Entertainment
What to Watch in The New Year: April 8
John Cullum: An Accidental Star Two-time Tony winner stars in a streaming production of his new solo show that features songs and stories from his six-decade career. Audiences can watch the production through April 22.
Please Welcome Our Guest MTC’s virtual Snapshot Series continues with Please Welcome Our Guest, a personality test/performance piece, written and facilitated by Liza Birkenmeier and directed by Trish Harnetiaux.
In Please Welcome Our Guest, Liza Birkenmeier, a playwright without a personality, gives you a personality assessment. With the help of a surprise guest star and an experimental survey, maybe she’ll guide you toward a better understanding of your unique self.
Not sure when you want to attend? Consider letting your personality type guide you!
Thursday, April 8 @ 7:30pm ET – for the go-getters
**Friday, April 9 @ 4:00pm ET – for quiet people
**Friday, April 9 @ 6:00pm ET – for loud and medium-loud people
Saturday, April 10 @ 8:00am ET – for morning people
**Saturday, April 10 @ 12:30pm ET – for lunch is the worst meal
Saturday, April 10 @ 11:00pm ET – for night owls
Sunday, April 11 @ 11:00am ET – for water signs
**Sunday, April 11 @ 12:00pm ET – for air signs
Sunday, April 11 @ 1:00pm ET – for fire signs
Sunday, April 11 @ 2:00pm ET – for earth signs
**These performances will include English Open Captions.
Row Grace McLean (above), John Ellison Conlee, Tamika Lawrence, John McGinty and more star in the world premiere of this musical. With a book by Daniel Goldstein and music and lyrics by Dawn Landes, Row is inspired by A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure and is part of the partnership between Williamstown Theatre Festival and Audible Theater.
12pm and 4pm: Anna Deavere Smith Kicks Off Lincoln Center Series Acclaimed performer, playwright, author and professor Anna Deavere Smith begins a three-part series with a conversation with Dr. Christopher Emdin. Set to run through April 10, Smith also delivers a keynote talk with a Q&A to follow as well as a performance of her piece By One Route, and By Another.
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6pm: “The Women” by L Morgan Lee and raja feather kelly featuring work by Kirsten Childs, Dane Figueroa Edidi, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Christine Toy Johnson, Bianca Leigh, Carmen LoBue, and Nia Witherspoon, is presented by Ars Nova.
What does it mean to be a woman? What are the societal and gender expectations put on women? What are the obstacles? What are the beauty standards? Why is it so commonly through the eyes of men that women are defined? What does sisterhood look like? What happens when you allow women to tell their own stories? show their own truth? share their own light?
Actress L Morgan Lee and raja feather kelly ask a group of writers from a variety of backgrounds, identities, and experiences to ponder on this. This is a look in at a rehearsal of the first step in the development of a play, based around these conversations.
6pm: Classic Conversations: Jon Batiste By Classic Stage Company Classic Stage Company continues its free, online version of their discussion series Classic Conversations, hosted by Artistic Director John Doyle.
6pm: Reverb Theatre Arts Festival through May 20th. Reverb Theatre Arts Festival presents the voices of artists with disabilities on the virtual stage. Artists from around the country submitted their works of original theatre—monologue, spoken word, dance, or music—based on creative prompts on the theme of Connection. The work is the result of twenty-four collaborations between Participating Artists and Collaborating Artists.
7pm: Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene Cabaret superstar Ute Lemper revives her acclaimed show Rendezvous with Marlene virtually after its debut in London in 2019. Based on the true story of a phone call Ute received by the film legend 35 years ago in France.
Directed by Daniel Nardicio, Rendezvous with Marlene includes some of Marlene’s most beautiful songs and telling some captivating secrets of her life shared during the three hour-plus call.
7:30pm: Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini The music of early–20th-century Italian composer Francesco Zandonai has largely been forgotten—with the exception of this expansive 1914 opera based on an episode from Dante’s Inferno. The melodramatic plot concerns an affair between the title character and the handsome brother of a cruel and disfigured warlord, to whom she is betrothed. Their dalliance leads to the predictable violent and tragic end, but not before Zandonai makes his case for increased recognition with a surfeit of sumptuous, luxuriously orchestrated music.
8pm: Stars in the House Nancy Rudetsky’s Birthday Celebration!! We are celebrating Seth’s sister with guests Mandy Gonzalez, Judy Kuhn, Jack Plotnick, Randy Rainbow, Marc Shaiman and Miranda Sings.
8pm: Glee Remembers Naya Rivera at GLAAD Media Awards The virtual presentation of the 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards and will feature a reunion of stars of the musical comedy series Glee.
The appearance marks the tenth anniversary of the character Santana Lopez’s coming out on the series. The tribute will spotlight the character, played by the late Naya Rivera, including her impact on LGBTQIA+ teens and Latinx LGBTQIA+ representation on television.
