The Lounge at Dixon Place

"The bar is so nice and cozy, it would be great even if it didn't have a theater attached to it." --Weston Clay, Theatre is Easy

The Lounge at Dixon Place is open to the public Monday-Thursday, 6pm to midnight; Fridays and Saturdays, 6pm - 1am. For our theater patrons, make sure you give yourself some time for a pre-show cocktail and then hang out afterward with the artists for a nightcap (but, of course, you can also take your drink into the theater!).

The cozy custom-designed lounge features recycled wood wainscotting on the walls (floorboards rescued from the space, formerly a light fixture factory), custom stained-glass foyer artwork by Joseph Cavalieri, antique Persian rugs, and a custom-designed bar by Michael Howett, Dixon Place board member and former owner of Marion's Continental restaurant. Original art by neighborhood artists will decorate the Lounge walls in rotating exhibitions.

Have YOUR Party in The Lounge

What better way to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or any of life's other milestones than by throwing a party in your friendly, neighborhood LES bar? If it's legal in New York, you can celebrate it here! The Lounge is a great place to spend an evening with your closest friends--plus, all proceeds support our mission to nurture emerging artists and the presentation of their works-in-progress. We've got special party packages available for groups of 10 or more so drop us a line at contact@dixonplace.org and let us help you with the arrangements.

Coming up:

Lounge, Music Monday, January 30 at 9:30pm Erik Emanuelson / Everest Cale / Nicholas Megalis The Pin Drop Show Tickets: $5 cash only at the door The Pin Drop Show begins 2012 with a trio of indie folk songwriters. Erik Emanuelson's project Grand Lake Islands brings a quiet raw feel, delivering lyrical meat over rough textures. Everest Cale's sound falls between classic and contemporary rock, as bluesy and they are profound. Nicholas Megalis is all about life, girls, animals, the end of the world. Lounge, Music Tuesday, January 31 at 9:30pm Billy Hough and Susan Goldberg Scream Along with Billy: The Four Whores of the Apocalypse Tickets: $5 cash only at the door Scream Along with Billy, the legendary Provincetown cabaret act, bring their rock-n-roll repertoire and bad behavior back to Dixon Place. Called "Mesmerizing" by The New Yorker and "Brave" by John Waters, each of the four shows will be completely different, and equally disturbing. Audience participation is expected and children are not allowed. Lounge, Literary Tuesday, February 7 at 7:30pm Jamila Wimberly / Jane Kennedy / Hanna Andrews Belladonna* Tickets: $6 Hosted by Krystal Languell and Emily Skillings. Voices of Belladonna*: Belladonna honors its hard working interns and devoted helpers with a celebratory reading. Featured readers include Jamila Wimberly, Jane Kennedy and guest "elder" reader, Hanna Andrews.

Belladonna is a nonprofit feminist collaborative that could not to what it does without the help of many, wonderful interns. Lounge, Music Thursday, February 9 at 9:30pm Maggie Hoffee, Julie Winterbottom, Ric Heald, & Jackie Hecht Catahoula Cajun Band Tickets: $5 suggested donation Come on out for a taste of "Northern fried" Cajun music with New York's own Catahoula Cajun Band: Maggie Hoffee, Julie Winterbottom, Ric Heald and Jacki Hecht. Accordion, fiddle, guitar and song will be on the menu for tonight with a side dish of spirited two-steps and beautifully heartwarming, bittersweet waltzes that express the unique culture of the Cajun people. Lounge, Music Friday, February 10 at 7:30pm THE FAMOUS ACCORDION ORCHESTRA Tickets: $5 cash only at the doorThe Famous Accordion Orchestra, led by Bob Goldberg (of the late Washboard Jungle), is a group of flexible size that bridges the traditional and the post-modern, ranging from Rossini to Duke Ellington to Paolo Conte to Kraftwerk. They have performed in clubs, gardens, cemeteries and parades throughout the city. Lounge, Music Friday, February 10 at 9:30pm John Campo & Tom Ryan Vagabound Velonators Tickets: FREE Guitarist and composer John Campo and Tom Ryan on rhythm guitar bring driving beats and arrangements that fall somewhere between Harlem and New Orleans to The Lounge at Dixon Place. Lounge, Theater Saturday, February 11 at 7:30pm Maribeth Theroux Economy Class Tickets: FREE What do you do when you're a directionless young American, and the greedy, corporate world around you only serves to make things harder? If you're Maribeth, you sing, you recite poetry, and you talk the ear off the woman sitting beside you in economy class. In Economy Class, a solo play by Maribeth Theroux, the corporate and the creative come together on a cross-country flight--and the whole thing will go down in flames. (Funny flames.) Lounge, Music Saturday, February 11 at 9:30pm JONNY B. GOODMAN AND FRIENDS The Writer's Bloc: Half Baked Works Tickets: FREE THIS MONTH: Jonny B Goodman and Dan Papson

