts
Photography: Ethan Mass

More about Nancy Gabor at Westbeth Artist Page
More about Paul Binnerts at Website
To Find out more about supporting the production, click. Acting in Real Time.com