Sivan Raz Announces Needs More Work Productions, A Spicy Site-Specific Theater Company For A Better Tomorrow

Award winning international director Sivan Raz is happy to announce Needs More Work Productions, a new site-specific theater company in the off-off broadway scene.
After a successful run of their inaugural show, Tomorrow, as part of the international Climate Change Theatre Action festival, this production company lead by Raz is looking forward to a summer season of classic theater brought to the parks of NYC with some new and exciting twists.

Sivan Raz, a middle-eastern actor and director, believes theater is the strongest engine of social change. As such, their brand new company is dedicated to choosing pieces they feel are relevant, stirring and poignant. "Our tagline is Theater For A Better Tomorrow and that is truly what I strive to do," says Raz. "Our premiere play was a collaboration with the Moore Jackson Community Garden dealing with substantial climate action, and our summer season is going to take you all the way back to the political issues of ancient Greece that are all too familiar today."

"Theater is not just blank entertainment, it is a powerful tool. Those of us who are fortunate enough to wield it are responsible to use it for justice and good."

Raz has always been fascinated with site-specific and immersive theater. Their past directing credits include Cyrano De Bergerac in Central Park (summer 2023), Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party, Michael Gurevitch's Private Investigator and work with the Jerusalem based company Theater In The Rough, including the co-direction of a site-specific God Of Carnage, based in actual private living rooms. Raz is also an Audio Verse Award winning director of audio drama shows available worldwide, with some of their top credits including Someone Dies In This Elevator, Hubris and On Asphalt Bones. With Needs More Work Productions, they are excited to join the ranks of the off-off broadway indie theater scene, amongst some of the greatest theater artists in the world.

"We're all here because we love theater. We love theater, we love this city, and we believe there is some power in that. In my book, anyone who feels like that is a friend I'd like to have," says Raz. "I'm here for the community, and for creating art with people who are passionate about it. My inbox is always open, and I invite everyone to write to me at any time! I am here for your wildest, strangest and most ambitious ideas. What could be better than those?"

"I am interested in completely annihilating the barriers between audience and actor. And between an actor and another actor, for that matter. Aren't we all here to have a conversation? That is where my fascination with immersive and site-specific theater comes from. When we worked on Cyrano De Bergerac this summer, we talked about the play beginning with the characters watching a play themselves. So what's the difference? You are a Parisian coming to see a show at that moment, and that fact gives you agency in the situation. You become a part of it and begin to form opinions and actions relating to the scene. It is my hope that these actions and opinions will lead you to fight for a better tomorrow even after the show is over. I focus on using aesthetic stage composition, movement design and 360° action as a way to facilitate these important emotions".

With this goal in mind, Sivan Raz is happy to lead Needs More Work Productions as its Artistic Director. An activist with a unique vision, creativity and a spicy sense of humor, they are certainly a director to follow. Raz creates aesthetic movement-based theater that is not quite like anything you've seen before, and one you certainly wouldn't want to miss. Find Needs More Work Productions on Instagram at @needsmoreworkproductions and Raz at https://sivanraz.com/ for more information.

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