Each year, Theater in Asylum releases a list of plays, books, movies, and more that delighted us, challenged us, and changed us. Below find a list, crowd-sourced from our community, of our favorite things from 2022.

Also, Theater in Asylum’s fundraiser is live! If you’re able, please consider helping us reach our goal with a donation. Thank you so much!!

Fiction

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
  
• Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
  
• Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles
  
• Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
  
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  
• Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
  
• Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St. John Mandel
  
• A Season in the Congo by Aime Césaire
  
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
  
• A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Keenan
  
• White Noise by Don Delillo
  
• Bewilderment by Richard Powers
  

Poetry

• Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros
  
• Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong 
  

Non-fiction

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer
  
• The Bright Ages by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry
  
• At the Center of All Beauty by Fenton Johnson
  
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
  
• The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
  
• Delivered from Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey
  
• Eleanor and Hick by Susan Quinn
  
• On Freedom by Maggie Nelson
  
• Gentrification of the Mind by Sarah Schulman
  
• Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison
  
• The Nutmeg's Curse by Amitav Ghosh
  
• Traveling While Black by Nanjala Nyabola
  
• Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
  
• The Women’s House of Detention by Hugh Ryan
  

Movies

• Dead Pigs
  
• Don’t Worry Darling
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Fire Island
• Grizzly Man
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• EO
• The Lady Eve
• My Name Is Salt
• Singing in the Rain
• Sea Gypsies

TV

• The Bear
  
• Creamerie
  
• Only Murders in the Building
  
• Our Flag Means Death
• Fleabag 
• Heartstopper
• Perfect Life
• Reboot
• Severance
• Superstore
• Too Hot To Handle
  

Dearest Supporters,

Thank you for making Theater in Asylum a vibrant space for new, provocative, and joyful research- and ensemble-driven theater! We are so deeply grateful to our community that makes this all possible. We have big dreams for next year, and we hope you will consider donating to our 2023 season, our 13th year of work. You’ll be supporting a new production, increased artist pay, free tickets at every show, Cold Readings, and a more sustainable structure for the company.

Looking Back, Reaching ForwardLast year, your support made it possible for us to grow and develop in tremendous ways. In 2022, we:

• Produced a cabaret of new work, with 37 artists, 120 in-person attendees, and over 600 online streamers.
• Held a week-long workshop of The FTP Show, developing the script and getting high quality photos and videos.
• Implemented an annual staff, with 7 paid team members to keep TIA running between projects, allowing us to plan bigger and more sustainably for 2023.
• Paid 56 artists for their work, including Cabaret artists for the first time, as well as increasing production stipends.
• Held 18 Cold Readings, amplifying 18 organizations doing good work in the process.
• Won the most funding from grants in our Company’s history, making 2021’s mission and systems revision a smashing success!
• Maintained a free ticket option at every public event.
  

With your support, we can build on our growth in 2022 to reach new heights in 2023. For our 13th year, we’re looking to :

• Stage the premier of The FTP Show in a 3-week, 12 performance run, our longest ever!
• Host 9 Cold Readings, with a mix of online and in-person gatherings.
• Pay over 30 artists at increased levels, stepping up our business structure and issuing tax documents for the first time.
• Maintaining a free-ticket option at all public events, a commitment we have kept since 2016.
• Reincorporate the company as an LLC, solidifying our ability to pay higher stipends.
  

What’s it All About?
The FTP Show (working title) explores the story of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a New Deal program that allocated federal tax dollars to directly employ thousands of theater artists from 1953. Led by Hallie Flanagan, the project thrived across the country, and approximately one quarter of all Americans saw an FTP production.

Our show focuses on six artists, following them from the FTP’s inception in 1935 through its demise in 1939, with flashes forward to the fights at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the 60’s and 90’s to the COVID-19 pandemic and today. Our characters represent, in Hallie Flanagan's words, the "ten thousand anonymous men and women who did the work, the somebodies who believed" in the Federal Theatre Project and made it exist.

The piece will showcase the major theatrical successes of the FTP, the tougher internal moments, and the external pressures of congressional censorship and accusations of Communism. Our characters fracture in debate as the play jumps forward in time. Over 80 years later a group of artists on Zoom, some benefitting from Covid Relief grants, others not, wrestle with the same questions of public funding and art’s value in society.

