Fall is here, and so is fall theater!

A scene from our preview performance of The FTP Show at Undiscovered Countries’ 10th Anniversary Show last month. Photo by LPC Photography

Fall has arrived in New York City, as have the usual trappings of the season - cooler weather, changing leaves, all pumpkin everything, and, of course, fall theater! After a busy summer of development on The FTP Show, we here at Theater in Asylum are hard at work gearing up for our 2023 season. Between applying for grants, planning a full production of The FTP Show and getting ready for our annual fundraiser (watch this space!), we’re taking in all the exciting work our friends in the indie theater scene have created this season. Read on to learn more about what we’re up to, as well as some of the upcoming projects we’re most excited about!

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Cold Readings Continue this Month!

This month, we’ll be hosting two exciting Cold Readings, both online and in person. If you’re not already familiar, Cold Readings is a play-reading series focusing not on development, but on reader engagement. Each night a facilitator introduces the play and its context, we read the play without rehearsal, and finally we discuss. We dive into plays without the pressure of performance and cherish the opportunity to learn about our artform. No theater training is required to read and the group is always growing.

Interested in joining a reading? Just want to learn more? Email us to get on the list!

The Divinity Supply Company
comes to Coney Island

Catch Bread and Puppet Theater
on Tour!

Friday, October 7, 2022 @ 8 PM
Sideshows by the Seashore at Coney Island USA
1208 Surf Ave, Brooklyn, NY

The Divinity Supply Company, a collaboration from our friends at Boxcutter Collective and Bread and Puppet Theater, returns to the New York stage this weekend! From out of nothing, an ancient god’s divine laughter creates the universe, then promptly abandons the scene. Ruled over by flimsy paper authorities, the newly created masses attempt to escape the darkness of the suffering valley with help from The Divinity Supply Company. But can The Divinity Supply Company produce the exact god for the exact dilemma, as they advertise? Or will the suffering valley be stuck in the Dilemma-Of-The-Pleading-Now as they stumble towards a There-Is-No-End-In-Sight Conclusion? Also featuring: clouds, Santa Claus, an Idiot Manifesto, a brass band, and a 100 watt lightbulb.

The show will be presented on Friday, October 8th as part of the Puppeteers of America Festival at Sideshows by the Seashore in Coney Island. Tickets are available online - you won’t want to miss this one!

Our very own Co-Artistic Director Paul Bedard will be traveling the country this fall with Bred and Puppet Theater, as they tour The Apocalypse Defiance Circus across the country! The show, says founder and director Peter Schumann, is “in response to our totally unresurrected capitalist situation, not only the hundreds of thousands of unnecessarily sacrificed pandemic victims but our culture’s unwillingness to recognize Mother Earth’s revolt against our civilization. Since we earthlings do not live up to our earthling obligations, we need resurrection circuses to yell against our own stupidity.”

The tour will hit several U.S. cities starting this week, ending with a run at Theater for the New City in Manhattan December 14th through 18th. Check out the tour schedule to see if the circus is coming to a city near you!