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Primary Stages was founded in 1984 by Casey Childs as an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company. In 2004, Primary Stages moved from its 99-seat home of 17 years at 354 West 45th Street to the 199-seat theater at 59E59 Theaters. In 2014, the company moved to The Duke on 42nd Street until 2016, when the Cherry Lane Theatre became the home for all Primary Stages productions.
For over 30 years, Primary Stages has put on more than 130 new plays by writers such as Horton Foote, A.R. Gurney, Tanya Saracho, Romulus Linney, Dan O'Brien, Donald Margulies, Kate Hamill, Christopher Durang, Terrence McNally, Danai Gurira, Nikkole Salter, John Patrick Shanley, Mac Wellman, Sharon Washington, Lee Blessing, and David Ives.
Primary Stages 9th season included the world premiere of All in the Timing by David Ives, the most produced play in the United States during the 1995/96 season. [1]
Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings and two flagship programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, and The Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA).
Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group [2]
Primary Stages is host to the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, which brings together six to eight emerging playwrights each season to create new plays for the American theater. These playwrights attend weekly meetings in the fall and spring, where they bring new pages to each session and receive feedback on their works in progress. At the end of the season, Primary Stages presents the first public reading of these plays in The Dorothy Strelsin Fresh Ink Readings Series.
Since its inception, over 45 full-length plays have been written in the group, many of which have been produced by prominent local and national theaters including Long Wharf Theatre, Blue Light, South Coast Repertory, The New Group, New York Stage and Film, Cherry Lane Theatre, and Primary Stages.
2018/19 members:
Past members:
Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) [3]
ESPA is open to all artists, in all stages of their careers.
ESPA offers a series of intensive classes in acting, playwriting, and directing taught by industry professionals that include PS staff members along with working professionals such as: Joshua Harmon, Winter Miller, Richard Topol, Judy Gold, Rogelio Martínez, Edwin Sanchez, and Morgan Jenness. Previous faculty members include Lucy Thurber, Julia Jordan, Brooke Berman, Dan O'Brien, Sarah Ruhl, Jessica Hecht, Tanya Barfield, Cusi Cram, and Judith Light. The school is run by the Primary Stages Associate Director of Education, Sarah Matteucci.
Primary Stages has seen three Broadway transfers with its productions of In Transit in 2016, Bronx Bombers in 2014, and Dividing the Estate in 2008.
Albert Horton Foote Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received Academy Awards for To Kill a Mockingbird, which was adapted from the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, and the film, Tender Mercies (1983). He was also known for his notable live television dramas produced during the Golden Age of Television.
Humana Festival of New American Plays was an internationally renowned festival which celebrated the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually in Louisville, Kentucky by Actors Theatre of Louisville, the festival showcased new theatrical works and drew producers, critics, playwrights, and theatre lovers from around the world. The festival was founded in 1976 by Jon Jory, who was Producing Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 1969 to 2000. Since 1979 The Humana Festival has been sponsored by the Humana Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of Humana.
The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W. Mason, playwright Lanford Wilson, director Rob Thirkield, and actress Tanya Berezin, all of whom were veterans of the Caffe Cino. The plan was to establish a pool of artists — actors, directors, playwrights and designers — who would work together in the creation of plays. In 1974, The New York Times critic Mel Gussow acclaimed Circle Rep as the "chief provider of new American plays."
Theatre Intime is an entirely student-run dramatic arts not-for-profit organization operating out of the Hamilton Murray Theater at Princeton University. Intime receives no direct support from the university, and is entirely acted, produced, directed, teched and managed by a board of students that is elected once a semester. "Students manage every aspect of Theatre Intime, from choosing the plays to setting the ticket prices."
Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a theatre company located in New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. Lynne Meadow has been the company’s Artistic Director and visionary since 1972. Barry Grove joined the company in 1975 and was Meadow’s partner until 2023. Chris Jennings is now Executive Director. Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country's most acclaimed theatre organizations.
The Phoenix Theatre has presented productions since 1983. An Equity house, the Phoenix presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented 94 World Premieres. In May 2018, the Phoenix moved to a newly constructed, 20,000 square foot building, the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, at 705 N. Illinois St. in the heart of downtown Indianapolis with two stages: the 144 seat Steve and Livia Russell Theatre and a flexible blackbox space, the Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre. As of 2024, Phoenix has rebranded as Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre where it houses 7 resident theatre companies. They are Actors Ink Theatre Company, American Lives Theatre, Eclipse, Indianapolis Shakespeare Company, Naptown African American Theatre Collective, Phoenix Theatre, and Summit Performance Indianapolis. Its previous location was at 749 N. Park Ave. in downtown Indianapolis near Massachusetts Avenue, the Phoenix operated a 130-seat proscenium style Mainstage and 75-seat downstairs cabaret.
The Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF), a national forum for playwrights and theatre leaders, is dedicated to developing and producing new American plays. It is held every summer at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California.
John Gromada is a prolific, award-winning composer and sound designer. He is best known for his many scores for theatrical productions in New York on and off-Broadway and in regional theatres. Broadway plays he has scored include the 2014 production of The Elephant Man, starring Bradley Cooper, The Trip to Bountiful with Cicely Tyson, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Seminar by Theresa Rebeck, Next Fall, Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale, David Auburn's The Columnist and Proof, Lisa Kron's Well, Rabbit Hole, and A Few Good Men; revivals of Prelude to a Kiss, Summer and Smoke, Twelve Angry Men, Torch Song, and A Streetcar Named Desire. His score for the nine-hour production of Horton Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle was featured at the Hartford Stage Company and Signature Theatre in New York. Gromada also designed the sound for the Broadway production of Bruce Norris' Tony award-winning play, Clybourne Park.
Playwrights' Platform is a not-for-profit cooperative organization of playwrights based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The organization has been in existence since 1973 and is "the most established and longest-lived playwrights' group in the area". It was founded by writers Steven Lydenberg, Allen Sternfield, and Saul Zachary. It was incorporated with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in May 1974 as Playwrights' Platform, Inc. The officers were the three founders and Jack Bresnahan.
Broadway Play Publishing Inc (BPPI) was established in New York City in 1982 to publish and license the stage performance rights of contemporary American plays. The Broadway Play Publishing Inc catalog consists of over 1,200 plays and over 400 authors, such as: Constance Congdon, María Irene Fornés, A. R. Gurney, Tony Kushner, Neil LaBute, Richard Nelson, Eric Overmyer, José Rivera, Naomi Wallace, and many others. Its authors have been produced on Broadway and Off, in London's West End, and in theaters across the United States and around the world. They have won Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, Obie Awards, the MacArthur Genius Grant, Guggenheim Fellowships, and National Endowment for the Arts grants. Christopher W.D. Gould is the current publisher, and Michael Q. Fellmeth is the current executive director.
Casey Childs is an American theater director and the founder of Primary Stages, a non-profit off-Broadway theater company in New York City. Since 1984, the company has produced new plays, many directed by Childs.
This production history of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (RMTC) is a chronological list of the Mainstage, Warehouse, and Regional Tour productions that have been staged since RMTC's inception.
Tanya Barfield is an American playwright whose works have been presented both nationally and internationally.
Dividing the Estate is a play by Horton Foote. The play premiered at the McCarter Theatre in 1989 and Off-Broadway in 2007, winning the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.
The Canadian Stage Company is based in Toronto, and is Canada's third-largest not-for-profit contemporary theatre company. Founded in 1987 with the merger of CentreStage and Toronto Free Theatre, Canadian Stage is dedicated to programming international contemporary theatre and to developing and producing Canadian works.
The Primary Stages Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) is an interdisciplinary institution in New York City that offers courses in Acting, Writing and Directing.
The Day Emily Married is a play by Horton Foote. The play takes place in the fictitious town of Harrison, Texas, where Foote has set many of his plays.
Daryl Roth is an American theatre producer who has produced over 90 productions on and off Broadway. Most often serving as a co-producer or investor, Roth has also been a lead producer of Broadway shows such as Kinky Boots, Indecent, Sylvia, It Shoulda Been You, and The Normal Heart.
Playing on Air is a not-for-profit audio theater company that produces short plays and distributes them via public radio and podcast. The company, based in New York, was founded in 2010 by theatrical producer Claudia Catania. Playing on Air has recorded 135 short plays as of November 2021. Its plays have featured notable actors such as Bobby Cannavale, Timothée Chalamet, Carol Kane, Denis O'Hare, and Marisa Tomei. Playing on Air typically records plays in a studio, though occasional shows have included a live audience. After every performance, Catania interviews the play’s artistic team. In addition to its audio drama, Playing on Air administers the James Stevenson Commission for Comedic Short Plays. The commission is offered to several playwrights each year and includes both a cash award and a recording for radio and podcast.