In 1975 Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte began a collaboration at The Performing Garage that resulted in the trilogy Three Places in Rhode Island, consisting of Sakonnet Point (1975), Rumstick Road (1977), and Nayatt School (1978), plus Point Judith (an epilog). This body of work presented a theatrical inquiry which included the first development of Gray’s character of “Spalding,” the use of autobiographical materials and a “direct address to the audience,” and, in Nayatt School, an opening monolog in which Gray and LeCompte structured facets of Gray’s personal history within and alongside a larger framework.

It was directly out of this work that Gray began to develop his solo monologs, the first of which was Sex and Death to the Age 14. It was presented at The Performing Garage from April 20 to June 2, 1979.

During the years of 1979 to 1982, Gray developed and presented five more solo monologs at The Performing Garage: India and After (America), Booze, Cars, and College Girls, A Personal History of the American Theater, In Search of the Monkey Girl, and 47 Beds. A Spalding Gray Retrospective, which ran from October 28 to December 19, 1982, at The Performing Garage, re-presented all six monologs, plus two new pieces: Nobody Wanted to Sit Behind A Desk, and Interviewing the Audience. The Retrsospective, and all of the earlier performances, were produced by The Wooster Group. Videotapes of seven of those pieces are available for viewing at The Theater on Film and Tape Archive of The Library for the Performing Arts, and Rumstick Road is available on DVD.

In December of 1983, Gray began to present work-in-progress showings of Swimming to Cambodia at The Performing Garage. This on and off process continued into January of 1985. It was during this time that Jonathan Demme directed, at The Performing Garage, the well-known film version. In 2001, Gray revived Swimming to Cambodia with a tour that began at The Performing Garage in November and December of that year.

Gray’s relationship with The Performing Garage started in 1969 when he joined the resident company, The Performance Group, under the direction of Richard Schechner. Gray performed in many Performance Group productions over the next 10 years. Those shows included Commune, The Tooth of Crime, Mother Courage, and Cops. Through 1985 Spalding was actively performing in The Wooster Group’s shows at The Performing Garage, The American Place Theater, The Mickery in Amsterdam, Kaai in Brussels, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. During this period, in addition to co-composing and appearing in The Wooster Group’s Three Places in Rhode Island trilogy, he was a part of early rehearsals and work-in-progress showings of L.S.D. (…Just the High Points…), was present on audio in Route 1 & 9, and originated the role of General Benders in North Atlantic by Jim Strahs.