TWEED TheaterWorks, also known as TWEED, Tweed Ensemble, and theatretweed among others, is an experimental theatre company founded in 1983 known mostly for its Fractured Classicks series; spoofs of classic American plays and films that employ unique casting choices, as well as its critically acclaimed productions featuring drag icon Lypsinka.
TWEED TheaterWork's mission statement is stated as:
"TWEED unearth's raw, yet sophisticated, socially relevant artists and material and ushers them to the threshold of acceptability (and often beyond) to cast an irreverent mirror on contemporary culture".
TWEED has been led by its Artistic Director Kevin Malony since the company's founding. Originally intended as a platform for actors to present adaptations from literature and agent showcases, TWEED and Malony rapidly became a part of the thriving early 80s art movement in Manhattan's East Village. The TWEED New Works Festival (1985-1995) presented the early work of many of today's recognized theater artists, including Bill Russell, Lisa Kron, John (Lypsinka) Epperson and John Kelly.
The dancer and choreographer John O'Malley choreographed pieces for TWEED such as "Hotel Martinique" and "Atomic Opera".
Reviewing "The Mailman Always..." in 2002, Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times wrote that the show, part of Tweed's "Fractured Classicks" series, was a "ribald parody" of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). The leading women are played by a man in drag, Jeffery Roberson, who "has the Lana [Turner] look pegged pretty definitively, including the legs". Genzlinger describes the show as "simply hilarious -- a terrific, if indescribable, bit of staging".