Past Event
Novenas for a Lost Hospital
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Novenas for a Lost Hospital is a communal experience to remember, honor, re-imagine and celebrate St Vincent’s Hospital. Inspired by the caretakers and patients of St. Vincent's Hospital, and guided by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, this unique event takes a 60-person audience on a journey from an enclosed garden to Rattlestick’s intimate West Village theater to the NYC AIDS Memorial Park.
Written by Cusi Cram
With Dramaturgy by Guy Lancaster
Directed by Rattlestick Artistic Director Daniella Topol
Starring Kathleen Chalfant with Ken Barnett, Goussy Celestin, Leland Fowler, Justin Genna, Alvin Keith, Shayne Lebron-Acevedo, Kelly McAndrew, Noriko Omichi, Visual AIDS Artist Member Rafael Sánchez, Laura Vogels, and Natalie Woolams-Torres
Check-in times are at 6:30 and 7:00 at St John's in the Village (218 W 11th St.). Both check-in times will be united for the stage performance of the play; we are staggering our audience entrance times because of the unique nature of our prologue.
Notice: Put on your sneakers (or most comfortable pair of shoes) and leave your heavy bags at home because Novenas for a Lost Hospital is a mobile experience. Your experience will start either at 6:30 or at 7:00 based on your chosen entrance time. We will start at ST. JOHN'S IN THE VILLAGE (below our theater at 218 West 11th Street), then move up the stairs to our theater, then move back downstairs a few blocks away to visit the NYC AIDS Memorial. Due to the traveling nature of this production, we encourage you to let us know if you anticipate having any difficulty traveling with us.
Novenas dramaturg Guy Lancaster writes: "St Vincent's Hospital was started in a rented house on East 13th St. in 1849 by four nuns from the Sisters of Charity during one of the cholera epidemics which periodically swept through the city in the 19th century. It was the first Catholic hospital in Manhattan. Survivors of disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and 9/11 were treated in the hospital after it moved to its eventual site on 7th Avenue in 1856. But the central mission of St Vincent's was to provide medical care to generations of people living on the West Side. A devastating new plague, HIV/AIDS, would profoundly affect the institution and the surrounding neighborhood from the 1980s onwards as the hospital became a center for AIDS research and treatment. By the time St Vincent's closed its doors on April 30, 2010, 3500 employees had lost their jobs. The last Catholic hospital in Manhattan was replaced by a luxury condo development."