Demi Lovato, who played Santana’s girlfriend on the show, will introduce the special tribute featuring cast members Jacob Artist, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Vanessa Lengies, Jane Lynch, Kevin McHale, Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison, Alex Newell, Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr., Becca Tobin, and Jenna Ushkowitz.
Neicy Nash hosts the ceremony, which will also include appearances from Broadway alums Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Colman Domingo, Anthony Rapp, and Robin de Jesús.
8pm: Angry Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous Sister duo Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad will star in an upcoming virtual reading of Pearl Cleage’s Angry Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous as part of Spotlight on Play’s spring lineup. Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown will direct, with Heather Alicia Simms and Alicia Stith co-starring.
8pm: PEN America Literary Awards Off-Broadway favorite Kara Young (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, All the Natalie Portmans, The New Englanders) will host the 57th annual PEN America Literary Awards ceremony.
Award recipients were previously announced, with George C. Wolfe and Daniel Alexander Jones both earning honors for dramatic writing.
9pm: Fostering Futures Kristin Chenoweth and Lindsay Heather Pearce appear at the Boys & Girls Aid’s 5th annual Fostering Futures fundraising event to support foster care children.
9pm: 5 Questions with James and JAM Obie Award winners James Jackson, Jr. and John-Andrew Morrison from Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning off-Broadway musical A Strange Loop are hosting a new virtual talk show, 5 Questions with James and JAM, streamed through their website, YouTube channel, and Facebook page.
Amour, Starring Derrick Baskin, Adam Pascal, Christiani Pitts, More Be a part of our Playbill Opening Night Celebration for the virtual revival of Amour. Join host Felicia Fitzpatrick who will take us to the “red carpet” to talk to the stars of the show and hear from behind the scenes how this special event was inspired and came together. Beyond the show, enjoy the party with tips on cooking your own French meal and learn a bit about wine.
Ailey All Access: Blues Suite Ailey All Access releases a recorded performance of Blues Suite from 1985 PBS Great Performances.
“Blood memories” of rural, Depression-era southern Texas, come to life in Blues Suite, which launched Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 and defined Alvin Ailey’s choreographic genius of presenting real people on the concert dance stage. With the rumble of a train and the toll of distant bells, a cast of vividly-drawn characters from the barrelhouses and fields of his Texas childhood are summoned to dance and revel through one long, sultry night.
Ailey’s classic is set to songs of lost love, despair, and protest, expressing the sorrow, humor, and humanity of the blues, the heartfelt music that he called “hymns to the secular regions of the soul.”
Home Sweet Homeland, a one-act play by presents Joanna Rush Amas Musical Theatre
Trapped in a building across the street from the World Trade Center on 9/11, Home Sweet Homeland is the story of a family and the Angel of Stand-Up Comedy who watches over them. Based on Joanna Rush’s own experience, they work to take control of their lives and find a way back to the new normal.
Directed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, the cast features Jonathan Brody (A Bronx Tale, Amazing Grace), Robert Cuccioli (Jekylll & Hyde, Les Miserables), James Rana (The Band’s Visit, The Government Inspector), Laila Robins (The Herbal Bed, The Apple Family Plays), Joanna Rush (KICK!, Accidental Mummies), Chuja Seo, Sophia Stzougros and Mia Mei Williamson (Once on This Island). The stage manager is Brian Lawton. The assistant stage manager Benjamin A. Vigil. Casting by Carol Hanzel.
Registration is free, but required.
Manahatta This 2018 world premiere by playwright, activist, and attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle illuminates the consequences of commercial exploits, including the removal of the Lenape people and the attempted eradication of their culture that gave rise to the America we know today.
This Oregon Shakespeare Festival production is directed by Laurie Woolery.
Lilies, or The Revival of a Romantic Drama The Drama Company NYC presents a revival of Lilies, or The Revival of a Romantic Drama by Michel Marc Bouchrd with English translation by Linda Gaboriau, and direction by Andrew Benvenuti.
Lilies will be seen in New York City for the first time in nearly twenty years—staged outdoors and recorded live to be streamed on demand.
Set against a backdrop of revenge, obsession, and love, Lilies tells the story of Simon Doucet, recently released from prison after serving a 30-year sentence for a crime he did not commit. He arranges a private meeting with his former school friend, Jean Bilodeau, now a powerful Bishop. Simon and his friends, all former prison inmates, revisit the harrowing events that occurred during their final year at St. Sebastian’s school for boys.
The cast of Lilies features an all-male ensemble with Michael Walls as Simon 1952/Timothee Ducet; Andreas Pilitsakis as Bishop Bilodeau; Jason Schlaman as Simon Ducet 1912; Florimond Le Goupil-Maier as Count Vallier De Tilly; Dylan C. Wack as Jean Bilodeau; Bill Morton as Countess Marie-Laure de Tilly; J.P. Ross as Lydie Anne De Rozier; Drew Paton as Father St. Michael and Baron De Hue; and Grant Hale as Baroness De Hue.
The Thanksgiving Play Spotlight on Plays returns with Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, directed by Leigh Silverman. The cast features Tony nominees Heidi Schreck and Bobby Cannavale, along with Keanu Reeves and Alia Shawkat.
