American Theatre - Switching Identities

AMERICAN THEATRE
JULY 2007

Exchanging Identities
by Nicole Estvanik

NEW YORK CITY: A new company, the Exchange, has risen from the ashes of the Jean Cocteau Repertory. The classics-driven downtown mainstay's lost its Bowery home doubled and a last-ditch merger with Louisiana's EgoPo Productions stalled at the gate. Five Cocteau trust-ees, led by Peter Finn, announced it would con- tinue its existence-with a new name, a new artistic director (An Edelson) and a new nomadic lifestyle.

Edelson's entry into the picture in January came not from past involvement with the Cocteau (the 30-year-old director confesses he has seen only one of its shows) but with its board members, some of whom are donors to the developmental retreat Edelson founded in 2005, the Orchard Project in upstate New York.

If Cocteau Rep was seen by some as an island unto itself in New York theatre, then the Exchange attempts to be a conduit- looking, as the new mission statement has it, for "ways to invite the best storytellers from outside our theatrical fold in." Edelson's work running the Old Vic's New Voices international program and past directing projects-such as this year's U.S. premiere of a contemporary Japanese script, The Attic, for New York's Play Company- are in line with this goal.

The Exchange's debut productions, both U.K. imports, ran in repertory in April and May: Jump!, by Lisa McGee, and Realism, by Anthony Neilson. The young audiences these shows attracted will likely be interested in prospective co-productions that are now percolating via the Orchard Project, such as Neil Strauss's notorious seduction manual The Game, tentatively projected for an autumn staging.

The New Cocteau it's not (that proposed name was shot down). Why reference the defunct company at all? Edelson says the nonprofit's stewards wanted to honor its existing relationships, assets and financial obligations.

In maintaining a connection to its predecessor, however tenuous, the Exchange has one additional advantage: publicity. The troubles that plagued the Cocteau at the end of its history created a certain buzz, and many publications-including this one-have had an ear cocked to find out how the story would end. What more captivating finale than an utterly fresh beginning? Visit www.exchangenyc.org.