WHAT WE DO
WITH THE CURRENT (2008)
Founded in 2005, New Worlds Theatre Project is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit theatre company committed to giving voice to and celebrating the legacy of early 20th Century Yiddish culture by making Yiddish plays accessible and exciting to diverse contemporary artists and audiences in modern English adaptations. We translate, adapt and produce these plays in English for the first time so that they can be experienced and appreciated by audiences of diverse cultural backgrounds as great works of theatre that explore the human condition and the tension between tradition and modernity through timeless and universal themes.
WHO WE ARE
DAMMERUNG (2009) - photo by Louis Zwiebel
ELLEN PERECMAN (Producing Artistic Director) is a native Yiddish speaker and child of Holocaust survivors. She has translated into English and produced eight Yiddish plays. A member of the Dramatists Guild of America, she is the editor of Selected Yiddish Plays, Volume I (IUniverse 2007). Trained as a stage actress by Julie Bovasso and Vivian Matalon, she holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her professional experience includes a substantial research career in Neurolinguistics and Behavioral Neurology, as well as over a dozen years in senior program administration at a non-profit scholarly institution in New York City.
SCOTT SHAW MATTHEWS (Managing Director) is an actor and CEO of Scott Shaw LTD. His credits include The Scales, Andre's Mother, Beautiful Dreamer and I'm Not Rappaport. He has been featured in numerous short and independent films. Scott was a student of Vivian Matalon.
STEPHEN FRIED (Associate Producing Director) has directed at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theatre, Sundance Theatre Lab, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Illinois Shakespeare, Gorilla Rep, and at the New School for Drama, where he is a member of the M.F.A. Directing faculty. He holds a B.A. in drama and history from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama.
BILL CLARKE (Associate Artist) has designed scenery for A Walk In the Woods on Broadway; the new musical Abby's Song at City Center Mainstage; off-Broadway: Misalliance (Pearl at City Center); So Help Me God! (Mint at the Lortel); Eccentricities of a Nightingale (T.A.C.T.), The Daughter-In-Law (Mint Theater; NYTimes 10 Best List), June Moon (Drama Dep’t), Ann Magnuson’s You Could Be Home Now (NYSF), Cherry Orchard (Juilliard) and many more. For New Worlds Theatre Project he has designed Displaced Wedding and Under The Cross. Regional: Seattle Rep, Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Alley, Denver Center, A.R.T., Huntington, McCarter, Indiana Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Pioneer, Wilma and others. MFA, Yale School of Drama. Recipient: 2009 IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for A Delicate Balance; Merimack Rep’s 2005 Artistic Achievement Award; Hollywood Drama-Logue Award; San Diego Theater Critics’ Circle Award.
ADMINISTRATIVE & PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: HALEY ZYLBERBERG, MOLLY STEINBLATT
SCOTT SHAW MATTHEWS (Managing Director) is an actor and CEO of Scott Shaw LTD. His credits include The Scales, Andre's Mother, Beautiful Dreamer and I'm Not Rappaport. He has been featured in numerous short and independent films. Scott was a student of Vivian Matalon.
STEPHEN FRIED (Associate Producing Director) has directed at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theatre, Sundance Theatre Lab, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Illinois Shakespeare, Gorilla Rep, and at the New School for Drama, where he is a member of the M.F.A. Directing faculty. He holds a B.A. in drama and history from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama.
BILL CLARKE (Associate Artist) has designed scenery for A Walk In the Woods on Broadway; the new musical Abby's Song at City Center Mainstage; off-Broadway: Misalliance (Pearl at City Center); So Help Me God! (Mint at the Lortel); Eccentricities of a Nightingale (T.A.C.T.), The Daughter-In-Law (Mint Theater; NYTimes 10 Best List), June Moon (Drama Dep’t), Ann Magnuson’s You Could Be Home Now (NYSF), Cherry Orchard (Juilliard) and many more. For New Worlds Theatre Project he has designed Displaced Wedding and Under The Cross. Regional: Seattle Rep, Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Alley, Denver Center, A.R.T., Huntington, McCarter, Indiana Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Pioneer, Wilma and others. MFA, Yale School of Drama. Recipient: 2009 IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for A Delicate Balance; Merimack Rep’s 2005 Artistic Achievement Award; Hollywood Drama-Logue Award; San Diego Theater Critics’ Circle Award.
