The Concept
“The Concept is one of those rare works that hits you square in the gut and reminds you how powerfully theater can change lives.”
The Concept is a play about the human side of drug addiction. It is performed by recovering addicts, and shows examples of people who have made wrong choices, some of the methods used in Daytop to cut through clients’ defenses against change, and the universal human needs that must be met in order to effect true change in a person’s life.
Performed for students, parents and other community groups, the play opens discussion about addiction and substance abuse prevention.
To schedule performances, please contact the Public Affairs Office at (212) 354−6000, ext. 256 or pa@daytop.org.
About the Play
The Concept was first conceived in 1968, by Lawrence Sacharow. He perceived the connection between the methods evolved at Daytop to meet the needs of its residents and the ritualized theater he had been studying in his travels. He worked the experiences of the recovering addicts into a coherent theater piece featuring those individuals as “themselves.” Director Lawrence Sacharow’s work has earned a place in theatrical history as the avant−garde pioneer of Open Theater.
The internationally acclaimed, original Concept opened at Café La Mama and ran for three years Off Broadway, then toured the U.S. and Europe performing at the Moscow Art Theatre in St. Petersburg, the United Nations and gave a command performance at the White House. In 1987, The Concept was “reinvented” by a new generation of Daytop clients and opened at the River Arts Repertory in Woodstock, New York, where Sacharow was the artistic director. It later performed at New York’s Circle in the Square. The Concept continues to perform and bring its message of hope and the human capacity to grow and change to school audiences, community organizations and Performing Arts Theaters.
About the Director
From the early 60’s, Lawrence Sacharow was an active director of Off and Off Off Broadway productions, winning an Obie Award for his production of Len Jenkins “Five of Us.” Much of his success came from an association with Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women” at the Vineyard Theater. He later revisited the biographical form with a 1999 performance piece called: “The Road Home: Stories of Children of War,” based on interviews with people who had experienced violence in Bosnia, Cambodia, troubled urban areas in the United States and elsewhere. Since 1989, he had been director of the theater program at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University and founding artistic director of the Woodstock River Arts Repertory. He directed Joanne Woodward in “The Seagull,” and also directed the only stage production of the film “Casablanca,” amongst numerous other productions at River Arts.
Lawrence Sacharow, director and pioneer of biographical theater died at the age of 68 on August 16, 2006. He will be remembered as a remarkable innovator and will continue to linger in our memories through his work.