9th AVENUE SALOON Is Back!
9th AVENUE SALOON,
Hell's Kitchen's Longest Running Gay Bar,
Is Back!
Re-Opens Under New Management:
Now Gay Owned & Operated
The 9th Avenue Saloon, Hell's Kitchen's original LGBTQ+ bar, located at 656 9th Avenue between 45th & 46th Streets in the heart of Hell's Kitchen and the Theater District, will re-open under new management after shutting down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now gay owned and operated, The 9th Avenue Saloon will be open daily from 2pm.
A theater district mainstay serving the community for over 40 years, and one of the oldest LGBTQ+ bars in New York City, The 9th Avenue Saloon is Hell's Kitchen's longest running and friendliest neighborhood bar for meeting up with old friends or making new ones. Whether you're hanging out after work with the neighborhood regulars, grabbing a cocktail before or after that Broadway show, celebrating a special occasion, or just looking for a great place to find booze and boys: this is the place for you!
Follow us online now on Twitter @9thAvenueSaloon, on Facebook @9thAveSaloon, or on Instagram at @9thavesaloon.
For more information, email 9thAvenueSaloon@gmail.com
GTG Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with an IRISH POETRY SLAM
Gingold Theatrical Group
Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day With A Virtual
IRISH POETRY SLAM,
Featuring An All-Star Company Including
Tyne Daly, Midori Francis, Julie Halston, Daniel Jenkins, Lauren Molina, Kerry O’Malley, Christine Pedi, Thom Sesma, and More!
FREE - Online Thursday March 17th at 6PM EDT
David Staller, Artistic Director of Gingold Theatrical Group, today announced that in lieu of the 2022 Golden Shamrock Gala, GTG would celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with an Irish Poetry Slam, live online on Thursday March 17th, 6pm - 7:30pm EDT. The event is FREE! but you must register by March 15th. In the hours leading up to the shindig, participants will receive a confirmation and a link! There is a cap to the amount of guests who can join via Zoom, so it will also be live streamed on the GTG Facebook page!
Join Gingold Theatrical Group and an all-star company including Tyne Daly, Midori Francis, Julie Halston, Daniel Jenkins, Lauren Molina, Kerry O’Malley, Christine Pedi, Thom Sesma, and more, for a virtual open mic: come as you are and share what you'd like: a poem, an excerpt, a monologue, a saying, a song, or a toast! Shaw, Yeats, Wilde, Joyce, Friel, Beckett, Keane, O’Brien, Johnston, Edgeworth, Heanèy, Lady Gregory, Goldsmith, Moore, etc. Any Irish writer!
More information click HERE
To Register as a participant click HERE
"We’re having the best time embracing a global audience for these free online parties,” said Mr. Staller. “Some of my friends will be joining the general public as we celebrate the glorious heritage of Ireland. We’d usually be hosting our Golden Shamrock Gala, but this will be far more fun! Register to participate or just show up to raise a toast with people from all over the world. On St. Patrick’s Day we’re ALL Irish!”
Gingold’s Irish Poetry Slam on March 17th will be followed by a Shakespeare Sonnet Soiree, also free and online, to celebrate the Bard’s birthday on April 23rd.
This fall, GTG returned to live, in person performance with the acclaimed revival of Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren’s Profession starring Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Alvin Keith, Nicole King, Raphael Nash Thompson, and Tony® Award winner Karen Ziemba as Mrs. Warren, which recently completed its acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement at Theatre Row, directed by David Staller. Terry Teachout, reviewing Mrs. Warren's Profession in The Wall Street Journal, declared “Mr. Staller, who knows everything there is to know about Shaw, has not only staged the play but edited the text with his accustomed skill. All the more reason, then, to praise David Staller, the artistic director of Project Shaw, a long-running series of semi-staged concert readings of the playwright’s 60-odd shows. In addition to Project Shaw, Mr. Staller’s Gingold Theatrical Group presented fully staged small-scale off-Broadway versions of Heartbreak House in 2018 and Caesar and Cleopatra in 2019, and now they’re doing Mrs. Warren’s Profession. The production is completely satisfying… Sprinkled with tart, school-of-Wilde epigrams (‘There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses’) and overflowing with glittering talk, it’s a foolproof vehicle for six accomplished actors and a director who, like Mr. Staller, knows better than to let the play become a static chat-fest. Instead, he keeps the actors moving and the pace brisk, and the results are immensely pleasurable.”
GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP creates theater that supports human rights, freedom of speech, and individual liberty using the work of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. All of GTG’s programs are inspired by Shaw’s humanitarian values. Through full productions, staged readings, new play development, and inner-city educational programs, GTG brings Shavian precepts to audiences and artists across New York, encouraging individuals to breathe Shaw’s humanist ideals into their contributions for the future. Shaw created plays to inspire peaceful discussion and activism and that is what GTG aims to accomplish. GTG’s past productions include Man and Superman (2012), You Never Can Tell (2013), Major Barbara (2014), Widowers’ Houses (2016), Heartbreak House (2018), and Caesar & Cleopatra (2019). Founded in 2006 by David Staller, GTG has carved a permanent niche for the work of George Bernard Shaw within the social and cultural life of New York City, and, through the Project Shaw reading series, made history in 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). GTG brings together performers, critics, students, academics and the general public with the opportunity to explore and perform theatrical work inspired by the humanitarian and activist values that Shaw championed. All comedies, these plays boldly exhibit the insight, wit, passion and all-encompassing socio-political focus that distinguished Shaw as one of the most inventive and incisive writers of all time. Through performances, symposiums, new play development, and outreach, as well as through our discussion groups and partnerships with schools including SUNY Stony Brook, Regis, the De La Salle Academy, and The Broome Street Academy, GTG has helped spark a renewed interest in Shaw across the country, and a bold interest in theater as activism. Young people are particularly inspired by Shaw’s invocation to challenge the strictures society imposes, to embrace the power of the individual, to make bold personal choices and to take responsibility for these choices. GTG’s new play development lab, Speakers’ Corner, created to support playwrights inspired by Shaw’s ideals, is now in its second cycle. Through monthly prompts and feedback, writers develop work inspired by or in response to a specific Shaw text. Plays developed through Speakers’ Corner will be nurtured in workshops and readings with the expectation that GTG will publish or produce them. GTG encourages all people to rejoice in the possibilities of the future. All of GTG’s programming is designed to inspire lively discussion and peaceful activism with issues related to human rights, the freedom of speech, and individual liberty. This was the purpose behind all of Shaw’s work and why GTG chose him as the guide toward helping create a more tolerant and inclusive world through the exploration of the Arts.
For more information about the St. Patrick’s Day celebration or any of Gingold Theatrical Group’s projects, please call 212-355-7823 or email info@gingoldgroup.org, or visit online atwww.gingoldgroup.org.
Source: https://gingoldgroup.org/
Rosie & Albert, 62 years later
Just sharing an amazing photo: Dick Van Dyke & Chita Rivera, the stars of BYE BYE BIRDIE (April 14, 1960), reunited at this year's Kennedy Center Honors. Photo courtesy Chita Rivera
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=427339688673541&set=a.384967479577429
Mint Theater Company Concludes the Silver Lining Streaming Series
Mint Theater Company
Concludes the
Silver Lining Streaming Series:
Archival Recordings of Acclaimed Mint Productions, Streaming Free and On Demand, In Honor of Its Silver Anniversary Season
Beginning Monday May 17th:
The Fatal Weakness
by George Kelly
Directed by Jesse Marchese
Featuring Cliff Bemis, Cynthia Darlow, Kristin Griffith, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Patricia Kilgarriff, and Victoria Mack.
Closed Captioning Available!
Direct from Mint’s Virtual Home: MintTheater.org
Mint Theater Company (Jonathan Bank, Producing Artistic Director) will conclude the highly popular Silver Lining Streaming Series with the on-demand streaming of the three-camera archival recording (filmed in HD!) of The Fatal Weakness by George Kelly, beginning Monday May 17th, and continuing through June 27th. The price of admission is FREE. NO PASSWORD REQUIRED! Closed captioning is now available for all of Mint's streaming productions.
Also currently available on demand are Yours Unfaithfully starring Todd Cerveris, Mikaela Izquierdo, Elisabeth Gray, Stephen Schnetzer, and Tony & Drama Desk Award nominee Max von Essen through June 13th; and A Picture of Autumn featuring Helen Cespedes, Christian Coulson, Barbara Eda-Young, Katie Firth, Jonathan Hogan, George Morfogen, Paul Niebanck, Mark Emerson, and Jill Tanner through June 27th.
Jesse Marchese directs a cast that features Cliff Bemis, Cynthia Darlow, Kristin Griffith, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Patricia Kilgarriff, and Victoria Mack. The Fatal Weakness has scenic design by Vicki R. Davis, costume design by Andrea Varga, lighting design by Christian DeAngelis, original music & sound design by Jane Shaw, and properties design by Joshua Yocom.
The Fatal Weakness tells the story of Ollie Espenshade, who, after 28 years of marriage is still an incurable romantic (her fatal weakness). Perhaps discovering that her husband is a lying cheat will cure her? George Kelly’s last produced play is a smart comedy about romance, marriage and commitment. It opened in New York on November 19, 1946 produced by the Theatre Guild and starring the legendary Ina Claire. Although Claire’s triumphant return to Broadway after a five-year absence garnered much of the press attention, Kelly’s play turned more than a few critics’ heads: “One of Kelly’s best. It reveals keen understanding of character—an evening of genuine quality.” wrote Ward Morehouse in The New York Sun. Richard Watts Jr. of the New York Post called The Fatal Weakness “so fresh in its observations, three-dimensional in its characters and human in its humor that it emerges as the first important new comedy of the season.” The play went on to be hailed as “Best New Comedy” by George Jean Nathan’s Honor List in Theatre Book of the Year, 1946-1947.
Reviewing the Mint Theater’s production in The New York Times, Neil Genzlinger wrote “Sometimes a play is more interesting in the future than in its own time. The Fatal Weakness, a domestic comedy with a drama at its core, was apparently unloved in its day; its 1946 Broadway premiere ran for only 119 performances despite having Ina Claire, a prominent stage actress, in the lead role. But here in 2014, the Mint Theater Company is making this George Kelly work an amusing, affecting reminder that the institution of marriage has been under siege for much longer than we tend to think.”
George Kelly (1887-1974), admired for his character-driven satires and gimlet-eyed plays of modern manners, led a distinguished career in the New York theatre from the 1910s through the 1940s. Starting out as an actor and writer for vaudeville one-acts, Kelly rose to the height of acclaim in the early 1920s, with plays that he both wrote and directed. Kelly followed his breakout 1922 theatrical satire The Torch Bearers with 1924’s The Show-Off (which Heywood Broun called “the best comedy which has yet been written by an American”), as well as his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1925 psychological drama Craig’s Wife. Although Kelly’s commercial success declined steeply in the 1930s and 1940s, he produced some of his most striking and unconventional plays during these decades, including Philip Goes Forth (1931) and his two satiric dramas of marital infidelity: The Deep Mrs. Sykes (1945) and The Fatal Weakness (1946). Out of sync with sentimental postwar sensibilities, Kelly continued to write a number of unproduced plays as he shifted into semi-retirement with his longtime partner, William E. Weagly. In recent years, George Kelly has made an emphatic re-entrance upon New York and regional stages, while his “sharply insightful” (The New York Sun) plays of middle-class domestic life have also invited critical rediscovery. Once “allowed to pass unremarked” (as Mary McCarthy noted in a 1947 essay) as a significant American playwright, Kelly returns to delight, provoke and surprise new audiences.
