THEATER IN ASYLUM

Memorable Books we read in 2021

12/21/2021

 
Each year, Theater in Asylum releases a list of books we read that were impactful, stuck out, and memorable. Below find a list, crowd-sourced from our community, of the books we loved in 2021. And check this post out to see the books we loved last year, in 2020.
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Ariella Axelbank reading Susan Quinn's Furious Improvisation!
Fiction
  • A String of Silver Beads by Melissa Addey
  • Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
  • Oh Pray My Wings are Gonna Fit Me Well by Maya Angelou
  • Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
  • Just Above my Head by James Baldwin
  • Milkman by Anna Burns
  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
  • All the Ted Chiang short stories
  • When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cold
  • You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
  • Babel-17 by Samuel Delany
  • Master of the Revel by Nicole Garland
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Heig
  • Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth
  • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
  • Green River Valley by Robert Lashley 
  • The City and the City by China Mieville 
  • Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
  • Bewilderment by Richard Powers
  • On Love and Other Difficulties by R. M. Rilke
  • Normal People by Sally Rooney
  • Carry On by Rainbow Rowell 
  • Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
  • We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
  • Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
  • The Invisible Life of Adie LaRue by V.E.Schwab
  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 
  • The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
  • The Tensorate Series by Neon Yang
  • Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Non-Fiction
  • Re-Enchanting the World by Sylvia Federici
  • Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher 
  • Decoding Greatness by Ron Friedman
  • Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
  • Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes du Mex
  • I Overcame my Autism and All I Got was this Lousy Anxiety Disorder by Sarah Kurchak 
  • My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
  • Van Gogh: The Asylum Year by Edwin Mullins
  • Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Muñoz
  • The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les and Tamara Payne
  • Furious Improvisation by Susan Quinn
  • Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up by Sarah Schulman
  • The Gentrification of the Mind by Sarah Schulman
  • Conflict is not Abuse by Sarah Schulman 
  • Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman 
  • Energy at the End of the World by Laura Watts
  • Caste: The Origin of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
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Memorable Performances from 2021

12/20/2021

 
What a year! Theater returned and, while difficult and ever-changing, our theater-going habit revived and we couldn't be more grateful. In 2020, when we asked our community about plays we've seen, it was "What was the last play you saw before everything shut down?" This year, we got to ask, "What stood out? What will you remember?" Below, find this year's list, lovingly compiled from the Theater in Asylum community.
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Katie, Theresa, Ryan, and Gilbert at The Lion King!
  • American Utopia on Broadway
  • Boxcutter Collective’s How to Deal With Tantrums
  • Bread and Puppet’s The Persians, and the Circus
  • Come From Away on Broadway, re-opening night
  • Eurydice (Opera version) by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Mary Zimmerman at the Met!
  • Hadestown on Broadway
  • Kyoko Takenaka
  • Lakawana Blues on Broadway
  • The Lion King on Broadway, final dress rehearsal
  • The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway
  • The Mother, by Brech, adapted by The Wooster Group
  • The Mountain Goats at White Eagle Hall
  • Oh He Dead Concert
  • Pass Over was my first Broadway show after the shut-down. I was in tears as soon as the curtain came up.
  • Romeo y Julieta
  • Sanctuary City
  • Sheep #1
  • Theater in Asylum’s The Debates 2021
  • Theater in Asylum’s Occupy Prescott
  • Trouble in Mind on Broadway, finally!
  • Twilight
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Rachael at American Utopia on Broadway!
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Alexis at Trouble in Mind on Broadway!
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Paul and Rick at the Met, during intermission for Eurydice
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Jennifer at Pass Over on Broadway!
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The marquee, dimmed for the passing of Stephen Sondheim, at Ain't Too Proud on Broadway.
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Rachael at Caroline or Change on Broadway
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Help us make theater in 2022!

