Theater News

Aaron Lazar, Alysha Umphress, and More to Celebrate Sheen Center Grand Opening

The new downtown venue offers a series of inaugural events.

Broadway veteran Aaron Lazar joins the programming at the Sheen Center to celebrate its grand opening.
Broadway veteran Aaron Lazar joins the programming at the Sheen Center to celebrate its grand opening.
(© David Gordon)

The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, a new downtown cultural initiative by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York located at 18 Bleecker Street, will offer a series of events from September 14-October 4 to celebrate its upcoming grand opening. The program will explore the heights and depths of the human condition through thought and culture.

"During these three weeks, we’re thrilled to invite audiences – Catholics and non-Catholics alike – to come and discover the Sheen Center," says executive director William Spencer Reilly. "This is an absolute jewel of a space, and our opening slate of events offers a signature mix of civil discourse on important issues, with some of the fastest-rising talent in the visual and performing arts. Exploring the true, the good, and the beautiful is at the core of our mission, and the time seems so right for a new space in New York dedicated to those ideals."

The programming includes the New York Premiere of Paramount Pictures' Captive, starring Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo (Selma) and Kate Mara (House of Cards); An Evening With Jeannie and Jim Gaffigan, offering a sneak peek of upcoming episodes of the TV Land series The Jim Gaffigan Show; a performance by internationally renowned concert pianist Elaine Kwon; Step into the Light, a showcase of Broadway talent, directed by Ted Sperling, featuring Aaron Lazar (The Last Ship), Alysha Umphress (On the Town), and Analisa Leaming (On the Twentieth Century); a stage production of The Amish Project, a one-woman play about the 2006 West Nickel Mines Schoolhouse shooting; a series of panels with special guests including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York; an art walk featuring contemporary and sacred works; and more.

For a complete list of Sheen Center events, click here.