WE DID IT!
Dear Friends,
We have reached our fundraising goal for “Obit”!
Huge thanks to all of you, our supporters and friends, near and far, who have made this happen.
It’s tilting at windmills to put on a new play at a time when funding for the arts is being radically cut—and it’s incredibly heartening to see how a community of fellow travelers can keep making the arts happen in small, independent venues like Theater for the New City. TNC is producing this play, which means they are generously providing the theatre, rehearsal space, some technical equipment, front of house staff and basic marketing support. But to give the work the best possible production, even on a shoestring budget, we have had to raise funds primarily for artist fees and production costs.
If you have made a tax-deductible donation, you are an Angel.
That’s the theater term for people who invest in a production because they believe in the value of bringing people together for an event that may be exactly what they need at that particular moment, on that night, in this time.
A thousand thanks to all of you, we are blown away!
Beka
p.s. If you’ve been meaning to donate, you still can. We have budgeted carefully, but there are always unexpected expenses—like the playwright going to the copy shop to make hard copies on her way to rehearsal, dropping her coffee all over the new pages as she pushes through the subway turnstile, then having to go back and make a whole new set—without coffee!
Make a difference
$48,674.99 raised
85 donations
21 days left!
121%
Amount
Receive a signed copy of Rebecca Chace's new novel, Talking to the Wolf.
$100
Receive a signed copy of Talking to the Wolf, and a $25 gift certificate to the Strand Bookstore.
$250
Receive two tickets to opening night, September 17, 2026 and receive a signed copy of Talking to the Wolf.
$500
Receive two tickets to opening night, a signed copy of Talking to the Wolf, and a copy of the "Book of the Dead," a collection of New York Times obituaries from the paper's archives.
$1,000
Receive a limited edition print by Brooklyn artist, Ken Buhler, from his "Birdlands" series; a collaboration with Cecily Parks, and Jungle Press: https://www.kenbuhler.net/prints
$2,500
Other
0/100
Comment (optional)
The idea for Obit grew out of my side-gig writing “advance” obituaries for the New York Times. These are obits written before people die, and I sometimes interview my subjects for an obituary they will never read. In these high-stakes conversations, I found myself questioning who gets to decide who matters and who doesn’t?
The play takes place at an unspecified time in the future when most of the global infrastructure is collapsing and the internet is largely nonexistent. It is deep winter when Maya Hawthorne, an “advance” obituary writer for the New York Times, comes to interview aging college president, Philip Stern, at his house on a small campus outside of New York City. The college is shut down; wolves and feral dogs roam the grounds. While President Stern seems to personify the best of liberal arts values, he is also an art monster who hopes this interview will memorialize him in an adulatory Times obituary.
Maya has another agenda.
This is not a story about sexual assault but it is a female revenge play that raises uncomfortable questions about gender, power, and collateral damage. I also hope it gets some laughs.
I’m thrilled that Will Steinberger is directing. We have a dream cast with Richard Topol as Philip and Carolyn Holding
double-cast as Maya and Angela. The extraordinary Amy Fritz is our production consultant. We have an outstanding design and production team: Anna Grigo: Set and Costume Design. Dante Olivia Smith: Lighting Design and Production Manager. Brian Hickey: Sound Design. Abby Frye is our Stage Manager.
Theater for the New City, a legendary stronghold of the downtown theatre scene, produced my very first play, Colette, back in the 1990s, when I was a “baby-playwright." Premiering Obit at TNC feels like coming home.
I hope you will make plans to come see Obit this Fall. The play will run from September 17-October 4, 2026. Thursdays through Sundays.
with gratitude,
Rebecca
