Rebuilding Theater 86: Benefit Reading & Silent Auction
A first look at our raw new home. Help us build before October.
Rebuilding Theater 86: Benefit Reading & Silent Auction
This past January, after ten years of building a theatrical home from the ground up, Theater 86 lost its space at West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side. The church was offered $33 million in cash for the building — but it's landmarked, and the sale hinges on reversing that status first. To help make the case that the building is too costly to maintain, tenants were pushed out, leaving it empty. After a long fight, we found ourselves without a home.
But we're rebuilding — and we want you to be part of it.
We've signed a lease on a new space on West 39th Street, steps from Port Authority. Our landlord gave us four months to complete the build-out, and rent begins in September. We're racing against the clock, and we need help getting there.
On Sunday, August 16th, join us for a first look at the space — raw, unfinished, full of potential — ahead of our official opening production this October: Mikhail Bulgakov's The Heart of a Dog.
The Evening
Wine and light refreshments, live music, and a preview reading from The Heart of a Dog, featuring Hazen Cuyler, Michael Donaldson, James Hallett, Ariel Polanco, Tom Schubert, Mark K Simmons, and Di Zhu.
Followed by a silent auction, including dinner for two at Eleven Madison Park, a headshot session with a world-renowned photographer, piano lessons with a Juilliard award-winning pianist, business coaching with Robyne Parrish (Artistic Director of Arrowrock Theater), original paintings by Valery Yershov, and a pair of collectible Palekh porcelain plates — with more items still to come.
Every ticket and every bid goes directly toward getting us through these next few months and onto our opening stage. Join us — not for a polished night, but a real one: watching Theater 86 rebuild, one step at a time.
A Benefit Production
Three nights only — every ticket helps us open our doors!
Theater 86 is thrilled to welcome you back into our new home for the next step in this exciting chapter: Anton Chekhov's wickedly funny The Dangers of Tobacco.
A nervous lecturer steps before an audience to deliver a perfectly respectable talk. Under the watchful eye of his formidable wife, he promptly loses the subject, his composure, and very nearly his mind.
In Aleksey Burago's bold two-actor interpretation, a lecture gone wrong becomes a hilarious and unexpectedly moving confession about marriage, misery, and the longing to be free.
Featuring acclaimed performers Tom Schubert and Elena Mindlina, with opera singing and live violin, this intimate theatrical pressure cooker is absurd, explosive, musical, and unmistakably human.
Three nights only. All proceeds from these performances go directly toward furthering Theater 86's buildout of our new home!
Russian Theater Lab: 8 Week Workshop for Actors
With Aleksey Burago
Join us for this 8-week workshop designed to put the principles of theater-making into practice. We will explore some of Stanislavsky’s lesser-discussed ideas, including theater ethics, ensemble work, and finding the joy of acting. Led by critically acclaimed director Aleksey Burago, this workshop examines essential questions: What does it mean to be an actor today? How can we move beyond our own clichés and develop true artistry in our work?
Selected scenes will be featured in an end-of-term presentation for an invited audience.