Sweet Pea Chamber Theater

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“This nimble young company recalls the spark and craft that inspired the great ensemble theaters.  I left the evening high as a kite, and look forward to seeing them again.”

Austin Pendleton, noted Broadway director and actor about the ensemble's first public performance of Relative Differences: Short Plays about Family and their Complications

Through sacred play, rooted in the work of Michael Chekhov, Uta Hagen, Moises Kaufman, Moshe Feldenkrais and others, we cultivate intimacy and beauty to tease out the core questions that underlie our personal and civic identities and explore them in community.
We train together like a dance company, developing original, portable work that can be performed in a variety of settings. Future projects will be developed around the urges and desires of the ensemble, in collaboration with relevant community / audiences.

Our current focus is our AIDS memorial project, Love Alone: Elegies for Rog, adapted from the poetry of Paul Monette to honour our AIDS veterans - those with HIV, caregivers, and activists. Love Alone premiered at The Tank in NYC in December 2022, and is currently preparing for a production / community storytelling event in Santa Fe, New Mexico prior to touring. For more information, please visit the production website: Theater | Love Alone - a solo play (lovealone-play.org)

About Jonah Scott Mendelsohn, Founder and Artistic Director

I've been acting, directing, and writing theater since high school. My work is rooted in the Michael Chekhov technique, and in the last 30 years I've studied with most of the major teachers of that technique as a member of the Michael Chekhov Association, including Joanna Merlin, Lenard Petit, Ragnar Freidank, Fern Sloan, Ted Pugh, Bethany Caputo, and Ulrich Meyer-Horsch. Other teachers and mentors include Austin Pendleton, Jessica Hecht, Carol Rosenfeld, Mark Nelson, Martin Moran, and Karen Kohlhaas.

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Recent roles include Stuart Gellman in the AUDELCO-award winning production of Caroline, or Change at the Astoria Performing Arts Center, the killers in Richard II with Walking the dog theater / Nikita Productions near Hudson, NY, and Jonah - a liturgical choreopoem, an original work that I wrote and performed for West End Synagogue in Manhattan. For a full resume, visit www.jonahscottmendelsohn.com