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Founded in 1994, The Workshop Theater Company, then known as The 42hd St.Workshop, was created to enable professional actors, directors and writers to showcase their work. Any member can initiate either an original play written by a Workshop member, or a classic. We pride ourselves in being an incubator company devoted to the growth of plays from works in progress to full-fledged productions.
Sunday
Night Cold Reading Series
6:00
pm (free and open to the public)
Two hundred members keep the workshop humming. Our weekly schedule reflects our dedication to artistic development. We begin the week with our Sunday Night Cold Reading Series. This series offers the writer the chance to hear his/her work read from beginning to end in front of an audience. Member actors participate in the readings, thereby giving support to their fellow members and continuing to hone their own skills.
On Mondays we have the Writer's Group which reads scenes in progress from our playwrights. Actors from the group come and "cold read" whatever the playwright's working on. All participate in the commentary after the reading. We instill a spirit of professionalism and enthusiasm so that the playwright is inspired rather than subdued.
On the weekends we provide staff to put a member's project on its feet in front of an audience. Most weekends are host to Staged Readings. Staged Readings allow our members to develop and present a work to the public with scripts in hand. We believe this allows us to focus fully on the development of the script and the characters.
When a play has had a staged reading and if the staff agrees that the play should move forward, it is given further life as a PIP (Play In Progress). PIPs are given a two-week run and an off-book (no scripts) production with costumes, sets, and longer rehearsal time.
Down the line, if a play speaks to us about what moves us in life, and just by its existence demands to be done, it will go on to a full-scale Showcase Production.
Our Showcases are plays that have been developed over time, typically through Cold Readings, Staged Readings, and PIP performances. During the many months of this process plays undergo several re-writes and cast changes based on the input of our members (writers, directors, and actors alike) as well as on the reactions of our audiences. This process of intensive group development produces scripts with a high degree of artistic and technical quality and actors with a deep visceral understanding of their characters and relationships.
The Workshop Theater Company gives its Showcase Productions a four-week run with full staging, technical support, publicity,and the opportunity to be seen by critics and agents.
The Workshop Theater Company believes that the development process is a collaborative one. Writer's help actors. Actors help writers. The members actually can have a hand in seeing a play go forward. All they have to do is come to the Sunday or Monday night readings. They can help a play take shape, or watch a playwright change course based on the responses of a particular night. It helps to bring us all together.
On any given weekend, you will see a different play, probably a new one. It has been that way every week, since 1994.
For more
information
please call 212-695-4173 or email us at
the42ndstreetworkshop@att.net
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Site
design by Julie
Greeman
and
Jenny
Greeman;
maintained by Julie
Greeman. |