Following eight years on West 16th Street, Atlantic enters its third decade with this move to a new address, which will occupy 25,000 square feet. The new space will house a 99-seat state-of-the-art black box theatre with direct street access, lobby with gallery, nine rehearsal and classroom studios, a scenic shop, street level box office, dressing rooms, student/faculty lounges and administrative and artistic staff offices. It is expected to be fully operable in January 2006.
Its mainstage home remains on West 20th Street. A double bill of Harold Pinter's The Room and Celebration is currently playing there.
Coburn Architecture, PC; Denham Wolf Real Estate Services, Inc. and Andrew Lance, of Gibson Dunn and Crutcher LLP are currently overseeing the renovation and build-out of 111 Eighth Avenue, the company announced Nov. 16. The City of New York contributed a $1 million grant toward the new complex, with additional contributions funded by private donors and friends of Atlantic.
“We certainly could not have asked for a better way to celebrate our 20th anniversary season than to move into this stunning new office and theatre complex," Neil Pepe, ATC's artistic director, said in a statement.
The 99-seat theatre "will create production opportunities for emerging artists and enable Atlantic to continue…[its] long-standing mission to cultivate new work while investing in an artistic ensemble." The Atlantic Acting School, a private conservatory and undergraduate program in conjunction with New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, was founded by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet and celebrated actor William H. Macy when they taught "Practical Aesthetics," their unique acting technique, to a group of NYU students from 1983 to 1985. In 1985, the Atlantic Theater Company formed and has since presented over 100 productions in the last 20 years and "remains committed to their mission of producing great plays simply and truthfully while utilizing a resident artistic ensemble."
Similarly, Atlantic Acting School "fosters new generations of theater artists and audiences by creating a student ensemble that allows emerging actors to hone their craft in a safe yet challenging environment."
Atlantic Acting School offers a wide variety of programs including a three-year undergraduate program through NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, a two-year full time conservatory program, a summer intensive program in New York City and Vermont, a part time program and a satellite program in both Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia.
Visit www.atlantictheater.org.
