Fiasco Theater Hosts GREATEST HITS, Volume 1 Concert This Month

Fiasco Theater’s concert, GREATEST HITS, Volume 1, will be a fundraising event to raise money for future programming and access initiatives. The concert will take place at Houghton Hall, 22 East 30th Street New York, NY, in the Jefferson Studio on Thursday, September 28th at 7:30pm. Audiences can expect a retrospective evening of music from Fiasco favorites — Cymbeline, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, The Imaginary Invalid, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Pericles and more. The cast includes many familiar Fiasco artists; Jessie Austrian, Royer Bockus, Noah Brody, Tina Chilip, Paul L. Coffey, Andy Grotelueschen, Devin E. Haqq, Ben Steinfeld, Paco Tolson, Emily Young, and Tatiana Wechsler. 

Tickets are $50, with a $25 option for artists, and a $100 option for those who can afford to “pay it forward.” The Pay it Forward tickets allow Fiasco to continue offering accessible ticket prices for all of their season programming.   

About Fiasco

FIASCO THEATER is an ensemble theater company based in NYC. The co-artistic directors of Fiasco met in graduate school during the first years of the Brown/Trinity MFA acting program. They connected through discussing how actor training and collaboration work best; together, they sought to define what makes for the most effective, exciting rehearsal. At Brown they wore many hats in their collaborations, as actors, directors and writers. After school they wanted to keep working this way: as an ensemble of artists with a shared vocabulary and love of making great theater through dynamic rehearsal. Fiasco was born out of that desire. They have a non-hierarchical leadership structure with 3 ADs sharing power; their classes and productions often have co-teachers and co-directors, modeling collaboration and multiple perspectives, inviting ensemble members to bring their holistic selves to the conversation.

Fiasco produces annual programming in four categories: They are presented by partner theaters They produce stripped-down, actor-driven productions through their new series Without a Net. They develop new work through year-round readings and workshops (free and open to the public). They conduct education programs, including Master Classes, our Free Training Initiative and their Conservatory program. 

Presenting partner theaters in NYC have included Classic Stage Co, TFANA,  New Victory and Roundabout Theatre, where Fiasco serves as the first-ever Company in Residence. The Fiasco Conservatory training program offers emerging artists the chance to train full-time in Fiasco’s joy-based, actor-centered approach to theater-making. Fiasco’s Free Training Initiative offers students a primer in Fiasco’s rehearsal approach completely free of charge to all. Fiasco’s production of Merrily We Roll Along at Roundabout (2019) was nominated for two Drama Desk awards (Best Revival/Best Director) as well as an Off-Broadway Alliance award (Best Revival). Cymbeline was presented Off-Broadway twice, for nearly 200 performances, and was honored with the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for best revival. Into the Woods garnered the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival and the 2016-17 national tour won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Visiting Production and LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Direction and Best Ensemble. Cymbeline, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure and Into the Woods have all been NYT Critics Picks. To date their award-winning work has been seen by over 200,000 audience members in NYC, including over 12,000 school children, and The New York Times has called Fiasco “a force to reckon with in the American theater.” They are currently also in residence with NYU-Gallatin, have been commissioned by The Old Globe and just completed a podcast of Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Measure for Measure in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts. Their most recent production was the critically acclaimed The Knight of the Burning Pestle at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, co-produced with Red Bull Theater. Fiasco has been in residence with TFANA, New Vic Labworks, Duke University, Marquette University and LSU. They have developed work with the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Orchard Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Shakespeare Society. Fiasco receives generous support from Howard Gilman Foundation, SHS Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, Actors Equity Foundation, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, New York State Council on the Arts and The Shubert Foundation.

Photo Credit: Jules Talbot