Whiterock Cliff Goode Productions presents a streaming production of Ryan McCurdy’s one-man Off-Broadway musical Whiterock Cliff will be performed live at New York’s Funkadelic Studios for a five-week virtual run.
The show features a book by Ryan McCurdy and Ellie Pyle, music and lyrics by McCurdy, and directed by Mary Chieffo.
Whiterock Cliff weaves together memory, music, mental health, the creative process, the stories we tell ourselves, and the ones we tell to each other.
This act is performed live each night with the permission of Actors’ Equity from a Times Square studio with one performer, three cameras, and eight musical instruments.
Prometheus Bound By The Tank Through the prism of racial and gender injustice, Prometheus Bound is a protest against the discrepancy between what’s legal and what’s right, against oppression veiled as order.
Director Ran Xia sets Howard Rubenstein’s adaptation of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound against a backdrop of the tumultuous American socio-political climate. Prometheus Bound is fully designed and staged for an audience of no one in The Tank’s 98-seat theater. Instead, it is captured for the screen by Iris Media Works as a purely cinematic experience, with masks, original music and deeply compelling performances of the late Rubenstein’s visionary text.
The cast for Prometheus Bound includes Sophia Aranda, Juan Arturo, Olivia Rose Barresi, Chloe Simone Crawford, Brenda Crawley, Iván
Wish You Were Here: The world premiere of Sanaz Toossi’s new work releases as part of the partnership between Williamstown Theatre Festival and Audible Theater. Nikki Massoud, Marjan Neshat, Nazanin Nour, Artemis Pebdani, and Roxanna Hope Radja star in the podcast production directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch.
Breaking the Waves LA Opera and Opera Philadelphia co-present an online stream ofBreaking the Waves, an opera by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek that was previously scheduled to open on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage this month. Available through April 12.
The opera is a faithful adaption of Lars von Trier’s extraordinary 1996 film, in which a devout young woman deciphers the meaning of fidelity, facing the condemnation of her church as she puts herself through a series of dangerous sexual encounters. With its intense subject matter, violence, language and nudity, the production is recommended for mature audiences only.
Breaking the Waves was filmed during its world premiere production at Opera Philadelphia in 2016. For the 2021 stream, director James Darrah, who staged that production, presents a remastered release of that recording, featuring color correction by cinematographer and colorist Michael Thomas, remastered sound from George Blood Audio, and a new edit from Active Image Media.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Lincoln Center offers a streamed recording of Christopher Durang’s Tony-winning play, which stars Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen, Billy Magnussen and Shalita Grant. The comedy transports characters and themes from Chekhov’s work to present day Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where siblings receive a visit from their sister and her 20-something boy toy Spike.
Gutenberg! The Musical! A newly filmed presentation of Gutenberg! The Musical!, starring Bobby Conte Thornton and Alex Prakken, will stream as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The performance, recorded by Pierre Marais at Open Jar Studios, features piano accompaniment by Andrew Callahan and choreography by Kaitlyn Frank.
The musical follows two aspiring playwrights, Bud and Doug, as they attempt to secure producers for their new musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. The pair sing all the songs and play all the parts in the hope of a Broadway contract.
The Sound Inside Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman reprise their roles in this audio production of Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside, which earned six Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, for its 2019 Broadway run.
Romeo y Julieta Lupita Nyong’o and Juan Castano star in this free bilingual audioplay of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, presented by the Public Theater and WNYC Studios.
Lights on the Radio Tower Originally developed at the Adirondack Theatre Festival and Bloomington Playwrights Project, this thrilling two-hander rock musical tells the story of Molly and Jesse, a brother and sister who, after eighteen years apart, reunite at their decaying childhood home following the death of their father. The estranged rock duo’s competing recollections of their childhood, their last night together, and their final gig force them to face the painful truth of their past.
La Femme Theatre Productions: The Night of the Iguana The show will feature Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Dylan McDermott (Netflix’s “Hollywood”) as Reverend Shannon, Emmy nominee and Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad (Broadway’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) as Maxine, Roberta Maxwell (Broadway’s Summer and Smoke) as Judith Fellowes, Tony nominee, Obie and Drama Desk Award winner Austin Pendleton (Broadway’s Choir Boy) as Nonno, and Jean Lichty (Off-Broadway’s A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, The Traveling Lady) as Hannah, with Keith Randolph Smith (Broadway’s Jitney, American Psycho) as Jake, Carmen Berkeley (Off-Broadway’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord) as Charlotte, Eliud Kauffman (Roundabout Theatre’s 72 Miles to Go) as Hank, Julio Macias (Netflix’s “On My Block”) as Pancho, Stephanie Schmiderer (No Exit, The Human Voice) as Frau Fahrenkopf, Bradley James Tejeda (Broadway’s The Inheritance) as Pedro, and John Hans Tester (Amazon’s ”Hunters” ) as Herr Fahrenkopf.
