Every day is opening night.

Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Chelsea Nachman
rick@oandmco.com / chelsea@oandmco.com
212-695-7400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

New York, NY (May 25, 2011) – In the center of the New York City Theater District, Tony Award-winning set designer Christine Jones, in association with LOT-EK® Architects, True Love Productions and Times Square Arts, presents Theatre for One, a four foot by eight foot portable theater with one performer playing to one audience member. The uniquely intimate theatrical experience will be available to anyone on a first-come, first-served basis for 6 days only. Theatre for One opens on Tuesday, June 7 and will continue through Sunday, June 12, 2011 in Times Square (Duffy Square, located on 46th and Broadway).

“I've known Christine and her work casually for some 20 years, but nothing prepared me for the experience of Theatre for One,” said American Theatre Wing Executive Director Howard Sherman. “My three minutes last summer in that little booth profoundly changed the way I see the relationship between performance, artist, and audience. It's almost impossible for me to articulate the range of thoughts and emotions I experienced during Theatre for One, which is why I am delighted it’s returning to Times Square this June. Amidst the glamour, the bright lights, and the awards, there is nothing so essential as the connection between the theatergoer and the performance itself.”

Theatre for One is a portable performing arts space for one performer and one audience member that turns public events into private acts, making each performance a singularly intimate exchange. When it premiered in May 2010 as a commission of the Times Square Alliance, Theatre for One was met with overwhelming critical acclaim and popular success.

The cast of Theatre for One includes Steve Cuiffo, Birgit Huppuch, Marin Ireland, Tasha Lawrence and Dallas Roberts. These artists, of different disciplines (including theater, poetry, and magic) will perform five to ten minute pieces that will be presented in rotation during a six day residency in Times Square. The works, all of which have been specifically created for this venue, are by playwrights Zayd Dorn, Stephanie Fleischman, Jacquelyn Reingold, Emily Schwend and Beau Willimon. Some surprise musical guests may be interspersed between performances.

The Theatre for One creative team includes Ana Cappelluto (Lighting and Costume Designer), Christine Jones (Artistic Director and Set Designer), LOT-EK®, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano (Architects).

Jones was inspired by the peep show booths of Times Square’s infamous past during the development of this new type of theatrical space. Theatre for One is intended to intensify the audience and performer relationship that is being lost in the new digital Times Square. Collaborating with Jones, Lot-ek Architects utilized the pebbled black walls and steel edged construction of the theatrical roadshow boxes for a new architectural expression. The theater was first built for a workshop at Princeton University in 2007.

The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday, June 7th from 6-9 p.m., Wednesday through Friday, June 8th – 10th, from 7-11 p.m., Saturday, June 11th from 4-6 p.m. & 7-11 p.m., and Sunday, June 12th from 4-7:30 p.m. Tickets are free, and donations are accepted.

