And you thought those actors were just fooling around. Â You stepped up to THE WINDOW at the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. You saw the actors inside the storefront windows. Cavorting in an “Alice in Wonderland” kind of craziness. But you can’t hear a word of what they said!
The experimental brilliance of THE WINDOW is its elusiveness. At no point does it ever completely gratify you with a conventional text-based experience of a play. You are seeing a play unfold but you are not hearing it. If you did not hear the play in performance, is it even a play?
In this exclusive play excerpt, you will now be able to sample the text of 4 Alice, the Romanian-American time-based installation written by Saviana Stanescu. You will have a glimpse below of who Alice is when she is trying to be a good daughter. Consider returning to that same window with this text on your mobile phone. You will now be able to follow the words of the actors. Well, up to a point.
Created & directed by Ana MÄrgineanu, and designed by Daniela Codarcea Kamiliotis, this second part of THE WINDOW installation/performance, entitled 4 Alice, reopened June 5. It continues to perform this week through June 18. It runs every 20 minutes from 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm each evening. There will be no performance on June 17, however.
And you thought these actors were just making things up as they went along. Didn’t you? Admit it. You did.
To read my performance review of 4 Alice, click here.
VISIT THE WINDOW’s Facebook Event Page:Â https://www.facebook.com/events/266494100114538/275670245863590/?ref=notif¬if_t=plan_mall_activity
Enjoy reading the text excerpt from 4 Alice below:

The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York presents
4 Alice
the second installation of The Window
A Site-Specific Theatrical Work Created for the Storefront Gallery Window
Created & Directed by Ana MÄrgineanu
Designed by Daniela Codarcea Kamiliotis
Written by Saviana StÄnescu

VISION 00.02: ALICE IS TRYING TO BE A GOOD DAUGHTER
ALICE is in the living room, in a wheeling chair, caressing the cat on her lap. MOM enters carrying a dress.
MOM: Â Pretty, pretty, pretty! Whoâs the prettiest girl? Alice!
ALICE: Â (to the cat) She still calls me âgirl.â Tell her Iâm a 35 years old crippled spinster.
MOM: Â Youâre still my girl, Alice. You could be 60 and I would be 80, and youâd still be my girl. Until Iâm dead, and even then. Youâll still be my girl.
ALICE: Â (to the cat) Tell her to stop. Meow her âfuck offâ or something.
MOM: Â Ready for the big evening?
ALICE: Â (to the cat) I wonder whoâs the loser sheâs bringing this time.
MOM: Â You will like him, youâll see. Heâs the nicest gentleman. A professor.
ALICE:  (to the cat) SureâŚ
MOM: Â Â We need to get you ready.
ALICE:Â Â (to the cat) For torture.
MOM:  Look what I have here! My laced prom dress. You canât find such a beautiful dress anymore. Itâs vintage now. When heâs gonna see you in this dress⌠youâll be his queen of hearts! He will propose on the spot, youâll see.
ALICE: Â (to the cat) Tell her to stop this circus. It used to be once a year, now she stages it every month. We wonât get on Broadway, thatâs sure.
MOM:Â Donât be difficult, Alice, men donât like gloomy difficult girls. Smile! Letâs get dressed.
ALICE:Â Whatever. Letâs do it and put an end to it.
MOM puts the dress on Alice, dressing her like sheâd do with a doll. Then she brings a necklace.
ALICE: Â (to the cat) Oh, no. The heavy artillery.
MOM: Â This was your grandmaâs.
She brings more jewelry, too much jewelry, and over-decorates Alice like sheâd do with a Christmas tree. She brings more scarves and veils. Alice is somewhere under all that stuff.

MOM:Â There. The prettiest girl in town: my Alice! (Bell rings.) Oh my Goodness, itâs him.
Mom goes backstage. She brings the GUY. Heâs brought flowers.
MOM:Â Oh, what a gentleman. Gorgeous flowers! Look, Alice! Your favorite flowers.
GUY hands Alice the flowers. Alice starts laughing like a madwoman.
ALICE:  These are dead flowers. I hate hate hate hate hate dead flowers. Flowers live in gardens, living flowers⌠these are flower corpses⌠these are cut, severed, in agony⌠I canât accept these flowers! I donât accept these flowers! I hate these flowers!
She throws them at MOM and GUY. MOM picks them up.
MOM: (to GUY) She has a bad day. Her legs, you know⌠But I love these flowers! Youâre such a perfect gentleman. Letâs have a lovely cuppa tea. You were born in London, werenât you?
GUY: Â Yes, mâam. Central London, Tufton Court at Tufton Square.
MOM:Â Â One can tell. Your manners. Your style. The way you talk. (showing him a box with tea bags) Peppermint? Darjeeling?
GUY: Â English Breakfast.
MOM:Â Â Oh, of course.
They drink tea and smile at each other, flirtatiously, ignoring Alice.
She pretends she hangs herself with a scarf. Her tongue out, her head on the side, all that. A few times. They still ignore her.

MOM: Â You are lovely!
GUY: Â YOU are lovely!
MOM: Â (giggling) Sweet talker.
GUY: Â We are both lovely.
ALICE: Â Bye, bye! Die, die!
She freezes in a suicide pose.
FAST BACKWARD to Alice dancing and her imagined FALL â VISION 00.00.
On the screen, we see flashes of words:
VISION HOLE 03 RABBIT HOLE 3 FALL 03 INTO THE FUTURE three VISION 3 00.03 3 FUTURE 3
ANOTHER 03 POSSIBILITY 3 ALICE 03 VISION 3 ALICE 3 3 3

VISION 00.03: ALICE IS TRYING TO BE A GOOD ALICE
Alice is homeless. She takes shelter in a back alley, among abandoned objects, garbage, and cats. She talks to the GRINNING CAT (GC).
ALICE:Â Why are you grinning? Whatâs so amusing in an old homeless woman?
CG: If you think youâre old, you grow oldâŚ
ALICE: Â Wisecrack cat. Go look in that garbage bag, thatâs from a wealthy household, I can tell. This is a fucking wealthy family. Look at the furniture and the objects they threw in the street. They have good taste. Look at that chair over there! Bring me that beautiful chair over there!
CG: Â A chair for milady. Anything else? Tea, coffee, milk, sleeping pills?
ALICE:  Sleeping pills would be nice⌠in a cup of peppermint tea⌠with a touch of honey⌠I havenât slept in thousands of yearsâŚ
CG:  More like 50 hoursâŚ
ALICE:  The point is⌠Iâm so tired, cat. Tired of you, tired of me, tired of that moon, tired of that sky⌠tired of that 24Parking sign over there⌠tired of those people starring at usâŚ
(to the audience) What are you staring at?! Havenât you seen a tired homeless woman before? Who are you guys? Where are you coming from? Iâm Alice. Are you the Mad Hatter? Are you the Red Queen? Are you the White Rabbit?

4 ALICE, a play written for THE WINDOW by Saviana Stanescu, features set design by Daniela Codarcea Kamiliotis, choreography by Melanie S. Armer, light design by Stephen Arnold, video design by Igor Molochevski & Masha Pekurovsky, and is directed by Ana Mirgineanu with assistant director Patricia Masera. 4 ALICE features Robin Johnson, Nick Smerkanich and InĂŠs Garcia.
The production performs every 20 minutes between 8-10 pm. Admission is free. The Window is located at the RCINY Storefront Window, 573 â 577 Third Avenue, at 38th Street. Subway: 4,5,6,7,S to 42nd/Grand Central. All performances are free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.icrny.org.
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