The undisputed Queen of this Bowery empire is Ellie Covan. She has lovingly transformed her living room into the launching pad for the likes of John Leguizamo, cultural icon Eve Ensler, downtown fixture and HBO star Reno and the legendary and now international phenom that is Blue Man Group, just to name a few.

I had the opportunity to sit down with the unassuming doyenne over Chai tea and hand rolled cigarettes to discuss the long, strange journey that has lead to Dixon Place as well as art, literature and well-appointed 16th Century dungeons!

Mikal Saint George: How did Dixon Place get its start?

Ellie Covan: It started in Paris, in 1985. I had been traveling in Morocco, then I was in Spain for a few months and then I went to France and naturally I ended up in Paris. Of course, I didn’t know anybody there and I didn’t have any money left or a place to stay. Through a series of good fortune I wound up meeting an American businessman that had just moved into this apartment and he was going to New York on business for the whole summer. He said, “Well, I just moved in and everything is in boxes but if you want to stay here for free, it’s fine. The only thing I ask is that you do not let anyone come in here.”

No problem, I don’t know anybody anyway! Within a week I ran into Carol Lipton, this American ex-patriot designer that I had known in New York and I told her where I was staying. She came over and just thought the place was fabulous. She wanted to invite some people over and since I had no money she said they would all bring food. She invited five women and twelve people showed up, all of whom were involved in the arts. One was an art historian, another was an art critic, there was a curator, a gallery owner, a painter...they were all visual artists. They all brought lots of food and wine and we had a great time! I mean it was Tuesday night in the middle of the summer and there was nothing to do any way!

They began asking me what I was doing – they all spoke English. I said I was performing but I’m writing now and I just wrote my first short story. They all said “read it - read it- read it!” French people have this reputation amongst Americans of being stand-off-ish or arrogant, but that’s not really true at all, especially when it comes to the arts and performing. I read the story and they thought it was really great, of course I thought it was fabulous! They all said “lets do this again next week!”

They all came back the next week with food and wine but this time with about twenty-five people! I frantically wrote another short story. There were no performers, or even writers there, mostly visual artists. I read my story and everyone loved it. Then the following week about forty people showed up!

MSG: That’s quite a growth spurt in a very short period of time!

EC: Well there was nothing to do since most Parisians leave in August. But these artists and gallery people were still there. Maybe they went away on weekends but this was a Tuesday night, there was nothing to do. So it quickly grew just as a result of word of mouth.

I should also point out that I was a recluse, an artist / performer, but a total ant-social person. When I was in college I never lived on campus or even near campus. I lived way out in the country, alone in a cabin. In New York, before I left for Morocco, I was living in this loft on the Gowanus canal in the middle of all these burned out projects. I had one friend, I just wasn’t a social person. So suddenly now being at the center of this scene was the last thing I expected.

These people all knew one another. It’s not like I was really throwing a party, it was more of a salon where this American woman would read stories.

MSG: What were the stories about?

EC: It was my first time writing stories, I didn’t have any money or know anybody. Even all of these people, I only saw them on Tuesday night! So here I was in this apartment – Oh! I didn’t describe the apartment! That’s the reason why it’s called Dixon Place!

It was a 16th Century building with only two floors but high ceilings. On one side of the building was this Contessa and she had the whole side of the building across the courtyard. Above me was Andy Warhol’s apartment.

My apartment had these gorgeous French doors that opened right into the courtyard, this gorgeous jungle-like courtyard. It was just beautiful. The guy who actually owned the apartment – the American businessman who was letting me stay there just rented it – the owner’s name was Dixon. I never got to meet him. All the furniture in the apartment was Dixon’s and it was all very heavy, baroque and dark with lots of velvet. The only light coming in was from the courtyard. There were all these built in bookshelves filled with books, not first editions but from the 1950's, leather bound books. It turns out that Dixon was from a wealthy San Diego family and he and his mother owned a small publishing house called Dixon Place. San Diego is quite conservative but there is also a wealthy, leftist cultural elite and that is where Dixon was coming from. So they had this small press and they published all these beautiful books of ex-patriots, like Henry Miller.

The French people who came over on Tuesday nights were the one who began calling it Dixon Place. That’s how the name came about.