Everyone's had a brilliant idea that's been stalled half-way to realization. Some exotic slice of pizza you could only nibble at; Chinese Democracy; whatever example floats your unfinished boat, or that catamaran you bought, but never sailed. Once a month, The Writer's Bloc at Dixon Place presents pairs of musicians who have worked to resurrect and complete each other's beloved, but perpetually incomplete works, and then debut them together, live. Afterward, stick around for drinks and an open mic salon, where all are welcome to perform their still half-baked songs, in search of a better half to finish them off.

Writers' Bloc will be back in the Lounge March 17th. Lounge, Theater Saturday, February 18 at 7:30pm John Watts Going To America Tickets: FREE Written and Performed by John Watts. Divisions between childhood innocence and adolescent self awareness are intensified by the immigrant experience of shifting between cultures. Crossing the pond between the familiar comfort of Wales and the fantasy of America in 1954 becomes an adventure that still shapes life in later years Lounge, Puppets Monday, February 20 at 6:00pm Kate Brehm with Nick Jones Fireside Puppet Chats Tickets: FREE Hosted by Kate Brehm with Nick Jones and Special Guest. Fireside Puppet Chats arose from the premise that puppeteers, people obsessed with visuality and performing objects, might have an interesting take on on other topics too! Don't miss our cozy February chat on TRANSHUMANISM (is this a creepy obsession like furries? would you get a biological implant? what makes us human?). Lounge, Literature Tuesday, February 21 at 7:30pm Jess Arndt, Cheryl Boyce Taylor and Lee Houck Queer Text: Wicked Queer Authors Tickets: $6 Curated by Marty Correia. Get intoxicated by poetry and fiction by queer writers while sipping a cocktail or chugging a PBR in The Lounge.

Lee Houck's debut novel, Yield, was the winner of Project Queerlit and Rainbow Awards, and was published by Kensington Books. He is currently at work on a second novel, and blogs at GrammarPiano.com

Jess Arndt writes long and short stories and has most recently been published in Put A Egg On It, The Diner Journal and RANDY artzine. She was a 2010 NYFA fellow, is a co-editor of the New Herring Press, and teaches writing at Rutgers.