Bio

Christine Jones (Artistic Director) won a Tony Award ® in 2010 for scene designs for American Idiot, a musical based on the punk rock band Green Day’s concept album of the same title. Previously she drew a Tony nomination for her designs for the ground-breaking musical Spring Awakening. Other outstanding Broadway credits include the scene designs for Everyday Rapture, starring Sherie Renee Scott; and The Green Bird, directed by Julie Taymor, for which Ms. Jones received a Drama Desk nomination. Off-Broadway career highlights include the designs for the musical Coraline, The Book of Longing, with music by Philip Glass, based on the poems of Leonard Cohen, and a revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This starring Ed Norton, Catherine Keener, Ty Burrell, and Dallas Roberts at Signature Theatre. She has designed for numerous regional theatres and opera companies, including New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Minnesota Opera Company, and the Denver Opera Company. She conceived and is artistic director of Theatre for One (www.theatreforone.com), which describes itself as “A portable performing arts space for one performer and one audience member, that turns public events into private acts, making each performance a singularly intimate exchange.” Raised in Canada, Ms. Jones received an undergraduate degree from Montreal’s Concordia University. She holds an M.F.A. from New York University, where she is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Steve Cuiffo (Performer) is an actor and magician. He has collaborated with several theaters, artists & performance companies including The Wooster Group, The Foundry Theatre, HERE, Radiohole, Collapsable Giraffe, National Theater of the United States of America, New York Theatre Workshop, Joe's Pub, Second Stage Theatre, and has performed at THE BOX, St. Ann's Warehouse, The Performing Garage, P.S. 122, The Collapsable Hole, The Zipper Theater, Low, Galapagos, and the New Victory Theater, among other venues. Theater credits include: North Atlantic (Wooster Group), Next Stop Amazingland (Center Theatre Group), Digital Effects (Off The Grid), Hell Meets Henry Halfway (Pig Iron Theatre), Fluke (Radiohole), Major Bang (Foundry Theater), Steve Cuiffo Is Lenny Bruce at Joe's Pub, Rinne Groff's Orange, Lemon, Egg, Canary at P.S. 122, Lypinska's The Passion of the Crawford, Patriot Act – A Public Meditation (New York Theatre Workshop), Ghostlight – work in progress (NYTW Dartmouth Residency), The Amazing Russello Magic Hour (Joe's Pub/Public Theater), The Roaring Girl (Foundry Theatre), Brace Up! (Wooster Group), Byrdlesque (Donald Byrd-New Victory Theater, Broadway), The Filament Cycle (Tea Alagic/Stateless), Fever (NY Fringe Festival), The Man With The Flower In His Mouth (Lo-Fi-Co), The Marriage Of Bette And Boo, Street Scene (NYU). Film: On-line, Company K, Every Dog's Day. Steve is a two-time Princeton University Atelier recipient Artist. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York.

Zayd Dohrn (Playwright) – Plays include Outside People (Naked Angels 2012), Sick (Kitchen Dog), Reborning (Public/SPF), and Magic Forest Farm (Marin Theatre). He is currently writing screenplays for American Film Company, Wildwood Productions, and Vox3 Films, and developing a pilot for HBO. He earned his MFA from NYU and was a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at Juilliard, where he twice received Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize. Other awards: Theatre Masters’ Visionary Playwrights Award, the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Award, and the Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, as well as residencies and/or commissions from Ars Nova, Alchemy Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, The Stella Adler Studio, and the Royal Court Theatre of London. He teaches playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University. www.zayddorn.com.

Stephanie Fleischmann (Playwright) – Red Fly/Blue Bottle, Tinder, The Secret Lives of Coats, Eloise & Ray, Tally Ho, The Street of Useful Things, What the Moon Saw, The World Speed Carnival, The Hotel Carter, Viper. Collaborations with Brian Mertes: The Greeks and The Americans (song lyrics, dramaturgy, and co-devising—Juilliard) and Chekhov at Lake Lucille. Developed/produced internationally and across the U.S. at venues including: Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands), EMPAC, Exit Festival (France), Temps d’Images (Montreal), Hellenic Centre of ITI (Athens, Greece), Playlabs, Roadworks, Synchronicity, Act II, Empty Space, L.A. Theatreworks. And in NYC at: HERE, New Georges, Chocolate Factory, Soho Rep, Public Theater, Knitting Factory, Interart, and more. Grants/fellowships/residencies include: NYSCA Theater Commission, Greenwall Foundation, NY State Music Fund, NEA, NYFA, Frederick Loewe Award, Whitfield Cook Prize, Tennessee Williams Fellowship, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Mabou Mines/Suite, HARP, DPI. Playwrights Center Core Writer and New Dramatists alumnus. Published by Play, A Journal of Plays, Playscripts.com, Smith and Krauss.

