Marina Levitskaya photos
As a fervent advocate for the avant-garde in the performing arts, his journey began in 1975 with A Bunch of Experimental Theaters, Inc., a collective that championed visionary theater. Through alliances and programs like The Bunch Festival, Serious Fun! and PEAK Performances, Wheeler elevated the visibility of artists who were often overlooked by audiences.
After four years with the administrative collective Performing Artservices, he co-founded International Production Associates, Inc. in 1982. IPA aligned skilled management and production services to support trailblazing artists. With marketing savvy, this venture facilitated creative collaborations, bridging the chasm between unconventional artists and curious audiences.
As Wheeler’s crusade sensed early possibility, he embraced projects such as the World Premier tour of Dance by Lucinda Childs with film by Sol Lewitt and music by Philip Glass as well as Glass’s science fiction music drama, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, each redefining interdisciplinary collaboration. In the late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s he produced Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center, the OBIE awarded summer festival that brought “downtown” artists into an uptown mainstream spotlight.
IPA’s growth provided invaluable support for emerging talents such as Spalding Gray, Elizabeth Streb, Ushio Amagatsu, Karen Finley among many others. Using multifaceted partnerships, his company produced unprecedented work that heralded cultural interdependence, culminating in 1999 with Robert Wilson’s 3D music theater extravaganza, Monsters of Grace, which toured worldwide.
Invited to set up a new organization at New Jersey’s Montclair State University in 2004, Wheeler founded PEAK Performances. Under his artistic directorship, PEAK became a much-followed beacon for cutting-edge performance in an unlikely locale, producing big original works by meaningful artists such as Romeo Castellucci and Bill T. Jones.
Wheeler’s vision today is forward-focused, embracing digital platforms to enhance accessibility for “the new” as audience habits evolve, and in doing so maximizing the impact of innovative performing artists globally.