History

Theater 808 is a new company with a rich history. We are proud to be boldly emerging onto New York’s theater scene, bringing audiences the purest and most provocative interpretations of classic, contemporary, and new theater. Over the past few years we have helped to produce three critically acclaimed Off-Broadway shows – Ingmar Bergman’s Nora, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and S.N. Behrman’s Biography. These shows were hailed as “delightful”, “delicious” and “strikingly staged,” making for “an edge-of-the seat evening of theater.” Such thrilling endeavors inspired us to come together as a company to continue to bring “riveting, indelible and must be seen” theater to the New York stage.

All of the group’s founding members first met while studying with renowned acting teacher, Fred Kareman. With a teaching career spanning four decades, Fred spent twenty-five of those guiding and inspiring his students within the walls of studio 808 located in Carnegie Hall. Over the course of years of study, many of Mr. Kareman’s students had the opportunity to work with his wife, director Pamela Moller Kareman at the critically acclaimed Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, NY where she is currently serving her twelfth year as artistic director.

Theater 808 production of Nora
In February 2006, Ms. Moller Kareman directed Test Pilot Productions’s staging of Nora, Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”. Carey Macaleer, a former student of Fred Kareman, and her husband, Joshua Coleman, founded Test Pilot. With Ms. Macaleer starring in the title role, Nora enjoyed an impressive Off-Broadway run at the Arclight Theater in Manhattan. It then transferred to the Schoolhouse to successfully complete the theater’s 2006 season. This collaboration proved significant as it set the stage for what was later to become Theater 808.

In January 2007, shortly after closing a critically hailed production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at the Schoolhouse, director Pamela Moller Kareman and lead actors Simon MacLean, Sherry Stregack, Cheryl Orsini, Sarah Jenkins and Kevin Albert decided to move the production Off-Broadway.

Theater 808 and Mare Nostrum Elements Present The Crucible in Association with The Schoolhouse Theater
Mr. Albert and his partner Nicola Iervasi offered their production company, Mare Nostrum Elements, as a vehicle through which all of the producers could work. Utilizing the familiar stage of the Arclight Theater, the production was met with tremendous praise from New York audiences and critics alike.

After a brief hiatus, the group came together again in the winter of 2008 to discuss the possibility of officially forming a company. With Kevin Albert already managing Mare Nostrum Elements, there was room for another founding member. Upon hearing this Carey Macaleer and Josh Coleman generously donated Test Pilot Productions to serve as the group’s not-for–profit. The founding members formed a Board of Directors and brought on Quinn Cassavale, a colleague and former student of Fred Kareman. A new name was given and Theater 808 was born.

Theater 808 is also deeply committed to supporting other not-for-profits in the New York City community. This season with your help we supported the Theater Development Fund (TDF) with a December benefit performance of Biography, followed by a reception. Half of all proceeds from the night went to TDF’s Open Doors mentoring program.

The Teacher: Fred Kareman
Fred Kareman at work at the Studio
Photo: Keith Barber

Fred Kareman was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey. As a teenager, a friend persuaded him to skip school one day and go to New York City to see a matinee performance of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. From that point on, Kareman dedicated himself to the art of acting, going on to study with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse where his classmates included Steve McQueen.

Kareman acted in The Skin of Our Teeth, A Cook for Mr. General and The Time of Your Life on Broadway as well as several plays Off-Broadway. Television credits include The Hallmark Hall of Fame, Operation Petticoat, and Charlie’s Angels. He also appeared in a number of films.

Kareman’s career as a teacher began as many do – as a solid character actor devoted to the craft but one who needed something more to help navigate the vagaries of an unforgiving profession. After a proposed play with Renee Taylor failed to materialize, Kareman went to see his teacher and mentor, Meisner, who suggested that he teach. That was in the late ’60s, and Kareman taught regularly from that point until his last class on December 15, 2006.

Among his many students was Frederic F. Forrest, an Academy Award nominee who appeared in The Rose and Apocalypse Now, who wrote:

“Freddie was so sensitive and receptive. He freed people from their insecurities, anxieties, and fears through his enormous generosity of spirit and love. He made you see all possibilities in life.”

Robert LuPone, a Broadway veteran and the dean of the graduate drama program at the New School for Social Research, said he went to study with Kareman about ten years ago because he had become bored with the craft.

“He awakened and reinvigorated me as an actor,” LuPone said. “There are very few teachers – and Freddie is one of them – where class is perfection.”

Over the course of his long career Kareman trained many actors including Mary Steenburgen and Marisa Tomei (who both went on to win Oscars), Maria Bello, Grant Shaud, and Hugh Panaro.

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