We’re off and running! Rehearsals for Faust Syndrome kicked off this week with a meet & greet, designer presentations, and a table read at Paul’s apartment. After seeing our designers’ sketches and models, and hearing the play out loud, we are even more excited to bring this story to life. We are also so happy to be back in the rehearsal room for a new full-length production after three years!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for even more sneak peeks at Faust Syndrome over the next few weeks. And book your tickets today!

Faust Syndrome is a new adaptation of the Faust myth, performing this fall in NYC. The piece follows three activists who strive to end the genocide in Gaza, abolish ICE, and bring an end to American imperialism. When they are approached by the Devil's agent Mephistopheles and offered extraordinary –and terrifying!– power, the age-old Faustian bargain cycle unfurls yet again. The production will feature puppets, a choir, and urgently-need questions around movement building, individualism, and violence.

THEATER IN ASYLUM:
Theater in Asylum makes rigorously-researched, ensemble-driven theater to challenge and empower. We prize the theater as a space — as an asylum — where we can process and question, where reality is temporarily suspended, and where we can create with joy. Since 2010, Theater in Asylum has brought New York artists and not-yet-artists together to read, research, devise, and perform politically charged, of-the-moment new plays.

To learn more about Theater in Asylum, see here.

WHERE:
The Episcopal Actors' Guild in midtown (29th & 5th Ave)

WHEN:

• Rehearsals: September 19-October 28, 2026
• Rehearsals will mostly be nights and weekends.
• Not every actor will be called to every rehearsal. We aim to schedule around people’s availability.
• Performances: October 29-November 15, 2026 (15 total)

PAY: 

• $900 stipend
• All collaborators working on the entire process (from first rehearsal to closing night) are paid the same full stipend. Collaborators coming in for just performances or for a short portion of the process are paid a half stipend or hourly. All collaborators are shared on the complete show budget. More on how Theater in Asylum works to share power, time, and money is here.
• Theater in Asylum is seeking an Equity Showcase Code for this production.
• Food: Theater in Asylum provides a snack at all activities longer than 3 hours and a meal at all activities longer than 6 hours.
• Theater in Asylum’s community agreements are here.

THE ROLE:

• Name: Inés
• Latina, in her 60's or older.
  
• An artist-activist puppeteer and sculptor. 
• She has seen a lot and knows –fully– who she is and what she is doing.
  
• She is sharp-tongued, sometimes even to the point of rudeness, but cares deeply for others and for the movement.
  
• She is an unstoppable force with little patience for stupidity and vanity.

TO SUBMIT:
If this project sounds exciting to you, please email a headshot and resume to Paul Bedard & Katie Palmer at [email protected].

TIA returns to the stage this fall with Faust Syndrome!
But we need your help to get there…

Faust Syndrome is a new adaptation of the myth of Faust. TIA's production follows three activists who make deals with the devil, selling theirs souls to end a genocide, evade ICE, and survive this impossible moment. We ask our characters, and by extension our audience: What is your soul worth? What are you willing to sacrifice to make the world you want to see?

This full-length play will feature text both new (created by our playwright and the company) and old (lifted from Marlowe, Goethe, and others); material that is both original and found; puppets; clowning; stakes as high as heaven and hell; and a much-needed heap of hope.

This production will run October 29 through November 15, 2026 at the Episcopal Actors' Guild (EAG) on 29th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan.

We can’t wait to share this piece with you!

Our Ask & Our Gratitude
If you are in a position to donate, we humbly ask you to support this ambitious production. From $5 to $5,000, any amount is helpful and will make a difference! And now that we’re a 501(c)3 nonprofit on our own (no more fiscal sponsor!), 100% of your donation goes to making this production possible.

Plus, as an extra thank you for donating, we have a number of lovely perks for you to choose from!