The New York Pops Up Festival a thousand in-person performances throughout the state from now through June. Most events associated with NY PopsUp will be unannounced (and unticketed) and will be designed so that New Yorkers happen upon them in their everyday lives. (Since we can’t have large gatherings right now, we want to bring a lot of small things to the public where they are) NY PopsUp is a surprise that you happen upon, rather than an event or concert you are alerted to via a notification or a schedule.
Julius Caesar, Starring Patrick Page By Shakespeare@ Tony nominee Patrick Page (Hadestown) stars in the title role with Jordan Barbour (The Inheritance) as Brutus and Keith Hamilton Cobb (American Moor) as Cassius. West End Harry Potter and the Cursed Child performers Jamie Ballard and James Howard co-star as Mark Antony and Metellus Cimber, respectively.
The production is also be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.
Produced by Jersey City’s Shakespeare@, this audio production is the third installment of the season, produced and adapted by Artistic Director Sean Hagerty.
Hagerty has crafted the production into four weekly parts and partnered with the Emmy-winning team at Sonic Designs to capture the lost art and thrill of radio drama all without leaving the confines of quarantine.
Julius Caesar features original music composed by Joan Melton with sound design by the Emmy-winning team of Dan Gerhard and Ellen Fitton of Sonic Designs. Justin Goldner is the music producer and supervisor, and casting is by Robin Carus. Sydney Steele serves as the associate producer.
Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera In the award-winning documentary, Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera, opera’s hallowed traditions and America’s cowboy culture converge to celebrate the collaborative power of art. The documentary details the creative process of all artists involved in live theatre onstage and backstage.
Zane Grey is read by Peter Coyote, with performances by shining young opera stars, Karin Wolverton, Morgan Smith, Laura Wilde, Joshua Dennis, Joshua Jeremiah, Keith Phares, and Kristopher Irmiter.
Paradise Blue Dominique Morisseau’s play premieres as part of the partnership between Williamstown Theatre Festival and Audible Theater. Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Paradise Bluestars André Holland (above), Kristolyn Lloyd, Simone Missick, Keith Randolph Smith and 2020 Tony nominee Blair Underwood.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice By Southwark Playhouse The Sorcerer’s Apprentice gets an encore on-demand run. The pay-per-view stream will be available until April 11.
Assassins Reunion: Original Off-Broadway Cast The original cast and creative team of the 1991 Off-Broadway debut of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Tony-winning Assassins will reunite virtually to celebrate the musical’s 30th anniversary.
The free online event is part of the Studio Tenn Talks: Conversations with Patrick Cassidy series and will feature Studio Tenn Artistic Director Cassidy as well as other original cast members Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, William Parry, and Lee Wilkof plus Sondheim and Weidman, director Jerry Zaks, musical director Paul Gemignani, and orchestrator Michael Starobin.
SuperYou Musical the new musical that last year pivoted from its traditional opening to a drive-in concert in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, is now heading online. A filmed version of the drive-in presentation will stream on Broadway On Demand
The musical, penned by Lourds Lane, tells the story of a woman and her superheroine creations that suddenly come to life, reminding her of the power of her own voice.
Prior to the 8 PM stream, Playbill will host a virtual red carpet event, with interviews with the cast and creative team. A digital afterparty will also take place at 9 PM.
An Iliad (Streaming) Court Theater. A film of the site-specific production at Chicago’s Oriental Institute by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare.
The Things Are Against Us Susan Soon He Stanton’s The Things Are Against Us will be the next production in MCC’s LiveLab one-act digital reading series. Ellie Heyman directs the cast, which includes Juan Castano, Emily Davis, Susannah Flood, Babak Tafti, and Danny Wolohan, in tthe play set in a mysterious house with a mind of its own.
John Lithgow, Daniel Breaker, More Sing Adam Guettel’s Myths & Hymns (Episode 2) By MasterVoices The central project of MasterVoices’ 2020-2021 season will be a virtual rollout of award-winning composer Adam Guettel’s theatrical song cycle, Myths and Hymns, in an online staging conceived by Ted Sperling.
SoHo Playhouse Presents Typical Soho Theatre and Nouveau Riche present the world premiere of Typical, the film version of the stage play, released exclusively on Soho Theatre On Demand
Written by Ryan Calais Cameron and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, Typical uncovers the man and the humanity behind the tragic true-life events of Black British ex-serviceman Christopher Alder and the injustice that still remains twenty years since his story emerged.
Fully Committed Stage and screen star Maulik Pancholy stars in George Street Playhouse’s production of Becky Mode’s solo comedy, which is available to watch through April 11.
The Manic Monologues Current Slave Play Tony nominee Ato Blankson-Wood, Rent Tony winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Accidentally Brave playwright Maddie Corman, and more stage favorites will explore mental health this winter in a new digital production from the McCarter Theatre Center.
The Manic Monologues debuts February 18 with 21 true-life monologues that users can explore at their own pace and through an interactive element virtually respond to.
