Bedlam, Elevator Repair Service and More to Take Part in Access Theater Residency Program

Access Theater has announced the companies and artists who will participate in its inaugural RESIDENCY PROGRAM for the 2016-2017 season: Elevator Repair Service (The Sound and the Fury), Bedlam (Sense and Sensibility, Saint Joan), Frank Pugliese (House of Cards), Waterwell (w/ Arian Moayed of The Humans), The Drilling Company, New Light Theater Project, Primitive Grace (w/ David Zayas and Paul Calderon), Everyday Inferno, Not Without Rage, The Boom! Agenda Theatre Collective, Kristen Adele, and New Dance Company.

Dependent on the project, the Access Theater Residency Program provides artists with a number of hours of rehearsal space per month to develop an idea over the course of a year, as well as select evenings, technical elements included, for any showings to the public. The Residency does not require check-ins, due dates, or presentations, but seeks to provide an artistic home for artists to develop their work, regardless of outside pressure and deadlines.

Based on the proposed idea, a panel selected twelve applicants to partake in the Residency Program, all of which are New York City companies and artists who have either planted roots in the community or are looking to establish themselves as an artistic presence in the city. The panel strives for a healthy balance of established and emerging artists, as well as diversity.

Says Artistic and Producing Directors Sarah Norris and Michael Aguirre, "With the overwhelming number of applicants, it was clear that artistic space to create is more and more a coveted and rare item in Manhattan. Access Theater has long served the downtown community, and after twenty-four years, strives to still be a welcoming home for artists at any level."

Since 1992, Access Theater has been a home to New York City's leading downtown artists. Its twenty-four year history is rich with the early works of then-unknown theater artists, including Stephen Belber, Brian Dykstra, David Johnston, Josh Lefkowitz, Matthew Freeman, Tom McCarthy, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Hollinger, and David Foley. Recent successes include: Bedlam Theater's premiere of Hamlet / St. Joan which ran to great acclaim and moved to a successful run at the Lynne Redgrave Theater; The Empty Plate / Sakina's Restaurant by Aasif Mandvi, which went on to a successful run at the American Place Theater; Josh Lefkowitz's Help Wanted..., which moved to the regional theater circuit following its initial run at Access; co-productions with Blue Coyote Theater Group of David Johnston's Oresteia (one of Time Out New York's Best of 2007), Busted Jesus Comix (2005 GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Off-Off Broadway Theatre), and David Foley's Paradise, among many others; world premieres of Brian Dykstra's critically acclaimed Off-Broadway solo show, Brian Dykstra: Cornered & Alone; Israela Margalit's 3 O'Clock in Brooklyn; Darian Dauchan's Fallen Patriots; Bryan Dykstra's Strangerhorse; and Stephen Belber's Tape, which premiered at Access and went on to be presented at the Humana Festival of New American Plays before opening Off-Broadway and becoming a feature film starring Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.

Other past production highlights include: Cages, currently being developed into a feature film by Gary Fleder (director, Kiss the Girls, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead); Alice Down the Hole; and the sold-out, extended run of Susan Gregory Thomas's The Most You. Larry Thompson: Tragedy of a Youth, by Dusan Kovacevic (Underground, White Hotel), had a special performance at the United Nations; The Killing Act, featuring Dominic Fumusa, went on to a reading at the Williamstown Theater Festival; the NY premiere of Forsaking All Others, by Brian Dykstra, came to Access after sold-out, extended runs in London and Los Angeles.

Upcoming: Access will present a co-production with New Light Theater Project of Anne Adams' startling new play, Strange Country, beginning July 21st.

The residency begins August 1st and lasts through July 31st. For more details about the residents and their projects, visit AccessTheater.com.

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