Perks

• Donate Any Amount: Get early access to tickets.
• $25: The Dogs of TIA & 7 Deadly Sins. For $25, get a weekly dose of dopamine with a photo of TIA’s top puppies dressed up as one of the 7 Deadly Sins. We promise it will be sinfully silly.
• $35: A Drink with the Devil. Donate at this level and receive a collectible, reusable Theater in Asylum cup. Take it to the show, and we will fill it up with a glass of wine. Tempted? We urge you to give in.
• $50: 7 Deadly Sins + A Drink with the Devil. Can’t decide if you’d rather have puppies for 7 weeks or a drink with the devil? Be greedy, have both.
• $75: Kathryn’s Granola for Gluttons. Filled with pistachios, coconut, dried cherries, this granola has a five star rating on NYT cooking, and once you start eating it, you probably won’t be able to stop.  (LIMIT: first 10 people)
• $100: Rick’s Devilish Gochujang Caramel Cookies. Things are getting a little spicy in Rick’s kitchen. Enjoy these Gochujang Caramel Cookies which also have 5 stars from NYT Cooking.
• $150: Dan's Ethically Compromising Banana Bread. People lust after Dan’s (baked) goods. Here’s your chance to taste why. Indulge in a loaf of TIA Board Member Dan’s homemade banana bread. (LIMIT: first 5 people)
• $250: 2 Reserved Seats. Let your sloth self shine and secure two front-row seats at a Faust Syndrome performance of your choice so you can laze about right until curtain and not have to worry about arriving early to secure seats.
• $666: The Dealmaker. The holy grail. You’ve got some greed, some envy, some gluttony, a smidge of sloth. Donate at this level to be listed as producer of Faust Syndrome. Plus you’ll receive two reserved tickets; two souvenir cups that we will fill with wine at the performance; a batch of Rick’s Rick’s Devilish Gochujang Caramel Cookies; and a subscription to our 7 Deadly Sins Puppy Digest.

DONATE TO SECURE YOUR PERK!
I can’t donate, but I want to help. What else can I do?
Can you volunteer this year with Theater in Asylum? Email [email protected]. Can you share this fundraiser with others? Can you tell them how great Theater in Asylum is?

Our Expenses
Theater in Asylum commits to two competing goals: pay every working artist a meaningful stipend while keeping programming financially accessible to all.


We believe in radical transparency and accessibility. We know theater must be accessible to the widest audience possible in order for ideas to ignite, spread, and catch hold. Therefore, we have had a "Pay-What-You-Can" option at every Theater in Asylum event for the past eight years. It is also imperative to recognize the time, skill, and talent of each artist with whom we engage. With your help, we can meet both of these competing goals.

In a production year, our budget balloons, in particular due to collaborator stipends and space rental costs. Please find the budget for Faust Syndrome here:

• Personnel Costs: Pay 21 artists a $900 stipend (the highest stipend TIA has offered yet) plus hospitality and a childcare stipend: $20,250
• Space Costs: Rent space for a full production: $7,390
• Production Costs: Produce excellent work: $8,275
• Contingency Fund: Cover any unexpected costs: $1,796
• Total planned spending for Faust Syndrome: $37,711
  

*These numbers do not include our non-Faust 2026 expenses: about $13,000

Our Revenues
We rely on the support of our community to make this all possible. This year, we hope to raise:

• From this Fundraiser: $15,000
• Grants: $5,000  
• Ticket Sales: $9,830
• Donations at the Show: $300
• Savings from Previous Years: $7,581
• Total Funds Projected to Raise: $37,711

We are so grateful for YOU, our supporters and collaborators, for making these past 16 years possible, and we cannot wait to share our next work with you this fall! With eagerness, hope, and solidarity.

Paul, Katie, Kathryn, and Charlotte

Thank you to everyone who made our 15th year a success! We accomplished great deal and could not have done it without this  community. Below, we will review some of our activities of the year. You can also catch up on our crowd-sourced lists of art we loved this year (film & television, music, books, theater). If you're in a position to do so, please consider making a year-end donation to support our work in 2026. Once again, thank you!

Reflections
Research & Artistic
2025 was a busy year of development. Faust continues to be our obsession. A year ago, the piece honed in on a binary between heaven as solidarity and hell as being alone. The piece has continued to evolve to focus on violence, arrogance, and hubris. When war, genocide, and empire continue despite all our peaceful efforts to end them, what other tactics might one turn to? What spurs the resistance fighter? What spurs the violent oppressor? How does someone move to take brutal action, even if it is toward a noble cause? These questions are troubling, and continue to drive our research and development.

2025 began with the first full-length reading of the then untitled Faust project. Come summer, we dug deeper into the material with two workshops: one focused on the script, one focused on staging that incorporated puppets. Towards the end of summer, a title emerged: Faust Syndrome. We believe Faust isn’t a singular phenomenon, but a syndrome that has afflicted people and societies for millenia. Throughout the year, our Cold Readings series continued to be a lively source of inspiration. We read nine plays throughout the year, mostly based on the Faust myth.