Now underneath the apartment, if you went out into the courtyard there was little door and stairway. This was the basement of the apartment and everyone had to go down and see what I called The Dungeon. Now, I never knew Dixon but I figured out a lot by being there! He was gay and he was in his 60's. It was a very dark, musty basement. All the stuff on the walls were antique torture devices. Not that there was anyone one really being chained to the walls and tortured but more evocative of the feeling of a dungeon. They were all real antiques. Then there was this beautiful inlaid bed that was surrounded by drapes. It was the most incredible space and everyone was really impressed. Keep in mind, I didn’t know this guy, he didn’t know I was showing this space! I had said I wouldn’t have anybody in the apartment let alone the basement!

MSG: And now you are giving tours!

EC: The last week of the salon readings was on a Tuesday night and I was leaving the next morning at 6AM. I had no more money and the American businessman was moving back in on Wednesday afternoon. I had every intention of cleaning the place and leaving money for the phone and taking full responsibility for everything. A few people were going to stay and help me clean up.

There were two phones in the apartment, one had an answering machine on it and I was not supposed to use that one. He would call in and get his messages. The other I could use to call out but I didn’t know anyone so it really didn’t matter.

Well, on my final night there, the phone with the answering machine rang and someone answered. There were about seventy-five people there. It was so packed that you couldn’t even walk through the apartment. So not only was his phone answered but he realized I had betrayed him and let people into the apartment. He FREAKED out! I got on the phone and started crying, it was terrible.

For the next year he kept calling and harassing me. I kept telling him to send me a bill for anything damaged, I would gladly pay it. But he wouldn’t relent, he called me everywhere, at work, at home. Finally my father said that I should just tell him he was right and that I was wrong. The next time he called I did just that and I never heard from him again!

MSG: Interesting tactic!

EC: I thought I would save up some money and go back to Paris. I was staying with a friend and I got sucked back into New York. My friend Philip who was a hairdresser on East First Street called and said, “The storefront next to mine is available, why don’t you take it and we could all share the back yard.” I had always wanted an East Village storefront to live in! I didn’t know what I was going to do in there but I moved in. I didn’t even do anything to it.

MSG: So this is ’85, ’86? It was a very different neighborhood back then.

EC: It was great, there was this energy and I loved it! I had my parties and Carol came over from Paris and did a showing of her bags. This other artist asked if he could use the space as a gallery, which was the first kind of official event.

MSG: So it kind of evolved on its own?

EC: It was totally organic. I didn’t know anything about business, I learned everything by doing it. People say to me “this is so amazing that you did this!” I just say anyone can do this, any fool who wants to work twenty hours a day! I would make every flyer and I would hand illustrate every program.

One time this young female homeless junkie got in though, the person working the door somehow missed her and she got out with my backpack. A week later she came back and we called the police and they came and got her although we didn’t end up pressing charges. That was the only incident in five years. I was in that location for five years and the door was always open to the street. That was the only time we had a problem.

MSG: That’s pretty damn good considering the area at the time!

EC: Well, everyone knew us, we were part of the neighborhood. People would always come in and say, “wow, this is like an oasis, I can’t believe this is New York City!” It was different then, even the street people were different. If you treated people with respect they did the same.

MSG: So when do you move into the new space on Chrystie Street? Trigger Magazine went to a fundraising event there and we couldn’t believe the space! It seems huge!

EC: We already have kind of outgrown it. We have to sound proof the entire space because there is going to be a full recording studio over the theatre space. We are basically building boxes within boxes in order to sound proof. That takes away a lot of space. We are also going to have a bar and a cabaret space. Then there are the bathrooms and the office space, so it really starts to shrink.

We have done the first phase of construction, all the structural work, all the steel. We did excavation, steel, masonry and concrete. It’s almost a third of the total amount of work and it is the hardest work.

MSG: Do you have an official opening date?

EC: It keeps changing but we would like to open in September. We have pretty much spent all the money we had raised. There is more but it is in the form of pledges over time. We have had donations of equipment, which is valuable and essential, but we still need cash. That is always the challenge. Many foundations won’t give any money until you have already raised like two thirds of the total amount needed. They won’t put money into something unless they see that it will definitely be completed. We are making strides but it is always challenge.

This will be the first real state of the art laboratory theatre. There are many organizations, much larger than us, that have laboratory work or they do development work but that is not their whole mission. It is our whole mission. We will have this theatre completely equipped with the best equipment, the best seating, video, audio, lights, Internet connection, everything. The theatre will be wired to the recording studio upstairs so we can make live CDs. There is just no place like it!

MSG: To say the least!

For further information, upcoming events and performances or to become a part of the Dixon Place Capital Campaign please visit www.dixonplace.org.

Photos: Evan Sung