The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit professional theatre company that was co-founded by Christopher McElroen and Alfred Preisser in February of 1999.
The impetus for the company grew out of the success of a Shakespeare workshop they taught at the Harlem School of the Arts in the fall of 1998. The undertaking quickly became a labor of love as they joined forces with beginning and experienced actors, nascent and long-term theater professionals, supportive community residents, and poured 80 hours of work each week and every spare dime into building a full-fledged professional theatre company.
The Mission of CTH is:
- To maintain a professional theatre company dedicated to returning the “classics” to the stages of Harlem;
- To create employment and educational outreach opportunities in the theatre arts;
- To create and nurture a new, young, and culturally diverse audience for the “classics”; and
- To heighten the awareness of theatre and of great art in Harlem.
Since its founding in 1999, CTH has presented twenty seven productions that have included numerous works by Shakespeare, August Wilson’s, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Euripidies’, Medea and Trojan Women, a new stage adaptation of Richard Wright’s, Native Son, Derek Walcott's, Dream on Monkey Mountain, Melvin Van Peebles' Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death and the company’s most striking success, Jean Genet’s seminal political drama, The Blacks: A Clown Show, which received four 2003 OBIE Awards.
Awards & Nominations:
- 2007 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work
- 3 - 2006 Lucille Lortel nominations for Funnyhouse of a Negro
- 2005 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Musical Revival, Ain't Supposed To Die
- 2004 Drama Desk Award for Artistic Excellence
- 2004 Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress, Trojan Women
- 2004 Edwin Booth Award for Artistic Excellence
- CTH named "1 of 8 Theatres to Watch in America" by The Drama League
- 2001 OBIE Award for Artistic Excellence
- 4 - 2003 OBIE Awards for CTH's production of The Blacks: A Clown Show
- 12 - AUDELCO Awards for excellence in Black Theatre
- 77 AUDELCO nominations for excellence in Black Theatre
It is CTH’s vision to create the next great American theatre company whose value to its community is inherent and essential, a company that is engaged in producing theatre that has the capacity to change lives and truly reflects the diversity of ideas and racial tapestry that is New York City.
“That giant-killer of a company,
the Classical Theater of Harlem
is a troupe that makes a habit of locating the most challenging works in the canon and knocking
them off as if with a slingshot.”
- The New York Times
"The Classical Theatre of Harlem,
a company that has the youngest, most diverse audiences in town, takes nontraditional casting to a new level, and is putting on rarely performed but remarkably powerful work."
- New York Magazine
"If there is a more dauntless ensemble in New York than the Classical Theater of Harlem,
I don't know what it is."
- The New York Times
“Three adventurous productions this year put it on the map as a company to follow and relish.”
- The New York Times
"The Classical Theater of Harlem has become one of the most consistently intelligent and dramatically compelling companies in New York City. The founders, Alfred Preisser and Christopher McElroen, direct timeless dramas by paying respect both to their playwrights— Euripides, Shakespeare, Ionesco—and to their audience—African-Americans, New Yorkers, Americans, human beings."
- NYTheatre.com
