The Atlantic Theater Company is like the East Coast home base for indie Hollywood. With its two stages ensconced in a nondescript part of town well outside the theater district, the Atlantic has a scruffy outside-the-mainstream feel, yet this is the place where Woody Allen goes when he writes a new play or wants to take a shot at stage directing. Another film writer/director, Ethan Coen, has tried his hand …more…

Why wait around for the latest star-studded London production of a great Shakespeare play to transfer to Broadway when you’ve got the Classic Stage Company on 13th Street? Under the leadership of artistic director Brian Kulick, CSC has become a magnet for renowned, adventurous New York actors, hungry to delve into great works by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Beckett, Brecht, Aeschylus, and more in the company’s intimate theater. ...more...

Founded by Curt Dempster and a group of fellow theater artists at the height of the Off-Broadway movement in the late 1960s-early ‘70s, Ensemble Studio Theatre is a not-for-profit company with the twin goals of nurturing individual artists and developing new American plays. ...more...

In an age of cynicism and sarcasm, the Keen Company courageously presents “sincere” plays. The company’s mission statement says “We believe that theater is at its most powerful when texts and productions are generous in spirit and provoke identification. Inspired by the works of early 20th century American playwrights, Keen Company demonstrates that an earnest intent can still be sophisticated. …more…

A company in residence at The Public Theater, LAByrinth was founded in 1992 when 13 actors collectively established an artistic home where they could engage in a variety of theatrical exercises and where each could not only act but also to write, direct, produce, sweep, paint, hang lights, and so on. Led by artistic directors Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O’Donnell, …more…

Founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company, this Off-Broadway collective of actors, writers, and directors is now familiarly known by its initials. MCC has presented plays ranging from Margaret Edson’s Wit to Bryony Lavery’s Frozen to Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty. MCC is also known for its annual “Miscast” gala, in which some of Broadway’s hottest stars perform songs from roles in which they would never be cast.

In addition to …more…

Under the leadership of founding artistic director Scott Elliott and executive director Geoff Rich, The New Group is an artist-driven company in residence at the Theatre Row complex on West 42nd Street. Its productions have included a revival of David Rabe’s Hurlyburly starring Ethan Hawke, Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, and Bobby Cannavale; the world premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger, with …more…

New York Theatre Workshop is famous for having developed Jonathan Larson’s phenomenal rock musical Rent. The show had its world premiere production here in January 1996; Larson died tragically and unexpectedly on the night before the first performance. The show went on to have a 12-year run on Broadway and to tour the world.

NYTW began in 1979 as the brainchild …more…

Founded in 1984 by Shepard Sobel and Joanne Camp, the Pearl focuses on season-specific training and craft-building. What distinguishes the Pearl from so many other off-Broadway theater companies is that it features a resident troupe of actors in a wide-ranging repertoire strongly rooted in the classics. The company seeks and develops actors with the technical abilities and the artistic inclination …more…

In the new millennium, Playwrights Horizons finds itself overshadowed a bit by the bigger non-profits that now reside on Broadway, but it has long held a well-deserved reputation for producing bold new works. Past artistic successes have included musicals Grey Gardens, Floyd Collins, Assassins, Falsettos, and Sunday in the Park with George, and the plays I Am My Own Wife, Driving Miss Daisy, and The Heidi Chronicles. ...more...

Primary Stages has operated under the radar for many years, presenting fine productions of plays by great writers like A.R. Gurney, Horton Foote, Romulus Linney, and Lee Blessing at its little 99-seat space in Midtown West. Just a few years ago, the company moved eastward to a space twice that size at 59E59 Theaters, giving Primary Stages an opportunity to …more…

Rattlestick makes its home in a walk-up theater in Greenwich Village. An odd feature of the venue is that the only restroom is located more or less backstage. Despite this unprepossessing space, the company has been successful in its mission to develop and produce innovative new plays, including The Last Sunday in June, Finer Noble Gases, American Sligo, Steve & Idi, …more…

Signature famously devotes many of its individual seasons entirely to the work of a particular playwright. In 2010-2011, the company presented a Tony Kushner celebration that included an acclaimed new production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, two-part epic Angels in America (with a cast led by Zachary Quinto, Christian Borle, and Frank Wood), along with Kushner’s The Illusion and The Intelligent …more…

It’s indicative of TFANA’s intriguing programming that the company’s 2010-2011 season was dedicated to “two literary giants and their investigations into malevolence,” with productions of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, Macbeth, and The Merchant of Venice as well as an original adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novella Notes from Underground, featuring such actors as F. Murray Abraham, Bill Camp, and John Douglas Thompson.

Founded in 1979 by …more…

Dedicated to the creation of new plays and musicals, the Vineyard has given birth to such works as Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, Becky Mode’s Fully Committed, and Craig Lucas’s The Dying Gaul, all of which have gone on to further lives at theaters all across the country. ...more...