"[O]ne of NYC's most remarkable and accomplished young companies."
-Martin Denton, NYtheatre.com
Under the artistic direction of Kiran Rikhye and Jon Stancato since it was founded in 2002, the company has created 10 original productions which have played to critical acclaim and sold-out houses in New York and Philadelphia.
In recognition of the company’s “sustained excellent work…which demonstrates the power of theatre in surprising ways,” Stolen Chair was named one of NYtheatre.com’s “People of Year 2005” and was recently named New York Press’ “Best of Manhattan.” Stolen Chair’s live silent film for the stage, The Man Who Laughs (Part 1 of Stolen Chair’s CineTheatre Tetralogy: 4 years, 4 productions, 4 classic film styles adapted for the stage), has been published in The New York Theatre Experience’s Playing with Canons: Explosive New Works from Great Literature by America’s Indie Playwrights.
The company’s work has been seen at Theatre for the New City, Soho Think Tank’s 6th Floor Series, The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival, Collective: Unconscious’ Underground Zero Festival, Swarthmore College, The National Library of Singapore’s Initiation International Festival, The National Museum of American Jewish History, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and the various venues operated by Horse Trade Theater Group, where Stolen Chair was a resident artist from 2005-2007.
When the company is not in production, Stolen Chair offers a multi-tiered educational program, featuring professional workshops, in-school residencies throughout the tri-state area, a youth physical theatre camp, and master classes with artists preeminent in their fields, such as Commedia dell’Arte legend Antonio Fava and Avner the Eccentric, the world-renowned clown.
Stolen Chair is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council of the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, is a five-time beneficiary of the Swarthmore Project in Theatre, and is a recipient of WNYC's *STAR* Initiative.