The Shelter (theatre company)

The Shelter is theatre company founded in 2009 in New York City. The company only produces original works of theater written, directed, and acted by members of The Shelter. Its mission statement declares that "The Shelter is a family of artists creating original theatre for the New York stage."

History

Before there was The Shelter, there was Fallout. Fallout was a short-lived theatre company, focused on producing published plays for the stage, started by Emily Robin Fink, Matt Garibaldi, Meghan E. Jones, Michael Kingsbaker and Dave Lankford. The company's name was derived from a rigorous acting exercise the founders had practiced as students at T. Schreiber Studio. Fallout ultimately closed its doors before staging a single production; however, during its short existence, Kingsbaker proposed that the company sponsor a workshop, intended to both build an artistic community and to serve as a breeding ground for new works. Its name was Fallout Shelter.

While Fallout was dissolving, the workshop began taking shape. Without the umbrella of a theater company, the workshop dropped "Fallout" from its name and became known as The Shelter. The first meeting of "Shelter Sunday," as the Sunday meet-up is now affectionately called, was held in the basement of the Gene Frankel Theatre on January 4, 2009. This weekly workshop continues today. The first participants included Fallout members Fink, Jones, Kingsbaker and Lankford. They were joined by Meghan's husband, Jonathan Ashley, and soon by many others, including Morgan McGuire. These six Shelter artists dedicated themselves to developing The Shelter over several seasons.

In 2009, the owner of the Gene Frankel Theatre offered members of The Shelter an opportunity to use the theater's main stage for a weekend. As an experiment, the members decided to produce a two-night performance. The production, 3:56 AM, explored the lives of several Lower East Side residents between the hours of 3 and 4 am. The show included nine original shorts, each written, directed and acted by members of The Shelter. Due to the success of the show, the members decided to rekindle the producing arm of the company — but with a major change of focus: wholly original works. In 2011, the company formally incorporated in the state of New York as The Shelter NYC, Inc. The first board of directors was composed of Ashley, Fink, Jones, Kingsbaker, Lankford and Kitty Lindsay.

References

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