Mint has been investing in creating professionally shot and edited full length, three-camera archival recordings filmed in HD since 2013. No Zoom boxes or Computer Generated Imagery - these are professional quality, high-definition recordings of live performances, captured in the theater with live audiences. Mint's recordings are meant for private viewing only and may not be screened for any other purpose. These recordings have been made available in partnership with the employees represented by Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, Actors' Equity Association and United Scenic Artists. Mint is proud to pay our artists.
Mint was awarded an OBIE Award for “combining the excitement of discovery with the richness of tradition” and a special Drama Desk Award for “unearthing, presenting and preserving forgotten plays of merit.”
To learn more about Mint's On Demand Streaming, go to minttheater.org. The price of admission is FREE. NO PASSWORD REQUIRED!
For more information, including photos and videos of all previous Mint productions, visit minttheater.org.
NAATCO To Present OUR TOWN In Celebration of AAPI Heritage Month
NAATCO
To Present a Benefit Reading of
OUR TOWN
by Thornton Wilder
In Celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Streamed for One Night Only: Wednesday, May 19th
With Amy Hill as the Stage Manager
and
Featuring Cindy Cheung, Kassandra Cordova, Autumn Domingo, Connor Domingo, Ron Domingo, John D. Haggerty, Midori Francis Iwama, Yumi Iwama, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim, Glenn Kubota, Clara Haru Mulligan, Olivia Oguma, Trevor Salter, Jon Norman Schneider, Alok Tewari, CJ Uy, Izaac Wang, and Rita Wolf
Mia Katigbak, co-founder and actor-manager of NAATCO, today announced that NAATCO will present a virtual reading of Our Town by Thornton Wilder with an all-Asian American cast for one night only, Wednesday May 19th, at 8pm, in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The proceeds of this reading will benefit the company.
Yumi Iwama, who portrayed Emily Webb in NAATCO’s 1994 production of the play, proposed the reading to NAATCO, following her recent interview with The New York Times: “The idea that I was this Asian actress playing this iconic American role was just daunting. I remember being in kind of a high emotional state throughout the run, because I really wanted to do it well. And I loved Emily. She didn’t have these issues of ‘Do I belong here?’ She was part of this town, part of this community. She just lives her life with abandon in a way that I never felt I had the license to. I grew up in a very white town, Rumson, N.J., and I was one of maybe two or three Asians in my entire high school. It was hard. My career started doing The King and I. I played Tuptim in seven different productions over the years. Emily was that first opening to me, that ‘Oh! Maybe there’ll be more to my career than these stereotypical Asian characters.’”
For this reading, Yumi will be playing the role of Emily’s mother, Mrs. Webb, and suggested her niece, Midori Francis Iwama (Usual Girls - Roundabout, The Wolves - Lincoln Center Theater), for the role of Emily. NAATCO enthusiastically agreed.
Amy Hill (best known for her TV work, from “All-American Girl” to the reboot of “Magnum P.I.” as well as “American Dad,” “Black-ish,” “Mom,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Grey's Anatomy,” and more) will lead the cast as the Stage Manager, along with Cindy Cheung, Kassandra Cordova, Autumn Domingo, Connor Domingo, Ron Domingo, John D. Haggerty, Midori Francis Iwama, Yumi Iwama, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim (NAATCO’s associate producer), Glenn Kubota (who played Mr. Charles Webb in the 1994 production), Clara Haru Mulligan, Olivia Oguma, Trevor Salter, Jon Norman Schneider, Alok Tewari, CJ Uy, Izaac Wang, and Rita Wolf. Special guests will include Richard Eng, the co-founder of NAATCO and president of the board; Larry Schafer, NAATCO board member; Susan Bernfield, New Georges’ Artistic Director; Maria Striar, Clubbed Thumb’s Artistic Director; and Kate Katigbak, NAATCO’s graphic designer.
Mia Katigbak will direct the performance; Sean Seau is the assistant director; Alyssa K. Howard will be production stage manager; Miranda Cornell will be production assistant.
NAATCO is delighted to be working with Virtual Design Collective (VidCo) on this project. They are newly founded collective of over 20 designers, programmers, and technicians using innovative ways to tell stories and create communities online.
“The decision to do this reading came on the heels of the Georgia senate elections, when we thought an all-Asian American cast performing an American classic would be part of a celebration of hope and healing after the devastating events earlier in the month. Recent events of anti-Asian violence, however, have reframed our presentation. With this reading, we denounce the brutal and senseless attacks on Asian Americans as we underscore one of the basic tenets of NAATCO’s mission in the most affirmative way: to reflect and emphasize the kinship among people of disparate cultures,” said Ms. Katigbak.
NAATCO wishes to express its gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, and SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. NAATCO joins The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success.
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was a novelist and playwright whose works celebrate the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. He is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both drama and fiction: for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and two plays, Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. His other novels include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, Pullman Car Hiawatha and The Long Christmas Dinner are among his well-known shorter plays. He enjoyed enormous success as a translator, adaptor, actor, librettist and lecturer/teacher and his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More information on Thornton Wilder and his family is available in Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013) as well as on the Wilder Family website, www.thorntonwilder.com
NAATCO was founded in 1989 by Mia Katigbak and Richard Eng to assert the presence and significance of Asian American theatre in the United States, demonstrating its vital contributions to the fabric of American culture. NAATCO puts into service its total commitment to Asian American theatre artists to more accurately represent onstage the multi- and inter-cultural dynamics of our society. By doing so, they demonstrate a rich tapestry of cultural difference bound by the American experience. The enrichment accrues to each different culture as well as to America as a whole. NAATCO was the recipient of the Obies’ Ross Wetzsteon Award, the Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women for their work “highlighting the multi- and intercultural dynamics of our society” and the Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors' Equity Association in recognition of its contribution toward increasing diversity and non-traditional casting in American theatre. NAATCO was recently nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play, as well as Outstanding Costume Design for a Play for their acclaimed production of Henry VI: Shakespeare's Trilogy in Two Parts in 2018. Additionally, NAATCO’s Mia Katigbak was honored in 2019 by a Special Drama Desk Award: “the backbone of the Off-Broadway scene, we acclaim her for her performances this season in Henry VI: Shakespeare's Trilogy in Two Parts, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Peace for Mary Frances and Recent Alien Abductions. This award also recognizes her vital presence as the artistic director of NAATCO and her sustained excellence as a performer and mentor.”
For tickets to Our Town or more information about all of NAATCO's programs, visit naatco.org.
COALITION OF BROADWAY UNIONS & GUILDS DEMANDS HEALTH CARE RELIEF IN NEW YORK STATE BUDGET
COALITION OF BROADWAY UNIONS & GUILDS
DEMANDS HEALTH CARE RELIEF IN NEW YORK STATE BUDGET
The Coalition of Broadway Unions & Guilds, a group of 18 unions representing workers both on and off stage in New York State and beyond, has kicked off a campaign to demand health care relief in the upcoming New York State budget.
“Securing health care relief is a top priority for the Broadway Unions and Guilds. Theatre workers are suffering. Almost all lost their jobs last spring, which means they’ve also lost health care for themselves and their families. Health care relief must be included in the upcoming New York State budget,” said COBUG Co-Chairs Joe Hartnett, Co-Director, Stagecraft Department, IATSE and Laura Penn, Executive Director, SDC.
“We must proactively support arts and entertainment workers with COBRA subsidies in order to make certain that these workers are here, and healthy, when our industry is ready to re-open,” Hartnett and Penn continued.
As the initial action in its campaign for health care relief, the Coalition sent letters last week to the Hon. Neil D. Breslin, Senate Insurance Committee Chair; the Hon. Richard Gottfried, Assembly Health Committee Chair; the Hon. Gustavo Rivera, Senate Health Committee Chair; and the chairs of eight other committees, including Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, the Chair of the New York State Assembly Insurance Committee.
In these letters, COBUG urged these representatives to update and fund the New York State COBRA subsidy program. The COBRA program allows workers who have lost their jobs to continue their employer health care. Without a COBRA subsidy, the cost of continuing health care is prohibitive to workers.
The Coalition is demanding a COBRA subsidy for workers in the amount of $3.75 million, a level on par with the original funding of the program, which was first enacted in 2004.
In its letter to Assemblyman Cahill, the Coalition wrote, “Entertainment is one of New York’s greatest financial engines, with a $10 billion annual output. The governor and legislature must support entertainment workers during this difficult time. COBRA subsidy is a concrete way to show your public support for these workers.”
In its letter, the Coalition also makes the following points:
● The live entertainment industry has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Eleven months ago, tens of thousands of workers on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, in NYC, and across the state saw their livelihoods disappear overnight. Stages have gone dark and ticket sales have collapsed to zero. As a consequence, our members have suffered debilitating loss of income, made unbearable when combined with the loss of health insurance for themselves and their families. Not only is this a personal crisis for thousands of workers, it’s also a crisis for the state of New York, as our highly skilled workforce begins to relocate, consider other trades, or face economic hardship unimaginable 12 months ago. There is a practical solution that will ease the pain for many of our members and for workers across the state.
● From 2010 through 2019, the state helped more than 1,150 entertainment workers keep their health insurance through the state COBRA subsidy. The subsidies during that period made it possible for those workers to sustain their health care by subsidizing 50% of the premium. Quite simply, COBRA subsidy is part of the safety net, a bridge back to coverage for entertainment workers who lose coverage because of the episodic nature of their employment. In this time of COVID-19, the New York State COBRA subsidy for the entertainment industry is essential to the survival of our workforce.
● COBRA subsidy reduces healthcare costs to the state. If people can stay on their union-sponsored plans, they will be more likely to stay healthy and productive, and less likely to require assistance through other state health programs. There are a record number of entertainers who are losing their union coverage for the first time in many years, if not decades.
● Although many people are eligible for low-cost coverage through the ACA (The Affordable Care Act) or the New York State Essential Plan or Medicaid, it’s very difficult to find a plan that is accepted by all your providers. All state-subsidized plans in New York are HMOs or EPOs with limited networks. Most people have to drop their providers or find new ones when they go on state-subsidized healthcare. This can have serious consequences for those receiving any kind of life-saving treatment—including mental health services, where the provider/patient relationship is key. COBRA subsidy would allow workers to keep their own doctors during their time of greatest need.
Yesterday, NYS Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner (Chair, Assembly Labor Committee), Assemblyman Kevin A. Cahill (Chair, Assembly Insurance Committee) and Assemblyman Daniel J. O'Donnell (Chair, Assembly Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development) issued a letter of support to Carl E. Heastie, Speaker of the New York State Assembly urging continuation of Section 1122 of the Insurance Law, to provide health insurance continuation assistance during this public health crisis. "The livelihoods of hardworking New Yorkers in the Entertainment Industry have been impacted like few others by the pandemic. The last thing they can afford is to lose their health care too."
