THEATRE FOR ONE: HERE IS THE FUTURE Returns to In-Person Performances at West Plaza Beginning August 5
Performances of Theatre for One, the sensational and intimate theatrical experience that brings together one actor and one audience member will be presented by Arts Brookfield at New York City’s newest dynamic destination for food, culture, retail, and hospitality Manhattan West, located at 9th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Street. After the success with Here We Are, a digital presentation as part of Brookfield Place’s online programming during the pandemic, Theatre for One returns to a fully LIVE production with a series of six newly commissioned micro-plays at Brookfield Properties' newest location on Manhattan's west side. The limited engagement of HERE IS FUTURE is produced by Octopus Theatricals, will play August 5-22, and as always, is open to the public and free. Visit ManhattanWestNYC.com to reserve tickets every Monday at 10am for the performances that week. Walk-in slots will be available if space allows.
The plays in Theatre for One: HERE IS FUTURE are premieres by Jaclyn Backhaus, Lydia R. Diamond, Stacey Rose, DeLanna Studi, Regina Taylor and korde arrington tuttle. The plays are directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, Rebecca Martínez, Regina Taylor and SRĐA. Please find biographies and headshots here.
The creative team is led by Christine Jones (creator and artistic director) and SRĐA (Resident Director). Theatre for One is produced by Octopus Theatricals (Mara Isaacs, Executive/Creative Producer) and originally produced by True Love Productions. Bryan Hunt is associate producer/production coordinator. The design team includes Hahnji Jang (costumes) and Josh Higgason (lights and sound). Jenny Koons (co-artistic director for Here We Are) is an advisor to the project.
Theatre for One asks What do we bring forward? What do we build anew?
The future doesn’t come from nowhere. It gets made now, here, with you— one actor, one audience member at a time.
What do we bring forward? At the onset of the COVID-19 shutdown, our computers became our prosceniums and Arts Brookfield commissioned Theatre for One’s first online presentation. Here We Are amplified the voices of eight writers grappling with their heightened disconnection and national reckoning with their original micro-plays performed live to an audience of one at a time. Now, one year later, we look to playwrights to frame our future as we re-engage face to face, person to person, present to make future.
What do we build anew? For Theatre for One, that means access in every sense. Performances are free and open to the public. The new booth makes Theatre for One, Theatre for all, (one person at a time). It is ADA accessible and features a new, advanced air circulation system. Performances will include adaptations for visually and hearing impaired audience members.
Arts Brookfield and Theatre for One will continue to implement health, safety and COVID-19 protocols in compliance with state and local government. The content of HERE IS FUTURE microplays range from a rating of PG to R, based on language.
Previously presented at other Brookfield Properties locations including Grace Plaza, Zuccotti Park and Brookfield Place, Theatre for One is the mobile state-of-the-art performance space for one actor and one audience member. Conceived by Christine Jones and designed by LOT-EK architects, Theatre for One commissions new work created specifically for this venue's one-to-one relationship. Theatre for One is presented in public spaces in which audience members are invited to engage in an intimate theatrical exchange. Actor and audience member encounter each other as strangers and, through the course of the performance, discover how the divisions and distinctions that separate us can dissolve.
