THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY STAFF


Artistic Director – Crystal Field 

OBIE Award-winning actress Crystal Field is co-founder and Artistic Director of Theater for the New City (TNC). Under her leadership, TNC has produced over 800 new plays, which have garnered a Pulitzer Prize and 43 OBIE Awards for excellence in every theatrical discipline. TNC has also nurtured the talents of Sam Shepard, Maria Irene Fornes, Romulus Linney, Richard Foreman, Lee Breuer, Miguel Piñero, Charles Busch, Moises Kaufman, Vin Diesel, Adrien Brody, Eduardo Machado, Jean-Claude van Itallie and Tim Robbins.

Ms. Field’s staunch belief in the civic necessity of theater has manifested itself in the creation of several major New York City events such as the original Village Halloween Parade, the Annual Native American Pow-Wow, and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts. Ms. Field is also the Director, Author, and Choreographer of TNC’s award-winning Annual Free Summer Street Theater Program, which tours an original musical with an integrated company of 50 through under-served neighborhoods of New York City. Ms. Field created the unique multi-disciplinary format of TNC’s Arts-in-Education Program. Ms. Field, who is a graduate of Julliard with the associate’s degree in Dance and Hunter College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy, was a member of the original Lincoln Center Company under the direction of Elia Kazan, Harold Clurman, and Robert Whitehead. She was also a member of the Judson Poets Theater and Andre Gregory’s Theater of the Living Arts. She won an OBIE Award for her performance in Arthur Sainer’s DAY OLD BREAD. Other notable performances include her work in BIRDY, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, RADIO DAYS, LITTLE CHILDREN, LAW & ORDER, and, THE RAFT, with Ed Asner. Ms. Field has received the New York Post’s Liberty Community Medal for her service to the Lower East Side and has also accepted the prestigious 2009 John H. Finley Award from the Alumni Association of City College of New York on behalf of TNC. In 2011, she also received on behalf of TNC the M. Edgar Rosenblum Award for Outstanding Dedication to Ensemble Theater, and in April of 2012, Ms. Field was an honored guest at the Festival Ibero Americano in Bogota, Colombia. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms. Field was able to keep Theater for the New City alive and well, creating a performance space for audiences on the Street.

Ms. Field has received the following awards: 2013 Ibero Americano Award, 2015 Acker Award, 2016 SEA Award for Community Leadership and 2016 Shaker Award for Excellence in Theater. In 2017, THE STEA Award for Community Leadership. In 2018, Tabula Rasa Progressive Award for Leadership in fostering values of Inclusion and Diversity in the New York City Community. In 2019 Ms. Field received the Acker Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2022, TNC received an AUDELCO award.

Click Here to e-mail Crystal.


Production Manager – Mark Marcante

Mark has been the Production Manager of TNC since 1984 and was responsible for organizing the relocation of TNC in 1986. He designed the lighting, scene shop and storage facility for the new building and is currently responsible for maintaining the facility and assisting in the technical realization of TNC’s 30 to 40 new plays per year, including set design for several TNC productions per year and the installation of scenic elements and lights for all of TNC’s Community Festivals. He is also an instructor for TNC’s Arts-in-Eduction Program. Prior to working at TNC, Mr. Marcante was the theatrical and technical consultant for the Arts Connection, visiting high schools in all five New York City boroughs to advise on the upgrading of school theater facilities, including auditorium design, lighting, public assembly, and sound.

Mr. Marcante hails from Pennsylvania and worked as the technical supervisor at the Allentown Arts Center. He was also a workshop instructor for the Youth Advocate Program in Allentown, where he developed and implemented a new treatment program for encouraging self-confidence through improvisational acting. As an actor, he has led the award-winning Annual Summer Street Theater ensemble since 1986 and played lead roles in several critically acclaimed productions at TNC.

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Managing Director – Jonathan Weber

Jonathan is the Managing Director for Theater for the New City. He served as TNC’s Marketing Director from 2002 through 2009, and as Administrative Director from 2009 through 2014. He returned to TNC in the Fall of 2018. From 2014 to 2018, he served as Managing Director for TACT/The Actors Company Theater, an Off-Broadway Theater company in New York City.

Jonathan is in charge of the day-to-day business administration of Theater for the New City, including General Manager duties, payroll processing, and Vendor Management. In his previous stint at TNC, he created and implemented several Marketing strategies, including the creation of a formal e-mail list, a presence on multiple social media platforms, and a proper database for fundraising management. Currently, he is working closely with Executive Artistic Director Crystal Field on several strategic planning initiatives for the future of TNC.

