Tectonic Theater Project

Tectonic Theater Project is a nonprofit theatre dedicated to exploring theatrical language and form and was established in 1991. Its first production, Women in Beckett, was a collection of all of Samuel Beckett’s short plays for women performed by a cast aged 65 to 80. Tectonic has produced works by emerging playwrights such as Naomi Iizuka (Coxinga and Marlowe’s Eye); stage classics such as Beckett’s Endgame and Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal; and a highly-acclaimed production of Franz Xaver Kroetz’ The Nest. With its hyper-real diorama of a set and its imaginative use of puppetry (brought to life by acclaimed puppeteer Basil Twist), The Nest was named one of the ten best productions of the 1994/95 season by The Village Voice.

Tectonic dedicated two years to the development of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, a play written and directed by Artistic Director Moisés Kaufman. The play became a popular and critical sensation when it began in New York in the end of February 1997. Gross Indecency transferred to off-Broadway and ran there for over 18 months. Tectonic’s production was later mounted by Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, enjoyed a six-month run at Theater on the Square in San Francisco, and had successful productions in Toronto, Plymouth and in London’s West End. The play has also been produced by over 40 regional theatres and internationally in Paris, Stockholm, Montreal, Mexico City, Budapest and Germany. Gross Indecency won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best off-Broadway Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the Garland Award for Best Play (Los Angeles), the Caldwell Award (Florida) and the GLAAD Media Award for New York Theater. Mr. Kaufman received the 1997 Joe A. Callaway Award for Excellence in Direction given by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers as well as the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for directing this work. The Vintage publication of Gross Indecency won the Lambda Book Award.

Tectonic Theater Project received an Outer Critics Circle Award as the original producers of the play. Tectonic Theater Project’s development of The Laramie Project was made possible in part by the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Sullivan Foundation, the Sundance Theatre Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Leon Levy, Anne Milliken and Gayle Francis. Tectonic Theater Project also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Development of Cultural Affairs.