Open House

The Foundry Theatre presents Open House, by Aaron Landsman, in 24 homes across New York City. Melanie Joseph directs.

Open House is a small play about the big city: small enough to be performed in living rooms across the five boroughs of New York, and big enough to ask how we live in our cities now and into the future.

Staged almost entirely on a couch for audiences of 10 – 60, and set against the backdrop of rising rents, the turbo gentrification of neighborhoods, and the increasing insecurity of life in urban centers, this 70-minute play follows two narratives: a strange, slightly haunting presentation by a real estate salesman named Three; and the story of Rick and Jane, a young couple trying to figure out how to sustain a relationship, start a family and exist as active members of a city that is changing at warp speed.

Open House incorporates aspects of each place in which it is performed. Landsman, Joseph and The Foundry have consulted each host to tailor the script, staging and producing particularities to the apartment and its neighborhood.

Performance locations will include Manhattan’s East Village, Museum Mile, Peter Cooper Village, Tribeca, Hell’s Kitchen, Wall Street, the West Village and Harlem; in Brooklyn in North Williamsburg, Bensonhurst, Bushwick, Cobble Hill, Greenpoint, South Williamsburg, Park Slope and DUMBO; in Queens in Jackson Heights, Long Island City, Jamaica and Astoria; and in the Bronx in Mott Haven and Kingsbridge and in the New Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island.