Irondale Ensemble Project

“The Irondale Ensemble Project is as close as we come these days to the Elizabethan acting companies that once presented Shakespeare’s plays to the Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Drake and the Virgin Queen of England. ...What is on offer is the miracle of the word made flesh. I wish you joy in it.” —Lewis Lapham, editor of Lapham’s Quarterly

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Major Irondale Productions: Seasons 2000 -2008

The Great American All-Star Traveling War Machine
May 16th-June 15th, 2008
Theatre for the New City
World Premiere
A 90-minute cabaret drawn from "States of War" in Lewis Lapham's popular journal Lapham's Quarterly.

9/11: VOICES UNHEARD (April 2007)
Company created piece based on interviews of the family members by Terry McGovern.
Theater for a New City, NYC

Hamlet: Up Close (December 2006)
An intimate, 106 minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s tale.
American Theater of Actors, NYC

EYE OPENERS (November 2005 – April 2006)
A series of weekend performances to introduce the community of Fort Greene to the Irondale Ensemble Project in anticipation of the opening of The Irondale Center. Productions included revivals of Peter Panic, Wasted, Suessentennial and an original Irondale Caberet.
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.

Wasted (Spring 2005)
By Michael Goodfriend
Based on an original idea from Jim Niesen and the Irondale Ensemble Project. A hard-boiled noir fiction that follows detective Sam Slate as he tries to track down missed opportunities and broken promises, while avoiding myths about the good old days.
Theater for the New City, NYC.

Outside the Law (Spring 2004)
A revival of the Irondale original production, based on Shakespeare’s As You Like It and the legend of notorious bank robber and depression-era “Robin Hood” Pretty Boy Floyd.
TADA! Theater, NYC.

Seussentenial: An Imagination Celebration (Fall 2003)

Comedy of Errors (Fall 2002)
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jim Niesen
Washington Square United Methodist Church, NYC

The Murals of Rockefeller Center (Spring 2002)
A play about the headline-making showdown between artist Diego Rivera and captain of industry John D. Rockefeller, Jr. over a conspicuous portrait of Vladamir Lenin. Murals was conceived by Jim Niesen and members of the ensemble in 1999 and received workshops in 1999 and 2000.
Theater for the New City, NYC

Peter Pan (Fall 2001)
By J. M. Barrie
Adapted from a variety of sources by Jim Niesen
Theater for the New City, NYC

In the Jungle of the City (Spring 2001)
by Bertolt Brecht
A new translation by Philip Boehm
Theater for the New City, NYC

Brecht on Brecht (Fall 2000)
Edited by George Tabori
Directed by Jacques Levy and Jim Niesen
Theater for the New City, NYC

The Pope and the Witch (Spring 2000)
By Dario Fo, Translated by Ed Emery
Theater for the New City, NYC

The Murals of Rockefeller Center (Fall 1999)
The Unfinished Version
An original piece based on a scenario by Jim Niesen examines the myth of the American character through the lives of John Dillinger, Charles Lindbergh, and Diego Rivera. This is the beginning of a project that will culminated in a music theater/opera piece in Spring 2002.
Theater for the New City, NYC