Cheryl Boyce-Tayloris the author of three collections of poetry: Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, and Convincing the Body. She curates the Calypso Muse Reading Series and lives in Brooklyn with her partner of fourteen years. Lounge, Music Tuesday, February 28 at 7:30pm ZoË Sundra bringing sequins BACK to folk music Tickets: $5 cash only at the door Zoë Sundra is a Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter bringing the sequins back to folk music. With her brutally honest lyrics and acoustic sound, she matches her songs with a full band, including additional vocals and multiple saxophones. Zoë uses her influences of Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks and Neko Case to create a dynamic stage presence and experience for her audiences. Her upcoming album, The Hunt is set to be released late March 2012, along with a southern tour in the spring and a west coast tour in the summer. Zoë's music, tour dates and a slew of captivating videos and photos can be found on her website. Lounge, Music Wednesday, February 29 at 7:30pm Pete Sturman Tickets: FREE Transplanted from New Orleans, "Pistol" Pete Sturman is a witty, fun and somewhat sex-obsessed singer-songwriter. An entertainer first and foremost, he has a huge repertoire of quirky originals that will have you laughing and crying, often in the same song! "A remarkable troubadour/wordsmith...a Bob Dylan for the gay community." Lounge, Comedy Wednesday, February 29 at 9:30pm Greg Walloch and Mark Allen Pitch! Tickets: $7 cash only at the door Hosted by Greg Walloch and Mark Allen with special guests! A live storytelling event with a twist. Four fearless storytellers perform in front of an audience while simultaneously pitching their story to a publishing industry heavyweight! The guest editors will share their feedback and maybe even a possible yes or no on the spot! Willing audience members are also invited to submit a rapid fire 15 second pitch. Lounge, Queer, Music Friday, March 2 at 10:30pm Charlie Demos Seven Times Eternal: New Music Tickets: $5 cash only at the door Charlie Demos, song composition, piano, & voice; Carmen Estevez, percussion & voice; Francesco Beccaro, bass. A showcase of new music from Charlie Demos inspired by the spirits of New Orleans, the Lwa, the Orisha, and getting back to Soul! No smoke, mirrors, or artifice, this is raw singing and playing for the love of music. Catch some of Charlie's videos on his YouTube channel. Lounge, Music Friday, March 9 at 7:30pm BOB GOLDBERG AND FRIENDS THE FAMOUS ACCORDION ORCHESTRA Tickets: $5 cash only at the door The Famous Accordion Orchestra, led by Bob Goldberg (of the late Washboard Jungle), is a group of flexible size that bridges the traditional and the post-modern, ranging from Rossini to Duke Ellington to Paolo Conte to Kraftwerk. They have performed in clubs, gardens, cemeteries and parades throughout the city. Lounge, Music Friday, March 9 at 10:00pm John Campo & Tom Ryan Vagabound Velonators Tickets: FREE Guitarist and composer John Campo and Tom Ryan on rhythm guitar bring driving beats and arrangements that fall somewhere between Harlem and New Orleans to The Lounge at Dixon Place. Lounge, Vaudeville, Music, Dance Thursday, March 15 at 10:30pm Jill Guidera and Georgia X. Lifsher The Sassparilla Sisters Tickets: $5 cash only at the door Created and Performed by Jill Guidera and Georgia X. Lifsher. Meet Priscilla and Lucie Sassparilla, two rosy showgirls on the new frontier. Journey back in time when American women were pulled out of their cozy homes to make the unpredictable journey westward during the gold rush, looking for a new life adorned with freedom, fame and finances. Watch them fail, triumph and struggle to hang on to the scraps laid before them and weave it into a spectacle of homemade glamour. An intimate jewlbox theater installation with feathers, light, found objects and every day opulence for a medicine show featuring songs from the American songbook accompanied on the ukulele and trumpet. Lounge, Theater Saturday, March 17 at 8:00pm Jeanette Plourde 3 ROOMS Tickets: $6 Written and Performed by Jeanette Plourde. 3 ROOMS is an experimental event celebrating loss, wreckage, and hope. Moving through three spaces, the audience is invited to perform familiar tasks before hearing stories told with delicate remove by solo-performer Jeanette Plourde. In response to questions she gently poses, the audience is invited to execute movement with vocabularies ranging from gestures at a dining table, to pounding nails with hammers. 3 ROOMS is the creation of three precisely structured dances, wherein the audience is invited through kinetic experience to participate in meditations of their own sense of loss, their own anger and frustration with the wreckage that remains, and their own experience of hope that can exist alongside profound sadness. Lounge, Music Saturday, March 17 at 10:30pm JONNY B. GOODMAN AND FRIENDS The Writer's Bloc: Half Baked Works Tickets: FREE Everyone's had a brilliant idea that's been stalled half-way to realization. Some exotic slice of pizza you could only nibble at; Chinese Democracy; whatever example floats your unfinished boat, or that catamaran you bought, but never sailed. Once a month, The Writer's Bloc at Dixon Place presents pairs of musicians who have worked to resurrect and complete each other's beloved, but perpetually incomplete works, and then debut them together, live. Afterward, stick around for drinks and an open mic salon, where all are welcome to perform their still half-baked songs, in search of a better half to finish them off. Lounge, Theater Friday, March 23 at 10:30pm David Lawson VCR Love Tickets: FREE Celebrity sex tapes, "braille porn" for the blind, progressive/feminist porn . . . in 2012 pornography is both bigger and more diverse than it has ever been. From watching scrambled Skinamax as a teenager to watching the never-ending parade of men jerking off on Chatroulette, VCR Love is a solo show that uses stories both personal and universal to explore, lampoon, question and celebrate how the last 25 years in porn have resulted in a world where no matter how strange your fetish or kink is . . . there's porn about it.
Photos (top to bottom): Jason Florio (Thee Shambels), Kathleen Kraus (Pete Sturman), Marisa Wallin (Sassparilla Sisters), Daniel Winters (Jeanette Plourde), Cathryn Lynne (David Lawson).