The Actors Studio to Host Events Featuring Lois Smith & Celebrations of BIPOC Membership in May

In May, The Actors Studio will continue its 75th Anniversary celebration as the world's most celebrated and influential membership association for professional actors, directors and playwrights. The legendary studio, located at 432 West 44th Street, will open its doors to the public for four special events, each free and open to the public.

Friday, May 12 & Saturday May 13 at 7PM

The Actors Studio: IN PROCESS featuring the legendary Lois Smith

To reserve your seats, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75ProcessMay

The Actors Studio continues its new series that open its doors to the public for a rare opportunity to observe representative work from its private sessions. "The Actors Studio In Process" offers audiences a glimpse behind the doors of The Actors Studio, observing curated evenings of advanced work, drawn from acting sessions. At these open rehearsals, audiences may observe a scene from a larger production, a variation on a scene, and/or exploration of work designed by the actors-just as is done every week in session at the Studio. A moderator will lead a short Q & A after the work, where the audience can ask questions about what they have seen. This edition of "In Process" will feature work from:

Hillbilly Women, by Elizabeth Stearns, directed by Marilyn Fried

featuring Tony Award-winner Lois Smith, Jacqueline Knapp, and Taylor Plas.

Midnight and Sky by Dennis Russo

featuring Dennis Russo and Marc Solomon.

We Might Fall Apart by Chris Stack and Scott McCord

featuring Scott McCord, Chris Stack, and Taylor Plas.

Sunday May 14 at 3PM

THE PLAYWRIGHT: TALES FROM THE COLOR LINE

To reserve your seats, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75ColorlineMay

An encore presentation celebrating of the Black membership of The Actors Studio and Its award-winning contribution to American Theatre. Actors will present scenes from plays by black members of The Actors Studio, illuminating the varied and often fraught nature of our society's interracial interactions. A moderator will lead a short Q & A after the presentation, where the audience can ask questions about what they have seen. Plays featured in the program will include:

This Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long by Phillip Hayes Dean

Directed by Paul Calderon, the cast features Martha Gehman and Richarda Abrams.

Blues for Mister Charley by James Baldwin

Directed by Patricia Floyd, the cast features Scott McCord, Robert Mobley, Samuel Pygatt, Delissa Reynolds, and Lawrence Stallings.

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry

Directed by Joanna Rhinehart, the cast features Michael Billingsley, Aprella Godfrey-Barule and Omar Ezat

No Place to Be Somebody by Charles Gordone

Directed by Marcus Naylor, the cast features Brittaney Chatman, Rony Clanton, Robert Mobley, Marcus Naylor and Steven Vause

Friday, May 19 & Saturday May 20 at 7PM

ON THE FLY 2023: THEN AND NOW

To reserve your seats for May 19, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75OntheFlyThen

To reserve your seats for May 20, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75OntheFlyNow

This is a redux of the 10-Minute Web Play Series presented on Zoom in 2020 by the BIPOC (representing the Indigenous, Black, Latine, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, South East Asian) members of The Actors Studio as live zoom presentations in response to the challenges we all endured during the racial, cultural, economic and social unrest in our nation's history amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. "On The Fly..." is just what it means, and will feature the work of BIPOC playwright/director teams paired at random with Studio actors (members, finalist and participants) and tasked with conceiving and developing a short play over one week with a given prompt. This event comes in two parts.

Friday, May 19th at 7PM - "THEN" is a screening of selected original pieces as they appeared on Zoom in 2020. There will be a short Q and A afterwards.

Saturday, May 20 at 7pm - "& NOW" is a series of original short plays, written and directed (as in 202o) by members of our BIPOC community, will be performed live onstage. This event will be followed by a short Q and A.

Thursday, May 25 & Friday, May 26 at 7PM

AREYTO: LATINE CELEBRATION

To reserve your seats for, visit TheActorsStudio.org/75Areyto

Areyto is an ancient song and dance performed by the indigenous Taino people of the Caribbean. The Areyto is a theatrical ceremony that narrates and honors the heroic deeds of ancestors, chiefs, gods and all those rooted in equatorial tribal origins. "Areyto: Latine Celebration" is an immersive celebration of selected Latine scene work, poetry, song and dance. We join our Actors Studio family in celebrating the 75th anniversary by celebrating our diverse cultures and communities. We take great pride in offering the first ever Actors Studio Latine Event to highlight our vibrant evolutionary sojourn into diversity. There will be a reception downstairs, immediately following the event.

Seating for these special 75th Anniversary events are free, and extremely limited. Those who would like to attend must reserve seats and receive confirmation of access. For more information about The Actors Studio and upcoming events, visit TheActorsStudio.org.

The Actors Studio

Both a place and a philosophy, The Actors Studio is an association of artists who, drawing from this common wellspring, have made enormous contributions to American art. Founded in 1947 in New York City by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis, the Studio began as a place where theatre artists could gather, privately, to explore new and deeper connections to the work. The founding members, a group of actors, writers, and directors, were committed to redefining the art of acting, to developing a series of techniques an actor could use to search for and express the truth onstage in the moment. The workshop went on to become the most powerful influence on American acting in the 20th century and continues today serving new generations of actors who are committed to the same ideal. Founding Artistic Director, Lee Strasberg, developed a series of techniques and exercises that became known as 'The Method' and changed the art of acting worldwide.

Membership is free. After successfully completing a series of auditions, the actor is invited into membership for life. Membership is bi-coastal, and to support them there are two locations. New York is The Actors Studio's birthplace and administrative headquarters. The only branch, Actors Studio West, is located in West Hollywood, CA. All members benefit from having a home with similar activities on both coasts.

Current leadership of The Actors Studio includes Co-Presidents Ellen Burstyn, Alec Baldwin and Al Pacino; Artistic Directors Beau Gravitte (NYC) and Salome Jens (L.A.); Co-Associate Artistic Directors Estelle Parsons, Michael Aronov and Javier Molina (NYC), and Katherine Cortez (L.A.)

Notable members, past and present, of The Actors Studio have included Bea Arthur, Anne Bancroft, Michael Bennett, Marlon Brando, Roscoe Lee Browne, Montgomery Clift, Common, Bradley Cooper, James Dean, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Ben Gazzara, Lorraine Hansberry, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, William Inge, Elia Kazan, Harvey Keitel, Stephen Lang, James Lipton, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Melissa Leo, Norman Mailer, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Clifford Odets, Geraldine Page, Sidney Poitier, Sydney Pollack, Jose Quintero, Jerome Robbins, Mark Rylance, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Stanley, Maureen Stapleton, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, Tennessee Williams, Gene Wilder, Shelley Winters and Joanne Woodward, to name a few.