Theater For The New City To Honor Estelle Parsons

Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons is returning to Theater for the New City as the honoree at its Love and Courage gala to raise money to present the work of emerging playwrights.

The theater is honoring her at this annual event, at The Players, 15 Gramercy Park South with cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:45 p.m. and performances at 8 p.m.

Parsons won an Academy Award as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde and is known to TV audiences as Beverly Harris, Roseanne's mother, in Roseanne, but she has long been a presence on Broadway and theater in general.

Paron's theater career has included appearing in work by Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Dario Fo, and Horton Foote as well as appearing in Osage County by Tracy Letts, Good People by David Lindsay-Abair and Nice Work if You Can Get It, with Matthew Broderick.

She appeared recently at Playwrights Horizons in Michael Friedman's musical Unknown Soldier and is lifetime member of The Actors Studio who was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2004.

And she appeared on Broadway and around the world as a teacher berating the audience as her class in Miss Margarida's Way.

Parsons in 2007 directed INTAR's production of Maxwell Anderson's Night Over Taos with a cast of 25 at Theater for the New City.

Her work as a director also includes Salome, starring Al Pacino, and various Shakespeare plays for the New York Shakespeare Festival where she helped turn an idea into an important part of the New York City theater scene.

"It's called Love and Courage, because that is what you need to navigate in this world," TNC co-founder and Executive Artistic Director Crystal Field said. "You need love for your fellow human beings and animals and the earth. And you need courage, because as you can see the way things are, you need a lot of courage."

Parsons follows Love and Courage honorees such as actor, director and playwright Austin Pendleton; Bread & Puppet Theater Co-Founder and Artistic Director Peter Schumann, performance artist, playwright and poet Penny Arcade and Tim Robbins who performed there as a young man.

"TNC does the work of unknown emerging and mid-career playwrights," Field said. "It helps us to find and nurture and develop playwrights."

Phoebe Legere and Matt Morillo are hosting while New York City Council Member Gale Brewer is slated to speak at the dinner honoring Parsons, who has become an important part of New York City theater.

Charles Busch, Phoebe Legere, Rome Neal and Mimi Block are slated to perform the 23rd Love and Courage benefit for TNC, a theater that dates back more than 50 years.

Field runs the nonprofit along with a team including Alexander Bartenieff as director of operations, Mark Marcante as production manager and Emily Pezzella as volunteer coordinator and executive assistant.

Jonathan Weber is managing director, Dan Kelley is house manager, Bill Bradford is box office manager and Michael Scott-Price is director of new projects at the venue that Field co-founded more than 50 years ago.

Crystal Field, George Bartenieff, Larry Kornfeld and Theo Barnes founded Theater for the New City at a time when there were few venues for new work.

"We wanted to have the ability for an artist to write without censorship," Field said. "We wanted a non-censoring theater."

The group, who had worked together at Judson Memorial Church, launched not just their own show, but their own space, debuting in 1971 at a location on Bank Street with Dracula Sabbat by Leon Katz.

"It was fabulous," said Field who played the female lead opposite George Bartenieff in the production directed by Larry Kornfeld. "It had about 25 people in it."

After two years, the rent went up, so they sought a second home on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets. "We got that building, because I had performed in that building," Field said. "I knew it was a good theater building."

They performed there until 1986 when they obtained from the City what became their new and remains their current home at 155 First Ave.

"We got this building," Field said. "We bought this building from the city for a very small amount."

She still writes a musical annually that TNC presents free at locations around the city, with the help of a set they truck around from spot to spot.

The gala is at a location linked to theater, although not in their own theater, where they present Halloween and other celebrations.

"It's the home of theater people," Field said of The Players. "The reason it's called the players it's a theater person's organization."

Field also writes plays, but hasn't presented her work at TNC other than the annual musical, but is busy with a theater presenting as many as four shows simultaneously.

"I haven't done a play of mine here for a long time," Field said in the office. "I don't have time."