Blending prize-winning theater with urgent moral drama, Culture Project brings the national political conversation to life on the New York Stage.

For more than a decade, Culture Project has told stories as timely as the morning's newspaper in a way that news articles and editorials can never match.

Through brilliantly conceived, expertly staged dramas, Culture Project sparks conversation, lifts the human heart and incites political action.

A venue for acclaimed, prize-winning performance, Culture Project is also a magnet for today's best talent including Meryl Streep, Danny Glover, Mary J. Blige, Robin Williams, Marisa Tomei, Bob Balaban, Rinde Eckhert, Montel Williams, Frank McCourt, Staceyann Chin, Lynn Redgrave, Sarah Silverman, and other artists who share a passion for theater and public justice.

HISTORY

Culture Project was incorporated in 1996 in a piano restoration factory on West 91st street by founder and Artistic Director, Allan Buchman. In 2000, CP raised 1.2 million dollars and converted a lumberyard at 45 Bleecker Street into a two theatre performing arts center: the Main Stage (199 seats) and 45 Below (99 seats). Over the past ten years, CP has grown from a small theatre impacting 12,000 patrons annually to a small theatre impacting over 150,000 patrons annually. Over the years, Culture Project has consistently created theatre that emphasizes social and political issues designed to inform and inspire contemporary audiences. CP believes theatre is an effective agent of social change and is dedicated to fostering the creative growth of artists.

Culture Project was first propelled into national prominence by its acclaimed production of The Exonerated that focused attention on six exonerees, wrongfully imprisoned, some for decades, and then released without recognition of wrongdoing or compensation. The Exonerated was later made into a movie by Court TV with Brian Dennehy, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover and Aidan Quinn. The Exonerated productions were featured at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival in Summer 2005 and played to rave reviews at Riverside Studios in London in Spring 2006.

On the heels of The Exonerated’s smashing success, Culture Project and Meryl Streep co-produced Bridge and Tunnel, in which Sarah Jones brilliantly described and portrayed a diverse spectrum of immigrants meeting the challenges of living in America today. Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater on January 26, 2006, and she was awarded a TONY.

With Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Culture Project shone a bright and dramatic light on the atrocities perpetrated in the Guantánamo prison camp in the name of freedom, a subject of intense on-going international debate and concern. In 2004, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu performed in Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom and participated in two talkbacks following the performance. The story of the Archbishop’s participation in Guantánamo was covered by over 5,000 International news agencies.

Next, Culture Project presented White Chocolate, a play by renowned New Yorker cartoonist William Hamilton, which used humor to tackle the important issue of racial inequality in America. In Belfast Blues, Culture Project probed the human dimensions of political violence through the story of the “troubles” in Ireland. Culture Project produced Staceyann Chin (Def Poetry Jam), in her provocative personal stage memoir Border/Clash, the heart-pounding story of a young woman’s journey to womanhood as a Jamaican-Chinese immigrant in America, and Index to Idioms, Deb Margolin’s personal performance that explored collapsible boundary between fiction and memoir. RFK, a new play about Robert F. Kennedy, detailed his fight for civil rights and the democratic inclusiveness of the American Dream. In 2006, Culture Project produced The Guardians, a searing satire of Anglo-American relations and modern political morality.

In 2008 Culture Project moved from a theater to an office at 49 Bleecker Street. In the past 2009-2010 season Culture Project has produced an array of work including Nancy Harrow's The Cat Who Went to Heaven, a story in jazz for children and adults in May 2009, and 2 concerts at the United Nations General Assembly Hall, Breaking the Silence, Beating the Drum (March 2009) and A Tribute to Peacekeeping (October 2009). Culture Project has also started producing The War Against War, a full length documentary film following the story of UN Peacekeepers in the field. In May 2009 Culture Project launched its multimedia series, Blueprint for Accountability to address “How can we empower ourselves to hold our leaders - in government, education and corporate institutions - accountable for the events of the past and the conditions of the future?" Culture Project also co-produced County of Kings an on-stage memoir by Lemon Anderson, in October 2009 with Spike Lee, Steve Colman, Jayson Jackson, Tom Wirtshafter and in association with The Public Theater, and A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick with Playwrights Horizons and The Play Company from March-April 2010.

Our productions have garnered an array of Drama Desk, OBIE, and Outer Circle Critics awards. But they have also won unprecedented awards outside the sphere of theatrical production including the Champion of Justice Award and the PASS award from the National Association of Criminal Defenders. This recognition reignites Culture Project’s passion for its goal and reinforces its commitment to hard-hitting and provocative theater as a powerful ingredient in shaping our nation’s values and debates.