"A promising young company bravely taking on the impossible Stein challenge."
--Charles McNulty, The Village Voice

"Born out of a love of Gertrude Stein, Polybe + Seats is the coolest new ensemble company in town. The group's taste for language, its understanding of how to turn language into action, and its generosity of spirit all make this company's work a pleasure."
--Shawn-Marie Garrett, Contributing Editor, Theater Magazine

Polybe + Seats is a theater company with five women at its core who have been making theater together since 2001: Jessica Brater (Artistic Director), Miriam Felton-Dansky (Associate Artistic Director), Stacey Cooper McMath (Producing Member), Katya Schapiro (Producing Member), and Catherine Wallach (Producing Director). We are supported by Associate Company Members who make our company their primary artistic commitment, and, though we do not have a board, we have close advisory relationships with several mentors in the industry, including David Herskovits of Target Margin Theater, Ruth Maleczech and Sharon Fogarty of Mabou Mines, Ellen Dennis of Fall for Dance and Shawn-Marie Garrett of Barnard College.

The company was started by Jessica Brater who, after reading Gertrude Stein's play Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, felt a spark of recognition in Stein's proposition that there were more possibilities for the point of connection between an audience member and what is happening onstage than Brater had previously considered. Stein seemed to suggest that we could invent our own ways of inviting a connection, and that there were possibilities in staging that would invite each audience member to invent his or her own point of connection. The name Polybe + Seats encapsulates this idea: taken from Turkey and Bones and Eating and We Liked It, also by Stein, we were inspired to adopt it as our name because of the way it stands on the page and the way its meaning invites questions.

The artistic goal of our company is to challenge ourselves to find new ways of using language, staging and design to communicate our chosen stories. We value collaboration and believe that all aspects of a production are essential to the core of the piece. Coming out of an academic background, we are committed to a deep understanding of any text or piece we produce and include dramaturgical scholarship as part of every major production. We pride ourselves on fostering an environment of happy, strong, fruitful group communication and collaboration.

The first piece we worked on together was Turkey and Bones and Eating and We Liked It, directed by now-Artistic Director Jessica Brater as her senior thesis production at Barnard. From 2001-2003, we focused on new plays: we produced a workshop of Jordan Harrison's The Museum Play and productions of Desmond or Abraham and Frances and Two Spent Swimmers, both by Sally Oswald. Between 2002 and 2004, we adapted four short Stein plays into an evening of work called Careful of Eights: Four [Five] Plays by Gertrude Stein, and the experience of developing that project in multiple workshops and performance venues led us to change our producing strategy to a commitment to long-term development.

Our largest fully realized work, The Charlotte Salomon Project: Life? or Theater?, cemented our desire to develop work collaboratively over the course of months or years, showing work-in-progress along the way. The piece was created in residence at Voice & Vision Theater, Brooklyn Fire Proof, and in The Mabou Mines/Suite. We produced it at Brooklyn Fire Proof in November 2006, and in April 2007 it was presented by the University of Michigan at the Walgreen Drama Center.

We have also produced three series of events: SpeakEasies, recurring evenings of short performances, The Ladies' Auxiliary Telephone Bee, in which performers conduct live telephone interviews to find local perspectives on national issues, and Play Group, first readings of new plays intended to help the playwright hear his or her work in an intimate setting. In 2005, we produced an evening of short Russian-themed plays, and in 2007, we produced a week of Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays in non-theatrical venues around Brooklyn. We have also workshopped Better Angels by Company Member Katya Shapiro.

Polybe + Seats has developed a Brooklyn and Manhattan-based core audience of theatergoers who seek out challenging and experimental art. The company has recently produced our first commision, Granada, by Associate Company Member Avi Glickstein. We are also producing a full production of our collaboratively developed work, A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things, a piece jointly addressing humanity's ancient fascination with the sea, and one of the greatest crises facing our generation: the possible collapse of the world's oceanic ecosystems.

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