|
Do Gooder Productions is an Off-Broadway forum for new plays for the professional stage and produces in partnership with designated charities. Since the 1994-95 season, Do Gooder has raised thousands of dollars for various charitable organizations and mounted eight Off-Broadway productions, seven of which have been the Off-Broadway debuts for new playwrights. Several of the plays which received their professional debuts with Do Gooder have subsequently been published and received numerous regional and international productions. Among the plays which Do Gooder has contributed to the American professional theater are: Founding Artistic Director Mark Robert Gordon's My Soul is Mine: A Runaway's Story, Robin Rothstein's On Deaf Ears, Sidney Morris' The Magic Formula, and Pedro R. Monge's Trash. Do Gooder set a longevity mark for a not-for-profit Off-Broadway run with its 1998-99 New York production of then-75 year-old Alan Brandt's debut play 21/2 Jews, which Do Gooder has subsequently licensed for several regional productions and which is now being adapted into a feature film. The 2005-06 season will see the Off-Broadway premieres of Karla Jennings' Dish Babies (an all-star cast in a dark comedy about a woman battling infertility) and Mark Robert Gordon's one-person play about Alexander Hamilton, H: Hamilton or Honour.
Do Gooder conducts significant outreach to the community about the work of its partnering charities. Do Gooder provides the theatergoing and general public with information and press coverage of the work of these agencies. Over the years, Do Gooder has also operated an At-Risk Youth Internship program, provided recreational activity for the partnering charities' clients, and hosted post-performance question-and-answer sessions focused upon the links between the production and the community. Through working in partnership with the charitable agencies, Do Gooder develops new audiences for the theater by attracting individuals who might not otherwise attend theater but who are attracted by a particular cause, charity, or theme benefited by a Do Gooder production. Do Gooder produces on the Off-Broadway level, employing its actors under paid Actors' Equity Association Letter of Agreement and full Off-Broadway contracts. Since 2000, Do Gooder has been involved with regional Equity contract productions across the country. |