The COOP's TERRA FIRMA Begins Performances Tonight Off-Broadway

The COOP and Baruch Performing Arts Center announce the world premiere of Barbara Hammond's Terra Firma, which begins performances tonight at Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue).

Directed by Shana Cooper and inspired by a real life event, Terra Firma is set in a not-so-distant Beckettian future, years after a conflict known as The Big War, where a tiny kingdom wrestles with the problems of running a nation, and spars with different concepts of what makes a citizen, a country and a civilization.

TERRA FIRMA opens October 10, 2019, and plays through November 10, 2019.

Tickets are currently on-sale at www.thecoopnyc.org.

TERRA FIRMA will feature John Keating (Jones), Daniel José Molina (Teddy), Andrus Nichols (The Queen), Tom O'Keefe (The Hostage), Gerardo Rodriguez (Roy), T. Ryder Smith (The Diplomat) and Mark Bedard (Understudy for Roy, Jones, The Hostage, The Diplomat and Teddy).

The design team includes Andrew Boyce (sets), Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene (costumes), Eric Southern (lights) and Jane Shaw (sound).

TERRA FIRMA was originally a commission for The Royal Court Theatre.

The COOP is a new theatre company founded by Artistic Director Andrus Nichols and Playwright in Residence Kate Hamill. Conceived out of the desire to create a community of NYC based artists who are interested in making extraordinary theatre and committed to fostering a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and trust, The COOP produces both old plays reinvigorated through a new lens, and new plays that resonate with timeless themes and universal truths.

The COOP is committed to celebrate and affirm all of our members, and to the ethical production of art. The COOP is committed to work that is radically and actively inclusive, on and offstage as many voices and perspectives make the art richer. The COOP is committed to deep collaboration, and to the pursuit of powerful and Moving Theatre experiences.

The COOP's Artistic Advisory Board (Patricia Black, Kimberly Chatterjee, Midori Francis, Robyn Kerr, Carman Lacivita, Drew Ledbetter, Nikki Massoud, Jason O'Connell, James Dean Palmer and John Russell) assists in actively expanding The COOP's community of playwrights, designers, directors, and actors. Their guidance helps The COOP diversify its network of voices, and make informed programming decisions.

The COOP's Youth Advisory Board (Olivia Bernabe, Kathleen Capdesuñer, Colleen Litchfield, Daisy Long, Kevin Paley, Phillip Schneider, Gage Tarlton, Ana Verde and Nazareth Hassan) meets regularly and is in direct dialogue with senior artistic staff to ensure the voices of these playwrights, theatre makers and future artistic leaders (aged 18-25) have a voice around season programming, marketing strategies, and audience engagement.