In November, we presented a 20-minute excerpt of the piece at The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret, alongside four other new pieces by artists in our community. TIA’s piece featured John, the first of multiple Fausts in Faust Syndrome. After having agreed to Mephistopheles's deal, John wakes from his first good night of sleep ever and is led by Mephistopheles on a tour of the original seven deadly sins, along with three newer sins. The scene ends with John encountering the new sin Callousness, which will make possible the violence John will later commit in the play. The excerpt featured beautiful puppets by Sean Devare, operated by Francine Pinheiro, and was our first foray into the medium. We are toying with the idea that people in Faustian bargains transform into puppets for the Devil (progressively more susceptible to the manipulation). The Cabaret was a great success, not just for TIA but for all the artists presenting. The feedback from the audience was thrilling, and we look forward to implementing the feedback and getting this story closer to production in 2026.

Organizational
As you surely know at this point, Theater in Asylum is moving to become a nonprofit 501(c)3. On June 29, 2025, we submitted our “1023” documentation to the IRS to make this change. Unfortunately, the IRS website has stated for five months: “If you submitted after Feb. 26, 2025: Your application has not yet been assigned. Please check back later. Don’t contact us at this time because we can’t provide a status of your application.” We are at a loss. Can it be true that no new nonprofits have been approved in almost a year? We continue to operate in our current structure and prepare for the eventual day we become a 501-c-3.

Financial
The year is almost over, and overall we had a positive year financially. We are ending in the black, with money saved up to fund next year’s production year. For Theater in Asylum, production years typically cost three to four times more than non-production years. Early next month, we will close the books on 2025 and will publish our annual transparency report. 

Looking Ahead
2026 will be a big  year for us, with our largest production yet: Faust Syndrome. We are very close to securing a venue for a Fall 2026 premiere, and plan to perform the show ,for three weeks. At some point in the year, we hope to officially become a nonprofit,  which in turn will necessitate a large administrative reorganization. There’s a lot on our plate, but we’re eager to dig in!

2025’s Major Events and Projects
FAUST SYNDROME

Another great year for Cold Readings! 

• What | This program, which gathers our community to read and discuss a published play cold (without rehearsal), aims to spur theater literacy and a confidence in speaking about theater. This year we read 7 plays, including 5 adaptations of Faust, and 1 musical. 1 reading was guest-facilitated, with 6 by TIA staff. Our oldest play was written in 1592 and our newest was from 2018.
• When | We read in January, February, March, April, May, September, and October 2025.
• Where | Most were at the Episcopal Actors’ Guild with an option to attend via Zoom.
• Who | Our Cold Readings averaged 10 attendees per reading this year.
• What We Read | This year, we continued looking at adaptations of the Faust myth with a few general plays on religious themes towards the end of the year.
• Amplifying Good Work | As always, we used our Cold Readings program to amplify the good work of other organizations. You can see all these organizations in our Giving Tuesday post here.

Book Club

• What | This year we gathered to read Ed Simon’s Devil’s Contract: The History of The Faustian Bargain as part of our larger investigation into the Faust myth. The book chronicles society’s relationship to devil’s bargains, from the first century’s Simon Magus through today’s dilemma over artificial intelligence.
• Who | We had about 10 people join us at this book club.
• When | January 8, 2025
• Where | We met on Zoom.

2025 Timeline

• January 8 - Book Club: The Devil’s Contract by Ed Simon
• January 11 - TIA Holiday Party
• January 22 - Cold Reading
• February 19 - Cold Reading
• March 19 - Cold Reading
• March 29 - First full reading of our Faust project
• April 16 - Cold Reading
• May 14 - Cold Reading
• June 17-18 - Faust script workshop
• August 4-8 - Faust staging workshop
• August 18 - Fundraiser launch
• September 24 - Cold Reading
• October 29 - Cold Reading
• November 5-16 - Faust cabaret rehearsals
• November 20 - The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret

2025 by the Numbers

• Event attendees: approximately 320
• 2025 Donors: 118
• Paid artists: 41
• Paid full-year staff: 4
• Admin meetings: 41
• Cold Readings: 7
• Rehearsal Hours: 35
• Live performances: 1

Previous Years in Review

• 2024
• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• A review of our first 10 years (2010-2019)
• More about Theater in Asylum

​Thank you!