Crystal Field News

 On Saturday, December 5 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, Theater for the New City (TNC), 155 First Ave., will present the fourth installment of 'Open 'Tho Shut,' its afternoon of 'walk-by theater' that is staged in its set shop and visible from East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues.

Theater for the New City's Village Halloween Costume Ball, a revered Village tradition that frequently welcomes over 1,200 revelers, will be presented virtually this year with most of its key traditions preserved. Notable artists including Everett Quinton, F. Murray Abraham, Austin Pendleton, Phoebe Legere and Penny Arcade.

Since outdoor performance permits are not being given at this time, Theater for the New City has adapted its 2020 Street Theater tour to the virtual space. 

Theater for the New City will present a live reading of 'Visitors in the Dark' by Charles Busch (The Confession Of Lily Dare, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Die Mommie Die!) on Monday, July 20, 2020 at 7PM. This is part of the weekly series of Live readings on Theater for the New City's website and Facebook page.

Summer Street Theater is one of the delights of the season and has been central to Theater for the New City's mission since the organization's first such production in 1976.

Theater for the New City has currently scheduled over 150 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers for its 25th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.

Today we're checking in with Theater For the New City. We chatted with TNC Co-founder and Artistic Director Crystal Field.

For the 25th year, a handful of stars and over 100 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers will join forces May 22 to 24 in the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, available virtually on the website (www.theaterforthenewcity.net) of its presenting organization, Theater for the New City (TNC).

Theater for the New City presents - TNC 'On The Air,' a live reading of Orville Station by Frank J. Avella (Vatican Falls, Lured, Consent) on Wed., April 15 at 7PM. This will be the first in a series of Live readings on Theater for the New City's Facebook page.

Following its sold-out, world-premiere run at Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) in November 2018 and its successful bow in Rome, Italy via the OnStage! American Theater Festival in January 2019, Frank J. Avella's Lured was selected to play eight performances at the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival in May 2020.

Read an important Message from i??Executive Director, Crystal Field:

While West Side Story returns to Broadway, Theater for the New City is presenting seven-time Emmy Award winner William Electric Black's one-man show inspired by the famous musical.

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Director, presents They Came to the Castle: Immigrants, a Tenor and Lola Montez, a new play by Barbara Kahn, directed by Robert Gonzales Jr. and Barbara Kahn. Featuring Robert Gonzales Jr, Vilma Hodo, Christopher Lowe, Lisa Monde, Crosbie Roper, Aristotle Stamat, Leila Stricker, Lera Vital.

Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Producing Artistic Director) presents The Xoregos Performing Company's Brocade, an intriguing world premiere comedy set in 17th Century Venice written by Robert E. DiNardo. Shela Xoregos directs a cast of six, including Ethelyn Friend*, Sarah Kebede-Fiedler, Carla Lewis*, Bennett Saltzman, Gene Santarelli*, and Jacob Silburn with violin excerpts performed by Laura Zawarski. Original music has been composed by Barbara Rottman. Twelve performances will be staged at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue in New York City from January 30-February 16, 2020. *Member, Actors' Equity Association. AEA Approved Showcase.

From February 27 to March 15, Theater for the New City (TNC) will present comedian/actor/broadcaster Donald E. Lacy Jr. updating his one man show, 'ColorStruck,' a bittersweet examination of how cultural assumptions drive American society. Since national politics provide a never-ending supply of new material, the piece is continually reshaped. The velocity of change since TNC presented the show's New York debut last year (Feb-March, 2019) has inspired Lacy to initiate a new version that reflects pressing current events.

Theater for the New City's Emerging Playwrights Program will be beneficiary of the theater's 17th Annual Love 'n Courage benefit Monday, February 24, 2020 at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South. The evening honors James Rado, the Tony and Grammy Award winning, actor, playwright, composer and co-author of the musical 'Hair.'

When James Rado, Gerome Ragney and Galt MacDermot''s musical Hair debuted in 1967 and transferred to Broadway a year later, they made history.

Sweden's greatest modernist playwright, August Strindberg, returned from the Continent to Stockholm in 1906, where he lived out his last seven years. There he wrote 'The Pelican' for his Intimate Theater in 1907 and 'Isle of the Dead' (Toten-Insel) immediately after as its prologue. The latter was unpublished until 1918 and rediscovered in the early 60s, when it was found and promptly dismissed as an incomplete fragment. The two plays were finally reunited by Ingmar Bergman in a radio version in 2003. It was his last dramatic production. From February 6 to 22 August Strindberg Rep, a resident company of Theater for the New City (TNC), will bring the two plays to the stage together for the first time in history. It will also be the world premiere of new English translations of both plays by Robert Greer, Artistic Director of Strindberg Rep, who helms the production.

Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Producing Artistic Director) presents The Xoregos Performing Company's Brocade, an intriguing world premiere comedy set in 17th Century Venice written by Robert E. DiNardo.