The National Theater of the United States of America, performance at FAST FORWARD: Imagining the Future, ISPA's 62nd Annual Congress, in New York City on January 12-14, 2010.  View the full Schedule of Events.

The National Theater of the United States of America

The National Theater of the United States of America (NTUSA) is an Obie-award winning ensemble theater company based in New York City.  Using American theatrical forms as inspiration for its original works, the NTUSA creates plays that place the audience in unusual, yet somehow familiar surroundings – a Havana-style night club or on a theme park ride, for example.  And now, the NTUSA takes its audiences to the “big brown tent” of Chautauqua!.  Chautauqua! explores the theatrical and cultural tradition of the Chautauqua Circuit, an American performance and education phenomenon that flourished from 1874 to the Great Depression.  Celebrating the circuit’s spirit of bettering mankind through higher learning, Chautauqua! is a hilarious play that takes an historic look back, while reflecting on contemporary issues through the lens of the host city/venue's culture and history.  Each performance features at least two guest performers and/or lecturers from the presenting venue’s community who are integrated seamlessly into the play.  Awarded the 2007 Spalding Gray Award “honoring innovative writing and performance,” Chautauqua! is currently being presented at The Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar Festival.  “…a timely, beautiful meditation on the relationship between the arts, urbanity, community, and economics.” (The New Yorker)