Retro Productions
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Retro Productions is a New York City based Off-Off-Broadway theater company. Their mission is to produce works of "Retro Theater," mainly straight plays that take place in the 20th century.[1]
The company is composed of twenty-two members who are actors, designers, directors, and stage managers, and is led by artistic director Heather E. Cunningham, an actress and producer. whose performance as Rose Walker in the Retro production An Appeal to the Woman of the House by Christie Perfetti Williams won her a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role.[2]
The company was formed in 2005 under the name River Heights Productions, after the hometown of Nancy Drew. Under this name the company produced two plays: Catholic School Girls by Casey Kurtti, in March 2005, at chashama and the New York City Premiere of Mrs. California by Doris Baizley, in March 2006, at the 78th Street Theatre Lab.
Following the production of Mrs. California, River Heights Productions was dissolved and the company was renamed Retro Productions.
After the reformation of Retro Productions, they took up residence at the Spoon Theater, producing two shows per year at the 38th street space in Manhattan. The Spoon Theater closed in 2011, and since then the company have become "gypsies" - moving from venue to venue based on the needs of the show, though, since 2015, primarily use the Gene Frankel Theatre on Bond Street.
Premieres and other significant productions
- Produced the first major New York City revival in over fifty years of the 1950s sex comedy The Tender Trap by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith.
- New York premiere of Holy Days by Sally Nemeth.
- World Premiere of Women and War by Jack Hilton Cunningham.
- Production of The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt moved off-Broadway.
- World Premiere of An Appeal to the Woman of the House by Christie Perfetti Williams.