One of the often overlooked accomplishments of the experimental theater scene in New York is the longevity of its major figures. Richard Foreman and the Wooster Group have been producing consistently for decades. Following them, artists like Richard Maxwell and the Elevator Repair Service have built long, fertile careers without the usual detours to Hollywood made by more mainstream artists. There is a real pleasure not only in following these artists as they evolve over years, but also in their kind of often elusive work, which provides valuable and revealing context.

It also means that New York has what you might call an institutional avant-garde. “Institutional” is a bad word in some quarters, but judging by the recent return of two members of the so-called N.E.A. Four – artists whose grants were famously vetoed by the National Endowment for the Arts during the first Bush administration – not as much as you might think.

In his new show, “Lay of the Land,” Tim Miller talked about helping found Performance Space 122 in the East Village (where his run ended last week) and fighting for the rights of gay men and lesbians to join another institution: marriage. Sharing Mr. Miller’s wandering, amiable style, Holly Hughes also focuses on the same issue in “Let Them Eat Cake,” which she wrote with Megan Carney and Moe Angelos, and includes a nostalgic digression about Dixon Place, where she is performing.

Full Story from the NY Times

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