The upstairs room at the Ear Inn on Spring Street has never been open to a paying audience. From Tuesday, November 10 it is, for Class, the first production of the new Ear Out Playhouse: a two-hander by Charles Evered, directed by Jeffrey Meek, with a two-week run ending Sunday, November 22.
This is the play's New York City premiere. It runs 80 minutes. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. and the performance starts at 7 p.m., and the company is asking people to come early and look around the room before the show. The Ear Inn, at 326 Spring Street in SoHo, has been around for more than 200 years, and its upstairs has never before been used for a public theatrical production.
The play has two characters. Eric Olsson is Elliot, a well-known acting teacher who has stopped believing in the work, and Taylor Hennings is Sarah, a young actress who turns up looking for something she cannot quite put into words. Their first meeting is a standoff. It turns into a connection neither of them planned, and the line between teacher and student, and between the work and their own lives, starts to slip.
Hennings' screen credits include FBI: Most Wanted and the All Too Well short film. Olsson, seen in Law & Order: SVU and the feature Masquerade, also founded Ear Out Playhouse and is producing Class alongside Kim Waltrip and Larissa Dias.
Evered's earlier plays include Adopt a Sailor, first staged at Town Hall in 2002 and later filmed with Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote, and The Size of the World, which premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre. He has also written for television, including an episode of Monk. Ear Out Playhouse has named him its Playwright in Residence from September 2026 through June 2027, and the residency begins with this production.
Meek, an actor and director based in San Diego, has directed David Auburn's Proof and Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty, and co-wrote the Bobby Darin film Beyond the Sea.
Costumes are by Gayle Bindman, lighting by Henry Mont and sound by Paul Geluso. Chloe Chin is the stage manager, and Lisa Donadio consulted on casting.
Tickets are $70 on Eventbrite. More on the company is at earoutplayhouse.com.
