Primary Stages Launches 'OFF-CENTER' Oral History Project

Primary Stages has announced the launch of OFF CENTER: THE OFF-BROADWAY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT.

Officially launched on Thursday, March 2 at WNYC's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, The Off-Broadway Oral History Project was created to fill a gap in theater history and establishes a video archive featuring the innovative artists who transformed Off- and Off-Off-Broadway in the years after World War II.

In their own words, actors, casting agents, directors, designers, press representatives, producers, playwrights, theater founders and others share their personal accounts of how Off and Off-Off-Broadway emerged and flourished.

Since June 2014, contributors to this project have conducted over 250 hours of interviews with almost 100 Off-Broadway leaders. Now, Primary Stages launches a website where future generations of audiences, artists and scholars will be able to access these interviews and learn about different people's views on theatre, art and themselves in their own words.

Participating artists include JoAnne Akalaitis, B.H. Barry, George Bartenieff, Tanya Berezin, Patricia Birch, Anne Bogart, Robyn Burland, Shami Chaikin, Kathleen Chalfant, Tisa Chang, Lori Tan Chinn, Ping Chong, Marilyn Chris, Lynn Cohen, Bill Cwikowski, Barbara Dana, Merle Debuskey, Christopher Durang, Donald and Anne Farber, Fyvush Finkel, Richard Foreman, Paul Foster, Richard Frankel, Arthur French, Jack Garfein, Caryl Goldsmith, Micki Grant, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, Walter and Georgia Hadler, Joseph Hardy, Terese Hayden, Wynn Handman, Robert Heide, John Gilman, Israel Horowitz, Tina Howe, Tom Jones, Dana Ivey, Robert Kalfin, Willa Kim, Woodie King Jr., Arthur Kopit, Eric Krebs, Ralph Lee, Paul Libin, Jo Sullivan Loesser, Joan MacIntosh, Judith Malina, Peter Maloney, Norman ThomaS Marshall, Marshall W. Mason, Elizabeth Ireland McCann, Michael McGrinder, Charles Mee, Robert Moss, Barbara Montgomery, Brian Murray, Julius Novick, Dorothy Olim, Steve Olsen, Gail Merrifield Papp, Estelle Parsons, Robert Patrick, Austin Pendleton, Larry Pine, Albert Poland, Everett Quinton, David Rothenberg, Donn Russell, Richard Schechner, Julian Schlossberg, Lois Smith, Black-Eyed Susan, Rosemarie Tichler, Jean-Claude van Itallie, RoBert Walter, Douglas Turner Ward, Charles Weldon, Elizabeth Wilson, Moni Yakim, Mina Yakin, Paul Zimet, and Jerry Zaks.

Primary Stages' 2016/17 season will conclude with the upcoming production of DANIEL'S HUSBAND, written by Michael McKeever (Moscow) and directed by Joe Brancato (Miracle on South Division Street), which begins performances on March 22 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The season began with THE ROADS TO HOME, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote (Harrison, TX) and directed by Michael Wilson (The Trip to Bountiful); followed by Tanya Saracho's FADE, directed by Jerry Ruiz (Basilica).

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 125 new plays, including Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); David Ives' Lives of the Saints and All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Billy Porter's While I Yet Live; Kate Fodor's Rx; Charles Busch's The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter Herbs; A.R. Gurney's Black Tie; Horton Foote's Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (Two 2009 Tony Award nominations); Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior; Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent; Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome; Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut). Our productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including Tony, Obie, Lortel, AUDELCO, Outer Critics' Circle, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards and nominations. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting, and the newly launched Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative- connections within the theater community.

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