About Us

(l-r) Frank Raiter, Lynn Redgrave, Daniel McDonald, Kathleen Turner & Frank Corsaro

premiering the one-act version of Night of the Living Iguana

Food for Thought started out as an idea in the Fall of 2000 and has grown faster than any of us could have imagined. Created by writer Susan Charlotte as a forum for the one-act play to get the recognition it deserves, Food for Thought has just completed its eighteenth season. On this page, you'll be able to trace our mission and learn about the people who keep Food for Thought running. You will also a find a list of plays that Food for Thought has premiered: including new works by Lynn Redgrave and Tony Kushner and one-act versions of various Tennessee Williams plays, such as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. These works have been performed exclusively by Food for Thought.

We are also proud to have won the 2002 National Arts Club Gold Medal for Theatre/Drama. Click here for more information.

Mission

Our Vision: To create a venue for the one-act form
Our Philosophy: Less is More

Food For Thought began as an idea in September 2000. The idea: Less is More. Less production values, less contracts, more room for creativity and profundity of thought. Presenting a reading of a one-act play in an intimate setting allows us to push the dramatic envelope.

The One-Act Play

Good things often come in small packages and so it goes with the one-act play, a vital and important form in and of itself and one that is often overlooked. Mastered by Miller, Pinter, Albee, Beckett, Chekhov, and Williams, the one-act has also given birth to such full-length plays as A Streetcar Named Desire, a classic which may not have existed if Williams had not written Portrait of a Madonna. Food For Thought, created in order to cultivate and provide a venue for the one-act form, offers an opportunity to see high quality theatre with our most accomplished actors at affordable prices.

Reading versus Production

Though clearly a full production has its advantages, so too does a reading. Our goal is simple to find the most engaging material and to match it with the crème de la crème of actors. We choose several plays a season; each is read four or five times by a different cast. Audiences were thrilled, for instance, to see how much a John Ford Noonan play changed, when first read by Blair Brown and Robert LuPone and then read by Mary Alice and Earle Hyman. Given the high profile of such actors, the limited time commitment (they're on book and only rehearse once on the day of the reading) allows them to take greater risks. And writers too, who do not have such high stakes, also explore new and daring material. Sometimes plays are even presented before they go into production, as was the case with Tony Kushner's East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis.

An Intimate Setting

Our audiences are small so that everyone has a chance to see actors up close and personal. Audiences are privy to a kind of rehearsal-type feeling, watching actors as they discover a moment, a word, a character. They become more of the participant than the spectator. Theatre-goers can experience those rare moments when Patricia Neal and Eli Wallach read Tennessee Williams, or Judd Hirsch and Marian Seldes read Chekhov. There's also the excitement of seeing dynamic pairs such as Estelle Parsons and Cliff Robertson, Rita Moreno and Barbara Feldon, Christine Baranski and Anne Meara, and Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick. And then there was the reading when Arthur Miller joined Elaine Stritch and Bob Dishy on stage for a Q&A after his play, I Can't Remember Anything. Contrary to the title, it was one of the most memorable readings we ever had.

Susan Charlotte
Founder and Artistic Director

Premieres

Food for Thought is proud to have premiered the following plays:

Nightingale by Lynn Redrgave

East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis by Tony Kushner

The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Crying by Murray Schisgal

Grandpa Clemens and Angelfish 1908 by Joyce Carol Oates

We have also premiered one-act versions of the following Tennessee Williams’ plays:

A Streetcar Named Desire

The Glass Menagerie

The Rose Tattoo

Night of the Iguana

These are works that have only been performed at Food for Thought.

Producers and Collaborators

Producer/Founding Artistic Director Susan Charlotte
Resident Directors
John Going		Christopher Hart	Antony Marsellis		Austin Pendleton
Co-Producer Donald Monroe	Assistant to the Director Michael Citriniti		Company Manager Deb Hackenberry	Assistant Company Manager Brendan Hill

SUSAN CHARLOTTE (Founding Artistic Director, Producer, Writer) is an award-winning writer. The first recipient of the prestigious Joseph Kesselring Award, her plays have enjoyed productions throughout New York. "A Broken Sole," a feature film that she wrote, had its New York theatrical release in November 2007. Directed by Antony Marsellis, it stars Danny Aiello, Judith Light, Bob Dishy, Laila Robins, Margaret Colin and John Shea. Other films include: "Come On" which premiered at the East Hampton Film Festival and "Love Divided By," which has an original score by Philip Glass and was chosen to reopen MoMA's Titus II theatre. Her TV credits (network and cable) include: CBS' "The Comedy Zone" which starred Patty Duke and Paul Reiser and daytime series “Loving” and "Guiding Light." Charlotte has also adapted the writing of Elmore Leonard, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Jean-Paul Sartre and Henry James. Fascinated by the creative impulse she wrote two acclaimed books, "Creativity: Conversations With 28 Who Excel" and "Creativity In Film." She further explored this impulse in her work as a professor at Columbia University (where she received her MFA), NYU and in such non-traditional places as Riker's Island. It was this same impulse that drove her to create a school for writers, Prism Playhouse; the renowned theatre, Food For Thought (winner of the NAC's Gold Medal in Drama); and the not-for-profit theatre, Cause Celebre. In 2009 she will launch Part-Time Productions, another theatre company which will open with work by Harold Pinter directed by Chris Hart, Dorothy Parker (adapted by Tom Fontana) and one of her plays directed by Antony Marsellis. She is currently working on a feature film and a play on which she collaborated with Broadway icon Peter Stone. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the WGA.

