ON THE FLY 2023: THEN & NOW to be Presented at The Actors Studio This Weekend

This weekend, The Actors Studio continues its 75th Anniversary celebration as the world's most celebrated and influential membership association for professional actors, directors and playwrights. The legendary studio, located at 432 West 44th Street, will open its doors to the public for a free and open to the public special event.

Friday, May 19 & Saturday May 20 at 7PM

ON THE FLY 2023: THEN AND NOW

To reserve your seats for May 19, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75OntheFlyThen

To reserve your seats for May 20, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75OntheFlyNow

This is a redux of the 10-Minute Web Play Series presented on Zoom in 2020 by the BIPOC (representing the Indigenous, Black, Latine, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, South East Asian) members of The Actors Studio as live zoom presentations in response to the challenges we all endured during the racial, cultural, economic and social unrest in our nation's history amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. "On The Fly..." is just what it means, and will feature the work of BIPOC playwright/director teams paired at random with Studio actors (members, finalist and participants) and tasked with conceiving and developing a short play over one week with a given prompt. This event comes in two parts.

Friday, May 19th at 7PM - "THEN" is a screening of selected original pieces as they appeared on Zoom in 2020. There will be a short Q and A afterwards.

Saturday, May 20 at 7pm - "& NOW" is a series of original short plays, written and directed (as in 202o) by members of our BIPOC community, will be performed live onstage. This event will be followed by a short Q and A.

Seating for special 75th Anniversary events are free, and extremely limited. Those who would like to attend must reserve seats and receive confirmation of access. For more information about The Actors Studio and upcoming events, visit TheActorsStudio.org.

NOTE: While The Actors Studio's 75th Anniversary events are free and open to the public, reviews and photography of Actors Studio events are not permitted.

Thank you for respecting this long-standing policy of The Actors Studio.

 

Both a place and a philosophy, The Actors Studio is an association of artists who, drawing from this common wellspring, have made enormous contributions to American art. Founded in 1947 in New York City by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis, the Studio began as a place where theatre artists could gather, privately, to explore new and deeper connections to the work. The founding members, a group of actors, writers, and directors, were committed to redefining the art of acting, to developing a series of techniques an actor could use to search for and express the truth onstage in the moment. The workshop went on to become the most powerful influence on American acting in the 20th century and continues today serving new generations of actors who are committed to the same ideal. Founding Artistic Director, Lee Strasberg, developed a series of techniques and exercises that became known as 'The Method' and changed the art of acting worldwide.

Membership is free. After successfully completing a series of auditions, the actor is invited into membership for life. Membership is bi-coastal, and to support them there are two locations. New York is The Actors Studio's birthplace and administrative headquarters. The only branch, Actors Studio West, is located in West Hollywood, CA. All members benefit from having a home with similar activities on both coasts.

Current leadership of The Actors Studio includes Co-Presidents Ellen Burstyn, Alec Baldwin and Al Pacino; Artistic Directors Beau Gravitte (NYC) and Salome Jens (L.A.); Co-Associate Artistic Directors Estelle Parsons, Michael Aronov and Javier Molina (NYC), and Katherine Cortez (L.A.)

Notable members, past and present, of The Actors Studio have included Bea Arthur, Anne Bancroft, Michael Bennett, Marlon Brando, Roscoe Lee Browne, Montgomery Clift, Common, Bradley Cooper, James Dean, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Ben Gazzara, Lorraine Hansberry, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, William Inge, Elia Kazan, Harvey Keitel, Stephen Lang, James Lipton, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Melissa Leo, Norman Mailer, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Clifford Odets, Geraldine Page, Sidney Poitier, Sydney Pollack, Jose Quintero, Jerome Robbins, Mark Rylance, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Stanley, Maureen Stapleton, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, Tennessee Williams, Gene Wilder, Shelley Winters and Joanne Woodward, to name a few.