Birgit Huppuch (Performer) – NY Theatre includes: Neighbors (The Public Theater), Telephone (Foundry Theatre, OBIE Award), Miss St.’s Hieroglyphic Suffering (Guggenheim), Telethon and Dot (Clubbed Thumb), What the Public Wants (Mint Theatre), Ether Steeds (NY Fringe, Outstanding Ensemble Award), The Furniture Fire and Sprinkler (Drama League Director Fest), Sa Ka La (Oslo Elsewhere), Woman of Trachis (Target Margin), Beowulf (Banana, Bag & Bodice/LES), Haymarket (Alchemy Theatre Company), Mourn the Living Hector (NY Fringe/PL 115), Scapin (NY Classical Theatre). Regional includes: Peer Gynt (Kansas City Rep), Isabella and Pay Up (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Doe 2.0 (workshop, Tokyo, Japan), Love Song (WHAT), Bogwog (workshop, O’Neill), The Anatomy of A Female Pope (NYTW, Dartmouth). Film: The Understudy, Watchers and See: They Have Sight. Upcoming: Peer Gynt (La Jolla Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Olivia, Pig Iron Theatre Company).

Marin Ireland (Performer) – Broadway: reasons to be pretty (Tony nomination, Theatre World Award, Drama League nomination), After Miss Julie. Off-Broadway: Three Sisters (Classic Stage), In The Wake (Public Theater), A Lie of the Mind (New Group, Outer Critics Circle Nomination), Blasted (Soho Rep), Cyclone (Studio Dante, 2006 OBIE for Performance), The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (4th Street, 37 Arts), Bad Jazz (The Play Company), The Ruby Sunrise (Public Theater), The Harlequin Studies (Signature), The Triple Happiness (Second Stage), Manuscript (Daryl Roth), Fighting Words (Underwood), Savannah Bay (Classic Stage), Where We’re Born (Rattlestick), the title role in Sabina (Primary Stages), Far Away and Nocturne (both at New York Theatre Workshop). Royal Court’s American tour of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis. Regional work includes Mauritius (Huntington Theatre, IRNE Award, Elliot Norton nomination), Heartbreak House (Goodman), The Bells (McCarter), Uncle Vanya (Lake Lucille), As You Like It (Commonwealth Shakespeare), and Richard Greenberg’s The Injured Party (South Coast Rep). Film/TV: “The Good Wife”, “Mildred Pierce,” “Law & Order” trifecta, Future Weather, But Beautiful, I Am Legend, The Understudy, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Suburban Girl, and Rachel Getting Married, among others.

Tasha Lawrence (Performer) – Theatre: David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, Kieth Reddin's Human Error, Daisy Foote's Bhutan, Dangerous Liaisons (Huntington Theatre) Craig Wright's The Pavilion, Betrayal (Northern Stage), The Director (Arclight Theatre), June Moon (Drama Department), He She Them (Shubert Theatre) , George F. Walker's Suburban Motel (Rattlestick Theatre). Broadway: Wilder, Wilder, Wilder (Tony nomination), Proof (national tour) Film and Television: Hangnail (Slamdance, 2011) Romance and Cigarettes (John Turturro), all the “Law and Order” series, “Third Watch” (recurring), “Deadline”, “Kevin Hill”, “All My Children”, “Loving” and “The Line”, (Gemini, ACTRA nominations, best actress).

Jacquelyn Reingold (Performer) writes for theatre and television. Her plays, which include String Fever (starring Cynthia Nixon and Evan Handler), have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, across the U.S., in London, Belgrade, Berlin, and Hong Kong. Her play I Know is running at Ensemble Studio Theatre’s annual One-Act Marathon in June 2011. She is writing a ‘science play’ commissioned by the Sloan Foundation/EST. For television, Jacquelyn is currently working on the new show, “Smash”, which will air next year on NBC. She also wrote all the Mia episodes for Emmy nominated Gabriel Byrne and Hope Davis in season two of HBO’s Peabody Award winning “In Treatment”. Her playwriting awards include: New York Foundation for the Arts in Playwriting, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation commissions, MacDowell Colony and Hermitage Artists Fellowships, and the Kennedy Center‘s Fund for New American Plays. Her work has been published in Women Playwrights: The Best Plays, several Best American Short Plays, various Best Monologues, by Samuel French, Vintage Books, and Smith & Kraus. A collection of her one-acts Things Between Us is published by Dramatists Play Service. www.jacquelynreingold.com.

