Since the beginning of the pandemic, Theater in Quarantine (TiQ) has developed and livestreamed dozens of visually distinctive, original performances from an eight-square-foot closet in the East Village. Hailed as one of the most consistent and imaginative makers of digital performance, this Drama League Award–winning company has worked with over 100 remote collaborators, been profiled on NPR and in The New York Times, and has reached audiences around the globe. Now, for the first time in its history, Theater in Quarantine will perform live for an in-person audience, bringing the closet to the stage at the Library for the Performing Arts. Get a behind-the-scenes view of how TiQ makes digital magic, as co-creative directors Joshua William Gelb and Katie Rose McLaughlin perform old favorites as well as a world premiere.

“Virtuosic… The closet has produced some of the new medium’s most imaginative work.” — Jess Green, The New York Times

“Makes confinement a virtue, a prompt to imagination.” — Helen Shaw, New York Magazine

Bios:

Joshua William Gelb is an East Village-based director, performer, and librettist currently building theater out of his converted closet christened the Theater in Quarantine. On its YouTube channel, Theater in Quarantine has presented nearly 20 different evenings of live digital performance with institutional supporters LaMama, CultureHub, Theater Mitu, and The Invisible Dog, as well as “a New York rogue’s gallery of experimental makers and designers” (Helen Shaw, Vulture). Prior to the pandemic, Gelb created both Jazz Singer and The Black Crook in residence at Abrons Arts Center, while his Drama Desk-nominated adaptation of A Hunger Artist, created with Sinking Ship, continues to tour. Gelb participated in the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, is an associate artist with Sinking Ship, teaches Theater Collaboration at Cooper Union, and is a 2021 artist in residence at LaMama and CultureHub’s Experiments in Digital Storytelling program.

Katie Rose McLaughlin is an NYC-based choreographer and director originally from Minneapolis, MN. Katie Rose is the Associate Choreographer of the Tony award-winning Broadway show Hadestown directed by Rachel Chavkin and choreographed by David Neumann. Recently she has been creating work as the co-Creative Director for Theater in Quarantine which has produced over 20 different evenings of work. Notable theater credits include Orlando (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Indecent (Weston Playhouse), Bear Slayer (Ars Nova), Triplight (Joes Pub), SEAGULLMACHINE (La Mama ETC), and The Black Crook (Abrons Arts Center). She was an artist-in-residence at LMCC’s Process Space, Dance Lab New York, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, the Barn Arts Collective, and LMCC’s SPARC program and is a 2021 artist-in-residence at La Mama and CultureHub’s Experiments in Digital Storytelling program. In 2013, she co-founded and became the Artistic Director of Designated Movement Co., a dance/theater company interested in blurring the lines between forms. Visit Katierosemclaughlin.com for more information.

About Theater in Quarantine

Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic closed all theaters, Joshua William Gelb transformed a 2’ x 4’ x 8’ closet inside his East Village apartment into a white-box theater. Starting on March 27, Gelb and his collaborators began releasing pre-recorded studies in movement, clown, camera orientation, and perspective, building towards more complex theatrical experiences. On April 23, they premiered Theater in Quarantine’s first live-stream performance: an adaptation of Kafka’s The Neighbor which was followed by an unauthorized edit of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and collaborations with artists like Scott R. Sheppard (Underground Railroad Game), Nehemiah Luckett (Jazz Singer), and Ellen Winter (36 Questions).

Theater in Quarantine’s productions of The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy and Footnote for the End of Time were met with critical acclaim. Jesse Green in his New York Times critic’s pick review declared that Theater in Quarantine has produced “some of the new medium’s most imaginative work from some of its simplest materials.” Theater in Quarantine’s first musical, I Am Sending You the Sacred Face, by Obie award-winner Heather Cristian was one of Vulture‘s Best Theater Moments of 2020.

Additional works include Mute Swan by Pulitzer-prize finalist Madeleine George, The New York Times critic’s pick production of Blood Meal by Obie award-winner Scott R. Sheppard, The New York Times critic’s pick production of Honestly Sincere by Liza Birkenmeier, and a new centennial adaptation of Tristan Tzara’s The Gas Heart.

The complete archive of original works by Theater in Quarantine is available for free at www.youtube.com/theaterinquarantine. Please visit www.theaterinquarantine.com for more information.