JOHN GOING (Resident Director) - Regional Theatre: Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Seattle Repertory, Indiana Repertory, Hartford Stage, Syracuse Stage, Houston's Alley Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Tennessee Repertory, as well as Holiday (Olney Theatre Centre), Major Barbara (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Cincinnati Playhouse), My Fair Lady (St. Louis MUNY), Love! Valour! Compassion! (DC's Studio Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Northshore Music Theatre). On Broadway he directed Tony LoBianco in HIZZONER!. Off-Broadway credits include Mart Crowley's A Breeze from the Gulf. He has worked in Moscow, Johannesburg, Toronto and Winnipeg. For the Opera Theatre of St. Louis he has staged The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Don Pasquale. A four-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, he won the Outstanding Director Award for his production of The Miser at the Shakespeare Theatre in D.C. His production of Inherit the Wind, starring Robert Vaughan and E. G. Marshall, at the Paper Mill Playhouse won Showtime's Excellence in the American Theatre Citation. He was the associate artistic director of the Alaska Repertory Theatre, resident director for the Cleveland Play House, and is currently associate artistic director of the Olney Theatre Centre in Maryland. He also assisted the late Sir Tyrone Guthrie during the inaugural season of the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.

CHRISTOPHER HART (Resident Director) began his theatrical career here in New York as a producer, Off Broadway, before being associated with the Tony nominated SONG AND DANCE, by Andrew Lloyd Weber starring Bernadette Peters, and the Tony nominated BLOOD KNOT, by Athol Fugard.  He moved to California to produce the TV series based on his father Moss Hart’s and George S. Kaufman’s classic comedy YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, starring Harry Morgan.  While in LA he became artistic director of the Malibu Stage Company, and as a director his dozens of productions were nominated and won numerous awards, including Ovations, Robbies, Dramalogues, and LA Drama Critics Circle awards.  He directed regionally including The Geffen Playhouse, and several theaters in Chicago.  For television he directed for the HBO series, TALES FROM THE CRYPT.  He is please to have recently returned home to New York with his beautiful wife, the Robbie Award winning Beth Taylor Hart, and daughter Emma.

ANTONY MARSELLIS (Resident Director) continues to move between the worlds of theatre and film. His latest film, "A Broken Sole," whose New York theatrical release was in November 2007, stars Danny Aiello, Judith Light, Bob Dishy, Laila Robins, John Shea and Margaret Colin and was written by Susan Charlotte. An actor's director he has worked with the finest of the New York theatre community including: Peter Bogdonovich, Tyne Daly, Christine Ebersole, Richard Easton, Judd Hirsch, Tony Roberts, Marian Seldes, Lois Smith, Frances Sternhagen, Elaine Stritch and Kathleen Turner. He has brought to the stage various plays around the city, including the theatrical version of his highly acclaimed film, "Men of Manhattan." He is currently directing The Lodger written by Marie Martello, to be premiered Off-Broadway in January 2009.

AUSTIN PENDLETON (Resident Director) is a Blue Light Theatre Company "Associate Artist" and Advisory Board Member. He was recently seen on Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank. He has appeared in the first New York productions of Oh Dad, Poor Dad..., Fiddler on the Roof, Hail Scrawdyke (Derwent Award), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award), The Sorrows of Frederick, Doubles, The Imposter, The Loop and Sophistry, and in the title roles in recent Off-Broadway productions of Hamlet, Richard III, Uncle Vanya, Keats and Jeremy Rudge. He is a playwright (Booth and Uncle Bob, both produced and published), director (Spoils of War, The Runner Stumbles and Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes), teacher (HB Studio), and member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Ensemble. His film credits include What's Up Doc?, Trial and Error, The Associate, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Muppet Movie, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Proprietor, Guarding Tess, The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, Catch-22, Amistad, and the Academy-Award winning A Beautiful Mind. Recent TV includes "Fired Up," "Frasier" and "Tracey Takes On." He began his career, and has acted and directed many times, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

DEBORAH HACKENBERRY (Company Manager) has held corporate management research and marketing positions in television for broadcast, cable, and syndication programming. These properties include AOL Time Warner's WB Television Network and Court TV as well as FOX Broadcasting's The Health Network. "It gives me great pleasure to be a part of Food for Thought and to be associated with such wonderful and talented people. Many thanks to Susan Charlotte for this opportunity."

DONALD MONROE (Co-Producer) divides his time between his home in High Point, North Carolina and New York. Following twenty-five years in corporate management positions in N.C., N.Y., and Europe, he taught developmental math for thirteen years at his local community college. He enthusiastically supports the theatre program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro ("UNCG"), where he served on the executive board of Theatre Angels. He assisted in the productions of staged readings of Gerald Locklin and George Carroll's The Toad Poems in NYC, The Broach Theatre in Greensboro and at UNCG, and the staged reading of George Carroll's Dragon and Koo also at UNCG. He is a partner with his sons, Gregory and Michael, in Monroe Investment Group, Inc., dba Mr. Smoothie in Winston-Salem. Don is extremely proud to be a part of Food for Thought. Many thanks to Susan Charlotte for the opportunity.

KENNETH MARTIN (Founding Member) is President of Black Diamond Enterprises. He recently produced a new play by Clive Barker entitled History of the Devil and is working on an improvisational dinner theatre piece entitled Commensality. Mr. Martin is one of the original producers of FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

EDWARD POMERANTZ (Founding Member) has written the movie, Caught; a novel, Into It; a play; Brisburial; The Gold Bug (an Emmy-winner); and over 30 commercial screenplays for movies and televison. He is a Professor of Screenwriting at Columbia University, City College of New York, and the WGA. As one of the founding members and writers of FOOD FOR THOUGHT, Mr. Pomerantz's one-act plays, Nothing Personal and A Change of Pace, (originally published by Ms. Magazine), were performed in the inaugural series by Betty Buckley, Marlo Thomas, Barbara Feldon, Judith Light, Daniel McDonald and Jason Culp.

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