Address | 900 Broadway Suite 905 New York City United States |
---|---|
Type | Off-Broadway |
Opened | 1992 |
Closed | 2018 |
The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) was an Off-Broadway theatre company founded in 1992 by a group of New York stage veterans. For several years, TACT produced many concert performances, a cross between a staged reading and a full production. In 2006, TACT began a residency at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row to produce two full plays a year. TACT focused on reviving lesser-known productions that have not been performed in New York for several years. According to their website, their mission statement was "to present neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit, with a focus on creating theatre from its essence: the text and the actor's ability to bring it to life." [1]
The Actors Company Theatre was founded in 1992 by a group of actors. [2] Beginning in the 2006–2007 season, TACT produced its Mainstage Off-Broadway productions in the Beckett Theatre. [3] [4] The following year, TACT became a resident company of NYC's Theatre Row. [4] TACT also presented a Salon Series in a studio space at 900 Broadway. [3]
For their Sixteenth Season, TACT followed the trajectory begun in 2006 and presented two more productions on their Mainstage at Theatre Row. TACT also ran a program for creating new works called "New Tactics." For all these productions, they commissioned original, incidental musical scores through their partnership with The Manhattan School of Music.
In January 2018, TACT announced that their 25th season would be their final season. [5]
TACT received notably positive reviews, particularly from the New York Times, for its productions of Lovers, Lost in Yonkers, Home [6] , and Eccentricities of a Nightingale . [7]
Notable productions:
In 2012, TACT produced Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers and Brian Friel's Lovers to critical and commercial success resulting in The Wall Street Journal naming TACT "Company of the Year," saying "...Smart programming, superlative productions, a track record of consistent excellence: TACT is what off-Broadway ought to be." In addition, their production of Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon brought TACT their first Drama Desk Award nomination, being nominated for Outstanding Revival of a Play. A list of reviews for TACT's other productions can be found on their website.
Year | Award | Nominated work | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Drama Desk Award | Lost in Yonkers | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Nominated |
TACT's final co-artistic directors were founding members Scott Alan Evans and actors Simon Jones and Cynthia Harris, along with Jenn Thompson.
Company members included:
Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006.
Brian Patrick Friel was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. He has been likened to an "Irish Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams.
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Home is a play by David Storey. It is set in a mental asylum, although this fact is only revealed gradually as the story progresses. The four primary characters are seemingly benign Harry, highly opinionated Jack, cynical Marjorie, and flirtatious Kathleen. As they interact we come to realize their delusions and pretensions are similar to those of people living in a supposedly normal society.
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