Individuals are encouraged to write letters of support for the COBRA subsidy to their local representatives (https://actionnetwork.org/letters/help-workers-maintain-their-health-coverage/).
ABOUT THE COALITION OF BROADWAY UNIONS & GUILDS
The Coalition of Broadway Unions & Guilds is a group of 18 unions that represents workers both on and off stage in New York State and beyond. For its campaign for health care relief, the Coalition is also working with The Actors Fund and the New York State AFL-CIO to build a powerful alliance. The members of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds include:
Actors’ Equity Association
American Federation of Musicians (international union)
American Guild of Musical Artists
Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers, IATSE
Dramatists Guild of America
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, AFL-CIO, CLC
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 817
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30
Associated Musicians of Greater New York (AFM Local 802)
Mail Telephone Order Clerks, IATSE Local B-751
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists, IATSE Local 798
Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, SDC
Theatrical Protective Union, IATSE Local One
Theatrical Wardrobe Union, IATSE Local 764
Treasurers and Ticket Sellers Union, IATSE Local 751
United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local USA 829
Ushers, Ticket Takers and Stagedoor Persons, IATSE Local 306
THE CLOSING COMPANY OF OFF-BROADWAY’S HIT MUSICAL ALTAR BOYZ COMMEMORATES 10 YEARS →
ALTAR BOYZ II MEN!
THE CLOSING COMPANY OF OFF-BROADWAY’S LONG RUNNING HIT MUSICAL COMEDY
ALTAR BOYZ
COMMEMORATES 10 YEARS
“THE CALLING”
Music & Lyrics by Gary Adler
“Jesus called me on my cell phone…”
10 years ago the internationally acclaimed, award winning hit Off-Broadway musical comedy ALTAR BOYZ ended its 5 year record setting run at New World Stages in NYC. To celebrate this unique show and spread a little virtual ‘boy band’ love during these challenging times, the closing night company (Michael Kadin Craig, Travis Nesbitt, Mauricio Perez, Lee Markham, and Ravi Roth) and composer/lyricist Gary Adler gathered to sing one of the show’s signature songs, “The Calling.” This particular company performed the show together Off-Broadway for almost 2 years.
See it now at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjo1zeDeeic&feature=youtu.be
Here’s what the ‘Boyz,’ now ‘Men,’ have been up to since the show closed:
Michael Kadin Craig (Matthew) and his partner left NYC after Altar Boyz closed and moved to Ohio. He became the Artistic Director for a local non-profit theatre company in Perrysburg, Ohio for 5 years before stepping down. He is currently the Vice President and CFO of Craig Transportation Co, and married his partner 10 years (to the day) after the day they first met, which was coincidentally at an Altar Boyz show in 2008.
Travis Nesbitt (Mark). After several regional credits and 3 years performing in The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall under the Musical Direction of Altar Boyz composer Gary Adler, Travis moved to London where he received his Masters in ‘Creative Producing’ at The Royal Central London School of Speech and Drama. He founded The Boy Band Project, ‘a contemporary boy band cover group’ that has performed internationally, been featured on “Good Morning America” and NY1, opened for Todrick Hall’s 2019 Haus Party Tour, and received the 2019 Broadway World Award for ‘Best Group’ for their on going residency at The Green Room 42 called “Boy Band Brunch” (www.theboybandproject.com). He met his husband at an Altar Boyz press event in 2008.
Lee Markham (Luke). After Altar Boyz, Lee moved to California to perform at Disneyland, Princess Cruise Lines, and The Four Seasons tribute show Walk Like A Man. He then moved to Orlando to perform at SeaWorld, Capone's Dinner & Show and in various commercials. He now lives in Tampa where he sings with a barbershop chorus and was in rehearsals for Rent and Titanic: The Musical.
Mauricio Perez (Juan) His post Altar Boyz credits include Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys (Broadway, 1st National Tour), Paco in Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage (Off-Bway with Joyce DeWitt and Eve Plumb, Straz Center Premiere). Perez was featured on “The Today Show,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, CNN, in Playboy Magazine, performed at Super Bowl XLVIII, and sang the national anthem many times around the US and Canada.
Ravi Roth (Abe). Since the closing of Altar Boyz, he has toured with the Broadway company of White Christmas, played Motel in Fiddler of the Roof at Pioneer Theatre (Utah), and performed in A Letter To Harvey Milk Off-Broadway. He also hosts of his own queer travel show, @RaviRoundTheWorld, which has brought him to 32 countries.
Altar Boyz has music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker and book by Kevin Del Aguila (based on an idea by Marc J. Kessler and Ken Davenport). Full of sharp parody and irreverent humor, this spoof about a heavenly guy-group has been adored by audiences and critics alike. With an extraordinary mix of side-splitting songs "convincing enough to be played on MTV," uncontrollable laughs and lighthearted fun, this award-winning and totally original new musical is "90 minutes of pure delight" that's suitable for all ages and will have "the whole family laughing and singing along." It began an Off-Broadway run on March 1, 2005 and closed on January 10, 2010 after sixteen previews and 2,032 regular performances, making it the 9th longest-running Off-Broadway show of all time. The original production was directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Christopher Gatteli. It continues to be performed by companies around the world.
Theater Breaking Through Barriers POSTPONES the Scheduled Off-Broadway Revival of Brecht on Brecht, and Developmental Workshop of the New Musical Hyde and Seek
Theater Breaking Through Barriers today announced that the scheduled revival of Brecht on Brecht, directed by TBTB Artistic Director Nicholas Viselli and scheduled for a limited Off-Broadway engagement beginning April 25th at Theatre Row, would be postponed until the Fall. The planned developmental workshop of the new musical, Hyde and Seek by June Rachelson-Ospa and Phil Goodbody, which was to be presented this week (March 26th & 27th at A.R.T./New York’s Spaces at 520), has been postponed as well. The 3rd annual Playmakers’ REDUX, scheduled to take place from June 18th through 21st at the Studio Theatre on Theatre Row, has not been cancelled and will hopefully take place as planned.
“It’s hard to believe how suddenly our world has changed. Within a matter of days, we’ve gone from carrying on with the usual bustle and bluster to sequestering ourselves with the uncertainties of how long this will last – and what the ultimate toll might be. Regrettably, with this in mind, we must postpone the bulk of our upcoming spring. We are deeply grateful for all of the support and encouragement our audiences have given – and continue to give – in our quest to alter the misperceptions surrounding disability in our world today. We look forward to gathering together with you all very soon,” said Viselli.
The life and works of Bertolt Brecht, one of the 20th century’s greatest dramatists, provide a timely, compelling revue, Brecht on Brecht, that has earned critical acclaim since its Off Broadway premiere. Conceived by Hungarian writer/director, George Tabori, Brecht On Brecht tells the story of Brecht’s life as illuminated through his stories, poems, songs and plays while showcasing Brecht's philosophical musings on such matters as politics, ideology, advice to actors, and defiance in the face of authoritarianism. The work reveals Brecht’s timeless brilliance, proving that his words are as relevant today as they were when they were first written.
Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) is the only professional Off-Broadway theater company dedicated to advancing artists and developing audiences of people with disabilities and altering the misconceptions surrounding disability by proving that disability does not affect the quality or integrity of art or artists. TBTB began in 1979 as Theater by The Blind and is celebrating the 40th season! In 2008 the name became Theater Breaking Through Barriers, to include artists with all disabilities yet retaining the "TBTB" acronym and becoming the preeminent Off-Broadway theater for people with disabilities, hailed by The New York Times as “an extraordinary troupe designed to defy expectations" and The New York Post as “quite simply one of the most enjoyable companies in the country.”
For more information about any of Theater Breaking Through Barriers’ productions and upcoming programs, visit tbtb.org.
NAATCO's National Partnership Project featured in the NY TIMES
National Asian American Theater Partners With Regional Companies
The initiative, with New York Theater Workshop, Soho Rep and others, aims to foster inclusion of Asian-American theater artists, technicians and administrators.
The National Asian American Theater Company is starting a partnership with regional theaters across the country, aiming to foster inclusion of more Asian-American theater artists, technicians, administrators and community members through productions, outreach and other programming.
The first partner theaters will be New York Theater Workshop, Soho Rep, Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Conn., and Two River Theater in Red Bank, N.J. The hope is to expand the partnership to theaters across the country.
to read more, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/theater/national-asian-american-theater-company.html
KEEN CO's “Blues for an Alabama Sky” featured in the NY TIMES Arts & Leisure
Six Angels Singing the ‘Blues’
The Harlem-set “Blues for an Alabama Sky” finally arrives in New York, with a juicy role that has attracted African-American actresses across the country.
By Kelundra Smith
Pearl Cleage’s drama “Blues for an Alabama Sky” drops the audience into the world of Harlem Renaissance artists after the Champagne has stopped flowing.
They include the tantalizing lounge singer Angel Allen and her roommate, Guy, a confident gay costume designer. Leland, an Alabama transplant, comes to be part of their dysfunctional family of artists, who are grappling with poverty, pregnancy, homophobia and how to create in desperate times.
First presented by Atlanta’s Alliance Theater in 1995, “Blues” has been consistently produced regionally and at universities since, but Keen Company is staging the first major New York production beginning Feb. 4, directed by LA Williams. The show is slated to run through March 14 Off Broadway, at Theater Row.
“These characters have been moving around in New York,” Cleage said by phone recently. “Now they are in New York.”
FOR MORE, VISIT THE NEW YORK TIMES ONLINE:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/theater/blues-for-an-alabama-sky.html
Vinie Burrows, of Mint Theater's “Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories,” featured in the NY TIMES
200 Years of Experience, and Still Learning Onstage
Lois Smith, Estelle Parsons and Vinie Burrows on age, agility, perseverance and steering clear of “self-pitying old” roles.
“I am rarely cast as an ingénue anymore,” Lois Smith was saying on Monday afternoon. It was a joke, obviously, and her fellow actresses — Estelle Parsons, 92, and Vinie Burrows, who recently turned 95 but rounds that up to 96 — burst into laughter.
At 89, Smith was the baby of this bunch. Between them, they have more than 200 years of performance experience, including the film “Lady Bird” and the title role in “Marjorie Prime” (Smith), the movie “Bonnie and Clyde” and the sitcom “Roseanne” (Parsons), the American premiere of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” and experimental work with the director Rachel Chavkin (Burrows).
They’re still busy adding to their résumés: Parsons currently at the Public Theater in Tony Kushner’s “A Bright Room Called Day,” as a character whose name translates to “The Old One”; Smith on Broadway, with a talky role in Matthew Lopez’s “The Inheritance”; Burrows back Off Broadway next month in “Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories,” at the Mint Theater Company.
In the room with them, you’d never guess their ages from their appearance, only from the discussion’s vintage details — as when Burrows and Smith tried to figure out what they might have worked on together, and the closest they got was a play each of them did on Broadway with Helen Hayes. (Burrows was in the original 1950 production of “The Wisteria Trees,” Smith in the 1955 revival.)
