Food for Thought Productions, which started out as the brainchild of award winning writer Susan Charlotte, was launched in the Fall of 2000. This acclaimed theatre company presents a series of one-act plays by award-winning writers performed by an alternating repertory of Broadway stars and directors.

Our Vision: To create a venue for the one-act play, the oft-neglected short 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.

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 first. 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.

Though clearly a full production has its advantages, so too does a reading. Our goal is simply to find the most engaging material and to match it with the crème de la crème of actors. We choose about ten different plays per season. Given the high profile of such actors, the limited time commitment allows them to take greater risks. Writers also have an opportunity to 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 and Lynn Redgrave’s Nightingale.

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 have experienced those rare moments when Patricia Neal and Eli Wallach read Tennessee Williams, or Judd Hirsch and Marian Seldes read Chekhov. There was 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.

In 2001, Arthur Miller joined Elaine Stritch and Bob Dishy on stage for a Q&A after his play, I Cant Remember Anything. Contrary to the title, it was one of the most remarkable and memorable readings staged by Food For Thought.