12/18/2021

 
Dear Friend,

Can you believe that 2021 is nearly finished? As the pandemic continued and all of us have faced unrelenting challenges, we are proud and grateful to report that Theater in Asylum continued to bring artists and audiences together through it all. We are so grateful for your support that made our work possible. We humbly ask for your continued support of our work with a donation to our 2022 fundraiser.
DONATE TO TIA'S 2022 FUNDRAISER
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The Debates 2021, photo by Theater in Asylum
We began the year in lockdown, continuing our Cold Reading series, with 33 play readings in total, including three in-person. The spring brought a Zoom production (The Debates 2021) and its related events (four debate watch parties and analysis meetings, plus three “Civics Happy Hours”). In the fall, as we emerged from lockdown, we produced our first in-person play in over a year with Andy Boyd’s Occupy Prescott. In the midst of all this we shared a new mission statement, community agreements, and a transparency commitment with reporting mechanisms. We won grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the New York City Artist Corp. We returned to in-person work at ART/NY’s South Oxford Space and found a new home at the Jalopy Theater and Tavern. We met and worked with dozens of new artists and continued our anti-oppression work with Indie Theaters Dismantling Supremacy. 
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Occupy Prescott, photo by Shubhra Mishra
As we continue to work towards a healed world, we look ahead to 2022, our 12th year, with hope. Cold Readings, our most consistent program, will continue and even expand, with new curatorial processes and team.
 
The highlight of 2022, however, is beginning a multi-year process to explore and share the story of Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). If you’re unfamiliar, she’s a rarely-sung hero of the American Theater, leading the New Deal Era relief program to put theater people back to work. The Project was highly successful, reaching nearly one in four Americans in its brief four-year existence. Despite its popularity, the FTP was also the subject of great controversy, as was Hallie Flanagan herself - accused of being a Communist by the House Un-American Activities Committee. We at TIA have long been fascinated by the pioneering Hallie Flanagan and her Federal Theatre Project, our country’s only instance of federally funded theater. As believers in the arts as a public good, we want to investigate the success and pitfalls of the 1930s project and its legacy. We'll ask how FTP could ever exist again, and what would be its struggles in our contemporary world.
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Hallie Flanagan, 1936. This image is a work of a Works Progress Administration employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
To explore this project, we'll host two events. In Spring 2022, we will present a cabaret of short works, our favorite way to invite artist-friends to our brainstorm. This FTP Cabaret will feature theater, music, dance, and poetry; we commit to paying the 40+ artists we plan to invite. In Summer 2022, we will hunker down for an extended workshop of this untitled Hallie Flanagan project, with plans to present the full production in early 2023.

If you are in a position to donate, we humbly ask for your support of Theater in Asylum’s 2022 season. We are so grateful for all that’s been made possible this past year despite such difficulty. We look ahead to 2022 with gratitude, eagerness, and hope.
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Learn more about our 2022 season and donate at
theaterinasylum.com/2022

Thank you so, so much.

Peace, power, and love to you,

Paul Bedard, Katie Palmer, and Kathryn Appleton
TIA Co-Artistic Directors and Managing Director
DONATE TO TIA'S 2022 FUNDRAISER
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2021 Transparency Report

12/2/2021

 
Theater in Asylum believes that transparency enables the sharing of power and responsibility. We commit to being open with how company decisions are made and money is spent. Below please find an overview of our finances in 2021. This is also on our website’s transparency page, a page we launched earlier this year as a way to showcase a snapshot of our finances and decision-making.

Big Picture

Some Takeaways of Theater in Asylum’s 2021 Finances:
  • We projected to spend ~$25,000 in 2021, but actually spent ~$21,000.
  • We projected to earn ~$25,000 in 2021, but actually earned ~$27,000.
  • We received extra support from grants, along with donated performance and rehearsal space.
  • We will enter 2022 with a healthy reserve to get new projects started.