FOR MORE, VISIT THE NEW YORK TIMES ONLINE:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/theater/lois-smith-estelle-parsons-vinie-burrows.html?searchResultPosition=1
Gingold Theatrical Group’s PROJECT SHAW announces the 2020 Season: Clarity Through Art
Gingold Theatrical Group’s PROJECT SHAW
Announces
The 2020 Season:
Clarity Through Art: A Theatrical Survival Guide
Will Kick Off January 20th with Shaw’s
Major Barbara,
Directed by Jenn Thompson
Concert Performances
Monday Evenings at 7pm
At Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre
Gingold Theatrical Group (David Staller, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the 15th Season of Project Shaw, a special series of evenings of plays that embrace human rights and free speech. All of GTG’s programming, inspired by the works of George Bernard Shaw, are designed to provoke peaceful discussion and activism. This series is presented monthly at Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).
In addition to Project Shaw, this fall GTG will return to Theatre Row with the annual mainstage production. This season will offer Shaw's high-action swashbuckling comedy The Devil's Disciple, based on actual events during the American Revolution. This limited Off-Broadway engagement will run in October and November at Theatre Row’s Stage One. Cast & design team will be announced this Spring.
"All of us at Gingold are delighted, if a bit amazed, that it’s been fifteen years! As we’re heading into another election year all of our programming is about art as activism, stepping up and taking responsibility, and finding joy in being a contributive part of our community. Besides our usual Shaw plays, we’re including some other playwrights our audiences are sure to enjoy! With The Devil's Disciple (our full production for 2020), Shaw’s rollicking comedy takes us back to an actual turning point of the American Revolution as a reminder of the power of facing our fears and standing up to tyranny,” said Mr. Staller.
The 15th season, the season of “Clarity Through Art," will begin January 20th with Shaw’s sparkling comedy Major Barbara, directed by Jenn Thompson (cast will be announced shortly), followed by What Every Woman Knows by J.M. Barrie, directed by Kathy MacGowan on February 24th, Shaw Songs @ The Players! directed by Gary John La Rosa on April 20 (PLEASE NOTE: this event will take place at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South), Shaw’s Saint Joan, directed by Vivienne Benesch on May 18th, He and She by Rachel Crothers on June 22nd directed by Meredith McDonough, Shaw’s The Apple Cart on July 20th, A Scintillating Shaw Talk on October 26th, The Torch Bearers by George Kelly, directed by Charlotte Moore on November 2rd, and Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion, directed by Pamela Hunt, ending the 2020 season on December 14th.
With Major Barbara, one of Shaw’s most popular and controversial plays, we’ll start our 2020 with one of Shaw’s most often requested works. Written as a drawing-room comedy, there are few if any hot-topics Shaw doesn’t tackle. In this dazzling work, the title character is one of the wealthiest heiresses in the world, but has chosen a life a service in the Salvation Army. Her father, whom she barely knows, comes back into the family’s world and everyone’s life is irrevocably changed forever. Shaw creates some of his most memorable characters in this play! We’re reminded of the vital importance of taking an active part in our own life and never to take anything for granted.
All the plays in Project Shaw (except Shaw Songs @ The Players) will be presented in a concert-reading format at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. Tickets are $40 and are available by calling 212-864-5400 or online at www.symphonyspace.org. Special reserved VIP seating available for $55 by contacting the Gingold office 212-355-7823 or info@gingoldgroup.org. Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre space is completely accessible. Infra-red hearing devices are also available.
On April 20th, Project Shaw will present a special evening, Shaw Songs @ The Players, a special treat, an evening of music that Shaw enjoyed, including popular music of his time, works by Gilbert & Sullivan, and more! For this very special event we’ll be returning to the original home of Project Shaw, the beautiful Players Club at 16 Gramercy Park South. Cast and ticket information will be announced shortly.
Now celebrating its 15th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). They are now also including plays by writers who share Shaw’s activist socio-political views embracing human rights and free speech, including work by Chekhov, Ibsen, Elizabeth Robins, Rachel Crothers, Pinero, Wilde, Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker. GTG’s other programs include its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talk-back with cast members. GTG’s David Staller and Stephen Brown-Fried also host a monthly Shaw Club discussion group.
GTG recently completed a highly acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement of Shaw’s beloved almost historical comedy Caesar and Cleopatra at Theatre Row, hailed as a New York Times Critic's Pick: “In George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar & Cleopatra, adapted and directed by David Staller in a briskly entertaining, winningly down-to-earth revival for Gingold Theatrical Group, the young queen of Egypt is charming in her naïveté. Teresa Avia Lim digs into this role with a vengeance, delivering a smartly calibrated comic performance. Robert Cuccioli makes an appealingly unaffected Caesar. This sensitively streamlined production, at Theater Row, is a friendly affair, thanks partly to the narration added by Mr. Staller and delivered with subdued majesty by Brenda Braxton.” (Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times). Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal declared “As always, Mr. Staller, who knows more about Shaw than anyone else in America, gets it right, situating the action of the play in a modern-day archaeological dig and keeping the costumes simple and the diction crisp and clear. Mr. Cuccioli tosses off his epigrams (‘The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it’) with a light, dry touch, while Ms. Lim, who is a terrific find, starts off as Lolita, gradually turning under Caesar’s tutelage into a grown woman who has tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and isn’t sure she likes it. ...all the more reason to cheer David Staller’s splendid new adaptation of one of Shaw’s most glittering, least Shakespearean conversation pieces. This is the third of Mr. Staller’s small-scale Gingold Theatrical Group productions to be presented off Broadway at Theatre Row. It follows in the wake of his all-but-flawless 2018 Heartbreak House, an uncommonly hard act to follow, and leaves nothing whatsoever to be desired. May his Shaw stagings become annual events!”
For more information about Project Shaw and all the programs at Gingold Theatrical Group, call 212-355-7823, email info@gingoldgroup.org, or visit gingoldgroup.org.
Mint Theater to present World Premiere pairing of CHEKHOV/TOLSTOY: LOVE STORIES adapted for the stage by Miles Malleson
“What is extraordinary about Mr. Malleson is his ability to create characters who are capable of feeling several things at once, or who don’t really know what they’re feeling at all” - The New York Times, January 26th, 2017
Mint Theater Company
To Present World Premiere Pairing of
Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories
Adapted for the stage by Miles Malleson (Conflict, Yours Unfaithfully)
Directed by Jonathan Bank & Jane Shaw
Performances Begin January 23rd
at Theatre Row
Limited Engagement through March 14th Only
Tickets Now On Sale!
Mint Theater Company Producing Artistic Director Jonathan Bank today announced the World Premiere pairing of Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories, adapted for the stage by Miles Malleson (Conflict, Yours Unfaithfully), directed by Jonathan Bank & Jane Shaw. Performances will begin January 23rd and continue through March 14th only at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Opening Night is set for February 10th. Cast will be announced shortly.
Beginning January 23rd Mint will present a program of short plays adapted from stories by two of the world’s greatest authors, Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy. These dramatic adaptations come from one of Mint’s favorite playwrights, Miles Malleson. Mint introduced theatergoers to Malleson with the acclaimed, New York Times Critic’s Pick productions of Conflict and Yours Unfaithfully. The New York Times described Yours Unfaithfully as “A bit like a sex farce with real sorrow instead of slammed doors, and something like a drawing room comedy with moral conundrums peeking out beneath the cushions.”
Chekhov’s “An Artist’s Story” tells the story of Nicov, a painter who encounters two very different women on a visit to the country. The flirtatious Genya flatters the artist with questions about miracles and the eternal, while her pragmatic sister Lidia ridicules the artist, questioning the necessity of landscapes in a world where people are poor and hungry. Together, they bring him to a new understanding of himself. When it was first presented in 1919 by the Pioneer Players, an independent theater society known for its productions of feminist and Russian drama, Malleson played the title role.
Tolstoy’s “What Men Live By” tells the story of a Russian peasant couple whose lives intersect with a mysterious stranger whose odd ways and brilliant smile bring them to a new understanding as well. “What Men Live By” reflects Tolstoy’s dedication to living out a Christian pacifism based on personal conscience. In the midst of World War I, pacifist Malleson was inspired by Tolstoy’s empathetic vision. Infusing his adaptation with string quartet music composed for the production by Norman O’Neill, Malleson’s adaptation premiered as part of an all-female student program by London’s Academy of Dramatic Arts, providing audiences with “the pure milk of the Tolstoyan word on loving-kindness.” Audiences shell-shocked by the war welcomed this balm; audiences today will also warm to this hopeful tale of love and redemption.
Mint’s production will be the first-ever pairing of Malleson’s Russian gems, co-directed by Mint Artistic Director Jonathan Bank and his longtime collaborator, Jane Shaw. Jane has designed sound, and composed and arranged music for thirty Mint productions; she will be making her directorial debut.
Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories will have scenic design by Roger Hanna, costume design by Oana Botez, lighting design by Matthew Richards, sound design by Jane Shaw, and prop design by Chris Fields. Casting by Stephanie Klapper, CSA.
William Miles Malleson (1888-1969) is remembered, if at all, as a character actor on stage and screen “who had a line in nitwits in which he was unrivalled,” such as the Sultan in The Thief of Bagdad (which he also wrote), the hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (with Sir Alec Guinness, 1949) and Rev. Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (Edith Evans, 1952). But as the author of numerous plays charged with the passion of reform, he never enjoyed the kind of popular success he had as an actor. The Stage and Television Today published a warm testimonial at his death in 1969: "Malleson was an actor of distinction, an artist of imagination and depth, whose best characterizations, especially in Shakespeare, were among the treasures of our theatre for many years…He excelled in comedy that came from guileless but not silly men. His nit-wits had souls as well as stupidities. What might have been merely grotesque was never so, it was lit by human feeling. His work in the theatre spanned nearly sixty years, from the time he made his debut at Liverpool Playhouse under Basil Dean in 1911, in Justice. He worked with Granville Barker and J.B. Fagan, with Playfair, Gielgud and Olivier, at the Old Vic in London and Bristol; in the West End and in the provinces. His acting, within its range, was unrivaled for effect, interest and significance, and he contributed valuable work as a translator of Moliere, as a writer, notably with The Fanatics and Six Men of Dorset—with H. Brooks—and as an influence for all that was intended to be of value to the theatre, irrespective of profit or fame."
Performances for Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories will be Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 7:30PM with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Additional Wednesday matinees at 2PM on February 5th & 19th and March 4th & 11th; no evening performances on February 5th, 11th, or 18th. All performances will take place at Theater Row (410 West 42nd Street between 9th and Dyer Avenues).
Tickets for Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories will be $35 to $65, with Premium Seats available at $79 (all include $2.25 Theatre Row restoration fee) and can be purchased online at Telecharge.com, by phone at 212-239-6200 or in person at the Theatre Row Box Office.
