The Supporting Characters are a professional theatre company which is
dedicated to the development of new works from initial collaborative lab
sessions through public performance. Working with
a core group of actors, directors, and writers, we provide a fertile artistic
ground with freedom to fail, freedom to experiment, and freedom to bring bold
original work to life in a process which recognizes that a play is not complete
until it is seen by an audience.
Authors bring in work to lab sessions to be read by our actors and
critiqued by the group. Initially,
freedom of creative expression is key—an author may try a different style of
writing than her usual, an actor may read a role of a type he ordinarily would
not play in a commercial production.
But in an atmosphere of constructive but rigorous criticism, the work is
carefully shaped and refined until it receives a complete, start-to-finish read
by lab members. Only then, if and
when ready for public presentation, the play is offered to an audience in a
public staged reading. Such plays
are ready to benefit from this public exposure, as the author further refines
her work based on audience reaction, both their responses during the play and
their questions and comments afterwards.
After any needed rewrites, the group has a play ready for the final step
in developing works for the theatre; its first production.
Our first Equity showcase production was the world premiere of Lloyd Pace’s NEW ORLEANS, offered in association with ETC Productions in NYC and opening on November 2, 2007. NEW ORLEANS revisits the old City of Dreams: a woman looks back as a young girl in the 1950’s, trying to piece together the puzzle of who she is, who her family was, and why something had to happen in a hotel in New Orleans that changed them forever. The play has a cast of eleven; starring was 11 year old Molly Callahan, who played both the adult and child Buster as she recreates the past which has emotionally arrested her at that age.
Summer 2008 brought
In February 2009 TSC partnered with the Bendheim Performing Arts Center to present Barry Malawer's CADILLAC. In the spring followed our presentation of site-specific readings tailored for the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx, NY.
The group of artists who make up The Supporting Characters bring years of experience in professional theatre, with an emphasis on developing original plays. Artistic Director Cynthia Granville is an actor and director who has worked throughout the tri-state area in both capacities. She has been a participant and leader in many writers groups including those at HB Studio, 12 Miles West, Waterfront Ensemble, and Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble, which was named Westchester Magazine’s “Best Venue for Original Theatre” during her tenure there. She has worked with noted writers such as Jeffrey Sweet, in whose new version of WITH AND WITHOUT she appeared under his direction.