The Transversal Theater Company is a nonprofit organization of American and European artists based in Amsterdam. Founded in 2003 by Bryan Reynolds, Lonnie Alcaraz, Douglas-Scott Goheen, and a number of other artists, TTC is an experimental theater company known for creating original performance works that explore charged social, cultural, conceptual, and political realities of today through the combined social-cognitive theory, performance aesthetics, and research methodology known as Transversal Poetics. The products of this praxis or practice research approach have been various and far-reaching, including a theory of acting and design aesthetics. TTC has toured productions to festivals and other venues in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, such as to the national theaters of Poland and Romania, Armenia's HIGH FEST, Romania's National Theatre Festival, Sibiu International Performing Arts Festival, and Interferences Festival, the Gdansk International Shakespeare Festival. TTC's core members and contributing artists have included Robert Cohen, Gary Busby, Lonnie Alcaraz, Niels Horeman, Giovanni Morassutti, David Backovsky, Shira Wolfe, Laila Burane, Christopher Marshall, Saskia Polderman, Luke Cantarella, Alan Terricciano, Christa Mathis, Kayla Emerson, Karyn Lawrence, Amanda McRaven, Michael Hooker, Stan Limburg, Henk Danner, Matthias Quadekker, Babette Holtmann, Mathieu van den Berk, Erik Lint, Alex Hoffman, Sam Kolodezh, Richard Brestoff, Bob Boross, and Oscar Seip.
Notable projects by Transversal Theater Company
Unbuckled Written by Bryan Reynolds; Directors Bryan Reynolds & Jef Vowell. The Flight Theatre, Hollywood, California, July 2004; Andrei Muresanu Theatre, Sfântu-Gheorghe, Romania, June 2004; Ariel Theatre, Târgu Mureş, Romania, June 2004; The National Theatre, Cluj, Romania, June 2004; Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania, May–June 2004.
Woof, Daddy, Written by Bryan Reynolds. Director Amanda McRaven, Linhart Theater, New York City, August 2007. Director Amanda McRaven, Exit Theatre, San Francisco, September 2006. Director Eli Simon: Rampa-Teatr Na Targówku, Warsaw, Poland, April 2005; Teatr Polski-Malarnia, Poznan, Poland, April 2005; Teatr Kana, Szczecin, Poland, April 2005. Director Bryan Reynolds, Melkweg Theater, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, September 2008.
Railroad, Written by Bryan Reynolds; Director Robert Cohen: Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania, May–June 2006; The National Theatre, Cluj, Romania, May 2006. Director Bryan Reynolds, Regionteatern Blekinge-Kronoberg, Växjö, Sweden, October 2013.
Blue Shade, Written by Bryan Reynolds; Director Robert Cohen: Teatr Lalek, Wrocław, Poland, June 2007; Teatr Modjeska, Legnica, Poland, June 2007; Teatr 77, Łódź, Poland, May 2007; Divadlo DISK, Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Czech Republic, May 2007; Teatrul Mic, 17th Annual National Theatre Festival, Bucharest, Romania, November 2007. Director Bryan Reynolds, Rozentheater, Amsterdam Fringe Festival, Netherlands, September 2009; Utrecht University Theater, Netherlands, September 2009; Severins-Burg-Theater, Cologne, Germany, May 2010.
Eve's Rapture, Written by Bryan Reynolds. Director Robert Cohen, Hayworth Theatre, Los Angeles, May–June 2009.
The Green Knight, Book and Lyrics by Bryan Reynolds; Music by Michael Hooker. Director Bryan Reynolds, World Premiere, 17th Annual Festivalul International de Teatru de la Sibiu, Cisnădioara Fortress, Romania, June 2010.
Macbeth, Adapted and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, Studio-T, University College Utrecht, Netherlands, September 2010.
Romeo & Juliet, Adapted and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, Studio-T, University College Utrecht, Netherlands, September 2011.
Titus Andronicus, Adapted and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, Studio-T, University College Utrecht, Netherlands, September 2012
Fractalicious!, Written by Bryan Reynolds; Director Guy Zimmerman; Director of Film Michael Moshe Dahan; Principal actors Bryan Reynolds & Jessica Emmanuel.
Bzzap!, Directed by Bryan Reynolds; Written by Robert Cohen. University of Amsterdam Theater, Netherlands, August 2014.
Nabi Saleh, Written and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, workshop production in collaboration with the Jenin Freedom Theatre of a work-in-progress, Cinema Jenin Theatre, Palestine, March 2015.
Railroad,, Written and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, a collaboration between Transversal Theater Company and the University of Nairobi, Ed Theatre, University of Nairobi, Kenya, September 2016.
My Dinner With You, Written by Niels Horeman, Directed by Bryan Reynolds, Amsterdam Fringe Festival, part of Dutch and Flemish National Theater Festival, Roode Bioscoop Theater, September 2017.
Railroad, Written and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, European Heritage Puzzle, Erasmus+ project, European Commission, produced in conjunction with the Adolphe Saxophone International Competition, Citadelle de Dinant, Belgium, November 2019.
Railroad, Written and Directed by Bryan Reynolds, 28th Annual Festival Internazionale del Teatro Patologico, Rome, Italy, May 2020 ; winner of the Tor Vergata Award.
Transversal Acting
Transversal acting is a unique acting technique that emerged during the Transversal Theater Company's initial attempts to combine theory and practice, and continues to develop through ongoing Transversal Acting Workshops that have been taught in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. It takes as its premise that vulnerabilities, surrenders, and slippages can be more productive than control, domination, and regulation. Actors, sets, props, narratives, objects, histories, media, things, ideas, and experiences all form an interrelational dynamism. Instead of privileging experiences, identities, or narratives as the driving forces of performance and interpretation, transversal acting privileges intensity, contact, and creation.