"Thank heaven for the unwavering commitment of Jonathan Bank, the theatrical archaeologist whose Mint Theater Company unearths long-forgotten plays and imbues them with new life,” declared The New York Times in response to a recent Mint production. Terry Teachout writing about Mint’s production of Conflict in The Wall Street Journal said “I’ve reviewed 13 Mint productions since 2005, each one a gem—but it’s still worth saying yet again that no New York-based theater company has a better batting average. The invisible hero of Conflict is, of course, Jonathan Bank, the Mint’s producing artistic director. It’s a wonder how he manages to track down so many plays that both deserve and richly re-pay a second hearing. Mr. Bank is one of a handful of theater artists in America whose name is an absolute guarantee of quality, and Conflict is further proof of his perfect taste.”
Mint was awarded an OBIE Award for “combining the excitement of discovery with the richness of tradition” and a special Drama Desk Award for “unearthing, presenting and preserving forgotten plays of merit.”
For more information, including photos and videos of Mint productions, visit minttheater.org.
RED BULL THEATER announces the 2019-’20 Season, including the World Premiere of The Alchemist from the team that created The Government Inspector
“A dynamic producer of classic plays” – Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“The most exciting classical theater in New York” – Time Out NY
RED BULL THEATER
Announces the Complete 2019-’20 Season
The New Season Will Kick Off With the All-Star Benefit Performance of the Olivier Award-winning Best Musical
Return to the Forbidden Planet,
Monday October 21st at the Peter Norton Symphony Space
New Season of Revelation Readings Begins November 18th at the Lucille Lortel Theatre with
James Shirley's The Traitor,
Directed by Nathan Winklestein
Featuring Oge Agulue, Christian Coulson, Sarah Herrman, Chukwudi Iwuji, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Max Gordon Moore, Nneka Okafor, Antoinette Robinson, Socorro Santiago, Chauncy Thomas and More
Followed by Beaumont & Fletcher's Love Lies A-Bleeding, Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women, Kate Hamill's The Scarlet Letter based on Hawthorne, Ana Caro's The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs, John Milton's Paradise Lost adapted by Michael Barakiva, Anchuli Felicia King's Keene, and Lynn Rosen's The Claudias
New Season will Feature Oge Agulue, Zach Appleman, Juliana Canfield, Kathleen Chalfant, Christian Coulson, Robert Cuccioli, Kelley Curran, Clifton Duncan, Carson Elrod, Zachary Fine, Kate Hamill, Sarah Herrman, Susan Heyward, Chukwudi Iwuji, Ezra Knight, Sam Lilja, Julia McDermott, Max Gordon Moore, Nneka Okafor, Jennifer Mudge, Lorenzo Pisoni, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Matthew Rauch, Cara Ricketts, Laila Robins, Antoinette Robinson, Matthew Saldivar, Socorro Santiago, Danielle Skraastad, Chauncy Thomas, and Many More…
Opening Off-Broadway This Spring:
World Premiere of the Red Bull Commission of
The Alchemist
by Jeffrey Hatcher, Directed by Jesse Berger,
From the Team That Created the Acclaimed Hit The Government Inspector
Performances Will Begin in May at the Lortel Theatre
RED BULL THEATER (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced details of the new season, including the world premiere of the The Alchemist from the same team that created the acclaimed hit The Government Inspector, as well as the line-up of its OBIE Award-winning Revelation Reading Series.
“‘Everything old is new again!’ is not just a saying at Red Bull—it’s what we do. I am thrilled to announce the rarely seen plays and incredible theater artists that will make up the mix of our new season. From the most provocative Jacobeans to our most passionate contemporaries, we explore love, sin, honor, racial and sexual politics and more: Featuring stories that run the gamut from comedy to bloody tragedy, from the epic to the personal, from Shakespeare’s contemporaries to the Spanish Golden Age, and from Milton’s tale of the Fall of Satan to a 21st century exuberantly comic exhumation of the untold stories of ancient Roman women— culminating in the world premiere production of a hilarious brand new adaptation of one of the greatest comedies ever written: The Alchemist. It’s another exciting and uniquely delightful season of classical theater,” said Mr. Berger.
Revelation Readings offer the unique opportunity to hear rarely-produced classic plays, and brand new plays in conversation with the classics, performed by the finest actors in New York. This year’s slate of readings is sure to delight audiences all season long. Revelation Readings will take place on Monday evenings (7:30PM) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street between Bleecker & Hudson Streets), and will include:
Monday November 18: James Shirley's The Traitor, directed by Nathan Winkelstein, featuring Oge Agulue, Christian Coulson, Chukwudi Iwuji, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Max Gordon Moore, Nneka Okafor, Antoinette Robinson, Chauncy Thomas and more. This rarely heard Early Modern gem paints a vibrant, macabre picture of Lorenzo de Medici, a licentious duke who works his means through a mass of intrigue to achieve his most passionate ends.
Monday December 16th: Beaumont & Fletcher's Love Lies A-Bleeding, directed by Carl Cofield, featuring Zach Appleman, Susan Heyward, Ezra Knight, Cara Ricketts and more to be announced. This Jacobean romance doesn't just tug at the heart-strings, it tears them to pieces in the byzantine tale of Philaster, a disinherited prince, living in the court of an unfriendly king.
Monday January 27th: Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women, directed by Jose Zayas, featuring Juliana Canfield, Kathleen Chalfant, Robert Cuccioli, Zachary Fine, Sam Lilja, Julia McDermott, Laila Robins, and more to be announced. A playful parody of serious sexual games, this wicked social satire speaks with a shockingly contemporary voice about abuse of power and the effects of gender inequality.
Monday February 10th: Kate Hamill's The Scarlet Letter, based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, directed by Sarna Lapine, featuring Kelley Curran and more to be announced. This brand new adaptation of the classic novel sheds new light and laughter on the sin, shame, and utter insanity of a puritanical society -- not far from our own mad, modern world.
Monday March 16th: Ana Caro's The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs (Valor, Agravio y Mujer), a brand new translation directed by Melia Bensussen, featuring Carson Elrod, Lorenzo Pisoni, Matthew Saldivar and more to be announced. Presented in association with Diversifying the Classics | UCLA. Spanish Golden Age playwright Ana Caro Mallén de Soto presents a witty critique of society through the story of Leonor, a woman who sets out to find her one-time lover (Don Juan, naturally) and bring him to justice.
Monday April 6th: John Milton's Paradise Lost, adapted by Michael Barakiva. Cast to be announced. With its exquisite language and Shakespearean scale, Milton’s epic poem poses and seeks to answer a fundamental question of the human experience: What is evil?
Monday May 18th: Anchuli Felicia King's Keene, directed by Ethan McSweeny, featuring Clifton Duncan and more to be announced. Presented in association with American Shakespeare Center. New York Premiere. In this brand new play, dreams merge with reality as a graduate student pursues his thesis on Ira Aldridge, possibly the first black man known to perform the role of Shakespeare’s Othello.
Monday June 15th: Lynn Rosen's The Claudias, directed by Meredith McDonough, featuring Jennifer Mudge, Danielle Skraastad, and more to be announced. Commissioned by Red Bull Theater. This new play ecstatically and hilariously exhumes the stories of historical women named Claudia, whose tales were buried by the powerful men who dominated their lives and the world.
The 2019-’20 Season will kick off with the one night only all-star benefit performance of the Olivier Award-winning Best Musical Return to the Forbidden Planet, a musical of Shakespearean proportions by Bob Carlton, on Monday October 21st at the Peter Norton Symphony Space. Exploding with over thirty cosmic hits of classic rock-n-roll, and playfully based on The Tempest and the cinematic sci-fi classic, this fun-filled musical rockets Shakespeare’s beloved characters from stage to space as Captain Tempest crash lands on the planet D’Illyria, inhabited only by the mad scientist Doctor Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and their trusty robot Ariel. With songs including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Shake Rattle and Roll,” “The Monster Mash,” and “Good Vibrations” along with some of Shakespeare’s most iconic phraseology catapulted through hyperspace into a campy concoction, this is a rare opportunity for today’s New York audiences to experience this Olivier Award-winning musical. Gabriel Barre, who starred in the original New York production, will direct a cast featuring Steven Boyer, Robert Cuccioli, Kim Exum, Kevin R. Free, Mary Testa, Jo Lampert, Patrick Page and Amy Spanger with cameo appearances by Bryan Batt, Emily Bergl, Arnie Burton, Veanne Cox, Paige Davis, Keith Hamilton Cobb, Ann Harada, Dana Ivey, Chad Kimball, Crista Moore, Sarah Rice, Derek Smith, Emily Swallow, Marc Vietor, as well as Jeffrey Eugene Johnson, Ben Jones, Charlotte Maltby, and Salisha Thomas. Making special video appearances will be Dana Ivey, celebrity astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson (affectionately known as the man who killed Pluto) and Michael Urie.
Coming this Spring: Red Bull’s next mainstage production of the season will be The Alchemist by Jeffrey Hatcher adapted from Ben Jonson, directed by Jesse Berger. This will be the World Premiere of a Red Bull Theater commission from the same team that created the acclaimed hit The Government Inspector. Following recent acclaimed productions of Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor, Erica Schmidt’s Mac Beth, John Webster's The White Devil, and David Ives’s The Metromaniacs, The Alchemist brings the greed and absurdity of Jonson’s Jacobean London to brilliant contemporary life in this brand new adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, whose version of inane corruption à la Gogol delighted New York audiences in The Government Inspector. Performances begin in May at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Cast and design team will be announced shortly.
This Summer, Red Bull will present the 10th Annual Short New Play Festival, the annual festival of 10-minute plays of heightened language and classic themes, featuring two commissions from established writers, alongside six new plays that have been chosen from hundreds of submissions from emerging playwrights across the country. Red Bull Theater’s annual Short New Play Festival has generated over 1,000 new short plays of classic themes and heightened language, presenting over 60 of them in performance with some of New York’s finest actors and directors.
Red Bull Theater, hailed as “the city’s gutsiest classical theater” by Time Out New York, brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City’s home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. A home for artists, scholars and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull’s work as: “Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years.”
Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare’s Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway Productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Master Classes in classical acting led by veteran theater professionals.
"The classics-shaking Red Bull Theater,” as Time Out NY recently called it, has presented 20 Off-Broadway productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company’s unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim, and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards.
A Red Bull subscription offers you the best seats at the lowest price to your choice of performances — subscribers receive access to tickets before anyone else, at substantial savings. Subscribers will also enjoy no additional processing fees and bonus discounts throughout the season. Subscribing is the easiest way to support Red Bull Theater and secure superb seats while saving up to 30%. To subscribe, call Red Bull Theater Monday-Friday from 11am-5pm at 212/343-7394 or visit www.RedBullTheater.com
For tickets and more information about Revelation Readings or any of Red Bull Theater's productions and programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.
Keen Co Announces Cast for Molly Sweeney
Drama Desk and Obie Award-Winning
Keen Company
Announces Cast for
1996 Drama Critics’ Circle Award Winner
Molly Sweeney
by Brian Friel
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Paul O’Brien, Pamela Sabaugh, and Tommy Schrider to Star
Limited Engagement Begins October 8th
Tickets On Sale Now!
Keen Company Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein today announced the cast for the first play of the new season, Keen’s 20th: Paul O’Brien, Pamela Sabaugh and Tommy Schrider will star in Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney directed by Mr. Silverstein.
