Paul Bargetto was a Producer and Curator for the 2009 Free Night of Theater program and special events. Free Night of Theater was a program initiated by Theater Communications Group (TCG) to promote theater in numerous cities across the United States by giving away free theater tickets from participating theaters.
For the New York premiere of Free Night a huge outdoor event was planned to be held in Union Square but due to bad weather, the event had to be moved indoors to the nearby Union Square theater. The event featured speeches, storytelling and performances from many important artists and politicians including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, New York City Councilman Domenic Recchia, the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Kate Levin, New York State Council on the Arts Programs Director Robert Zukerman, Alliance of Resident Theaters New York Executive Director Ginny Louloudes, Theater Communications Group Director Teresa Eyring, Theater Development Fund Director Victoria Bailey, and the artists Judith Malina, Eric Bogosian, Mike Daisy, Kathleen Chalfant, Dean Moss, Cynthia Hopkins, and important directors including Oskar Eustis of the Public Theatre, and Mark Russell of Under the Radar. The program was also made with many fantastic volunteers from T.C.G.
The New York version of this project was supported by The Alliance of Resident Theaters New York (ART/NY), The Arts and Business Council of New York, The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), The Theatre Development Fund (TDF) and The League of Independent Theater.
The project gave away thousands of Free Tickets in the month of October and hosted special events with elected officials a fashion show of costumes from the TDF Costume Collection curated and produced by Paul Bargetto. The project was produced with Jennifer Conley Darling, Theater Communications Group, and Second Bolt Productions. The photographs below were taken by Piotr Redlinski.
Paul Bargetto 