Simply Sondheim Signature Theater of Arlington. Available through April 16. Thirty Sondheim songs performed by a 16-piece orchestra and a dozen singers, including Norm Lewis, Emily Skinner, Solea Pfeiffer and Conrad Ricamora
Directed by Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason, Napoleon in Exile stars Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek and Will Dagger as mother and son. After the performance, the artists join host Claudia Catania to discuss writing for actors and bringing theater chops to the world of sitcom TV.
“Will you join us?” This is the compelling question asked within the new Broadway adaptation of Life of Pi by an engaging young man who has just survived a trauma more intense than any of us, most likely, could imagine, let alone survive. He has wound up in a Mexican hospital room and is being asked, most insistently, to tell his story to two interested parties; a representative of the Canadian Embassy, Lulu Chen, played strongly by Kirstin Louie (PBS’s “Endeavour“), and a representative of the shipping company, Mr. Okamoto, captivatingly portrayed by Daisuke Tsuji (“Invasion“), who are not exactly on the same exact page. Or share the same interest.
Hiran Abeysekera, Mahira Kakkar, and the company of Broadway’s Life of Pi. Photo by Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.
Crawling out from underneath, the boy, exceptionally well played by Hiran Abeysekera (RSC’s Hamlet), tells them that his name is Pi and that he has “had a terrible trip,” which is the understatement of the Broadway season. All this, just before the stage swells and crashes forward most majestically into a world that draws us in most completely. The transformations, and I definitely mean each and everyone, are utterly magnificent and awe-inspiring, but that first one tells us so much, but not all, about the voyage we have all signed up for, pretty much in the same way that The Lion King found its way to overwhelm our senses back in the day. But this play and this production are just so much more than all that. It delivers in a way that must be seen to be believed, as the stage moves, flows, opens, and emotes in the most astounding of ways, leaving you tantalized at almost every turn.
Butterflies and giraffes emerge, drawing us into a zoo so small that it can fit inside Pi’s head, as this exceptionally well-crafted production, based most lovingly on the award-winning novel by Yann Martel (Beatrice and Virgil), invites us into a visual that is outrageously tender yet profoundly beautiful. Adapted most engagingly by Lolita Chakrabarti (Red Velvet), this epic journey through the ocean is both surprisingly gorgeous in its delivery and emotionally gut-punching in its connection. We begin to see as we are instructed, and feel the way the weight and depths of the tragedy that unfolds.
A cargo ship sets out from India, filled with an assortment of wild caged animals from the zoo, alongside Pi’s tender and gloriously embodied family. Their destination is Canada, where Pi’s father, played with wise warm by Rajesh Bose (RTC’s Indian Ink), hopes to create a more safe life for the whole menagerie. They are escaping the violent unrest in their homeland, but when a storm comes somewhere in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, far from any land that might save them, the escape becomes something quite the opposite, leaving the sweet-natured sixteen-year-old boy stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors, a hungry hyena, a broken zebra, a protective orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The story is fantastical, and utterly hard to believe, Mr. Okamoto tells Pi. This straight-laced all-business man from Japan requires the true story, not this manufactured one. He needs to know the details of the sinking of the ship. The ‘whys’ and the ‘hows’ and as directed most beautifully by the wondrously talented Max Webster (Regent’s Park’s Antigone), the “better” story that is given astounds, just like it did within the pages of the Man Booker Prize-winning book. Walking in, knowing the book, one of the most pronounced questions that floated around my curious mind was how were they going to tell this complicated tale. Would it work on the stage? Would we believe in the tale we are being told?
The simple answer is yes, most assuredly and most magically. And that, no surprise here, is due to the fine cast that has been assembled, including Brian Thomas Abraham (West End/Broadway’s Harry Potter…) as the Cook/Voice of Richard Parker; Avery Glymph (Broadway’s The Skin of Our Teeth) as Father Martin/Russian Sailor/Admiral Jackson; Mahira Kakkar (“The Blacklist“) as Nurse, Amma, Orange Juice; Salma Qarnain (off-Broadway’s Acquittal) as Mrs. Biology Kumar/Zaida Khan; Sathya Sridharan (NYTW’s An Ordinary Muslim); and Sonya Venugopal (NCT’s Annie) as Rani, as well as the others already mentioned. They bring a level of connectivity that radiates out, filling our collective hearts with understanding and love.
The emotional engagement is phenomenal in its weight and how well the tale resonates across the ocean and the stage, but none of that would work as well as it does if not for the phenomenal talent of the whole production/design team, namely; the breathtaking scenic and costume design by Tim Hatley (West End/Broadway’s Travesties), the detailed and dynamic puppet designs by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes, the exceptionally vivid video design by Andrzej Goulding (Broadway’s & Juliet), the beautifully integrated lighting design of Tim Lutkin (West End’s Back to the Future) and the impeccable work of the sound designer Carolyn Downing (NT/PH’s Downstate). The staging morphs, expanding and contracting like living and breathing animals, unpacking environments and emotions using the magic of stagecraft, unlike anything I’ve seen before. It surprises and engages, giving you more and more moments of clarity and connection, as he dives deeper and deeper into the trauma of fear and the desire to survive.
