ABOUT US

The New Haarlem Arts Theatre's objective is to establish a professional theater uptown that will rank among the best in the country and to produce bold theatrical works that express the true history, culture, and diversity of America.

A management team headed by Eugene Nesmith, founding Artistic Director, has been formed to build and sustain a vibrant cultural institution in partnership with CCNY that will offer a home for the best emerging modern theater imaginable. In this new theater company, emerging professional actors from the CCNY community will work alongside the most daring, imaginative, and creative artists in their field on a high professional level.

NHAT will serve as a community anchor with the capacity to unite students and local residents in a range of programming that will address the professional and educational aspirations of the unique and culturally essential neighborhood that is Harlem. Productions will encourage artistic freedom, risk taking and bold experimentation with theatrical forms. NHAT also aims to attract audiences from around the city to Harlem again.

EUGENE NESMITH is the Founding Artistic Director of The New Haarlem Arts Theatre and the Chair of CCNY's Theatre Department. Mr. Nesmith approaches this new cultural entity with over 25 years of experience in professional theatre as an actor, director and educator, and with a passion to bring great live performance to the community of Harlem. For years he was a member of New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects Group. He was selected to be a member of Lincoln Center’s first Directors Lab. Most recently, he was selected to be a member of ATHE’s Theatre Leadership Institute. Mr. Nesmith has directed various productions at regional theatres and Off Off-Broadway theaters in New York City. He has published critical essays in The Village Voice and in such scholarly journals as Yale Theater, American Theatre Magazine, and Black Theatre News, to name a few. His critical writings can also be found in such book length projects as "A Source Book on Black Performance," edited by Anna Marie Bean, and "Black Comedy," edited by Pamela Faith Jackson. Mr. Nesmith has also been a judge for The Village Voice Obie Awards and a panelist for the Theater Grants and Policy Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. Most recently, he served as a speaker and interviewed James Earl Jones at the International Indian Diaspora Film Festival in New York City. As an actor he has performed in various roles Off Broadway and in Regional Theaters, in such roles as Brutus in "Julius Caesar" with Shakespeare and Company, Aaron in "Titus Andronicus" with Target Margin Theater and Baylen in "Glenn Garry Glen Ross" for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. In 1993, Mr. Nesmith was co-founder with Victoria Norman of The African-American Theatre Program at the University of Louisville.

Mr. Nesmith directed NHAT's debut production, "Blues for MIster Charlie" by James Baldwin.

ALFRED PREISSER (Director, It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues) has helmed over forty professional productions in New York and regionally. He was Founding Artistic Director of The Classical Theatre of Harlem, where he created a wide and distinguished body of work noted for its physicality, originality, and use of music and dance. Highlights include "Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe" with André De Shields (four Audelcos), "Ain´t Supposed To Die a Natural Death" by Melvin Van Peebles (seven Audelcos) and "King Lear" with André De Shields, which opened the 75th Anniversary season at The Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. in 2006. He has created critically acclaimed original adaptations of "Medea," "The Trojan Women" and "Electra." Other productions in New York include "Macbeth," which toured Germany in 2004, "Hamlet," "Day of Absence," "Dream on Monkey Mountan," "Romeo and Juliet" and the recent (and unlikely) hit, "The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller" by Jeff Cohen. He was Director of the Theatre Department at The Harlem School of the Arts from 1999-2007 and many of his students are now enjoying successful professional careers. His work has been recognized with the American Theatre Wing Award (Outstanding Artistic Achievement), Drama Desk Award (Artistic Achievement), Edwin Booth Award (Outstanding Contribution to NYC Theater), Lucille Lortel Award (Outstanding Body of Work), two Obie Awards (Sustained Achievement and Excellence in Theatre) and numerous Audelco Awards. (www.alfredpreisser.com)

Press Contact: Jonathan Slaff & Associates

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OF OUR FIRST SEASON