The website for Rake Theater has been discontinued (not for lack of love, but for a gentle reorganizing… I have digital sprawl). Some of the content can be found now here.

What was Rake Theater?

Rake was founded as a producing organization in New York City in February 2006. In the inaugural season, the group produced a show at the Midtown International Theater Festival and presented the sell-out hit Oedipus for Kids! at the New York Musical Theater Festival.

The mission of the organization at time of founding (and still to this day) is to support both the creative development of dramatic literature and the people involved in that process. We encourage new works, but also place considerable attention on the classics. We value adaptation and re-vision as art forms independent from their sources. We welcome the juxtaposition of traditional theatrics and modern technology, always hoping to explore new ways for the body to access words on a page.

This entity has no physical location and its friends and supporters continue to work and thrive all over the country. Rake Theater continues to function as an umbrella for productions.

The name itself–Rake–has a trio of interpretations. First, in technical theater, a raked stage is a slanted or angled stage. In theater history, the character of the “rake” in Restoration comedies was a charming guy usually up to no good. Finally, as a regular, everyday tool, a rake is an implement used to gather or collect small objects. It’s a gathering of all sorts of ideas and collecting them in one slanted, irreverent place.