Eric Bentley's "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been" Begins Limited Off-Broadway Run

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The production, directed by Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro, will run for 15 this summer.

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Tickets are now available for a new production of Eric Bentley ’s 1972 play, Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been, beginning a limited 15-week engagement at New York City Center Stage (i) on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

This summer, in a strictly limited engagement, a rotating cast will come together for a timely revival of Eric Bentley 's Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been. This docudrama drops you into the tense world of the 1940s House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings, where fame offered no protection and political pressure could end a career.

Using only the original transcripts, the play features the words of artists like Arthur Miller , Jerome Robbins , Paul Robeson , Elia Kazan , Lillian Hellman , Abe Burrows , and Lionel Stander as they faced impossible choices: defend their integrity, protect their careers, or betray their peers. And yet the probing, chilling questions posed by the committee are as powerful as the testimonies themselves, revealing a climate of intimidation and moral conflict that resonates far beyond its time.

Begins June 2nd at New York City Center Stage 1 for 15 weeks only. The production will be directed by Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro (Eureka Day, The Minutes, August: Osage County, The Motherf**ker with the Hat) and feature a rotating cast of artists throughout its run. Casting to be announced soon.

The design team for this production includes Andrew Boyce (Scenic Designer), Johanna Pan ( Costume Designer ), Donald Holder (Lighting Designer), Milbo Music (Sound Designer), and Brittany Bland (Projections Designer).

Throughout his career, Bentley wrote extensively on drama and performance with influential works including the landmark 1946 book The Playwright as Thinker, which helped define modern theater criticism.

Among the other figures portrayed in Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been are film actor Larry Parks ; director Sam G. Wood; filmmakers and Hollywood Ten members Edward Dmytryk and Ring Lardner , Jr.; screen star Sterling Hayden; acclaimed stage and screen actor José Ferrer; screenwriter Martin Berkeley ; Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Robert Rossen ; labor organizer Tony Kraber ; film director Frank Tuttle; actor and radio performer Nicholas Bela; stage and screen actor Elliott Sullivan ; and character actor Marc Lawrence . Drawn from across film, theatre, radio, and music, these artists represent a cross-section of mid-century American entertainment at the height of the Hollywood studio era.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Eric-Bentleys-ARE-YOU-NOW-OR-HAVE-YOU-EVER-BEEN-to-Have-Off-Broadway-Run-20260512)._