MISSION

Marvell Repertory Theatre is New York's only professional theatre - and one of only a handful in the entire nation - devoted exclusively to producing new and enduring works in rotating repertory. We are drawn to plays and musicals of integrity, power, and beauty.

We thrill to see actors and audiences stretch their creative muscles as they grapple with great works in vibrant counterpoint.

As New York's flagship repertory company, we strive to embody an international standard of excellence by creating first-rate professional theatre experiences that refresh the spirit, stimulate the mind, and quicken the heart.

HISTORY

Lenny Leibowitz and Amy Estes founded Marvell Repertory Theatre in 2010 with the intention of giving New York theatre actors and audiences the kind of full-immersion theatre experience that only rotating rep can provide. While running New Harmony Theatre, they discovered a shared passion for working in rotating repertory, and a shared conviction that New York theatre audiences - the best in the world - shouldn't have to go to Oregon or the Stratford Festival in Canada to regularly see real rep. While they were there, they successfully developed an annual repertory project that allowed them to build the financial, production, rehearsal, and performance models for working in the classic model of rep, all in preparation for launching Marvell Repertory Theatre.

Marvell Rep's first public performance was a workshop production of Before the Rain, an original musical with an all African American cast and a blues and gospel score, at the Producers' Club in May, 2010. This event reflected a primary focus of the mission, the development of new plays and musicals and the advancement of the art form.

Marvell Rep's inaugural season featured four magnificent, underperformed works from the world literature, all centered on the theme of WOMEN IN REVOLT, including Nora, Ingmar Bergman's adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House; In the Shadow of the Glen, the darkly funny one-act by J.M. Synge; Blood Wedding, by Federico Garcia Lorca; and the New York premiere of Joseph C. Landis' translation of The Dybbuk by S. Ansky.

In 2012, Marvell focused its play selection on works that, throughout their histories, had been BURNED AND BANNED. The theme was a hit, spanning two repertory festivals that included Bertolt Brecht's and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera in a translation by Michael Feingold (a production that was later nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of A Musical in a category that included the Broadway productions of Evita, Porgy & Bess, and Follies) in rotating repertory with the New York premiere of Arthur Schnitzler's masterpiece, Professor Bernhardi, 100 years after it was written, in a new translation by G.J. Weinberger.

In the fall of 2012, Marvell Rep continued its BURNED AND BANNED theme with productions of Frank Wedekind's always-incendiary Spring's Awakening, in the translation by Eric Bentley. The production won acclaim for its bold choice to use age-appropriate actors in the leading roles of Melchior, Moritz, Wendla, Martha, Hanschen, and Ernst. Spring's Awakening ran in rotating repertory with God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, translated by Joseph C. Landis. The fall 2012 project also featured the debut of Marvell Rep's Emerging Writers Workshop with a short-run production of two plays by Ben Goldstein about Jack London, performed under the banner, Jack London: His Life and Loves.

The theme of Marvell Rep's winter 2013 repertory project took its name from the title of Margret Schaefer's book, Desire and Delusion, a collection of works by Arthur Schnitzler. Inspired by the thrill of staging a full production of Professor Bernhardi, and also by producing staged readings of Schnitzler's Anatol and Liebelei (translated in English as Flirtation), Marvell's most recent repertory festival celebrated Schnitzler and his milieu, fin de siecle Vienna, with fully-staged productions of Flirtation, translated by Carl R. Mueller; Secrets, a new play about Schnitzler's "frenemy," Sigmund Freud and his relationship with Carl Jung; and Marvell Rep's first world premiere production, adapted from Schnitzler's novella, Spiel im Morgengrauen by Marvell Rep's artistic director, Lenny Leibowitz, and based on the translation by Margret Schaefer, from which the play also takes its title, Night Games.

Members of our acting company, affectionately known as the Marvell-ites, have included Tony-nominee Lorraine Serabian; Broadway luminaries Loni Ackerman, Giuseppe Bausilio, Joel Bernstein, Joy Franz, Rita Harvey, Chris Kipiniak, Jerry Matz, William Metzo, John Michalski, Anne Newhall, Geddeth Smith, Barbara Spiegel, Sam Tsoutsouvas, and Isaac Woofter; Off-Broadway and regional theatre veterans Hamish Allan-Headley, Thomas Benton, Yuval Boim, Demetri Bonaros, Nathan Brisby, Logan Riley Bruner, Jonathan Cantor, Brian J. Carter, Claire Duncan, Matt Faucher, Bonnie Fraser, Marc Geller, Kevin Gilmartin, Sean Gormley, Nicolas Greco, Cooper Grodin, Dalton Harrod, Angus Hepburn, Chad Jennings, Stass Klassen, Bill Krakauer, Christopher Lee, Stephanie Lynne Mason, Allison McLemore, Ariela Morgenstern, Damian Norfleet, Kelly Pekar, Rosalinda Perron, Jed Peterson, Howard Pinhasik, Markus Potter, John Ramaine, Mike Rosengarten, Emma Rosenthal, Christopher Ryan, Larry Saperstein, Sky Seals, Stephen Sheffer, Jeremy Smith, Eileen Ward, John Windsor-Cunningham, Kevin Winebold, and Caitlin Wise; and stunning newcomers Anita Anthonj, Charlotte Astrid, Solon Carter, Rachel Claire, Lizzy DeClement, Daniel Owen Dungan, Ava Eisenson, Robert Gonyo, Susannah Jones, George Michael Kennedy, Chiara Klein, Terren Klein, Andrew Lemonier, Lauren Lopes, Drake Nester, Gavin Price, Franz Quitt, Evgeniya Radilova, Max Singer, Emelie Faith Thompson, Loralee Tyson, Jill Usdan, Natalia Volokodaeva, and Perri Yaniv.

Favorite Marvell Rep designers include Tijana Bjelajac, Marisa Barnes, Daniel Dungan, Howard Fredrics, Zhanna Gurvich, Nicholas Houfek, Nikki Moody, Susan Nester, Jennifer Raskopf, Kenichi Takahashi, and Ann Warren.