Thirsty Turtle Productions

Thirsty Turtle Productions, Inc. is a New York City-based ensemble of young writers, directors, actors, and designers that has been working together since 2004. Thirsty Turtle has embarked on new works, revived classics, and has mounted productions of contemporary plays, always bringing their individual passions and insight to enliven text. Our mission is threefold: (1) to create and produce new and established works of theatre that are thought-provoking and that speak to the issues we find important to our world; (2) to work in a new way, forging our theatre from a collaboration of artists on equal ground, taking advantage of the best everyone has to offer and nurturing the talents of individuals to produce diverse, eclectic work reflective of the individuals who have created it; and (3) to teach, share, and pass on the importance of theatre and the powerful effect it can have on and for community by leading theatre workshops for students.

From our first production of executive director Dennis Tseng’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull, Thirsty Turtle has strived to dream up theatre in a new way, creating a theater of and by themselves. We draw from the defining characteristics of all company members and collaborators to form art as a reflection of the artists; resonating on that thin line between here and the future, here and far away, here and reality. We proceeded to create productions lauded separately as “Quite touching”, “Well worth watching” (Dan Bacalzo, TheaterMania); “Smart, political theater without becoming a polemic”, “Brilliant” (Josselyn Simpson, Time Out New York), and “Vivid and vital” (Glory Sims-Bowen, HiDrama). Thirsty Turtle members have worked with renowned artists such as Mark Wing-Davey, Stephen Earnhart, Erica Schmidt, and Edward Albee.

Thirsty Turtle, now in its fourth season, has produced six full-scale productions in various Manhattan venues; entered an original one-act into the Midtown International Theatre Festival; held three annual gala fundraisers; created an epic original photographic art project; and provided theatre workshops for visiting and local high schools. Thirsty Turtle is currently in preparations for a new adaptation of Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson and William Berney. To be directed by their new Artistic Director Ian Crawford, Dark of the Moon is at its heart a simple folk tale but through the use of music, larger-than-life puppets, and an ensemble-based process, they will explore the role of the Other in society, the balance of religion and religious fundamentalism, and the place of sex and sexuality in America today.