The Hill: A Thieves Theatre Podcast
Artist/activists Nick Fracaro and Gabriele Schafer tell the story of their three years living in the “tipi on the hill,” by way of their radical alternative theater work leading up to it, their 40+ year creative partnership, and reflections on a life lived together at the intersection of art, culture, politics, and spirituality.
In the middle of the night in 1990, Nick and Gabriele covertly erected a replica of a Lakota tipi in the center of New York City’s longest-existing homeless encampment known as The Hill. The tipi was dedicated on the centenary of the Wounded Knee Massacre “in remembrance of the lives lost in 1890 and in recognition of the sovereignty and dignity of the most disenfranchised and forgotten members of our society a century later.
”The Hill traces the steps of how a shantytown went from the anonymity of waist-high huts hidden in the weeds to becoming a tour bus and celebrity stop; from addicts just getting by to a drug supermarket at the height of the AIDS crisis; from a close-knit community to a crime scene that entangles everyone when an arson fire kills the most innocent of them all.
Thieves Theatre has been described as conceptual, guerilla, site-specific, experimental, avant-garde… Gabriele and Nick mostly describe their work as paratheatrical. In 2007, Thieves Theatre was renamed International Culture Lab to more accurately reflect their evolved mission.
#counterculture #indietheater #tepee #newyorkcityhistory #1990s #activism #socialjustice
For extensive documentation and to purchase the book, "The Hill": thievestheatre.org
Contact Nick and Gabriele: [email protected]
Follow at @tipionthehill
An Untamed Network Original Podcast: www.untamedriver.com
Podcast Management: [email protected]
Ad sales: [email protected]
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 40 minutes
- Episodes
- 24
- Years Active
- 2023
Ep 23: Goodbye... Until Timeless Spring
The end of the story. The story that never ends.
Nick and Gabriele narrate their final days on The Hill, leading up to the day it was finally razed, and tell what they know about what happened to the…
Ep 22: Psychotic Break/Hero’s Journey – Red Pill/Blue Pill?
Plagued by grief and guilt, and estranged from everyone, including Gabriele, Nick wanders the streets hunting for Mister Lee’s murderer. Wearing his ghost shirt, he dances himself into trance-like st…
Ep 21: Aftermath of the Arson/Murder
Nick and Gabriele knew from all the articles written about it that the fire was designated as arson, but neither the press nor they were privy to any information as to how that was determined.
Who c…
Ep 20: Search for Absolution
We are coming toward the end of this story. A few more episodes and the events of the tipi in the shantytown will have been told. This episode will end with the murder of Mister Lee, followed by the …
Ep 19: The Lost Cause
On the 101st anniversary Gabriele and Nick explore the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre and the adjacent landscape –– the sacred Black Hills of the Lakota –– seeking to find acceptance and support f…
Ep 18: Until Death Calls My Name
Gabriele and Nick examine the nature of memorials and gravesites. The tipi on The Hill was both a memorial commemorating the centenary of the Wounded Knee Massacre and a political statement about hom…
Ep 17: Nick Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Many years later, Nick begins to understand what motivated him – both to erect the tipi and to stay on The Hill after it became dangerous.
He recounts a mental health crisis experienced upon returnin…
Ep 16: The Drug Lord Brings Violence to The Hill
By the summer of ‘91, less than seven months after putting up the tipi, The Hill’s character had changed dramatically. A drug dealer had infiltrated the tight-knit community that until then had felt …
Ep 15: The American Indian Movement (AIM) Visits the Tipi
Nick and Gabriele talk about how split the Native American reaction was on them having erected a tipi as a memorial to the Wounded Knee Massacre. There were those who told them they had no right, and…
Ep 14: Appropriation or Appreciation?
Gabriele and Nick place their work on The Hill in a historical context of popular culture’s use of the terms “woke” and “cultural appropriation.”
They relate personal stories of growing up in their re…
Ep 13: The War for Self-Representation Meets the Drug War
Four months before G & N arrived on The Hill, the New York Post came out with an article about the community entitled, “Squatter War Coming to ‘The Hill’.” The article turned out to be prescient.
The …
Ep 12: The War for Self-Representation: The Media and The Hill
In going through the journal gathering entries concerning The Hill’s relationship to the media, G & N also discovered evidence on how life on The Hill went from light to dark without them noticing.
…
Ep 11: Nick is arrested amid a high-profile NYC police corruption scandal
One week after erecting the tipi, cops “Frick and Frack Fury” arrest Nick for taking a roll of linoleum from the edge of a construction site and charge him with burglary and criminal possession of st…
Ep 10: The Geomancer and Mister Lee, Hermit and Ragman
The final two original core residents that greeted Nick and Gabriele when they arrived at The Hill were “The Chinese Man in the Back,” or as Nick referred to him, the Geomancer, and Mister Lee. They …
Ep 9: Ascetics, Thieves, Foragers, Citizens – Part 5
Nick and Gabriele continue to profile their neighbors on The Hill, highlighting Tito and Woodsman Tony. They come to understand how the tipi has become a site where routines and everyday conversation…
Ep 8: Ascetics, Thieves, Foragers, Citizens – Part 4
Nick and Gabriele continue to profile their neighbors on The Hill, highlighting “Chinese Jimmy,” Larry and Elaine.
Jimmy was Chinese mob connected. The gangs extorting money from Chinatown business o…
Ep 7: Ascetics, Thieves, Foragers, Citizens – Part 3
Nick and Gabriele continue to profile their neighbors on The Hill, highlighting the four brothers - Billy, Mike, Donald and Eddie - as well as Billy Toyota.
The hierarchy on the Hill was never really…
Ep 6: Ascetics, Thieves, Foragers, Citizens – Part 2
Nick and Gabriele continue to profile their neighbors on The Hill, highlighting Louie, Indian Jim, Ace, Juan, Sammy, and Lisa.
Running partners Louie and Jim were the last of the “Bowery bums.” They…
Ep 5: Ascetics, Thieves, Foragers, Citizens – Part 1
Nick and Gabriele profile their neighbors on The Hill, beginning with Ali, Red, and “the Chinese man in the back,” aka the Geomancer.
Ali was the “keeper of the wrench,” and opened the corner fire hy…
Ep 4: The World Premiere of Fassbinder's Trash, the City and Death, Theater of Scandal
Thieves Theatre’s final significant production before the #tipionthehill was the controversial R. W. Fassbinder play, “Trash, the City and Death.”
Seven productions of the play were attempted, includi…