The Pool 2020 is a pop-up theater company producing three volcanic new plays in rep in New York at the New Ohio Theatre in the fall of 2020.  Our artist-led production model puts playwrights at the helm of their processes and brings theater about the current American moment to life with integrity and immediacy. 

​Playwrights Kate Cortesi, Brenda Withers and Emily Zemba inherited this model from The Pool's visionary founders, Susan Bernfield, Lynn Rosen, and Peter Gil-Sheridan, who produced their own plays at The Flea. Once our shows are over, we'll pass the company on to another trio of intrepid playwrights. Get it? We're not just producing plays. We're creating and perpetuating a viable model of artist-led theater production. Our audience base, producing expertise, and brand will be inherited and augmented by each subsequent generation of Pool Playwrights.

At a time when world events have wreaked unprecedented cancellations and uncertainty, The Pool offers a nimble play production model with zero overhead, placing agency and resources directly into the hands of working theater artists. Kate, Brenda, and Emily are thrilled to be the next iteration of a producing model whereby artists of all backgrounds combine practical action and artistic freedom to bring our work to audiences on our own terms.