ADMINISTRATIVE & PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: HALEY ZYLBERBERG, MOLLY STEINBLATT
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sharon Newman (Chair)
Alia Jones
Scott Shaw Matthews
Ellen Perecman
Martin Sage
Nahma Sandrow
Alia Jones
Scott Shaw Matthews
Ellen Perecman
Martin Sage
Nahma Sandrow
OUR ARTISTIC ADVISORY BOARD
GORDON EDELSTEIN has been Artistic Director of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven since 2002, prior to which he was Artistic Director of ACT Theatre in Seattle, as well as Associate Artistic Director for both Long Wharf and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. He recently directed Arthur Miller's The Price and Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya (which he also adapted). As a director, he has garnered three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. And under his artistic leadership, Long Wharf Theatre has received 14 Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. Among the plays Mr. Edelstein has directed for Long Wharf are BFE (which transferred to Playwrights Horizons), The Day the Bronx Died (transferred to NY and London), A Dance Lesson, and The Times, as well as We Won't Pay! We Wont Pay, A New War, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Anna Christie, The Front Page, and Mourning Becomes Electra, starring Jane Alexander. He is the 2008 recipient of the Connecticut Critics Circle's Tom Killen Award for outstanding contribution to the theatre arts in Connecticut. For television, Mr. Edelstein received an Emmy nomination for Abby My Love for CBS, and directed Notes for My Daughter for ABC (for which Kate Burton won the EMMY for Best Actress).
VIVIAN MATALON has worked extensively in London’s West End, on Broadway, and in regional theatres in the United States. His West End productions include Suite in Three Keys by Noel Coward with Sir Noel, Irene Worth and Lili Palmer, Bus Stop with Lee Remick and Keir Dullea, I Never Sang for My Father with Raymond Massey, and After the Rain with Alec McCowan. He was artistic director for three years at the Hampstead Theatre, where his productions included Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing! and the European premiere of Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams. Broadway productions include After the Rain with Alec McCowan and Nancy Marchand, Noel Coward in Two Keys with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and Anne Baxter in Brigadoon in its last Broadway revival. He received a Tony nomination for his direction of The Tap Dance Kid and Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his revival of Mornings at Seven.
MARION SELDES, New York City born and bred, studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse and made her Broadway debut in 1948 in Medea. Seldes appeared in every one of the 1,809 Broadway performances of Ira Levin's play Deathtrap - a feat that earned her a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as "most durable actress". Ms. Seldes stage work dates back to 1955 with The Chalk Garden and is as recent as Dinner at Eight (2003 revival), Deuce (2007), and La fille du régiment (2008). She won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for A Delicate Balance (1967) and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance for Father’s Day in 1971. She has been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards at least eight times between 1978 and 2006. Her film career began in 1958 with The Light in the Forest. Most recently she has appeared in Mona Lisa Smiles (2003), August Rush (2007) and Leatherheads (2008). From 1967 to 1991, Ms. Seldes was a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Drama, and in 2002 began teaching at Fordham University, Lincoln Center. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants.
ELAINE STRITCH has been performing on stage as well as in film and TV for over 60 years. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1925, Ms. Stritch was educated at a convent and prepared for the stage at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School, where she made her debut in 1944. Her first Broadway appearance was in 1946. She was nominated for a Tony on a number of occasions: as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) in 1956, for William Inge's Bus Stop; as Best Actress (Musical) in 1962, for Sail Away, and in 1971, for Company; and as Best Actress (Play), in 1996 for a revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. She has also won awards for her performances in Show Boat and Company. Ms. Stritch won Tony, Drama Desk, Obie, Outer Circle Critics and New York Drama Critics awards for her one-woman musical memoir Elaine Stritch: At Liberty in 2002. She has put her indelible stamp on the songs of Rodgers and Hart, Noel Coward, and Stephen Sondheim. In 2003, Ms. Stritch was made a "Living Landmark" of New York City for her contributions to Broadway.
