He’s an impresario. He’s a musician. He’s a performance artist, an actor, a singer, and a producer. He’s Willard Morgan, and if you ask his neighbors, he’s the Mayor of West 8th Street. That stretch of thoroughfare may only run from Fifth to Sixth Avenue, but it is one of the most historic cultural spots in all the Village. Electric Ladyland Studio, built by Jimi Hendrix, is at the corner near Sixth, as an example.
The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture (originally the Whitney Museum of American Art) is right across the street from Ideal Glass Studios, the venture founded by Morgan in 2004 in a glazier’s studio on East 2nd Street in the East Village. The current location at 9 West 8th is run by Morgan and a team of employees in a property his family has owned since 1930. His family lived on West 9th Street when he was born.
Ideal Glass Studios is divided into two spaces: the 5,000 square-foot Atrium, which occupies the ground floor, and the Mansion on the upper floors. Both spaces were given gut renovations as part of the 2017 relocation to West 8th Street. Both spaces are used for all sorts of events, from catered sit-down charity dinners to TV and film production to fashion shoots.
The Mansion renovation is Morgan’s design, following his fantasy of a London townhouse during the era of Carnaby Street and Twiggy. The building has an illustrious artistic heritage. Bebe and
Louis Barron composed and recorded the first all-electronic-music soundtrack for the movie Forbidden Planet. They hosted other creative luminaries, including Anais Nin, Aldous Huxley, and
Tennessee Williams. Their friend John Cage first encouraged their forays into electronic music recording. Brian Halliday, who founded Janus Films, lived upstairs from the Barrons.
The creative entrepreneurial spirit still very much inhabits the building. In addition to the numerous outside productions that have rented the space, Morgan has used it to shoot some of his own in-your-face videos and short films such as Sweatshop Boogie (which began as a live solo performance), Silks and Satins, and Days of a Dandy. Morgan is fascinated by fashion. “I’m something of a dandy myself,” he says with a smile. This interest led to his making the short film Vestiphobia (an actual word that means irrational fear of clothing).
Currently, The Tannery, a feature film which Morgan produced and appeared in, is making the festival rounds and has a distribution deal with A24, the powerhouse mini studio that rapidly gained major status, with multiple Best Picture Oscars and a slew of genre hits. The Tannery is about a 1920s garbage man who wants to become a food critic. Morgan plays the sanitation man’s boss.
In the past, Morgan put his skills as a producer to work on Broadway, and Off. He produced the play that became Stanley Kramer’s last film. Off Broadway, he produced Goodnight, Gracie.
The multi-talented Morgan also fronts the Ideal Orkestra, singing and playing multiple instruments. The band is a kinetic international mix of performing musical artists, with a strong theatrical flair. He inherited his musical proclivity from his mother, Sylvia Side, who was a prominent opera singer in her time. He has put some of her recordings on Spotify and her portrait presides over the parlor floor of The Mansion, which is a grand space indeed.
In addition to the Ideal Orkestra, Morgan has created several solo performance pieces for himself, such as St. Hollywood and Jelvis (the Jewish Elvis) and has appeared in Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Paris, and elsewhere. He is currently working on another solo effort titled The King’s Dresser which is a series of vignettes about monarchs, clothing, and valets and handmaidens.
Morgan plays all the characters.
Ideal Glass Studios is a hive of activity. Susannah Perlman, a core member of Morgan’s team, started a comedy club on an upper floor of the building. She is also the founder of a touring comedy troupe: Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad. The annual New Year’s Eve party at Ideal Glass is a much-coveted invitation among the downtown cognoscenti. The Cosmic Love Valentine’s Day party was a supercharged fun event that included a Tarot reader, musical performances by Morgan and his Orkestra, an aerial performance in red lingerie, and an art show curated by Anthony Haden-
Guest. There’s always something going on.
There recently was a tournament of medieval hand-to-hand combat, in full battle armor. Participants came from as far away as Australia and Poland to participate. “They go at it full force.
There were bruises and bloody noses,” said Morgan.
In March, Ideal Glass Studios will host the world premiere of Madam a new opera based on the life of the notorious New York Jazz Age procurer, Polly Adler and her Art Deco bordellos. The are also presentling their second annual canine fashion show, and a wellness event – to give an idea of the spectrum with which Ideal Glass lights up the neighborhood.
The website, where contact information can be found, is idealglassstudios.com or idealglass.org. If you are inclined to vicarious partying, check out their Instagram page @idealglass_studios.
