MISSION

Ripe Time, is an Obie-winning theatre company founded in 2000 and led by director and deviser Rachel Dickstein. Our collective of affiliated artists develops and presents ensemble-based theatre with rich language, visual power, and physical rigor. We tell stories from the inside out, using the language of memory and imagination to trace how womxn, trans, and non-binary change-makers negotiate identity in the face of cultural constrictions. Inspired by the most searing writing of the past and the politics of the future, we create original multidisciplinary events for the 21st century.

HISTORY and AWARDS

Since 2000, Ripe Time has created seven large-scale ensemble works that have received three Obie Awards and nominations from the Drama Desk, the Drama League and the Joe A. Calloway Award for outstanding direction. Our work has been commissioned by BAM, CTG, Annenberg Center for the Arts and presented at BAM-Fisher, the Baruch Performing Arts Center, The JCC in Manhattan, 3LD Art & Technology Center, the Ohio Theatre, PS 122, the Clark Studio at Lincoln Center, and LaMaMa, ETC, alongside residencies at the Drama League, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Ko Festival, Voice and Vision, and Watermill Center. Designs from our productions were featured in the 2015 and 2019 USITT Prague Quadrennial, an international exhibit featuring excellence in design from across the globe. Artistic Director Rachel Dickstein received the 2015 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award in honor of her work with Ripe Time.

PROCESS

The company devotes several years to the development of each piece, mounting research and development workshops, residencies, and staged workshops in preparation for the full production. Core to the development of our work is ensemble creation in which company members use improvisation of character, theme, and composition to develop the vocabulary of the work. While Ripe Time does not have a permanent ensemble, the aim is for each project to maintain a core ensemble and creative team over its development time. For example, DeLanna Studi’s first project with Ripe Time is Compass, but she has been a core writer and performer on the project since 2020 and the piece is built on and with her creative authorship. This continuity ensures that we build each

work on and with the artists making each project. Our designers are also key members of this process, developing design ideas throughout the workshop process from day 1. All artists engaged in the devising process are considered co-authors of the work.

DIALOGUE

Shape Shifting was a semi- annual salon, sponsored alongside our core projects in development, that exemplified Ripe Time's longstanding interest in creating a dialogue around issues of adaptation with other vital contemporary artists who approach this challenge in different ways. The salon series happened bi-annually from 2008-2012 at New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop and the JCC in Manhattan. Artists who have participated include Sarah Ruhl, Taylor Mac, Kia Corthron, Emily Ackerman and KJ Sanchez, Molly Rice, Brian Doerries, Ellen McLaughlin, Caridad Svich, Chiori Miyagawa and many others. Conceived by Rachel Dickstein and Emily Morse, New Dramatists' Director of Artistic Development.

In addition to this series, the company sponsored a number of Salon fundraisers with notable writers, artists and thinkers, to raise funds and awareness of issues connected to our projects. Examples of honored guests include: Jhumpa Lahiri, Alisa Solomon, Carol Gilligan, Rinde Eckert, Lola Pashalinski, Linda Chapman, Mary Gordon, and Kathleen Chalfant.