We’ve been developing this show for over a year through research, readings of FTP plays, and a workshop this past summer. This production will be our biggest to date with a three-week run at the Jalopy Theater in Summer 2023. With this long of a run, we have the chance to have our work seen by more people and let the idea of what a present-day federally-funded theater could be catch fire.

Financially, we are prioritizing people with this production. Artists stipends will increase by over 300% from our past productions, allowing our artists to concentrate on the process and less on making ends meet. Visit the fundraising page to see a detailed chart of our expenses for 2023.

Since 2015, Theater in Asylum has gathered friends and fans to read and discuss great plays (152 so far!). Wednesday nights have become a cherished place not only for play reading but for processing these wild times. We plan to continue a combination of online and in-person readings, as well as invite guest facilitators to bring new plays and ideas to the group. Part theater-literacy, part social-event, Cold Readings continue to be a bright spot in Theater in Asylum’s work.

If you are in a position to donate, we humbly ask for your support of Theater in Asylum’s work in 2023. From $5 to $5000, any amount is helpful and will make a difference! Plus, as an extra thank you for donating, we have a number of lovely perks for you to choose from!

I can’t donate, but I want to help. What else can I do?
Have a talent you can lend us? Become a perk partner and donate your time and talents to our donors. Email info@theaterinasylum.com

Have social media or a blog? Write about us and encourage your friends to chip in to our fundraiser!

We are so grateful for all that’s been made possible these past 12 years, and we look ahead to 2023 with eagerness and hope.

We have ambitious plans for 2023. Thank you, thank you for your donations that make these plans possible.

We wish you and yours safety, good health, and a bright new year.

Paul, Katie, Kathryn, Charlotte, Al, Melissa, Brea, and Adin

Dear friends,

What a year 2022 has been! Through times of great struggles, we’ve seen so many incredible organizations step up to support communities and fight for what’s right. We are inspired by these groups and want to help amplify the great work they do, as we do throughout the year in our Cold Readings series.

This Giving Tuesday, we ask you to consider supporting one (or more!) of the organizations we highlighted this year. Below, see a loosely-categorized list of heroes who are:

• Making and spreading theater
• Providing direct relief to those in need
• Working for a more peaceful planet
• Offering legal support and encouraging civic engagement
• Empowering people and communities
• Working to make our housing, healthcare, and education systems more equitable

Thank you so much. Please take care of yourselves and each other.

Peace, power, and love to you,
Theater in Asylum

Making and spreading theater

• The Anthropologists is dedicated to the collaborative creation of investigative theatre that inspires action. Rooted in research and community engagement and shaped by physical theatre techniques, they’re committed to exploring current social topics from an anthropological perspective in order to break down and unleash cultural discoveries. Formed in 2008, past provocations have included: “why do Americans need so much stuff?” (EXCESS – a dance play inspired by The Cherry Orchard) and “who gets access to food?” (GIVE US BREAD, hailed by The New York Theatre Experience as “a thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking play mixing elements of dance and stylized movement to create a piece that is wholly within its own hybrid Anthropologists genre.”) Their work has been described as “eerie and weird in the best way” (Culturebot) and “incisive, even necessary work for the present moment.” (Culture Catch). Donate here.
• The Boxcutter Collective is a politically active crew of puppeteers, artists and performers committed to using art to create a hopeful reimagining of our reality. They believe cultural change precedes political change and are committed (and compelled!) to use their weirdo-puppet skills to create new accessible art for collective transformation. Donate here.
• The Jalopy Theatre and School of Music is a multi-faceted arts space showcasing folk and traditional music and art from New York City, the Americas, and the world. Their programming supports artists, fosters community, and provides enrichment and education about our shared musical heritage. Donate here.
• National Black Theatre. NBT’s mission is: 1) To produce transformational and dialogue-generative theatre that successfully shifts inaccuracies around African Americans' cultural identity by telling authentic, intersectional stories of Black life. 2) To use theatre as a means to educate, enrich, entertain, empower and inform national consciousness around the social issues impacting our communities. 3) To provide a courageous and supportive space for artists of the Black diaspora to hone their entrepreneurial spirit and articulate the complexity, beauty and artistic excellence intrinsic in how we experience the world through their craft—acting, directing, producing, creative placemaking, designing and/or playwriting. Donate here.