“Molly Sweeney’s resonate meditation on sight and dreams has captivated me since I first read it over twenty years ago and I am thrilled to begin rehearsals with this terrific cast and creative team. Pamela is a wonderful actor, and her experience as a person with low vision has already illuminated the text for me in new ways. Paul and Tommy are both inspired actors who I have wanted to work with for quite some time. Keen is working with consultant George Ashiotis (former co-Artistic Director, Theatre by the Blind) and partnering with blind and low vision schools and organizations to make Molly Sweeney accessible to the blind and low vision audience, including offering touch tours and audio described performances. We hope to create a welcoming space for conversation about choice, representation, and connection,” said Silverstein.
Performances for the limited Off-Broadway engagement of Molly Sweeney will begin Tuesday, October 8th, and continue through November 16th only, with opening night set for Wednesday October 23rd. The design team includes Steven Kemp (scenic), Jennifer Paar (costume), Anshuman Bhatia (lighting), and Fan Zhang (sound). Casting is by Judy Bowman CSA. Amanda Quaid will serve as Dialect Coach.
Having lost her sight at infancy, Molly Sweeney (played by Pamela Sabaugh) knows the world through touch, sound, taste, and smell. When her hopeful husband (Tommy Schrider) and ambitious doctor (Paul O’Brien) propose an operation to restore her sight, Molly and those around her begin to understand that things may not all be as they appear. Brian Friel, Ireland’s master storyteller (Dancing at Lughnasa, Faith Healer, Translations) creates a riveting contemporary drama about the unexpected consequences of a medical miracle. “Molly Sweeney is an astonishing work… A deeply moving meditation on hope, change and despair” declared The New York Times.
From one of Ireland’s best living playwrights, this striking piece of dramatic writing is a daring piece of theater. Keeping the play’s three characters on stage at all times to speak directly to the audience, Brian Friel presents three points of view to the same intriguing tale. Each of their voices interweaves, threading in and out with details, spinning a lush and sensate narrative, and carrying us effortlessly to an unexpected and poignant conclusion. Deceptively simple, yet richly multilayered—combining both an insightful story about the way we perceive our existence with an allegory for our times — Molly Sweeney is an Irish storyteller’s art to create an unforgettable theater piece, painting scenery and rousing emotions with nothing more than the simple purity of beautifully rendered words.
Writing in The New York Times, longtime critic Vincent Canby said “Brian Friel has been recognized as Ireland's greatest living playwright almost since the first production of Philadelphia, Here I Come! in Dublin in 1964. In succeeding years, he has dazzled us with plays that speak in a language of unequaled poetic beauty and intensity. Such dramas as Translations, Dancing at Lughnasa and Wonderful Tennessee, among others, have given him a privileged place in our theater.
Paul O’Brien’s Broadway credits include Six Degrees of Separation, On a Clear Day, The Importance of Being Ernest, Equus, Cymbeline, Democracy, King Lear (with Christopher Plummer), The Crucible (with Liam Neeson), and Twelfth Night. Off-Broadway: The Mountains Look Different, Is Life Worth Living (Mint Theater), The Weir, DA, Burial at Thebes, Man and Superman (Irish Rep), Hamlet (with Michael Stuhlbarg at NYSF), Death Defying Acts (Variety Arts), The Seagull (Second Stage), Three Birds Alighting on A Field (Manhattan Theater Club), Widow’s Blind Date (Circle in the Square), A Moon for the Misbegotten, Widowers’ Houses (Pearl Theater). Regional: Major Barbara, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Playboy of the Western World (Guthrie), Anything Goes, Romeo and Juliet (Williamstown), All My Sons (Playmakers Rep), Cripple of Inishmaan (Geffen), Lonesome West (South Coast Rep), Act a Lady (Actors Theater of Louisville), Touch of the Poet (Long Wharf), Chemistry of Change (Trinity Rep), Long Day’s Journey into Night (Gloucester Stage) Film: Shirley; Hail, Caesar; The Boy Downstairs; Manhattan Romance, Fairhaven, Henry’s Crime, Redacted, Devil’s Own, What’s the Worst That Could Happen? TV: “Search Party,” “Dangerous Book for Boys,” “Elementary,” “Forever,” “House of Cards,” Person of Interest, Sopranos, The Practice, Providence, “ER,” “Star Trek Voyager,” “A Case of Deadly Force,” “Angel,” “One Life to Live.”
Pamela Sabaugh most recently performed for the United Nations in Geneva Switzerland with Theater Breaking Through Barriers where she is a long time company member. Some favorite TBTB Off-Broadway credits include Gurney’s The Fourth Wall, The Cocktail Hour; Sam Hunter’s The Healing; Bruce Graham’s According to Goldman; Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice. Other stage credits include Brooklyn Academy of Music, PS 122, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The Adrienne, Court Theatre of Chicago, Hilberry Theatre Detroit. Film: Lefty & Loosey, Goldberg P.I., One Angry Man, The InBetween. TV: “Guiding Light,” “One Life to Live,” ABC’s “What Would You Do.” Pamela is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Acting and Fringe NYC’s Outstanding Performance Award, and she continues to perform her critically acclaimed solo rock musical, Immaculate Degeneration, to audiences both at home and abroad.
Tommy Schrider most recently appeared in The White Devil (Lucille Lortel/Red Bull) and the interactive multimedia rock opera The Infinite Hotel (PROTOTYPE Festival/Irondale). Other NYC credits include War Horse (Broadway) and shows at Theatre for a New Audience, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Ripe Time, Rattlestick Theater, Irish Rep, NYTW, BAM, The Flea. Regional credits include Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Westport Country Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Williamstown, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Syracuse Stage among others. International: Andrews Lane, Dublin. Film & TV credits include “The Americans” (recurring), “Blacklist,” “The Enemy Within,” “Elementary,” “The Good Fight,” “Person of Interest,” “Medium,” “Numb3rs,” and “Law & Order.” Tommy also teaches in the BFA Acting program at Montclair State University. Recipient of the 2017 New Dramatists Charles Bowdan Acting Award. MFA: NYU
Keen Company creates theater that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, we tell wholehearted stories about people striving to do their best and the decisive moments that change us. Keen has been honored with eleven Drama Desk nominations, two Drama Desk Awards, two Drama League nominations, and two Obie Awards.
All performances will be at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) and will be Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7pm; Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday matinees at 3pm. Regular tickets are $65 with premium tickets available for $80. All tickets for every Tuesday performance are just $28, no code needed. (Ticket prices include restoration fees.)
Later this season, Keen will present the limited Off-Broadway engagement of Blues for an Alabama Sky, beginning Tuesday February 4th. Performances will continue through Saturday March 14th only, with opening night set for Wednesday February 18th. Cast and design team will be announced shortly.
A subscription package for both shows of the season is only $100 which includes unlimited exchange privileges, invitations to Keen Company readings, and admission to Keen Teens Festival of New Work! Save over 35% off full ticket price (a $160.00 value). Subscribers also get free invitations to Keen’s Play Club discussion series, discounts on the purchase of Keen’s cast recordings of Keen’s productions of Marry Me a Little and John & Jen, as well as advance notice and discounted tickets to The Playwrights Lab Series, and Keen Company’s Annual Gala. Subscriptions are on sale now! Keen patrons 30 or under see both shows for just $25 each with a KEENConnect Subscription at only $50. That's all the perks of a regular subscription for the price of a rush ticket! Save over 65% off the full ticket price! (Please note, a valid government issued ID must be presented at the box office). Visit keencompany.org/subscribe for more info.
To purchase single tickets to Molly Sweeney and Blues for an Alabama Sky, visit the Theatre Row Box Office (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), order online at Telecharge.com, or order by phone at 212-239-6200.
For more information, visit KeenCompany.org.
Discover Shakespeare's Lost Rock n' Roll Masterpiece!
Red Bull Theater
Announces Cast for
The All-Star Benefit Concert Presentation of
Return to the Forbidden Planet
Directed by Gabriel Barre
Starring Tony Award Nominees
Steven Boyer, Patrick Page and Mary Testa
Along with Kim Exum, Jo Lampert, and Amy Spanger
PLUS Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson Will Beam In For A Special Appearance
With Special Guests including F. Murray Abraham, Derrick Baskin, Bryan Batt, Emily Bergl, Arnie Burton, Veanne Cox, Robert Cuccioli, Paige Davis, Chad Kimball, Laila Robins, Derek Smith, Emily Swallow, Marc Vietor
One Night Only, Monday October 21st
At Peter Norton Symphony Space
RED BULL THEATER (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced the cast for the one-night-only, all-star benefit concert performance of the Olivier Award-winning Best Musical Return to Forbidden Planet, a musical of Shakespearean proportions by Bob Carlton. The 2019-’20 Season kick-off event will take place Monday October 21st at the Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).
Exploding with over thirty cosmic hits of classic rock-n-roll, and playfully based on The Tempest and the cinematic sci-fi classic, this fun-filled musical rockets Shakespeare’s beloved characters from stage to space as Captain Tempest crash lands on the planet D’Illyria, inhabited only by the mad scientist Doctor Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and their trusty robot Ariel. With songs including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Shake Rattle and Roll,” “The Monster Mash,” and “Good Vibrations” along with some of Shakespeare’s most iconic phraseology catapulted through hyperspace into a campy concoction, this is a rare opportunity for today’s New York audiences to experience this Olivier Award-winning musical.
Gabriel Barre, who starred in the original New York production, will direct a cast featuring Steven Boyer (Broadway: Hand to God — Lortel and Clarence Derwent Awards; Tony and Drama League nominations;), Kim Exum (Broadway: The Book of Mormon), Mary Testa (currently on Broadway in Oklahoma! — Tony, Drama Desk nominations;), Jo Lampert (Joan of Arc: Into the Fire - Lortel Award nomination), Patrick Page (currently on Broadway starring in Hadestown — Tony, Lortel Award nominations; Coriolanus — Helen Hayes Award;); Amy Spanger (Broadway: Matilda, Chicago, Elf, Rock of Ages, The Wedding Singer - Drama Desk nomination, Urinetown, Kiss Me Kate, Sunset Boulevard; Off-Bway: Tick Tick Boom, Rent); with special appearances by Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham, Tony Award nominee Derrick Baskin, Bryan Batt, Emily Bergl, Drama Desk Award winner Arnie Burton, Tony Award nominee Veanne Cox, Tony Award nominee Robert Cuccioli, Paige Davis, Tony Award nominee Chad Kimball, Drama Desk Award winner Laila Robins, Tony Award nominee Derek Smith, Emily Swallow, Marc Vietor, PLUS celebrity astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson (affectionately known as the man who killed Pluto).
Return to Forbidden Planet will feature a live five-piece band with direction by Greg Pliska leading a five-piece band; Return to Forbidden Planet will feature choreography by Tracy Bersley, costume design by Heather Jackson, projection design by Joshua Thorson, sound design by Patrick LaChanze, and lighting design by Paul Hudson. The event is made possible in part by The Marta Heflin Foundation.
