“As a theater maker and a storyteller, and actor, and artist, to me the stories that are worth telling, and the reasons I do what I do, and the only reason I do it, is because I am interested in touching the human and in making connection with the human.“

Elise Stone

“I have been privileged in my career in always working with a resident company which afforded me tremendous opportunities. And with those tremendous opportunities is also a sense of responsibility and accountability to people who are not working.  I was always working, I was always doing another play, and I took advantage of that.  The body of work is huge, 200-300 different plays. Thousands of performances.  And with that comes responsibility” 

Craig Smith

Elise Stone and Craig Smith are theater artists whose lives and careers are inseparable from the idea of company—its discipline, generosity, and responsibility to both artists and audiences.

Both were members of the Jean Cocteau Repertory, one of the few true resident theater companies in New York City during the 1970s and beyond. Founded in 1971 by Eve Adamson, the Cocteau began in a storefront at 43 Bond Street before moving to the Bouwerie Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway’s historic home originally established in 1963 by Honey Waldman and Bruce Becker. The Cocteau became a crucible for classical and contemporary work, distinguished by its repertory system and by the sheer volume of work it demanded and enabled.

Craig Smith joined the company in 1972, Elise Stone in 1985. Between them, they performed hundreds of different plays in thousands of performances, cycling continuously through the great roles of the classical canon—opportunities rarely available in an American theater culture where most actors must balance survival jobs with sporadic artistic work. Smith also took on administrative responsibilities, deepening his understanding of the obligations that accompany sustained artistic opportunity.

While committed to classical theater, the Cocteau actively championed living playwrights, including Tennessee Williams, Robert Patrick, and later for Phoenix Theatre Ensemble Glyn Maxwell. Smith developed a close professional relationship with Williams, appearing in two world premieres directed by Eve Adamson: Something Cloudy, Something Clear, a biographical portrait, and Church, Kitchen, Children (Kirche, Küche und Kinder), a futuristic meditation on Williams’s life and work. Smith later advocated for playwright Robert Patrick—whom he felt was undervalued—resulting in Phoenix Theatre Ensemble’s production of JUDAS in 2018.

Stone, who joined the Cocteau just after Williams’s tenure, brought Olivier Nominated playwright Glyn Maxwell into Phoenix Theatre Ensemble as a resident playwright, continuing the company’s commitment to living voices alongside the classics. Stone and Smith were married on the Cocteau stage on a Monday night in 1989, a testament to a life lived quite literally in the theater.

In 2004, Stone and Smith—along with several collaborators—founded Phoenix Theatre Ensemble (PTE), carrying forward the repertory ethos and ensemble values forged at the Cocteau. Under Stone’s leadership as Artistic Director, PTE has received numerous awards and remains committed to three guiding principles: Artistic Excellence, Company, and Community.

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble’s work extends beyond production to public service initiatives, including: new adaptations of classical text, arts-in-education programs in public schools and storytelling programs designed to mitigate isolation and loneliness among senior populations

In 2018, Stone and Smith relocated to Nyack, New York, expanding Phoenix’s mission to operate fully in both New York City and the Hudson Valley. This expansion includes an annual Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack, presented in partnership with the Village of Nyack, Rockland County, and local business owners. The festival activates non-traditional venues—bars, parks, shops, community rooms—curating each performance specifically for its space.

Work developed in Nyack travels to Manhattan; work nurtured in Manhattan finds new life in Nyack. This cross-pollination, unexpected at first, has become a sustaining source of creative energy.

Across decades of work—spanning Beckett, Brecht, Pirandello, Williams, Friel, Orton, Pinter, and beyond—Stone and Smith have remained steadfast in a belief forged early in their careers: that sustained opportunity carries obligation, and that theater, at its best, is an act of human connection.

Selected work for Elise Stone includes: MARY STUART (1992), LULU (1993), MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN (1996), SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR (1996), MEDEA (2000), SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS (2001), BROKEN JOURNEY (2005), I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA  (2008), THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI (2016),  ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE  (2017).  Selected work for Craig Smith includes: THE MAN WHO MARRIED A DUMB WIFE  (1972), ENDGAME  (1972), WAITING FOR GODOT (1973),  THE CENCI  (1977 & 1993),  IN THE BAR OF THE TOKYO HOTEL  (1976),  THE CARETAKER (1977), CHURCH, KITCHEN, CHILDREN (KIRCHE, KUTCHEN UND KINDER) (1978), SOMETHING CLOUDY, SOMETHING CLEAR (1981), WOYZECK  (1991),  ENTERTAING MR. SLOANE (2016), TARTUFFE (2017), JUDAS (2018), and THE CULT PLAY  (2018).  The company won many awards including an Obie and a Drama Desk Award for a Unique Theatrical Experience for PERICLES in 1981.