Theater in Asylum's 2020 Year in Review

2020 Major Events

• The Electability Cabaret
• Willie Johnson’s Hephaestus
• 36 Cold Readings
• The Debates 2020
• We began (and are continuing) a process to revise our mission statement 
• Celebrated our 10 Year Anniversary through articles, videos, a magazine, and an online retrospective.
• We joined a group of independent theater companies to go through and work together to implement the We See You White American Theater demands.
• We began Anti-racism training with The League of Independent Theater
  

2020 Timeline

• January 14: We host a Debate Watch Party, with a Political Analysis meeting the following night.
• January 22: Our first Cold Reading of the year. We read Sarah Treem’s A Feminine Ending.
• January 31: We host a Monologue Party at Pete’s Candy Store to raise money for Hephaestus.
• February 7: We host the first of THREE Debate Watch Parties in February. We host one Political Analysis meeting to parse through all three.
• February 8: We produce The Electability Cabaret.
• February 13: Our second Cold Reading of the year. We read Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep.
• March 11-13: We produce Willie Johnson’s Hephaestus.
• March 16: We host an online Debate Watch Party of the Primary Race’s final debate.
• March 25: Our third Cold Reading of the year (Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros) is held online. From here on out, Cold Readings are held weekly on Zoom. We took off only four weeks from here until the end of 2020.
• March 28: The New York Primary is rescheduled due to the global pandemic. TIA initially cancels and then reschedules The Debates 2020 to be presented online in June.
• June 1: We release a statement in solidarity with the Uprising for Black Lives and commit to interrogating our role in this country’s system of white supremacy.
  
• June 8: TIA leadership attends TCG’s National Conference Session on Anti-Racism.
• June 21: We present The Debates 2020 live on Zoom in anticipation of New York’s primary two days later.
• September 25: Theater in Asylum celebrates its 10-year-anniversary.
• October 25: TIA leadership joins other small-theater leaders on Zoom (the beginning of a multi-month process) to go through and work together to implement the We See You White American Theater demands.
• October 28: We host a virtual watch party and discussion of Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me in anticipation of the presidential election.
• November 3: The presidential election. Five days later, Joe Biden is declared the next President, while Kamala Harris is declared the next Vice President, becoming the first woman and person of color to hold the office. 
• December 5: TIA leadership begins “The Big Learn,” an anti-racism course organized by the League of Independent Theater, Indie Theater Fund, and New York Innovative Theatre Awards.

For our last in-person Cold Reading of 2020, we read Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep

2020 by the Numbers

• Productions: 2
• Cabarets: 1
• Cold Readings: 36
• Rehearsal hours: 96
• Company Meetings: 74
• Artists Paid: 42
• 2020 spending: Personnel: $4,450 (44%); Space: $2,280 (23%); Production: $1,764 (17%); Admin: $1,019 (10%); Development: $600 (6%)
  

Crowdsourcing from our community, our favorite Cold Readings

• What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck (our movie night of the show streaming on Amazon)
  
• Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress
• Hir by Taylor Mac
• One-third of a Nation by Arthur Arent and The Federal Theatre Project
• Passage by Christopher Chen

Once the pandemic shut down New York, we moved our Cold Reading series online. The gatherings quickly grew in size and we accelerated the series to meet weekly instead of monthly.

Crowd-sourced from our community, our 2020 favorite...

• Books
  
• Music (listen to our Spotify playlist)
  
• Moments
  

The Uprising for Black Lives inspired us all and demanded our attention, self-reflection, and action.

Crowd-sourced from our community, the last in-person theater we saw

• Cocktail Party: A Social Experiment
  
• Hamlet at St. Ann’s Warehouse
• Henry V
• Theater in Asylum’s Hephaestus
• Inheritance by Matthew Lopez
• Bread and Puppet’s Insurrection-Resurrection Service Circus
• Jagged Little Pill on Broadway
• Girl from the North Country on Broadway
• Medea at BAM
• Mabou Mines’ MUD
• Next to Normal at Riverside Theater Works
• The Play That Goes Wrong on Broadway
• Sanctuary City by Martyna Majok at Lucille Lortel
• The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes at the Public
• Tumacho at Connelly Theater

The incredible cast of Hephaestus, performed the piece just days before New York shut down. Production photos by Ryan Prado, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center/Rough Draft Festival.

Crowd-sourced from our community, what are we looking forward to in 2021?

• Dance floors
  
• Starting college
  
• Hopefully, a return to New York!
  
• More family time (fingers crossed)
  
• Seeing people without masks and hearing them wonder how weird it is not to wear one
  
• Live theater hopefully!
  
• The end of the pandemic (fingers crossed). And the expansion of the federal govt. under a Biden administration.
  
• A vaccine!!! And maybe then... dare I say?... travel?
  
• Hugging people
  
• Springtime
  
• Not having Donald Trump in the White House.
  
• GOING TO ITALY AND BEYOND
  
• A vaccine!
  
• Hopefully the general public caring a little bit more about one another. Less selfishness.
  
• Vaccines!!! and a new presidential administration
  
• Fighting for a Green New Deal! electing a new mayor!
  
• Live theater
  
• A real hug
  
• My best year yet!
  
  

Zac Porter portrayed the Green New Deal Herself at The Debates 2020

Nadia Diamond portrayed Joe Biden at The Debates 2020

Our Plans for 2021

• Continue Cold Readings, weekly until the pandemic ends, TBD after that. In 2021 we will focus on reading more plays by writers of color, bringing in more guest facilitators, and partnering with other companies that hold readings.
• Create and produce The Debates 2021*, centering on NYC’s upcoming primary elections
• Produce Andy’s Boyd’s Occupy Prescott*
• Present a cabaret* for artists in our community to experiment with new work
• Complete a revision of our mission statement and company values 
• Continue working to understand our role in oppressive systems, while striving to counteract them with anti-racist and anti-oppression practices. 

* We are planning our two productions and one cabaret to have multiple presentation options. Outdoors? Online? We are keeping safety top-of-mind, with multiple contingency plans and flexibility as the health situation in NYC changes.

SUPPORT OUR 2021 SEASON

Amanda Ghosh was our “Horse Race Announcer,” looking ahead to the upcoming election in The Debates 2020

Thank you so much for all your support in 2020. The year was wild and difficult but there were still plays and people and memories that we are so grateful for. May all of us have a healthy and happy new year!

Theater in Asylum's leadership team. Upper left: Kathryn Appleton, Managing Director. Upper right: Paul Bedard, Co-Artistic Director. Lower left: Hilarie Spangler, Community Engagement Manager. Lower right: Katie Palmer, Co-Artistic Director.