MARK ZELLER has appeared on and off Broadway as Tevye and Lazar Wolf in Fiddler on The Roof, Reb Pinchos in Kuni-Leml, Zaide in Lies My Father told Me, Zev in Ari (Exodus), Freud in Freud. A One Man Play, and the title role in Chu-Chem, for which he was nominated by the Outer Critics Circle for Best Actor. Regional appearances include The Portage To San Cristobal at the Hartford Stage, King of Schnorrers in Palm Beach, The Most Happy Fella in New Hampshire and The Cherry Orchard at the John Drew. His directing credits include Dear Liar, Summer of the 17th Doll, The Great Nebula In Orion, Mrs. Dally has a Lover, and Counter Intelligence, which he co-wrote with his wife, Dana Zeller-Alexis, with whom he founded the 78th Street Theatre Lab in 1978 and where they continue as producing directors, having introduced hundreds of developmental theater pieces to New York audiences. The husband and wife team also appeared in New York in his second play, Schmaltz. His teaching credits include long stints at NYU, Brooklyn College, and San Francisco's A.C.T., where, as Director of Training, he developed the conservatory program.
VIVIAN MATALON has worked extensively in London’s West End, on Broadway, and in regional theatres in the United States. His West End productions include Suite in Three Keys by Noel Coward with Sir Noel, Irene Worth and Lili Palmer, Bus Stop with Lee Remick and Keir Dullea, I Never Sang for My Father with Raymond Massey, and After the Rain with Alec McCowan. He was artistic director for three years at the Hampstead Theatre, where his productions included Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing! and the European premiere of Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams. Broadway productions include After the Rain with Alec McCowan and Nancy Marchand, Noel Coward in Two Keys with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and Anne Baxter in Brigadoon in its last Broadway revival. He received a Tony nomination for his direction of The Tap Dance Kid and Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his revival of Mornings at Seven.
MARION SELDES, New York City born and bred, studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse and made her Broadway debut in 1948 in Medea. Seldes appeared in every one of the 1,809 Broadway performances of Ira Levin's play Deathtrap - a feat that earned her a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as "most durable actress". Ms. Seldes stage work dates back to 1955 with The Chalk Garden and is as recent as Dinner at Eight (2003 revival), Deuce (2007), and La fille du régiment (2008). She won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for A Delicate Balance (1967) and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance for Father’s Day in 1971. She has been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards at least eight times between 1978 and 2006. Her film career began in 1958 with The Light in the Forest. Most recently she has appeared in Mona Lisa Smiles (2003), August Rush (2007) and Leatherheads (2008). From 1967 to 1991, Ms. Seldes was a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Drama, and in 2002 began teaching at Fordham University, Lincoln Center. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants.
ELAINE STRITCH has been performing on stage as well as in film and TV for over 60 years. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1925, Ms. Stritch was educated at a convent and prepared for the stage at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School, where she made her debut in 1944. Her first Broadway appearance was in 1946. She was nominated for a Tony on a number of occasions: as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) in 1956, for William Inge's Bus Stop; as Best Actress (Musical) in 1962, for Sail Away, and in 1971, for Company; and as Best Actress (Play), in 1996 for a revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. She has also won awards for her performances in Show Boat and Company. Ms. Stritch won Tony, Drama Desk, Obie, Outer Circle Critics and New York Drama Critics awards for her one-woman musical memoir Elaine Stritch: At Liberty in 2002. She has put her indelible stamp on the songs of Rodgers and Hart, Noel Coward, and Stephen Sondheim. In 2003, Ms. Stritch was made a "Living Landmark" of New York City for her contributions to Broadway.
MARK ZELLER has appeared on and off Broadway as Tevye and Lazar Wolf in Fiddler on The Roof, Reb Pinchos in Kuni-Leml, Zaide in Lies My Father told Me, Zev in Ari (Exodus), Freud in Freud. A One Man Play, and the title role in Chu-Chem, for which he was nominated by the Outer Critics Circle for Best Actor. Regional appearances include The Portage To San Cristobal at the Hartford Stage, King of Schnorrers in Palm Beach, The Most Happy Fella in New Hampshire and The Cherry Orchard at the John Drew. His directing credits include Dear Liar, Summer of the 17th Doll, The Great Nebula In Orion, Mrs. Dally has a Lover, and Counter Intelligence, which he co-wrote with his wife, Dana Zeller-Alexis, with whom he founded the 78th Street Theatre Lab in 1978 and where they continue as producing directors, having introduced hundreds of developmental theater pieces to New York audiences. The husband and wife team also appeared in New York in his second play, Schmaltz. His teaching credits include long stints at NYU, Brooklyn College, and San Francisco's A.C.T., where, as Director of Training, he developed the conservatory program.