Providing direct relief to those in need

• Hispancic Federation's direct aid Hurricane Relief Fund is on the ground in Puerto Rico providing emergency relief services and essential supplies to the communities most affected by the hurricanes, most recently Hurricane Fiona. They also work with people living in Florida and the Dominican Republic. Hispanic Federation works through their network of community-based nonprofits serving Latino and immigrant communities to provide essential disaster relief services to those most in need. Donate here.
• Spanish Sin Pena is a Spanish language program for Lantinx folks learning/re-learning the language, and they are currently mobilizing to go to Puerto Rico to participate in relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. Donate here.
• Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund. Support the artists who stayed in Ukraine during in this time of war. Viktor Ruban and the team of Ruban Production ITP made a decision to create “Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund” on the basis of non-profit CO “Impulse Transformation Platform”. They opened two separate accounts in EUR and USD to collect funds. These donations will allow them to provide emergency microgrant help of 8000 UAH (approximately 250€) to each Ukrainian artist (dance and theater domain) in the independent arts scene staying in Ukraine, upon their request. Donate here.
• USA for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Established by concerned American citizens, USA for UNHCR is a non-profit organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C. USA for UNHCR envisions a world without refugees, and works to protect and empower refugees by providing in-person support, food, shelter, and care to those displaced by crisis and conflict. Learn more about USA for UNHCR’s campaign to support Ukrainian refugees and donate here.

Working for a more peaceful planet

• The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was founded in 1982 to pursue denuclearizing actions and achieve a just and peaceful world. Believing that peace is more than the absence of war, the NAPF serves as a forum for the study of human flourishing. Through publications, lectures, activism, and legal actions, the NAPF fosters a community committed to the protection of humanity’s future. The NAPF works with distinguished politicians, activists, artists, scholars and scientists to build an ongoing library of utopian ideas and a toolkit for practical activism. Donate here.

Offering legal support and encouraging civic engagement

• Represent Women’s mission is to strengthen our democracy by advancing reforms that break down barriers to ensure more women can run, win, serve, and lead. Even following several "record"-breaking election cycles for women candidates, women continue to be underrepresented at every level of elected office. More women in elected and appointed positions at every level of government will strengthen our democracy by making it more representative, reviving bi-partisanship and collaboration, improving the deliberative process, encouraging a new style of leadership, and building greater trust in our elected bodies. Donate here.

Empowering people and communities

• Building Trades for Worker Democracy is a grassroots organization working to democratize unions and engage rank and file members with the larger struggle. This organization is just getting started and donations right now can be sent via Venmo to Chris Schroth. Venmo: @chris-schroth
• El Nido de Esperanza is a non-profit organization that seeks to break the cycle of poverty by changing the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. They work with families from pregnancy through the child’s third birthday. They believe in tackling poverty neighborhood by neighborhood and empowering the mamas. Community matters- particularly when you are a new immigrant mama. Knowledge matters- particularly when you didn’t have strong role models growing up. Donate here.
• The mission of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center is to provide high-quality legal services to low-income immigrants, and to advocate for human rights. Las Americas is based in El Paso, Texas providing free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in West Texas and New Mexico. We have served over 30,000 people from over 80 countries since 1987. Las Americas provides legal representation through both attorneys and accredited representatives through the Department of Justice. Donate here.
• The National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture owns a collection of over 7,000 Black dolls, some dating back to the late 1700s - one of the most significant collections in the world. Unable to have visitors or run workshops during the pandemic, it was unfortunately forced to close in 2020. The National Black Doll Museum was the only brick-and-mortar museum in the U.S. devoted to the art, craft, history and preservation of Black dolls. The Museum’s collection is so significant that the Smithsonian once attempted to acquire it. The city of Attleboro, MA, has acquired a large piece of land earmarked for cultural development and is keen to welcome a brand new and improved National Black Doll Museum to relocate to this new site. Donate here.

Working to make our housing, healthcare, and education systems more equitable

• The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person. Donate here.
• Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. They are roughly 450 people of 70-plus nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need. They direct their advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. They partner with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims. Human Rights Watch is currently working all over the world, most recently notably Iran. Donate here.
• The Kwek Society is focused on supplying Native students and communities the period products they need to maintain their dignity and celebrate their strength and their moon times. They collaborate with schools and Native programs across North America, in rural areas, suburbs and cities, to eliminate period poverty among Native Americans. We educate about moon time as a time for celebration and we work to support the dignity and strength of all we serve. Donate here.
  

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!

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!

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!