2022 Year in Review

12/30/2022

We made it! As 2022 comes to a close, we want to reiterate our gratitude to the community who made this year possible. For the past few weeks we've been looking back at all we achieved this year. If you missed it, here are a few links:

Below, find a review of all Theater in Asylum produced and accomplished this year. If you're in a position to do so, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our dreams for 2023. Once again, thank you.

Reflections

2022 was a busy and fruitful year for Theater in Asylum. We continued developing our show about the Federal Theatre Project, currently known as The FTP Show. We plan to premiere this piece next summer, and this year’s work brought invaluable growth to the project. We presented a 20-minute excerpt at The FTP Cabaret, alongside new work from 6 invited guest groups. A few months later, we convened for a week of dedicated development and generated both a solid script draft and ample photos and video which were useful in our grant applications this year. The piece will continue development with a public reading in January and finally a full production in August 2023. We are still deeply committed and beyond excited to share this story. Hallie Flanagan’s unsung legacy continues to reverberate in the American Theatre, but her mission remains unfinished. Why? Artists lack the support they deserve and audiences frequently cannot afford to experience the art they deserve. Public funding of the arts in the United States (the wealthiest country on Earth) is urgently needed, and we hope our show can provoke a conversation to this end.

The FTP Cabaret, photo by Shubhra Mishra

Cold Readings continued to transform this year. For the first time, a curation team led the program and brought new variety to the plays we read. We are still in transition, slowly scaling back from the frequency of Cold Readings during the pandemic (every week at its height) to normal times (7-10 readings per year). While we initially thought we would fully transition back to in-person readings, our online gatherings have continued to excel with a community beyond New York. Looking ahead, we plan to continue a mix of in-person and online readings. Having fallen a little short this year, we also plan to redouble our efforts in curating at least 50% of plays by women and 50% of plays by BIPOC artists.

2022 also brought extensive internal reorganization to the company. This was our first year with an annual staff whose responsibilities carried throughout the year. This staff was paid bi-monthly for their work and did not receive project stipends. We found this model very helpful to the overall health of the company and we plan to continue it next year.

After reconsidering non-profit status for the millionth time, TIA leadership decided to follow our tax advisor’s recommendation and forgo it, instead beginning a reincorporation process to make Theater in Asylum a multi-member LLC. This will not only better-protect Paul from tax liability (we were previously a sole proprietorship) but this also opens doors to pay our artists more with the ability to issue 1099’s as a company.

Overall, 2022 was fast and bright, busy and productive. The FTP Show is beginning to spread its wings, Cold Readings continued to delight, the company’s internal workings and finances are solidifying into a more sustainable place, and Theater in Asylum continues to be a home for many. The community grew this year and we eagerly reach for 2023 and all the good work it will bring.

Major events and Projects

The FTP Cabaret

Part of our ongoing cabaret series, guest artists were invited to create short pieces on a theme.
May 13-14, 2022 at the Jalopy Theater. 37 artists presented 7 short pieces to 120 in-person attendees and over 400 streaming online.
Featured work by Theater in Asylum, The Anthropologists, Alexis Atkinson, Andy Boyd, Dmitri Barcomi, Lila Rachel Becker, Roger Q. Mason.
For the first time, we were able to pay all participants in the cabaret. In all, 37 collaborators were paid for their work.
Billed as “a night of theater, dance, music, and poetry inspired by the legacy of the Federal Theatre Project, the New Deal era program that put thousands of theater artists back to work from 1935-1939.”

The FTP Cabaret, photo by Shubhra Mishra

The FTP Show workshop

A weeklong workshop to develop The FTP Show (working title). This culminated in an invited performance (and a finished draft of the show!).
We were able to take great photos and video of the workshop, which were invaluable for 2022 grant applications.
August 8-14, 2022 at the Jalopy Theater.

Cold Readings

This project is an ongoing play-reading group. Each week we gather to read and discuss a play without rehearsal. Facilitators introduce each reading and guide discussions. This project's goal is to encourage theater literacy as well as confidence in speaking about plays.
Each week we highlight an organization doing good work that we encourage attendees to donate to. We summarized this year's organizations in our Giving Tuesday post.
17 readings in 2022, mostly on Wednesdays. 3 readings were held in person, the rest were on Zoom.
Approximately 15 people at each, 255 people total.
6 guest facilitators ran a total of 7 readings. The rest were facilitated by Theater in Asylum.
41% of plays were by women, 47% were by people of color. These figures are below our demographic goals and we will use this information to improve in 2023.
The oldest play we read was written in 1635. The newest play we read was written this year, in 2017.
We finished our project of reading and discussing the entire Golden Collection.

More highlights

The Brontës, co-created by Katie Palmer, performed in London.
Theater in Asylum reincorporated as a multi-member limited liability company, an essential step to protecting Paul from tax liability (we were previously a sole proprietorship) and also setting the stage to pay people more and issue 1099’s next year.
Theater in Asylum won three grants this year: one from the Brooklyn Arts Council and two from ART/NY.
We held a reading group to read Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal by Kate Dossett.
Our online community grew with the expansion of our social media presence. This is largely the good work of our PR and Marketing Manager Charlotte.
Personal highlight: Paul completed a cross-country tour with the Bread and Puppet Theater, with over 50 shows this fall.
Personal highlight: Kathryn walked the Paseo del Norte in Spain!

The FTP Show workshop, photo by Shubhra Mishra

Timeline

January 12 - Cold Reading
January 26 - Cold Reading
February 9 - Cold Reading
February 23 - Cold Reading
March 12 - TIA Spring Happy Hour
March 23 - Cold Reading
April 6 - Cold Reading
April 20 - Cold Reading
May 13 & 14 - The FTP Cabaret
June 1 - Cold Reading
June 4 - TIA Summer Picnic
June 15 - Cold Reading
July 20 - Cold Reading
August 3 - Cold Reading
August 8-14 - The FTP Show workshop
August 16-20 - The Brontës in London
August 17 - Cold Reading
September 3 - TIA performs at Undiscovered Countries
September 5 - TIA Fall Picnic
September 14 - Cold Reading
September 28 - Cold Reading
October 12 - Cold Reading
October 26 - Cold Reading
November 30 - Cold Reading

By the numbers

Event attendees: approximately 775
2022 Season Donors: 83
Paid artists: 57
Admin meetings: 59
Cold Readings: 17 (14 online, 3 in-person)
Rehearsals: 12 (5 for TIA’s contribution to The FTP Cabaret, 6 for The FTP Show workshop, 1 for our contribution to Undiscovered Countries’ show)
Live performances: 4

Thank you!

We are so grateful to the artists, audience, volunteers, donors, friends, and family who made Theater in Asylum's 2022 season possible. We are so lucky to have such a vibrant and supportive community.

As we turn the page on 2022, we look with hope to 2023. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our 2023 season.

Happy New Year!

Paul in Bread and Puppet's Apocalypse Defiance Circus, photo by Ben White

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