Theater Communications Group has announced the fourth annual Free Night of Theater New York City, which will take place at participating Off-Broadway, Independent Theaters, and Music and Dance venues in all five boroughs during the entire month of October 2011. Tickets are available during the following windows of time: September 16 - September 23 allowing access to performances between October 1 - October16. September 30 - October 7 allowing access to performances between October 17 - October 31.
Enter-to-win up to five pairs of FREE tickets at www.freenightnyc.net.
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer will host a Press Conference with other elected officials, participating artists and arts organizations on the steps of City Hall to launch the program on Tuesday, September 27 at noon.
"I am pleased to kick off this exciting opportunity for a month of Free Night of Theater across New York City," declared City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. "As Chair of the Cultural Affairs and Libraries Committee, I am always happy to be a part of initiatives that bring more cultural experiences to our communities. This opens the possibility for a new crowd to appreciate the wonderful experience of seeing theatre. Supporting theatre and the arts helps our great city's economy from ticket sales, to dining and transportation. My colleagues and I at the City Council provided support for this program and I will continue to lead the fight for more arts funding and cultural opportunities."
Free Night of Theater New York City is made possible through the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This year, Free Night of Theater New York City is proud to include Dance and Music events in addition to Off-Broadway and Independent Theater.
"Free Night of Theater provides a wonderful opportunity for New Yorkers and visitors to experience the wealth of exciting programs at cultural organizations across the five boroughs," said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin. "The Department of Cultural Affairs is pleased to support this public-private partnership, which offers a unique way for new performing arts audiences to access the season's hottest tickets."
Introduced by TCG as a three-city pilot-program in 2005 and to New York City in 2008, Free Night of Theater is now presented across the country. Free Night of Theater is an unprecedented audience development initiative, where performing arts organizations across the country offer performance tickets to the public absolutely free-of-charge. The goal of the program is to increase public awareness of and attract new and non-traditional audiences to theatres in communities across the U.S.
In 2010, Free Night of Theater New York City saw 120 Off-Broadway and Independent theaters across the boroughs join together to offer more than 7,000 tickets to over 440 performances. Moreover, Free Night of Theater New York City achieved a unique success as over 87% of the audience members in New York saw a show in a venue in which they had never been.
In addition to TCG, the managing partners of Free Night of Theater New York City are Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York), Arts & Business Council of New York, League of Independent Theater, New York State Council on the Arts and Theatre Development Fund. This year, CityArts joined as the media sponsor.
The 2011 Free Night of Theater New York City participating companies and venues include: Actor's Temple, Banana Boat Productions, Baruch Performing Arts Center, BB King Blues Club, Carribbean Cultural Theatre, Circle of Voices Inc., Coney Island USA, Culture Project, Dance New Amsterdam, Distinguished Concerts International New York, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Erica Essner Performance Co-Op, Gingold Theatrical Group, HERE Arts Center, Highline Ballroom, Hip Hop Theatre Festival, Hiro Ballroom, Horizon Theatre Rep, Horse Trade Theatre Group, IATI Theatre, Ice Theatre of New York, Incubator Arts Project, Instant Shakespeare, Irish Repertory Theatre, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Metropolitan Room, Mississippi Mud Productions, Neighborhood Productions, New Georges Theatre Company, New Perspectives Theatre Company, New York Neo-Futurists, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, One Minute Play Festival, Page 73 Productions, Pearl Theatre, Pregones Theatre, Performance Space 122, Rabbit Hole Ensemble, Rachel Klein Productions, Rattlestick Playwights Theatre, Red Fern Theater Company, Regina Opera Company, Repertorio Espanol, Roundabout Theatre Company, Six Betweens Art, St. Luke's Theatre, Take Wing and Soar Productions, The Actor's Company Theatre (TACT), The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Gallery Players, The Living Theatre, Theatre for the New City, Theatre Group Dzieci, United Theatre Co #61 and Vineyard Theatre Company.
For more information and to reserve tickets, please visit www.freenightnyc.net.
Free Night of Theater New York City Managing Partners:
The Arts & Business Council of New York (ABC/NY) creates partnerships between arts and business. It serves both the arts and the business communities of New York, with programming in volunteerism, professional development, leadership development and economic impact. From interns to board members ABC/NY makes matches that benefit everyone. www.artsandbusiness-ny.org.
The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York) is the service and advocacy organization for the nation's largest, most artistically influential, and most culturally diverse theatre community: Off Broadway. Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York serves over 325 not-for-profit theatres throughout New York City. They annually offer nearly 30 technical assistance workshops, roundtables and seminars. A.R.T./New York also provides consultancies with highly respected and experienced arts professionals, low-interest loans, cash grants, and affordable office, meeting and rehearsal space. Our members serve 3 million theatre-goers annually, constitute the single largest source of new work entering the American repertory, and have produced 9 of the last 11 winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. www.art-newyork.org
The mission of the League of Independent Theater (LIT) is to promote and protect the economic and artistic interests of its members. Its aim is to ensure that independent theater remains economically viable for its practitioners and to advocate on behalf of the decades-old community of Off-Off Broadway theater. Membership in LIT is open to any artist, company, technician or administrator working in theaters of 99 seats or less in NYC who can demonstrate participation in a minimum of three productions. More information can be found on LIT's website: www.litny.org.
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York's citizens. The Council believes in supporting artistic excellence, the creative freedom of artists without censure, the rights of all New Yorkers to access and experience the power of the arts and culture and the vital contribution the arts make to the quality of life in New York communities. NYSCA strives to achieve its mission through its core grant-making activity and by convening field leaders, providing information and advisory support, and working with partners on special initiatives to achieve mutual goals. www.nysca.org
For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Its programs serve nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. As the US Center of the International Theatre Institute, TCG connects its constituents to the global theatre community. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. TCG is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. www.tcg.org.
Theatre Development Fund (TDF) has played a unique role in advancing live theatre and dance in New York City for the past 40 years. This not-for-profit service organization's programs have filled 72 million seats at discount prices (with theatre lovers who would normally not be able to attend live performance) and returned over 1.5 billion dollars in revenue to thousands of theatre, dance and music productions. Best known for its TKTS Discount Booths, TDF's membership, voucher, access and education programs, as well as its Costume Collection, help to make the unique experience of theatre available to everyone. For more information, go to www.tdf.org.
CityArts is bringing thinking back to culture through its unique and energetic coverage of the performing and visual arts. Published twenty time a years in print and weekly online, CityArts is an essential voice and a destination read where audiences and artists, patrons and performers celebrate the best to see, hear and experience in our vast cultural landscape. www.cityartsnyc.com