2021’s Major Projects:
  • The Debates 2021, created by Theater in Asylum, was originally envisioned as a live production that would tour around New York City. Due to the pandemic, the piece was presented live on Zoom May 27 and 28, 2021. Approximately 100 people watched it live, 50 people watched it streaming on demand.
  • Occupy Prescott, by Andy Boyd, was presented October 16-31, 2021 outside at the Jalopy Tavern. We sold out all six scheduled shows and one added show. About 200 people saw the production.
  • Cold Readings were mostly online, with 3 in-person. We held 33 readings in all with approximately 15 people at each, 500 people total.

2021 Expenses

Budgeted Expenses
  • Personnel: $11,900
  • Production Costs: $6,930
  • Space: $3,900
  • Administrative: $1,100
  • Anti-oppression training: $600
  • Contingencies: $1,092
  • Total Budgeted Expenses: $25,522

Actual Expenses (as of 12/2/21)
  • Personnel: $14,141*
  • Production Costs: $3,670**
  • Space: $1,003***
  • Administrative: $1,147
  • Anti-oppression training: $300
  • Contingencies: $838
  • Total Actual Expenses: $20,882

* Personnel expenses rose when we unexpectedly won grants from the NYC Artist Corps, allowing us to increase collaborator stipends for Occupy Prescott.
** The Debates 2021 was revamped from an in-person production to an online production, drastically reducing production costs.
*** Our space costs fell drastically with the revamping of The Debates 2021 to an online production, as well as space donations for Occupy Prescott.


How Theater in Asylum paid people in 2021
  • The Debates 2021: 15 collaborators were paid an equal stipend of $200.
  • Occupy Prescott: 19 collaborators were paid an equal stipend of $399, plus a $100 “cost-of-living” reimbursement.
  • Cold Readings: 9 people guest facilitated a total of 14 Cold Readings. Facilitators were paid $50 for each Cold Reading they facilitated. One guest theater company was paid $100 for facilitating.
  • Theater in Asylum company leadership were not paid for their general administrative work, nor their work facilitating Cold Readings. They were compensated as collaborators in The Debates 2021 and Occupy Prescott, receiving stipends equal to all other collaborators on each project.
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2021 Revenues

Projected Revenue
  • Donations: $12,500
  • Grants: $3,000 
  • Tickets: $6,600
  • Drawdown of previous years' surplus: $3,000 
  • Total Projected Revenues: $25,100

Actual Revenue (as of 12/2/21)
  • Donations: $13,517 
  • Grants: $10,700*
  • Tickets: $2,654**
  • Drawdown of previous years' surplus: $0 needed
  • Total Actual Revenues: $26,871

* We won support for our 2021 Season from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the New York City Artist Corps.
** With the revamping of The Debates 2021 to be an online production, ticket revenue was lost as we were not able to tour to different neighborhoods (with different audiences).


How Theater in Asylum Charged Audiences in 2021
  • The Debates 2021: Sliding scale tickets from $0-$20. Roughly a third of people paid less than $10 per ticket, while another third paid the full $20 per ticket.
  • Occupy Prescott: Sliding scale tickets from $0-$30. Roughly a third of people paid less than $10 per ticket, while a fifth of people paid the full $30.
  • Cold Readings: Free for all attendees. Donations were solicited for organizations doing good work at online readings. Donations were solicited to cover the cost of wine and snacks at the two in-person Cold Readings we had during the summer.
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Conclusion

We are so appreciative of our community, who has helped us organize our company, our budgets, and our work. We invite feedback (contact info on our Community page) as to how we can make Theater in Asylum more transparent and fruitful for all.

Thank you,
Paul, Katie, and Kathryn
Theater in Asylum
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Theater in Asylum (TIA) is a New York-based theater company founded in 2010 to challenge and empower our community. TIA joyfully pursues a rigorous research and an ensemble-driven approach to theater-making. We create performances to investigate our past, interpret our present, and imagine our future. We prize space to process, space to question—asylum—for ourselves and our community.

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