“Don’t you want to know what happened to Richard Parker?” Yes, yes we do. Most definitely, as the survival tactics spin forward, on a boat that magically appears out of nowhere time and time again. We can’t look away, thanks to the strong performances enlivened by the talented crew of puppeteers; Richard Parker, Nikki Calonge, Fred Davis, Jonathan David Martin, Betsy Rosen, Celia Mei Rubin, Scarlet Wilderink, and Andrew Wilson, creating visuals that elevate and expand over and over again. The waves crash over the bow, shifting the boy, his boat, and its occupants through a hardship that is ever so emotionally overwhelming to take in. The production takes us on a journey, from the most idyllic space through a story that lands on the powerful shore of determination, tackling animalistic fear and a personal belief in self that resonates. Man, really is “the most dangerous animal in the zoo“, make no mistake about that, but Life of Pi knows exactly where to take us, and doesn’t fail us in the voyage.
“Drunk on water, ” Pi unpacks his voyage of survival to those two who are needing to know, where fear can poison everything, yet can also lead a man to stand up tall to a tiger. Or a hyena. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderfully engaging Abeysekera is in the lead role, nor how magically the stage shifts and floats from one continent to another. It is one of those ‘you must see it to believe it‘ kinda theatrical events, filled to the rim with emotionally powerful moments and unbelievably telling bits of magic and wonder, enhanced most touchingly by the original music of Andrew T. Mackay. Endurance and hope are at its core, but the structuring and the visual engagement of the voyage are what truly delivers this tale onto our shore, and into our heart. Having won five Olivier Awards including Best Play in the West End, Life of Pi makes the journey over the other ocean to find its place at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway. And for that, we must stand up and all cheer, “this is my boat” as strongly as Pi does. Buy your tickets asap (try to sit in the front mezz, not the orchestra), because is one ride you want to experience. But trust me, this ship isn’t going to sink anytime soon. It’s just far too strongly built.
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Events
New York Stage and Film Announces Summer Season with Laurence Fishburne, Joe Iconis, A Wrinkle In Time & More
New York Stage and Film, considered “one of the preeminent incubators for theater in the country,” returns to Marist College July 14-August 6 for their 2023 Summer Season. For 38 years, NYSAF has operated as a vital incubator for artists and their work, a catalyst for stories that continue across the country and around the world. Tickets go on sale on Monday, May 1.
The 2023 Summer Season at Marist will include a kick off concert on July 14 with “Joe Iconis & Family” along with a new play workshop written and performed by Laurence Fishburne; a new musical workshop of A Wrinkle in Time; the launch of a new initiative to develop dance-driven musicals with Paradise Ballroom, created by Princess Lockerooo and Harold O’Neal; and play readings by Sopan Deb, Beth Henley, Emily Kaczmarek, and Jason Kim.
“The NYSAF summer season is our annual opportunity to hear from a rich tapestry of voices,” said Interim Artistic Director Liz Carlson. “This year, we’ll journey into uncertainty, contemplate our legacy, wrestle with absurdity, and challenge the limits of family. We are excited to add support for dance-driven musicals to our exceptional community of theater and film artists, with the new program Stories That Move. We are overjoyed to continue to expand our relationship with Marist College, and can’t wait to welcome the public back to the Marist campus this summer, where they will serve a pivotal role in the developmental process for each of these pieces.”
Starting this year, New York Stage and Film will add support for dance-driven musicals to its creative offerings, with the new program “Stories That Move: Developing Dance Musicals,” inspired by Jerome Robbins. Previously under the auspices of the Jerome Robbins Foundation and known as Project Springboard, where it developed work by Justin Peck, Troy Schumacher, Camile A. Brown, and others, this new program will expand NYSAF’s artistic community to include stories where choreographers are the primary generative storytellers and where dance, movement, and music are the main forms of creative expression. NYSAF will support multiple projects each year in various phases of their developmental trajectory, through workshops in the Summer Season at Marist, as well as through year-round creative residencies and workshop programming in NYC. Stories That Move is made possible with leadership support from the Jerome Robbins Foundation, as well as the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Frederick Loewe Foundation, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
With artist-driven flexibility, NYSAF offers resources and opportunities to meet projects at every step of their development. Its Summer Season supports the nation’s leading generative artists and boldest creators of innovative and groundbreaking stories for the stage and the screen. In collaboration with Marist College in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NYSAF serves the needs of theater and film artists today, bringing them safely together in community to generate new stories and reconnect with one another and audiences.
New York Stage and Film 2023 Summer Season: Kick-Off Concert: Joe Iconis & Family
Directed by John Simpkins Friday, July 14
Joe Iconis & Family are proud to make their New York Stage and Film debut with this celebratory blow- out concert. Featuring a wild cast of Joe’s beloved Rogue’s Gallery of showtune punks, expect to hear new numbers, works-in-process, and classic Iconis tunes. Grab a drink and spend a summer evening with a tribe of artists determined to bring along their traditional musical theater principles as they blaze into the future.
