Anthony Rapp to Star in Solo Play “Touch”

Reported on Friday, February 20, 2026.

Pictured Above: Anthony Rapp. Photo Credit: David Urbank.

NEWSROOM POST: NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Written by KENNY FINKLE; Directed by JONATHAN SILVERSTEIN. Intimate Limited Run March 12-30, 2026. East Village Basement located at 321 E 9th St, New York, NY 10003

New York, NY – Anthony Rapp will star in TOUCH, a new solo play written by Kenny Finkle and directed by Jonathan Silverstein, and produced by Jack DePalma and Andrew Stein, in an intimate limited engagement from March 12 through March 30, 2026, at the East Village Basement (321 E 9th Street). The production is executive-produced by Mix and Match Productions.

Tickets will be available exclusively on the TodayTix app and website starting Wednesday, February 4th. Tickets will also be available at https://www.touchtheplaynyc.com/ starting Thursday, February 5th

In TOUCH, Rapp portrays Syd Blatter, a middle-aged gay man, failed writer, and burned-out fifth-grade teacher whose carefully managed life is thrown into chaos when an unexpected encounter with a former student sends him spiraling into anxiety, regret, desire, and reckoning. At turns intense, sharply funny, and deeply moving, the play invites audiences into a raw examination of memory, responsibility, and the unintended consequences of human connection. Intimate by design, TOUCH asks a provocative question that lingers long after the lights go down: what are the moral ramifications of everything we touch?

The creative team features Thomas Jenkeleit (Scenic and Props Design), Bart Fasbender (Sound Design), Jennifer Paar (Costume Design), Hayley Garcia Parnell (Lighting Design), and Shane Schnetzler (Stage Manager). The production team includes Jack DePalma and Andrew Stein as Producers. Mitch Marois, Maxwell Beer, and Lana Russell serve as General Managers and Executive Producers for Mix and Match Productions.

Touch is a grant recipient from the Solo Fights Project Advancement Fund and was developed in part at Theatre Aspen’s 2024 Solo Flights Festival.

Ticketing services will be provided by TodayTix. For tickets and additional information, visit https://www.touchtheplaynyc.com/

BIOS:

ANTHONY RAPP (Writer/Actor)

Anthony Rapp has been acting and singing professionally since the age of nine. He is best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Rent, for which he shared an Obie Award with the original cast, and later reprised the role in the film adaptation. His Broadway credits include You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Six Degrees of Separation, If/Then, and his Broadway debut in Precious Sons, which earned him an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination. Film credits include Adventures in Babysitting, Dazed and Confused, A Beautiful Mind, School Ties, and Six Degrees of Separation. Television appearances include The X-Files, Law & Order: SVU, Psych, and his current role as Commander Paul Stamets on Paramount+’s Star Trek: Discovery. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, and released his debut album Look Around in 2000.

KENNY FINKLE (Playwright)

Kenneth “Kenny” Finkle’s work spans traditional and nontraditional theatre and has been produced and developed nationally at institutions including American Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova, the Orchard Project, DR2 Theatre, Keen Company, Trinity Repertory, Dallas Theatre Center, The Old Globe, and The Hangar Theatre, as well as in unconventional spaces. His plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Concord Theatricals, and Smith and Kraus. TOUCH received the 2024 Project Advancement Award from Solo Flights/Theatre Aspen. He has also received grants from NYFA and the NEA for 1993, an eight-part audio epic directed by Jonathan Silverstein and produced as part of Keen Company’s Hear/Now season. Finkle received his MFA from Columbia University, is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Marymount Manhattan College and co-hosts the popular podcast All I Want to Do Is Talk About Madonna. More information can be found at finklefactory.org.

JONATHAN SILVERSTEIN (Director)

Jonathan Silverstein is an award-winning director and producer. As Artistic Director of Keen Company from 2012 to 2025, he produced and directed acclaimed productions including All the World’s a Stage by Adam Gwon (Off Broadway Alliance Award Best New Musical), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (starring Kathleen Chalfant), tick, tick…BOOM! and 1993 by Kenny Finkle. Also Off Broadway: The Temperamentals (Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble), The Dining Room (Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble), and Tea and Sympathy. His work has been seen at Long Wharf Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, The Old Globe, Theatre Aspen, and Bay Street Theater. Silverstein teaches directing at Syracuse University’s Tepper Semester and maintains an ongoing scene study class in Manhattan. He holds an MFA from UC San Diego and is a Drama League Fellow and member of SDC. More information at jonnysilver.com.