The 65 troupes, all in New York City, have agreed to perform some of these works during the "365 Days/365 Plays National Festival," which runs from November 13, 2006, to November 12, 2007.
Each week one participating theatre will produce one week (seven plays) in the 365 Days/365 Plays cycle. "Participants will produce their work in traditional theatre spaces or site-specific locations," according to production notes. "They may be staged readings or fully produced—but all will be in the spirit of celebrating the vibrancy of New York’s theatre tradition with audiences and artists from every corner of the city. At the end of each month, participants will be invited to share their work at First Sundays, a free public performance series at The Public the first Sunday of every month that will showcase the previous month of the play cycle." (For the month of July only, each week of the month’s plays will be performed by up to five theatres).
The three-score-and-five willing companies—many of them well-established and known to the theatre-going public—are (take a deep breath, now):
3-d (Manhattan), Alec Duffy (Brooklyn), Ars Nova (Manhattan), Atlantic Theater Company (Manhattan), Banana Bag and Bodice (Brooklyn), Barrow Street Theatre (Manhattan), blessed unrest (Manhattan), Blue Box Productions (Manhattan), Boomerang Theatre Company (Manhattan), Clubbed Thumb (Manhattan), CollaborationTown (Brooklyn), Desipina & Company (Manhattan), Dixon Place (Manhattan), Drama League Directors Project (Manhattan), duende arts (Queens), Engine 37 (Neal Freeman) (Manhattan), Epic Theatre Center (Manhattan), Galapagos Art Space (Brooklyn), Gansfeld Theatre Company (Manhattan), Genesius Theatre Group (Manhattan), Guerrilla Girls On Tour (Manhattan), HERE Arts Center (Manhattan), Hip-Hop Theater Festival (Brooklyn), Hourglass Group (Manhattan), INTAR Theatre (Manhattan), LAByrinth Theater Company (Manhattan), LightBox (Brooklyn), Lucid Theatre (Queens), Ma-Yi Theater Company (Manhattan), MUD/BONE (Bronx), Naked Angels (Manhattan), New Dance Group Arts Center (Manhattan), New Georges (Manhattan), New York Theatre Workshop (Manhattan), Partial Comfort Productions (Brooklyn), Pig Iron Theatre Company (Manhattan), Polybe + Seats (Manhattan), Pregones Theater (Bronx), Queens Theatre in the Park (Queens), RACCA's Seaport Salon (Brooklyn), Rebel Theater Company Inc. (Brooklyn), Rising Phoenix Repertory (Brooklyn), Robot Vs. Dinosaur (Brooklyn), Salt Theater (Manhattan), scenedowntown (Brooklyn), SITI Company (Manhattan), SLANT Theatre Project (Manhattan), TADA! Youth Theater (Manhattan), Temporary Theatre Company (Manhattan), The 52nd Street Project (Manhattan), The Brick Theater Inc (Brooklyn), The Civilians (Manhattan), The Classical Theatre of Harlem (Manhattan), The Faux-Real Theatre Company (Manhattan), The Foundry Theatre (Manhattan), The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players (Manhattan), The New Group (Manhattan), The New York Neo-Futurists (Manhattan), The Public Theater (Manhattan), The Tank (Brooklyn), The TEAM (Manhattan), Universes (Bronx), Untitled Theater Company #61 (Manhattan), viBe Theater Experience (Manhattan), and Vortex Theater Company (Manhattan).
The project began life when, in November 2002, the Pulitzer prize-winning Suzan-Lori Parks sat down and committed herself to writing a play a day for the next 365 days. (On the 366th day, she rested.)