Joe Iconis is a Tony-nominated musical theater writer and performer. His musical Be More Chill has played Broadway, London, and Tokyo and his new show The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical will have its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse this summer. Joe is the author of Love in Hate Nation, Broadway Bounty Hunter, Bloodsong of Love, The Black Suits, Punk Rock Girl!, and more. He frequently performs at 54 Below and the Laurie Beechman Theater. His albums include Album (Joe Iconis & Family), the original cast recordings of Love in Hate Nation, Broadway Bounty Hunter, Things To Ruin, and Be More Chill (both OCR and OBCR, which have been streamed over 750 million times); Two-Player Game (with George Salazar), and The
Joe Iconis Rock & Roll Jamboree, all available on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.
Joe is hugely inspired by Robert Altman, Dolly Parton, The Muppets, and the Family of artists he frequently surrounds himself with.
John Simpkins (Director) is happy to be a part of the NYSAF summer with writer Joe Iconis. He has collaborated as a Director with Iconis on World Premieres of Love in Hate Nation (Two River Theater); Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova); The Black Suits (Center Theatre Group, Barrington Stage Company); ReWrite (Urban Stages, Goodspeed Opera House); The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks (Lucille Lortel); and Things to Ruin (co-conceived). The two are currently working on a new project called Family Album. Other World Premieres: Legendale (by Andrea Daly/Jeff Bienstock) at Fredericia Teater (Demark) and Human Race Theatre, Raging Skillet (by Jacques Lamarre) at Theaterworks Hartford, The Bus (by James Lantz) at 59E59. He has directed regionally at Sacramento Music Circus, Lyric Theatre Oklahoma, North Carolina Theatre, Engeman Theatre, Sharon Playhouse (where he was Artistic Director). A strong supporter of new work, John has recently directed new musicals by artists including Kirsten Childs, Mike Reid/ Sarah Schlesinger, Alexander Sage Oyen/Lauren Marcus/James Presson,
Josh Salzman/Ryan Cunningham, Sam Salmond, Matthew McCollum/Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Maria Wirries/Christian Thompson, and Gilbert Bailey. He is Head of Musical Theatre at Penn State University, where he created and curates a New Musicals Initiative.
New Play Workshop:
Like They Do In The Movies
Presentations: July 28 and July 29
A world premiere one man tour-de-force, written and performed by Tony Award winner, Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne (What’s Love Got to Do with It?, The Matrix Trilogy, Apocalypse Now, Thurgood, August Wilson’s Two Trains Running). Mr. Fishburne describes this unique and intimate evening as “The stories and lies people have told me. And that I have told myself.”
Laurence Fishburne (Playwright and Performer) has achieved an impressive body of work as an actor, producer and director. Fishburne’s versatile acting has won him awards in theatre, film and television. In 1992, Fishburne won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. He won his first Emmy Award in 1993 for “The Box” episode of Tribeca, and his second for his one-man show, Thurgood, in 1997. In 1993, Laurence also received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the Tina Turner biopic, What’s Love Got to Do with It. His most recent Emmy win was for his role in Quibi’s #FreeRayshawn. Laurence may be best known for his role as Morpheus in the Wachowksi siblings’ blockbuster The Matrix trilogy, but his many film credits include: Academy Award nominee John Singleton’s Boyz ‘n the Hood, Richard T. Heffron’s telefilm A Rumor of War, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, Steven Zaillian’s Searching for Bobby Fischer, Mr. Singleton’s Higher Learning, Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River and cult classics, Deep Cover and King of New York.
Leonard Foglia (Director) is a theater and opera director as well as librettist. Broadway Productions: Master Class, Wait Until Dark, Thurgood (filmed for HBO), The People in the Picture, On Golden Pond, The Gin Game. Off-Broadway: Let Me Down Easy (filmed for PBS), Notes From The Field (filmed for HBO), One Touch of Venus, The Stendhal Syndrome, If Memory Serves, About Alice. He directed the world premieres of the operas of Everest, Moby Dick (filmed for PBS), It’s a Wonderful Life, Cold Mountain, The End of the Affair, Three Decembers, Stonewall, A Coffin in Egypt (also librettist), Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon (also librettist), El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished (also librettist), El Milagro del Recuerdo/The Miracle of Remembering (also librettist). His production of Dead Man Walking has been seen across the US and Europe. The three ‘mariachi operas’ for which he wrote the librettos have been staged on three continents and are continually produced in the U.S.
New Musical Workshop:
A Wrinkle in Time
Presentations: July 21, July 22 and July 23
Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. “Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.” Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?