Jonathan is also a Director and a member of SDC. He has directed over 20 productions at TNC, including 2015’s Great Kills, by Tom Diriwachter, which featured Emmy award-winning actor Joe Pantoliano in the lead role. He serves on the planning committees for TNC’s Lower East Side Festival of the Arts and Love N’ Courage Benefit. He was also Assistant Director for TNC’s Award-winning Street Theater Company for 11 years. He is a native New Yorker and lives in Manhattan with his wife, Sharon and three-year old daughter, Madeline Shea.

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Director of Operations – Alexander Bartenieff

Alexander is TNC’s Lighting Director and a member of TNC’s Board of Directors. He has performed in numerous award-winning shows. He is a leading company member and Crew Chief for TNC’s Award-winning Street Theater company. He has also been a lead teaching artist for TNC’s Afterschool Arts-In-Education program. Currently, he is TNC’s Resident Lighting Director and Designer. He has designed many shows here at TNC including Pulitzer winner Nilo Cruz’s “Sotto Voce”, and also for shows at La MaMa, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Abington Theater, and Theater Row. He has also served as the Lighting Designer for TNC’s Festivals, including the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts and the Village Halloween Costume Ball.

Alex works with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation’s Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater, where he is a lead teacher, lighting designer, and puppeteer. Alex is also the Manager and operator of TNC’s Concession stand.

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Executive Assistant – Emily Pezzella

Emily is TNC’s Executive Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator. She has a Bachelors Degree in Sociology from Queens College.  Emily handles the management of TNC’s office, including meeting and interviewing Interns and Volunteers and coordinating the rehearsal schedule for all of TNC’s productions. She gives tours of the space to prospective renters and assists TNC’s Executive Director, Crystal Field.

Emily was instrumental in expanding TNC’s e-mail list to 20,000 names. She has also served as an Assistant Director for TNC’s Award-winning Summer Street Theater tour and the annual Love N’ Courage Benefit.

Click here to e-mail Emily


Director of New Projects – Michael Scott-Price

Michael is the Director of New Projects at Theater for the New City (TNC) as well as Literary Manager.  As the Literary Manager he serves as curator of TNC’s NEW CITY, NEW BLOOD Reading Series and Scratch Night at TNC (works-in-progress). In the summer, he is Festival Director for TNC’s summer festival known as DREAM UP FESTIVAL http://www.dreamupfestival.org/. 

Michael is a director/creator and artistic director of the Asteroid B612 Theatre Company. He has written and directed productions throughout the U.S. and internationally in Canada, Ireland, and England. As a playwright, Michael’s play Lynch PLAY was selected for a performance residency at Antioch College. He has studied at the School of Physical Theatre in London, England, the Odin Teatret in Holstebro Denmark, and at ISTA in Wroclaw, Poland. Scott-Price is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab. You are welcome to send your new stage projects for (full/co) production consideration.

Click here to email Michael


Box Office Manager – Bill Bradford

Bill is the Box Office Manager for Theater for the New City. He has been Box Office Manager since 2018. He has been involved with TNC in various capacities since 1986.

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House Manager – Dan Kelley

Dan grew up in Shaker Heights Ohio, studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University and then, as his mother would say, “ran away” to New York City.

Dan was first introduced to Theater for the New City in 1980something  when he agreed to choreograph a play written by the friend of a friend. Then the Theater was one block to the West, on Second Avenue, where there is now an Urban Outfitters. That summer was the first of many that Dan spent performing with TNC’s Street Theater Company. In 1990something Dan moved along with the Theater to it’s current location and has enjoyed seeing it grow, evolve, shift and pivot to survive and to continue engaging and serving the community.

As House Manager Dan feels privileged to welcome you to TNC, to shush you in the lobby, to refill toilet paper in the bathroom, to deliver flowers backstage and to turn off the A/C at the end of the night. Bearing witness to unique and thrilling, hilarious and heartbreaking, magical and unforgettable, live theatrical moments… simply comes with the territory.

Mr. Kelley looks forward to the growth and change on the horizon for TNC, to welcoming new audiences into the Theater and to keep asking the question: If not here, at Theater for the New City… where?.

Click here to e-mail Dan.


Assistant Technical Director – Franklyn Rodriguez

Franklyn is TNC’s assistant technical director and TNC’s TikTok and Email Blast coordinator. Franklyn has board operated for many shows at TNC as well including Alberto Ferreras’ “Hamlet in Harlem”, Eduardo Machado’s “Not About Me” and, Lissa Moira’s “Who Murdered Love?”.