Dallas Roberts (Performer) stars in the upcoming films The Grey opposite Liam Neeson directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Ridley & Tony Scott, The Door produced by Michael Ohoven, and the Warner Bros. film The Factory opposite John Cusack. Films include: 3:10 To Yuma opposite Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, directed by James Mangold, Walk the Line opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Tell Tale opposite Josh Lucas and Brian Cox, directed by Michael Cuesta, and a starring role in A Home At The End Of The World opposite Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn and Sissy Spacek. TV includes: “The Good Wife” opposite Julianna Margulies, the AMC series “Rubicon”, Showtime series “The L Word”, “Law & Order: SVU” and “Law & Order.” Off-Broadway, Dallas recently starred in the hit production of Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry. Prior to that, he co-starred with Sam Shepard in Caryl Churchill’s A Number (at the NY Theatre Workshop), and the revival of Burn This (Signature Theatre).

Emily Schwend (Playwright) is a Juilliard alum and former NYU Tisch kid. Her plays include Carthage, South of Settling, Splinters and Route One Off. In New York, her work has been developed or produced by Page 73, the Juilliard School, Partial Comfort Productions, Ars Nova, the Stella Adler Studio Acting School, and Christine Jones' Theatre for One booth. Regionally, her plays have been developed at the O’Neill Playwriting Conference, the Marin Theatre Company in California, the Source Festival in DC, the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and ACT Theatre in Seattle. Emily is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, the 2011 ACT New Play Award winner, the 2009 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwrights Prize winner, a 2011 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award finalist, a 2009 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition finalist, and a 2009-2010 Interstate 73 member. Born in Texas, raised all over the world, and a little obsessed with Missouri, Emily is now based in Brooklyn. She is represented by Joseph Rosswog at the Gersh Agency.

Beau Willimon (Playwright) – Farragut North (Atlantic Theater Company, 2008). Lower Ninth (Flea Theater, 2008; UK premiere, Donmar Warehouse, 2010). Honors: Lila Acheson Wallace Juilliard Playwriting Fellowship, two-time winner of the Lincoln Center Le Comte du Nouy Award, 2008 Playwright-in-Residence at the Donmar Warehouse. His work has also been seen at the Actors Theater of Chicago, Battersea Arts Center, Cherry Lane, Geffen Playhouse, HERE, New Dramatists, Phoenix Theater, Red Stitch, South Coast Rep and many others. Current commissions: National Theatre of Great Britain, MTC and South Coast Rep. Film: Ides of March (based on Willimon's play Farragut North), directed by George Clooney, starring Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Wood, and Clooney, to be released October 2011. TV: Creator of “House of Cards”, to be directed by David Fincher, starring Kevin Spacey, currently in pre-production. Willimon graduated with a B.A. Columbia University and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Columbia's School of the Arts. He is a proud member of both the Dramatists' Guild and WGAe.

Ana Cappelluto (Lighting and Costume Designer) is a Montreal based scenographer. Her designs have traveled to numerous international festivals including Londrina International Festival, Brazil, Singapore Arts Festival, Valencia International Arts Festival, Venezuela, Spoleto Festival, Florida, Festival Teatro a Mil, Santiago, Chile, Festival International des Théâtres Francophones, Limoges and Festival Inter City, Florence, Italy. She recently won one of Vancouver’s coveted “Jessie’s” for Outstanding Set Design, Small Theatre, for Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Theatre. Ana is an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, Montreal.

LOT-EK® Architects – Lot-ek is a design studio based in New York and Naples that was founded in 1993 by Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano. Lot-ek is well-known for its re-use of shipping containers such as “Puma City” and the Governor Island shelters and its exhibition design and site-specific installations for MoMA, the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim. www.lot-ek.com.

Theatre for One is presented by Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance (www.TimesSuareNYC.org/arts). Times Square Arts presents temporary cutting-edge art and performances in multiple forms and media to the 360,000 to 500,000 daily visitors to New York City’s Times Square, making it one of the highest profile public arts programs in the United States. Since its inception, Times Square Arts has featured works by a diverse group of more than four dozen prominent and emerging artists. It is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Theatre for One is additionally supported by True Love Productions and Concordia University.

www.theatreforone.com
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