Malaparte was an American

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

theater company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

History

While driving cross-country in 1991, actors

Josh Hamilton Joshua Holt Hamilton (born May 21, 1981) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from to , most prominently as a member of the Texas Rangers teams that won two consecutive Americ ...

and

Ethan Hawke Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...

and playwright

Jonathan Marc Sherman Jonathan Marc Sherman (born October 10, 1968) is a contemporary American playwright, poet, and actor. He submitted plays for several years to Young Playwrights Inc.'s National Playwrights Competition before they did a staged reading of his one-a ...

decided to form a theater company. Actors

Robert Sean Leonard Robert Lawrence Leonard (born February 28, 1969), known by his stage name Robert Sean Leonard, is an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. James Wilson in the television series ''House'' (2004–2012) and Neil Perry in the film ''Dea ...

Frank Whaley Frank Joseph Whaley (born July 20, 1963) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and comedian. His roles include Brett in ''Pulp Fiction'', Robby Krieger in ''The Doors'', young Archie "Moonlight" Graham in ''Field of Dreams'', and Guy ...

, and

Steve Zahn Steven James Zahn (; born November 13, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. His film roles include ''Reality Bites'' (1994), ''That Thing You Do!'' (1996), ''Stuart Little'' (1999), '' Shattered Glass'' (2003), ''Sahara'' (2005), '' Chicken Li ...

joined the fledgling enterprise, which Hawke named after an obscure novel.Sternbergh, Adam (January 31, 2010)
"The Ethan Hawke Actors Studio,"
''

''. Retrieved September 16, 2017. Leonard later explained, "We would be sitting around New York a lot, and we bowled a lot, and eventually we thought, 'When we're not doing anything, why don't we see if we can put some new plays on?'"Rousuck, J. Wynn (March 16, 1997)
"Model Role Actor,"
''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

''. Retrieved September 16, 2017. Malaparte's first production was a new translation of

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...

's 1918 play '' A Joke'' starring Hamilton, Hawke, Sherman,

Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...

, and

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

, which ran from October 9–31, 1992. The company operated for three seasons in the 1990s as the members juggled film and television work; there were often disputes over fundraising, casting, and play selection. Shows were performed in rented venues throughout Manhattan, with a flat $10 ticket price. In 1992,

Jason Blum Jason Ferus Blum "Jason Ferus Blum was born in LA in 1969 to Shirley Neilsen, an art professor, and Irving Blum, an art dealer" (; born 1969) is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, whic ...

joined Malaparte as co-producing director with Ami Armstrong who had been running the office out of her home apartment. Blum personally hawked fliers in Times Square, shouting, "Don't go see some Broadway show! Come see a new play by an American playwright!" ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' critic

Hilton Als Hilton Als (born 1960) is an American writer and theater critic. He is a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University and a staff writer and theater critic for ''The New Yor ...

wrote that the Malaparte collective "brought a new take on male anxiety to the American theatre, and was not embarrassed by its love of women, or its romanticism." Malaparte officially dissolved in 2000, in part because the members wanted to devote more time to their children. In 2005, Hawke referred to the company's heyday as "pretty much the most thrilling period of my life".Bacalzo, Dan (January 3, 2005)
"Flying High,"
TheaterMania.com. Retrieved September 16, 2017.

Productions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malaparte (Theater Company) Defunct organizations based in New York City Non-profit organizations based in New York City Culture of New York City Arts organizations established in 1991 Arts organizations disestablished in 2000 1991 establishments in New York City 2000 disestablishments in New York (state) Defunct Theatre companies in New York City