Return to Forbidden Planet opened at the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End on September 11, 1989. It won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical for 1989/’90, beating out The Baker’s Wife, Buddy, and Miss Saigon. When the show opened in New York in 1991 at the Variety Arts Theater, Theatre Week opined, “Return to the Forbidden Planet is a desecration, recreation, or consecration, depending on whom you ask.” It hasn’t been seen in a major revival in New York since it closed in 1992 after playing 245 performances.
“Out of this world! Prepare to blast off with this musical space odyssey of Shakespearean proportions. With an interstellar cast of musical/classical theater superstars singing some of the catchiest songs ever recorded and having the time of their lives in a script full of hilarity and fun, this promises to be a night to remember, and a fabulous way to kick off our exciting 2019-'20 season,” said Mr. Berger. “Not too low-brow for Shakespeare scholars, and not too high-brow for Trekkies or ‘50s Sci-fi aficionados, Return to the Forbidden Planet is sure to delight.”
Gabriel Barre is best known for creating original musicals. His work has been seen on Broadway, throughout the United States, and internationally. Gabriel directed the Broadway production of Amazing Grace which also toured the country and enjoyed a sit-down production at the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. He is well known for his Off-Broadway work: he directed the original production of Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party at the Manhattan Theatre Club starring Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Brian d'Arcy James, and Julia Murney, garnering the Calloway Award for Best Direction, as well as five Outer Critics Circle Award nominations and thirteen Drama Desk nominations, both including Best Direction of a Musical. He directed the original production of John Cariani’s Almost Maine at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Other Off-Broadway productions include the original productions of Summer of ’42, Honky Tonk Highway, Stars in Your Eyes, Andrew Lippa’s john & jen, and Son of A Gun. Nationally, he directed the US national tour of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt, which performed at Madison Square Garden; it toured the US for three years. His concert work includes the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center three years in a row, several Musical by the Year concerts at Town Hall, the concert version of Pippin for World Aids Day, and The Four Seasons at Lincoln Center. Most recently he directed a concert of The Scarlet Pimpernel at Lincoln Center.
The performance will begin at 7:30PM. This is an important intergalactic fundraiser for Red Bull Theater. Proceeds help to make all of its programs possible. Tickets for this benefit event will be $49-$300 (most tickets include tax-deductible donation).
Red Bull Theater, hailed as “the city’s gutsiest classical theater” by Time Out New York, brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City’s home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. A home for artists, scholars and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull’s work as: “Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years.”
Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare’s Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway Productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Master Classes in classical acting led by veteran theater professionals.
Acclaimed as “a dynamic producer of classic plays” by The New York Times and “the most exciting classical theater in New York” by Time Out NY, Red Bull Theater has produced 19 Off-Broadway productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company’s unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim, and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards.
Red Bull Theater’s mainstage production of American Moor is currently enjoying its critically acclaimed, sold-out run at the Cherry Lane Theatre.
For tickets and more information about any of Red Bull Theater's productions and programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.
“If you want to know what’s wrong with this country go ask a jazz musician.”
the american vicarious
Presents the World Premiere of
(A)loft Modulation
A Play with Jazz
by Jaymes Jorsling
Directed by Christopher McElroen
Featuring a Live Jazz Band Improvising Nightly, Led by Saxophonist Jonathan Beshay
Performances Begin September 26th
at the Mezzanine Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres
Tickets on Sale Now!
the american vicarious proudly presents the World Premiere of (A)loft Modulation by NYC-based playwright Jaymes Jorsling. Inspired by true events at 821 6th Avenue from 1957 - 1965, (A)loft Modulation will feature a live jazz band led by saxophonist Jonathan Beshay that will improvise nightly. Previews begin Thursday September 26th with Opening Night set for Thursday, October 3rd. This limited Off-Broadway engagement runs through Sunday, October 27th.
Founding Artistic Director Christopher McElroen directs a cast that features Kevin Cristaldi (Dear Darkness - New Ohio, Message to Michael - world premiere Rattlestick, To Kill a Mockingbird - Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Spencer Hamp (Equus - Pittsburgh Public, The Cherry Orchard, Buzzer - ACT), Charlie Hudson III (A Raisin in the Sun - Broadway, Hurt Village - world premiere Signature Theatre, Little Rock - Sheen Center), Elisha Lawson (Syncing Ink - world premiere Alley Theatre/Flea Theater, A Raisin in the Sun - Indiana Rep/Syracuse Stage), Eric Miller (Mope - Ensemble Studio Theatre, Roger and Tom - HERE Arts Center), Buzz Roddy (“The Deuce” - HBO, The Show Off - Peccadillo, Perfect Crime), PJ Sosko (The Traveling Lady - Cherry Lane, Row After Row -Women's Project), Christina Toth (“Orange Is the New Black” - Season 6 & 7, “Boardwalk Empire” - Season 5; Lazarus - dir. Ivo van Hove/NYTW ), and Julia Watt (Invisible Man - Huntington Theatre Company).
Additional piano composition by Grammy nominee Gerald Clayton. The design team includes Troy Hourie (scenic design), Elivia Bovenzi (costume design), Becky Heisler McCarthy (lighting design), Andy Evan Cohen (sound design) and Adam J. Thompson (video design).
A gritty, dilapidated five-floor walk-up in Manhattan’s seedy flower district is an after-hours haunt of musicians, artists, junkies and prostitutes. The fuse of American culture burns below the surface. It’s the last explosive heyday of jazz and the inhabitants of the building jam night after night, while a compulsive photographer documents everything with round-the-clock reel-to-reel recordings and photographs.
Inspired by true events at 821 6th Ave between 1957 – 1965, (A)loft Modulation traces the turbulent, roiling obsessions of artists and loiterers in their pursuit of purpose, while social chaos seeks to overthrow American culture. It’s angst vs. contentment, selfishness vs. benevolence, artist vs. layman – a struggle that plays out through the fractured lens of unlabeled reel-to-reel tapes which are stumbled upon 60-years after they were recorded.
Using archival video and sound, (A)loft Modulation will bring 821 6th Ave back to life for a few hours each night.
“If you want to know what’s wrong with this country go ask a jazz musician.”
"This quote recorded at 821 6th Ave in the 1950’s is the guiding thesis of (A)loft Modulation,” says McElroen. “In an American moment that is seeking to turn back the clock of progress, Jaymes Jorsling’s play brings us to a specific American moment where hard fought change, progress and a ‘new frontier’ seemed possible, where art and culture were a vital part of societal fabric, and where the integrity of that was sacred–until it wasn’t.”
Jaymes Jorsling was a 2016-17 Artist-in-Residence at Brown University. There, he worked on his play trilogy "...Insufficient Funds..." named from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream Speech. (The trilogy addresses where America is headed, unless fairness and freedom become as inalienable as they are obliged to be). In 2015 he was commissioned by Duke University to write the script for multi Grammy nominee Gerald Clayton's sprawling oeuvre Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation (the piece is now touring internationally). Jaymes is currently a staff writer for TheTruthPodcast.com. He has workshopped his writings with Classical Theatre of Harlem, LAByrinth Theatre Company, HIP-HOP Theater Festival, New Federal, Inneract Productions, etc. He is a 4x finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights' Conference, and was a fellow there in 2010. He has been a finalist for the LARK's Playwrights Week and was nominated for their prestigious PONY award. He's won Best Screenplay at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. As an actor, Jaymes has also appeared on “The Wire,” “The Affair,” “Law & Order,” and more, as well as having done voice-overs for Nike, New Balance, Ford Escort, Dunkin' Donuts, Champs Sports, and others.
Christopher McElroen is a Brooklyn based media producer and director and the Founding Artistic Director of the american vicarious. Most recently, Christopher developedPiedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation in collaboration with four-time Grammy Award nominee, Gerald Clayton. Christopher received a 2013 Helen Hayes Award for his direction of the world premiere stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s iconic novel Invisible Man. Alongside visual artist Paul Chan and Creative Time, Christopher co-produced and directedWaiting for Godot in New Orleans, a yearlong community development through the arts initiative in post-Katrina New Orleans. The project was recognized by The New York Timesas one of the top ten national art events of 2007. The archives from the production have been acquired into the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and were on exhibit at MOMA May 2010 through September 2011. Christopher had the honor of directing the world-premiere of 51st (dream) State, the final work of poet, musician and activist Sekou Sundiata. 51st (dream) State was a multimedia exploration of American empire that premiered in New York at The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival before touring internationally. Christopher co-founded the acclaimed Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) where from 1999 – 2009 he produced 41 productions yielding 18 AUDELCO Awards, 6 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, a Drama Desk Award and CTH being named "1 of 8 theatres in America to Watch" by the Drama League.
Jonathan Beshay is a jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer who says that there's no other agenda when his group takes the bandstand. Fortunately for audiences, Beshay likes to hear good music. After many years of performing and listening, the result is an adaptable, energetic, fearlessly hard-swinging sound that pulls from a vast body of musical sources. Beshay has no trouble moving from the street-band wailing of traditional jazz to the intricate post-bop melodies of a Joe Henderson tune. It's all fair game, “. . . as long as it sounds good!” In addition to his own musical projects, Beshay has also served as musical director for both Winard Harper and his brother Philip Harper through tours at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, and the Omani Royal Opera House. He also spent time in New Orleans with Delfayo Marsalis, and has performed with many other masters including Eric Reed, Anthony Wonsey, and Frank Lacy.
the american vicarious, under Artistic Director Christopher McElroen, Producing Director Erica Laird and Executive Producer Tony Micocci, was formally incorporated in 2018. the american vicarious is committed to producing creative content across disciplinary boundaries that aspires to reflect on America’s ideals and realities, and that which unites and divides its people. Their inaugural year, 2019, will include Gerald Clayton’s concert installation Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation, and Sherief Elkatsha’s documentary film Far From the Nile in addition to Jaymes Jorsling’s (A)loft Modulation.
A.R.T./New York Theatres are a project of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York), which provide state-of-the-art, accessible venues at subsidized rental rates, plus free access to top-line technical equipment, so that the city’s small and emerging theatre companies can continue to experiment, grow, and produce new works. Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York is the leading service and advocacy organization for New York City’s 400+ nonprofit theatres, with a mission to assist member theatres in managing their companies effectively so that they may realize their rich artistic visions and serve their diverse audiences well. We accomplish this through a comprehensive roster of real estate, financial, educational, and community-building programs, as well as research, advocacy, and field-wide initiatives that seek to improve the long-term health and sustainability of the industry. Over the years, A.R.T./New York has received numerous honors, including an Obie Award, an Innovative Theatre Award, a New York City Mayor’s Award for Arts & Culture, and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. For more information, please visit www.art-newyork.org.
Performances for (A)loft Modulation will be Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 7pm, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2pm (Note that Sunday Oct 27th’s matinee will begin at 1pm) at A.R.T./NY Theatres, 502 West 53rd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.
Tickets, which are $35-$55, may be purchased online atwww.theamericanvicarious.org or by calling 1-866-811-4111.
INTAR Announces the Creation of The Max Ferrá Directing Fellowship
INTAR
Announces the Creation of
The Max Ferrá Directing Fellowship
Named for INTAR Founder and Seminal Force in Latino Theater,
Max Ferrá
INTAR (Lou Moreno, Artistic Director/John McCormack, Executive Director) is proud to announce that Max Ferrá, founding Artistic Director of INTAR, will be memorialized with the The Max Ferrá Directing Fellowship, generously funded by the Peg Santvoord Foundation.
