Since our inception in 1995, Theater Three Collaborative, Inc. has been creating, developing and producing poetic, character-driven plays on crucial topics of the day. TTC was founded by the late Lee Nagrin, George Bartenieff and Karen Malpede to produce The Beekeeper's Daughter. We also create and host Festivals of Conscience, talks and talkbacks with public intellectuals, activists and specialists in the field of the play.
“These are exceptional plays that bridge modernist realism
and something older, more profound, more heroic.”
— Andrew Solomon
Karen Malpede's new book of Theater Three Collaborative Plays
Book Cover by Luba Lukova
Plays in Time by Karen Malpede
Plays in Time has 3 "5 star" reviews on Amazon.
"As an actress, playwright, journalist, activist and award winning environmentalist I want to say that Karen Malpede's plays are works of genius, connecting us to the global nightmares of cruelty, war, greed. Through the very specific conflicts of unique, complex and vivid characters. the stories of our times, such as climate change and the aftermath of 9/11, unfold. These are not dialectics but revelations of the human condition. With influences of Greek classic drama and myth, written with Shakespearean beauty, and wonderfully imaginative stagecraft, she has created a body of work for the ages. This is not the facile, self-referential, emotionally vapid immature drama produced today (with very rare exceptions such as Lynn Nottage's Sweat, or Dominic Orlando's Danny Casolaro Died for You). This is real theater. Get this book, produce these plays laden with dream roles for actors who know their craft. Audiences will revel."--Lee Roscoe
Members Bios
George Bartenieff as Handel in Another Life. Photo: Beatriz Schiller
George Bartenieff, co-founder, producer/director/actor, began his theater career at the age of 14, in The Whole World Over, directed by Harold Clurman. He has acted on Broadway, off and off-off, in hundreds of new and classic plays. He was co-founder of Theater for the New City, and co-founder of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. His work in new theater includes major roles with: The Living Theatre, Judson Memorial Poets' Theater, Bread and Puppet, Mabou Mines, Andre Gregory's Theater for the Living Arts; he starred in plays by Edward Albee and Samuel Beckett. He and Malpede adapted for the stage the diaries of Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness, as a one-person play that played to acclaim in New York, London, Berlin, Washington DC and toured Europe and the U.S. for three years. He is winner of four Village Voice Obie awards, including for Outstanding Contribution as an Actor, for acting in "I Will Bear Witness" and producing. He is a graduate of RADA and The Guild Hall, London.
If you want to know the whole truth of George's amazing 65 year career, beginning at age 14:
http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2012/10/5-questions-ive-never-been-asked-george-bartenieff/
"Encomiums, hosannas and tributes, plus criticisms and analyses, should be written about actor George Bartenieff even more than they already are. His sheer longevity is breathtaking, having debuted on Broadway in 1947 at age 14 never slowing down since. Pick virtually any period of his career, it seems, and one element remains the same: Bartenieff has pursued a mix of passion projects that intermingle a belief in social justice with an unflagging fidelity to craft."
Karen Malpede, Hermes and Cleis.
Karen Malpede (Co-Founder, Writer/director) author/director of 19 plays, two of which are currently in development: Other Than We and Blue Valiant, to star Kathleen Chalfant. Recent: Dinner During Yemen, part of “Imagine: Yemen” at The Irene Diamond Signature Theater, 2018, publication Kenyon Review, Oct, 2018; Extreme Whether, LaMama, 2018, Paris ARTCOP21, 2015, Theater for the New City, 2014; The Beekeeper’s Daughter, Theater for the New City, 2016 (revival), premiered 1995 at the Festival of World Drama, Veroli, Italy. “One of America’s most prominent political playwrights,” Marvin Carlson. Her seven books include Plays in Time: The Beekeeper’s Daughter, Prophecy, Another Life, Extreme Whether (Intellect, 2017), editor: Acts of War: Iraq & Afghanistan in Seven Plays (Northwestern, 2011), A Monster Has Stolen the Sun and Other Plays (Marlboro, 1987), editor: Women in Theater: Compassion & Hope (Drama Book, 1984). She is a frequent contributor to The Kenyon Review; short fiction and essays on theater, ecology and literature are published in TriQuarterly, Confrontations, The Drama Review, New Theatre Quarterly, New York Times, anthologies. McKnight National Playwrights Fellowship, Ludwig Vogelstein and NYFA (then, CAPS) playwriting awards. She is adjunct Associate Professor of Theater Arts and Environmental Justice at John Jay College, CUNY. MFA, Columbia.
Lee Nagrin and George Bartenieff in a scene from Blue Heaven.
Lee Nagrin was a mulitiple Obie and Bessie award-winning choreographer, writer, actor, and theater creator.
Sally Ann Parsons, Tony, George, Luba, Me, Christen (photo: Brad Burgess)
Each member of the Theater Three Collaborative artistic team is a renowned artist in her/his own field. Tony Giovannetti, lighting design; Luba Lukova, graphics and video design; Sally Ann Parsons, costumes, Arthur Rosen, sound and original music, Robert Eggers, set design Another Life ; Maxine Willi Klein, set design Prophecy & The Beekeeper's Daughter, Beatriz Schiller, photos Another Life; and Ari Mintz, photos, Prophecy.
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Contact & Donate
We depend upon audience donations, which are tax-deductible.
Theater Three Collaborative, Inc.
372 Dekalb Ave. #1 J
Brooklyn, NY 11205
info@theaterthreecollaborative.org