Binger Center for New Theatre

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Established in 2008 as the Yale Center for New Theatre with a grant from the Robina Foundation, and supported by additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and individual donors, the Center is an artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals at Yale Rep and across the country. Among the Center's programs, a key component is its Production Enhancement Fund, which provides financial support for productions at other theatres of works commissioned by and/or first produced at Yale Rep. The Center also facilitates residencies of playwrights and composers at Yale School of Drama. In April 2012, the Yale Center for New Theatre was renamed the Binger Center for New Theatre in honor of James H. Binger (1916-2004), the noted businessman, theatre impresario, and philanthropist who created the Robina Foundation.

To date, the Center has supported the work of more than thirty commissioned artists as well as the world premieres and subsequent productions of twelve new American plays and musicals—including David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette, Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl, and Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff’s new adaptation of In a Year with 13 Moons by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, all of which will premiere in Yale Rep’s 2012-13 season.

Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff, was the first commissioned play supported by the Center to receive its world premiere at Yale Rep. In 2010, Notes had its West Coast premiere at La Jolla Playhouse and its New York premiere at Theatre for a New Audience, in association with the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The Center also supported the world premiere co-production of Rinne Groff's Compulsion at Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, and The Public Theater; the world premiere of the Yale Rep-commissioned On the Levee by Marcus Gardley, Todd Almond, and Lear deBessonet at Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3; and the world premiere of Maggie-Kate Coleman and Anna K. Jacobs’s musical POP! at Yale Rep and its City Theatre May 2012 production in Pittsburgh.

Beginning in the 2012-13 season, the programs of the Binger Center for New Theatre will include the Yale Institute for Music Theatre (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director). Originally established in 2009 by Yale School of Drama and Yale School of Music, the Institute bridges the gap between training and the professional world for emerging composers, playwrights, lyricists, and librettists by providing them with an annual, intensive two-week summer lab at Yale to develop their original music theatre works.

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Press and Publicity

• 5/13/13: Critical Acclaim for In a Year with 13 Moons
  
  
• 12/10/12: RAVE REVIEWS FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF SARAH RUHL’S DEAR ELIZABETH
  
  
• 11/7/12: RAVE REVIEWS FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE BY DAVID ADJMI
  
  
• 5/2/12: YALE REPERTORY THEATER'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED WORLD PREMIERE OF THE REALISTIC JONESES
  
  
• 4/26/12: $18 MILLION GIFT FROM THE ROBINA FOUNDATION
  TO PERMANENTLY ENDOW THE CREATION OF NEW PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR THE AMERICAN STAGE
  
  
• 3/19/12: Cast and creative team announced for WORLD PREMIERE OF The Realistic Joneses
  
  
• 1/11/12: Cast and creative team announced for World Premiere of GOOD GOODS
  
  
• 11/08/11: YALE REPERTORY THEATER'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED-WORLD PREMIERE OF BELLEVILLE
  
  
• 12/8/10: YALE REPERTORY THEATER'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED-WORLD PREMIERE OF BOSSA NOVA
  
  
• 11/17/10: YALE REPERTORY THEATER'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED-WORLD PREMIERE OF NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND
  
  
• 9/29/10: CRITICS ARE TALKING ABOUT YALE REPERTORY THEATER'S WORLD PREMIERE OF WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE
  
  
• 7/27/10: Yale Rep receives $1 Million Gift from Mellon Foundation to Support New Plays
  
  
• 7/19/10: Yale Rep receives $950,000 from Robina Foundation to support the Yale Center for New Theatre
  
  
• 1/7/10: Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of compulsion
  
  
• 12/8/09: RAVE REVIEWS FOR YALE REP'S WORLD PREMIERE OF POP!
  
  

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Productions

IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS
By Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff
Directed by Robert Woodruff
Featuring Bill Camp
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, April 26-May 18, 2013

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DEAR ELIZABETH
By Sarah Ruhl
A play in letters
from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell
and back again
Directed by Les Waters
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, November 30-December 22, 2012

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MARIE ANTOINETTE
By David Adjmi
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere Co-production: American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA), September 2012; Yale Repertory Theatre, October 26-November 17, 2012

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CREATION
By Kathryn Walat
Directed by Michael Michetti
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Theatre @ Boston Court (Pasadena, CA), October 13-November 11, 2012 

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THE REALISTIC JONESES
By Will Eno
Directed by Sam Gold
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, April 20-May 12, 2012

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GOOD GOODS
By Christina Anderson
Directed by Tina Landau

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, February 3-February 25, 2012

Crowded Fire Theater (San Francisco), May 31-June 23, 2012

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BELLEVILLE
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, October 21-November 12, 2011

New York Theatre Workshop (New York, NY), February-March 2013     

Steppenwolf Theare Company (Chicago, IL), June 27-August 25, 2013

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BOSSA NOVA
By Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Evan Yionoulis

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, November 26-December 18, 2010

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WE HAVE ALWAYS 
LIVED IN THE CASTLE
Book and Lyrics by Adam Bock & Music and Lyrics by Todd Almond 
Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson 
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, September 17-October 9, 2010

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ON THE LEVEE
A Play with Music 
Conceived and Directed by Lear deBessonet 
Play by Marcus Gardley 
Music and Lyrics by Todd Almond
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre 

World Premiere: LCT3 (New York, NY), June 14-July 10, 2010 

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COMPULSION
By Rinne Groff
Directed by Oskar Eustis

World Premiere Co-production: Yale Repertory Theatre, January 29-Febraury 28, 2010; Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Berkeley, CA), September 13-October 31, 2010; The Public Theater (New York, NY), February 1-March 13, 2011 

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POP!
Book and Lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman
Music by Anna K. Jacobs
Directed by Mark Brokaw
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, November 27-December 19, 2009

Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), July 13-August 7, 2011

City Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA), May 5-27, 2012

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NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff
Based on a translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Directed by Robert Woodruff
Featuring Bill Camp
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, March 20-April 11, 2009

La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA), September 17-October 17, 2010

Theatre for a New Audience, in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York, NY), November 7-28, 2010

 

 

Photo credit: Johanna Day, Tracy Letts, Glenn Fitzgerald, and Parker Posey in The Realistic Joneses. Photo by Joan Marcus.