I am immensely passionate about real estate, which is why I became a sales associate in 2010. Like all of us, I have a number of other passions which I like to explore in my free time. Last year, I found myself missing the fun, community and self-expression associated with being on stage so I founded th AfterWork Theater Project, New York’s first recreational theater company for non-professional performers.
AWTP creates theater with the sole purpose of fostering community and recreation. We provide every day people with the opportunity to rehearse and perform fully-staged plays and musicals in New York City, no audition required. Participants pay a tuition and are part of the production. Parts are decided on what we call “Launch Day” where the cast shares their skills in order to see where individual strengths are. We work with non-professional actors only and see the program as simply fun, making no claims about furthering the acting careers of our cast members.
For our first production, we took on HAIR: the American Tribal Rock Love Musical and the results far exceeded any of our expectations. The cast consisted of 35 members ranging from ages 18 to 65 and the participants ran the gamut from a high school graduate to a senior-level attorney. We rehearsed for two and a half months and then performed for an audience of family, friends and more. The cast bonded in a beautiful way and the whole process took people back to their youth, not to mention helping release the stresses of our daily working lives. The spirit of HAIR is all about breaking down walls and freeing the human spirit and that’s what the AfterWork Project is all about. I even got a beautiful new listing out of it.
We are currently preparing for our next season when we’ll rehearse and perform Jonathan Larson’s Pultizer Prize winning musical: RENT.
Read the glowing New York Times review of the AfterWork Theater Project’s production of HAIR here.