The 20th Century Project
Excavating America’s Growth and Change
Transport Group’s unprecedented decade-long initiative, The 20th Century Project, excavates, through 10 productions of new and resurrected work, our country’s growth and change in the last one hundred years.
In 2011, in celebration of our 10th Anniversary, Transport Group launched a ten-year cycle of curated and commissioned works: The 20th Century Project. Each of the ten productions in this chronological cycle will explore the American experience and identity particular to each decade of the 20th century. We are inviting some of today’s most significant theatre artists to join us in capturing transformational moments – historical, emotional, and cultural – in recent American history. Five of the productions in this cycle will re-imagine classic American works while five additional productions will tell new stories through commissioned plays and musicals about our collective past.
Our inaugural production of this ambitious initiative, Queen of the Mist, based in 1901, premiered in the fall of 2011. Queen of the Mist told the real life story of Anna Edson Taylor who at the age of 63 became the first person to successfully go over Niagara Fall in a barrel and live. Transport Group commissioned writer/composer Michael John LaChuisa to write this explosive musical which won the Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Outstanding New off-Broadway Musical, and received seven Drama Desk Award nominations, two Lucille Lortel Award nominations, two Drama League Award Nominations, and was filmed for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive for the New York Public Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. We are proud to be introducing artists and audiences to challenging, new material and supporting the transformation of history into art.
In 2014 we produced I Remember Mama, a revival of the 1944 play that chronicles the everyday triumphs and tragedies of an immigrant family in 1910 San Francisco. Our arresting new production of John Van Druten’s sincere family drama stumbles upon unexpected urgency when this 1910 story is performed by a company of ten veteran actresses in their 70s and 80s – helmed by Drama Desk Award nominee Barbara Andres and Oscar & Tony nominee Barbara Barrie. The production inspiried a rapturous response from audiences and critics alike, becoming one of Transport Group’s highest grossing shows and garning Critic’s Pick status from New York Times & Time Out New York, as well as Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. With The 20th Century Project, Transport Group is creating a 10-production testimony for the stage chronicling American identity, decade by decade, and transforming history into art.
The most recent production in this cycle is Eugene O’Neill’s epic play, Strange Interlude, representing the 1920s. David Greenspan performed the 6-hour endeavor as a one-man tour-de-force. The production was performed at the Irondale Theatre Center in October/November, 2017.
Currently in progress, thanks in part to major support from the Marta Helfin Foundation, is our next commissioned musical by Michele Lowe and Zoe Sarnak representing the 1950s.
Commission and Producer Opportunities Available for The 20th Century Project
Would you like to be responsible for the next great American play or musical?
If you are interested in sponsoring a commission or producing a revival for The 20th Century Project, please contact our offices at info@transportgroup.org or call (212) 564-0333.
The 20th Century Project
Thus Far
