The Hill: A Thieves Theatre Podcast

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 their neighbors and …

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 states, and starts …

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 committed the arson …

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 …

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 for the tipi memorial …

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 …

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 returning home from the Army …

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 like family.  

The …

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. …

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 …

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 initial war to …

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.  

The New York …

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 …

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 built the two most …

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 conversations become ritualized …

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 owners have their …

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 fixed, but the four …

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 had used the …

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 hydrant every morning …

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, including by Fassbinder …

This episode highlights Thieves Theatre’s 1983/84 production “The Marat/Sade” in Toronto and how it crystalized the paratheater aesthetic that would …

Trying to reckon with the tragic fallout from The Hill project, Nick and Gabriele contemplate the big picture, which includes their 42-year history together. They recount the series of personal biographical and …

The opening episode of The Hill elucidates the driving force behind Thieves Theatre and, in particular, the inspiration for the tipi that graced the …

The year 1990 marked the centenary of the Wounded Knee Massacre. In commemoration, Gabriele and Nick installed a replica of a Lakota tipi in the center of a Manhattan homeless encampment known as The Hill and moved in …