Stephanie Barton-Farcas has a love of New York City and the nation’s multicultural vibrancy. It saddened her that so many of her beloved city and country’s people of differing backgrounds and physical abilities did not find much, if any, representation in Hollywood, Broadway, or any other mainstream arts. Stephanie viewed this as a form of silencing a great part of the American Experience, as if we were ashamed of our disabled, our non-European ethnic groups, and our citizens of mixed heritage. To celebrate the American Experience through the arts, Stephanie Barton Farcas has brought her formidable artistic vision to a theatre company in New York City with a unique mission, the Nicu's Spoon Theatre of New York City. This company features a lineup of actors and production team that reflects, speaks to, and embraces our society’s diversity in all of its hues, abilities, and histories.
Stephanie Barton-Farcas serves as the Artistic and Development Director of Nicu's Spoon. Under her artistic stewardship, the company has produced bold, socially relevant theatrical works that present new ideas, challenge definitions, and touch the heart in unexpected ways. The company celebrates the collaborative spirit in developing productions pertinent for today's “global” and rapidly changing world. It does so by drawing upon the people of New York City, a group of vastly different backgrounds, for every aspect of the theatre’s operations: casting; stage design; costuming; writing, as well as in administration. The company follows a democratic ethos, and Stephanie involves its diverse membership in decisions regarding play selection, programs, internships, artistic, production and volunteer staffs, as well as in audience outreach. The company features all types of actors, including handicapped, blind, deaf, cerebral palsied, amputees, and actors of all ages and from different ethnic backgrounds. From this glorious mix have come glorious productions. The Nicu’s Spoon Theatre puts Hollywood and much of the mainstream arts on notice: America is so much bigger, so much richer than the monochromatic people and monotone stories Hollywood and the Mainstream choose to validate. Stephanie Barton-Farcas’ work liberates the soul as well as the mind, and shows the audience just how marvelous a world of possibilities exists to consider.
Stephanie’s love of the arts and people reflects a cosmopolitan commitment to action that transcends her work in the theatre. For example, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stephanie volunteered overseas, caring for babies and children afflicted with AIDS/HIV in Romania. In a later sojourn there, she helped train Romanian women to become caregivers and surrogate mothers for these children. During the same period, she brought together a small amateur company and staged plays for the ailing children and their caretakers.
Given the furiously competitive world of theatre in New York City, and all of the commercial and career pressures –– and temptations –– this entails, Stephanie Barton-Farcas has chosen to follow her heart. Her passion and commitment helps a remarkable theatre company open its doors to people of all backgrounds and physical abilities. And from this inclusion comes the art that celebrates the American Experience in all of its glorious complexities and complexions.
To learn more about Stephanie Barton-Farcas and her cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit:
www.spoontheater.org.
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