MISSION

To produce high-risk theater.

VALUES

If the great playwrights were starting out in today's market, Albee's The Zoo Story might be relegated to a one-act play festival, Shakespeare would be asked to cut the stage direction "Exeunt pursued by a bear" from A Winter's Tale, there would be a sound cue instead of 200 mourners in Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, and a dramaturge might helpfully suggest that Aeschylus unfetter Prometheus in the end so he wouldn't be such a static character.

One Armed Man respects the vision of the individual artist, and will not compromise it for anything other than artistic considerations. We acknowledge that theater is a collaborative art form, but rely on strong playwrights and directors to make our productions unique, demanding, innovative, and exciting. For that reason, we do not keep a regular troupe of actors or designers, seeking the best collaborators for a play and not the other way around. In short, we assert that all good plays are producible.

HISTORY

One Armed Man struck the New York theater community in 2005. It began when artistic director Adam Klasfeld's Good Fences Make Good Neighbors play received an AREA Award for its development, resulting in a staged reading at chashama's midtown theater. It was later accepted into the New York International Fringe Festival, where it ran to critical acclaim and sold out performances. Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, co-producer Ashley Hollon organized a cabaret fundraiser for the American Red Cross.

In 2006, the company is producing another new play by Adam Klasfeld, The Prostitute of Reverie Valley. A reading was held at the Flea in April 2006, and it was featured at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska this past June. It will receive its New York premiere once again at FringeNYC in August.