The M.F.D.F. is an annual fellowship given to an emerging Latinx director. INTAR defines “emerging” as an early career director, post graduate, although university study is not a requirement. INTAR Theater will be working closely with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society to provide Fellows with an introduction to the professional union, including a full one year associate membership. The fellowship seeks to identify an exceptional emerging Latinx director annually that best represents the passion and courage of Max Ferra and his vision for the American theater.
The Fellowship is named for INTAR’s founder Max Ferrá who died in 2017. He founded INTAR in 1966 to provide opportunities for Spanish speaking actors and directors. Although not conceived as an organization for social change, it quickly came to realize its responsibility as part of New York’s Hispanic community. By 1968 INTAR began providing free classes in acting, diction, dance and make-up, culminating with at least one full production by students each year. An effort was made to include different genres: in addition to theater, there was an art gallery, Cinema INTAR showcasing Latin American films, and a late night Café INTAR, offering free form entertainment.
In an effort to reach a wider audience, INTAR began concentrating on English language performances in 1975. In 1981 the Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Lab was created to develop new voices, mentored by Maria Irene Fornés. The Hispanic Music Theater Lab was created in the same mode to create musical compositions by Hispanic playwrights, lyricists, and composers. By 1985 INTAR was commissioning new works from such writers as Fernando Arrabal, Manuel Puig, Fornés, Tito Puente, and Luis Valdez, among others. These works were performed in English, a tradition that continues at INTAR to this day, offering works to the widest possible audience.
"Max Ferrá imbued in those around him — and his charisma was such that there were always people around him — a fierce sense of passion for beauty. Beauty that shook you out of your received assumptions. Be the work tragic or comic, his concern was with beauty as a political act, as resistance, and also as radically individual expression. He aspired to fully live this passion, and succeeded to a remarkable degree. In a real sense, the play or performance in question mattered less than one’s passionate commitment to making a piece of theatre with fervid, vital life—commitment to using the banal stuff of life, our bodies, voices, feelings, fears, and hopes in service of making something greater, more fully lived, more acutely experienced, than could be achieved in everyday life. His ideals were such that he had no patience for theatre that did not reach this level, and even less for anyone he perceived as not aspiring toward this goal,” said Michael John Garcés, longtime INTAR artist and SDC Board member.
Each year a panel of INTAR artists will select a candidate to serve as a fellow for the season. Each Fellow will receive $2000 cash award, will participate in a NewWorks Lab developing a new play, and serve an Assistant Directorship on INTAR’s Spring mainstage Off-Broadway production. Interested directors must submit a resume and artistic statement along with a digital link to examples of their work. Fellow must be a NYC resident or be able to relocate to NY for a year from January 1st 2020 to December 31st 2020.
Submissions should be sent, beginning September 1st through November 30th toMaxfellowship2019@intartheatre.org. Fellows who are selected will be notified by December 15th.
INTAR, one of the United States' longest running Latino theatres producing in English, works to:
Nurture the professional development of Latino theater artists;
Produce bold, innovative, artistically significant plays that reflect diverse perspectives;
Make accessible the diversity inherent in America's cultural heritage through an integrated program of workshops, productions of works-in-progress, and mainstage productions. INTAR brings to the public vital and energetic voices of emerging and accomplished Latino theater professionals, giving expression to the diversity and depth of today's Latino-American community.
For more information on The Max Ferra Directing Fellowship and all the programs at INTAR, visit INTAR online at www.intartheatre.org.
Keen Company Announces Its 20th Season
Drama Desk and Obie Award-Winning
Keen Company
Announces Its 20th Season:
1996 Drama Critics’ Circle Award Winner
Molly Sweeney
by Brian Friel
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Limited Engagement Begins October 8th
and
The NY Premiere of
Blues for an Alabama Sky
by Pearl Cleage
Directed by LA Williams
“Cleage writes with amazing grace and killer instinct.” - New York Times
Limited Engagement Begins February 4th
Season Subscriptions on Sale Now!
Box Office Opens Monday August 19th
Today Keen Company Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein announced his plans for the upcoming season, Keen’s 20th: “In 2000 Keen was born with a belief that there was a place for theatre that was generous in spirit and provoked identification. Twenty years later I am proud to say the dream founder Carl Forsman began is still relevant and necessary. This year we will mark our 20th Season by producing two plays about the complications of chasing a dream, set in two very different times and places. In the fall we will produce a revival of Brian Friel’s gorgeous play Molly Sweeney, the story about a woman blind since infancy who is urged on by her husband and doctor to get an operation that will change her life forever. I have loved this play for many years; and in a time when we are all discussing the right of choice, Molly Sweeney is incredibly timely.
“In the spring, we will produce the New York premiere of Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky, the story of five friends navigating changing and challenging times. The play asks modern questions about survival, aspiration, and women’s healthcare. Blues for An Alabama Sky has been popularly produced around the country for the past 25 years. I am thrilled to bring this play to New York, where it is set, for the very first time,” said Silverstein.
Performances for the limited Off-Broadway engagement of Molly Sweeney, directed by Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein, will begin Tuesday, October 8th, and continue through November 16th only, with opening night set for Wednesday October 23rd. Cast and design team to be announced shortly.
Having lost her sight at infancy, Molly Sweeney knows the world through touch, sound, taste, and smell. When her hopeful husband and ambitious doctor propose an operation to restore her sight, Molly and those around her begin to understand that things may not all be as they appear. Brian Friel, Ireland’s master storyteller (Dancing at Lughnasa, Faith Healer, Translations) creates a riveting contemporary drama about the unexpected consequences of a medical miracle. “Molly Sweeney is an astonishing work… A deeply moving meditation on hope, change and despair” declared The New York Times.
From one of Ireland’s best living playwrights, this striking piece of dramatic writing is a daring piece of theater. Keeping the play’s three characters on stage at all times to speak directly to the audience, Brian Friel presents three points of view to the same intriguing tale. Each of their voices interweaves, threading in and out with details, spinning a lush and sensate narrative, and carrying us effortlessly to an unexpected and poignant conclusion. Deceptively simple, yet richly multilayered—combining both an insightful story about the way we perceive our existence with an allegory for our times — Molly Sweeney is an Irish storyteller’s art to create an unforgettable theater piece, painting scenery and rousing emotions with nothing more than the simple purity of beautifully rendered words.
Writing in The New York Times, longtime critic Vincent Canby said “Brian Friel has been recognized as Ireland's greatest living playwright almost since the first production ofPhiladelphia, Here I Come! in Dublin in 1964. In succeeding years, he has dazzled us with plays that speak in a language of unequaled poetic beauty and intensity. Such dramas asTranslations, Dancing at Lughnasa and Wonderful Tennessee, among others, have given him a privileged place in our theater.
Later this season, Keen will present the limited Off-Broadway engagement of Blues for an Alabama Sky, beginning Tuesday February 4th. Performances will continue through Saturday March 14th only, with opening night set for Wednesday February 18th. Cast and design team will be announced shortly.
Keen is honored to bring this well-loved play to New York for the first time. Playwright Pearl Cleage (Flyin’ West and Oprah Book Club selection What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day) tells a strikingly timely story about four friends whose lives and passions collide when an innocent newcomer from Alabama arrives in Harlem during summer of 1930, as the promises of the Harlem Renaissance are being swept away by the Great Depression. Now, after captivating audiences around the world, Keen is proud to bringBlues for An Alabama Sky to New York for the first time since its premiere 25 years ago. The Guardian said Blues for An Alabama Sky is “a riveting picture of Harlem at a moment of historic transition.” Variety agreed, calling it “a compelling insight into personalities and prejudices”
“The story of Blues for An Alabama Sky arrived while I was driving with my husband, Zeke, through rural Alabama one cool, clear night when the stars were so thick I hung my head out the window like a dog so I could take it all in. For weeks after we got back to Atlanta, I couldn't stop wondering what it would be like to leave those stars behind and have to settle for the artificial lights of the big city. Now, 25 years later, Angel and Doc and Guy and Leland and Delia will finally have a chance to walk around Manhattan and see how they like it. It is an honor for me to have this play make it's New York debut as part of the Keen Company's 20th Season and to have these characters come to life here under the direction of LA Williams who loves them almost as much as I do. Almost,” said Cleage
Pearl Cleage, an award-winning playwright, bestselling novelist, published poet and popular newspaper columnist, has earned praise from critics and from her peers for her passionate writing across several genres. An incredibly multifaceted talent, Cleage offers a fresh perspective on the universal themes of cultural enrichment, social identity and the power of love. With the rhythms of Black life as her muse, she focuses on the experiences of love, sex and female empowerment that she sees as vital to the African American community. As The New York Times said “Cleage writes with amazing grace and killer instinct.” Cleage has a way with both character and language. Widely regarded for her collection of plays, her play Flyin’ West was the most produced new play in the country in 1994 and has enjoyed multiple productions every year following its world premiere. She is also the author of many best-selling books, including What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Seen It All and Done the Rest and Just Wanna Testify. Most recently, Cleage published her memoir, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies Lessons and Love Affairs, giving readers an insight into her world and personal journey. An important advocate for women, Pearl’s work speaks to women from all walks of life. Her poem, “We Speak Your Names,” co-authored with husband, Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., provided the centerpiece of Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Weekend honoring 25 extraordinary African American women. Cleage’s 1990 collection of essays and performance pieces Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Truth, is a classic among those working to end violence against women. Mad at Miles has been adapted for the stage and is frequently performed around the country.
Keen Company creates theater that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, we tell wholehearted stories about people striving to do their best and the decisive moments that change us. Keen has been honored with eleven Drama Desk nominations, two Drama Desk Awards, two Drama League nominations, and two Obie Awards.
All performances will be at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) and will be Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7pm; Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday matinees at 3pm. All tickets will be $65 with premium tickets available for $80. (All ticket prices include restoration fees.)
A subscription package for both shows of the season is only $100 which includes unlimited exchange privileges, invitations to Keen Company readings, and admission to Keen Teens Festival of New Work! Save over 35% off full ticket price (a $160.00 value). Subscribers also get free invitations to Keen’s Play Club discussion series, discounts on the purchase of Keen’s cast recordings of Keen’s productions of Marry Me a Little and John & Jen, as well as advance notice and discounted tickets to The Playwrights Lab Series, and Keen Company’s Annual Gala.
Keen patrons 30 or under see both shows for just $25 each with a KEENConnect Subscription at only $50. That's all the perks of a regular subscription for the price of a rush ticket! Save over 65% off the full ticket price! (Please note, a valid government issued ID must be presented at the box office).
Subscriptions are on sale NOW! Please visit keencompany.org/subscribe for more info.
Single tickets to Molly Sweeney and Blues for an Alabama Sky will go on sale Monday August 19th. To purchase single tickets, visit the Theatre Row Box Office (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), order online at Telecharge.com, or order by phone at 212-239-6200.
For more information, visit KeenCompany.org.