Theater in Asylum: The First 5 Years8/30/2025  We can hardly believe we’ve been making theater together for 15 whole years! As we celebrate our anniversary and raise money for the future of Theater in Asylum through our 15th Anniversary Fundraiser, we’re looking back on our first 5 years as a company and the work we created in those early days. Read on as co-Artistic Director Katie shares some of her favorite memories from 2010 - 2014. And help us create even more exciting work in the years to come by donating to our fundraiser!  2010 Much of our research for our first full production, Nijinsky in Asylum, consisted of gorging on ballets at American Ballet Theatre that summer. I think we saw a ballet a week that entire season. Paul lived right behind Lincoln Center, so we had easy access to the theater. It was the perfect way to get inspired to tell the story of Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.  2011 Our Death / Memory Project is where I really feel we became a company. Not only because it's when we started using the name Theater in Asylum, but because the event went so spectacularly well. If it hadn't gone so well, I don't know if we would have continued. But squeezing 100 people into the 3rd floor rehearsal studio of New York Theatre Workshop to see 3 acts of performances put on by hungry, passionate young artists - the electricity was enough to power all of the East Village. It still counts as a supremely special night in my life and feels like a definitive turning point to making Theater in Asylum a real thing.  Later that year, we produced a re-imaging of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in conjunction with the Looking Glass Theatre’s Space Grant Program. This production, which set the classic story in the not-so-distant future when we will again face a new science that redefines our ethics, featured projections to multiple video screens. How did we do that?! In 2011?!  2012 Much of this year consisted of Paul, Kathryn, and I setting up shop at Horse Trade (now Frigid New York) where we held office hours and mounted 3 shows in 9 months. What a time! One of those shows was Revolution in 1, which was my first time at the helm of a production. Clearly, I really liked it. This was also my first time professionally collaborating with my sister Lizzy, who was featured as one of our co-creators and performers.  2013 Our main production this year, ¡Olé!, told the story of the tumultuous relationship between Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dalí. The show premiered at UNDER St. Marks in New York, and then traveled to the Chicago Fringe Festival, the Hartford Carriage House Theatre, and the Rochester Fringe Festival, marking our first tour! I really think Paul and I unlocked a new level of artistry with this piece. The weaving of story-telling, physicality, music, theme, and setting was on a new level for the company.  2014 After ¡Olé!, I said I want to write a musical! I connected with composer Lucas Tahiruzzaman Syed, who had loved ¡Olé! We spent 2 hours in the Applejack Diner on Broadway and W 55th and the last idea he threw out was "what about the Brontës?" We found Sarah Ziegler as our 3rd collaborator and off we went! We spent much of the year writing and premiered the first song from the show, “The World is Ready,” at our cabaret later that year. We’ll be sharing more TIA memories over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Want to help fund the future of Theater in Asylum? Donate to our 15th Anniversary Fundraiser!
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Dear Friend, If you can believe it, September 25, 2025 will mark 15 years since our first production, Nijinsky in Asylum, premiered. We feel so old! But also so proud. We’ve come so far in these last 15 years with 13 full productions, 19 cabarets, 175 Cold Readings, as well as book clubs, voter guides, and many smaller events. Over 7,250 people have experienced our work, including you, and we’re so, so grateful.  2010’s Nijinsky in Asylum at Steps on Broadway Since 2010, we have used the theater to re-examine topics such as the role of the artist in society, the responsibility of the government to the arts, and the relationship between the individual and their community. We have looked to artist biographies for insight (Lorca, the Brontës, and Hallie Flanagan to name just a few). We've gathered with you in theaters, bars, dance studios, indoor playgrounds, living rooms, and kitchens to ask, “what stands out?”, “how does it all connect?", and “where do we go from here?” For us, theater is a tool for collective imagination, an essential breeding ground for vital ideas as we strive for a better world. The theater allows us to suspend our disbelief, question the past, interpret the present, and imagine a future together. Theater in Asylum has always been about making theater collectively, sharing ideas, asking big questions, and searching for new paths forward together. We want to continue this work with you for years to come.  2011’s The OTHERS Project team At each juncture, you have met us with enthusiasm and curiosity. You have volunteered, donated, bought tickets, joined us at venues from the Upper West Side to Red Hook, from Philadelphia to Prague. As artists, you have trusted us, challenged us, and strengthened our art. Without you, Theater in Asylum would never have made it past that first production, let alone the 13 we produced in 15 years. And we are so grateful.  A shot from last week’s workshop of FAUST (photo by Diana Zuluaga) We now turn to Faust. We’re not the first to hear Mephistopheles behind the words of world leaders, titans of industry, and “the American dream.” It’s a dire moment, for all of us, and our morals are straining. How can we survive when we know so many won’t? How do we exist when brutality is so widespread and even the concept of “empathy” is deemed suspect? What’s the way out of hell? How do we rescue our souls back from the bargains we’ve –knowingly and unknowingly– entered? These are questions we now gather collaborators to ask. In Fall 2026, we’ll present our biggest production yet, an adaptation of the centuries-old myth. We’re planning a 3-week run in Midtown Manhattan with a cast of 8. We’re stepping up artist stipends and design budgets. This show will be big. And expensive. We’re full steam ahead preparing for this massive endeavor. We ask for your help again, as we celebrate our 15th anniversary, to help us raise $15,000. If you are able, we would be so honored to have your support, be it $15 or $1,500 dollars.  2019’s Totally Wholesome Foods (photo by Ahron R. Foster) Why donate now?
At 15 years old, our company is experiencing some growing pains. As many of you know, we started on the long journey to becoming our own 501(c)3 nonprofit about two years ago. (Currently, we have a Fiscal Sponsor through which we are able to receive tax-deductible donations.) We did this in order to be eligible for more grants so we can pay our artistic collaborators closer to a living wage and have to rely less on individual donors. We had wished by this point to actually officially be a non-profit, but alas, bureaucracy had other plans. As a result of the delay, we continue to be ineligible for a wide pool of grants open only to nonprofits. The $15,000 we’re raising here will help us sustain the company creatively and logistically through the end of the year and into the beginning of the next as we await approval from the IRS. What will the $15,000 cover?These funds will help us pay for the following:
2019’s Totally Wholesome Foods (photo by Ahron R. Foster) How can I further support Theater in Asylum?
Thank you for making the last 15 years an incredible collaboration of theater, laughter, discovery, challenge, and joy. Thank you for being a part of this journey, and our next chapter! Paul Bedard, Katie Palmer, Kathryn Appleton, and Charlotte Dow Theater in Asylum Categories
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