Adapted from the novel by Madeleine L’Engle Book by Lauren Yee
Music & Lyrics by Heather Christian
Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Lauren Yee (Book; She/Her). Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, with music by Dengue Fever, premiered at South Coast Rep, subsequent productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Victory Gardens, City Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre, and Jungle Theatre/Theater Mu, and is currently touring. Her play The Great Leap has been produced at the Denver Center, Steppenwolf, Seattle Repertory, Atlantic Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arts Club, Pasadena Playhouse/East West Players, InterAct Theatre, and Asolo Rep. Honors include the Doris Duke Artists Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters literature award, Horton Foote Prize, Kesselring Prize, Primus Prize, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton, and the #1 and #2 plays on the 2017 Kilroys List. She’s a Residency 5 playwright at Signature Theatre, New Dramatists members, Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab member, and Playwrights Realm playwright. TV credits: Pachinko (Apple), Soundtrack (Netflix). Upcoming TV credits: Interior Chinatown (Hulu), Billions (Showtime), The Sterling Affairs (FX). She has developed pilots for Apple and Netflix. Current commissions include Arena Stage, Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Second Stage, South Coast Rep. B.A: Yale. M.F.A: UCSD.
Heather Christian (Music and Lyrics) is a Lortel, Drama Desk and two time Obie Award winning composer/performer making music centered shows and rituals. She is a 2021 Richard Rodgers Award winner, 2022 Stephen Schwartz Outstanding New Composer awardee and Sundance Institude Time Warner Fellow. Recent composing/performing credits include her own work Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova), Animal Wisdom (The Bushwick Starr, now a motion picture made in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth in DC and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco), I am Sending You the Sacred Face (Theater In Quarantine/ YouTube— Named Vulture’s #5 Theater Experience of 2020), Prime: A Practical Breviary (Playwrights Horizons Soundstage—named IndieWire’s #1 Podcast Episode of 2020) in addition to being a lead artist on devised works Mission Drift (Nat’l Theater London), The World Is Round (BAM). Film composition credits include The Craft: Legacy (Sony Pictures/ Blumhouse 2020), Lemon (2017 Sundance Film Festival and SXSW), Gregory Go Boom (Sundance Grand Jury Prize), Adult Swim series Teenage Euthanasia and The Shivering Truth (2021 BMI TV Music Award for Outstanding Score), and all four films in the Criterion Collection’s Restrospective of Janicza Bravo. She was named one of TimeOut NY’s Downtown Innovators To Watch and is a 2019 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Trust commissionee. She has released 13 records, teaches vocal-based music composition at NYU, owns and operates her own recording studio in Beacon, NY, and can be seen regularly in concert halls and dive bars as Heather Christian & the Arbornauts.
Lee Sunday Evans (Director) is a New York-based, two-time Obie award-winning director and choreographer. Lee most recently directed the acclaimed production of Heather Christian’s Oratorio For Living Things (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Director). She is developing a TV project for A24, and directed The Courtroom, a feature-length film written by Arian Moayed. Notable credits include Dance Nation by Clare Barron (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE and Lortel Awards), The Courtroom (Waterwell; NYTimes Best Theater of 2019 List), Detroit Red by Will Power (ArtsEmerson), Sunday by Jack Thorne (Atlantic Theater Company), In The Green by Grace McLean (LCT3), Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew (Dallas Theater Center, Long Wharf Theater), The Winter’s Tale (The Public), Home (BAM), Farmhouse/Whorehouse by Suzanne Bocanegra (BAM), Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner (Lincoln Center/LCT3), Caught by Christopher Chen (The Play Company),
[Porto] by Kate Benson (WP Theater/The Bushwick Starr), A Beautiful Day In November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes by Kate Benson (OBIE Award; WP Theater, New Georges). Lee’s work has been also presented and developed at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Lab, BAX, CATCH, LMCC, Robert
Wilson’s Watermill Center, and Juilliard among others. She is the Artistic Director of Waterwell.
Stories That Move: Developing Dance Musicals:
Paradise Ballroom,
Co-Created by Princess Lockerooo & Harold O’Neal Book and Lyrics by Princess Lockerooo
Music by Harold O’Neal
Choreographed by Princess Lockerooo Presentations: August 4, August 5 and August 6
After being rejected by his conservative parents, Teddy flees Buffalo and finds refuge and community at the Paradise Ballroom—an underground LGBTQ+ safe-haven in West LA. Surrounded by supporters and mentors, Teddy develops his dancing skills and learns the ways of waacking, but when a shady producer promises fame and success, Teddy turns on his found family and loses his way. A musical about forgiveness, community, and the importance of living one’s truth.
Princess Lockerooo (Book and Lyrics & Choreography) is a visionary in the dance industry, known for her exceptional work as a producer, public speaker, event curator, director, and choreographer. With a reputation for excellence and numerous accolades, including a Bessie award for Breakout Choreographer and a nomination for Sustained Achievement as a fellow of the RSA, Princess is a highly regarded artist and leader in the dance world. In 2022, she founded The Fabulous Waack Dancers, a dance company, and the Waack dancer training program, showcasing her commitment to preserving the legacy of Waacking. Through her passion and expertise, she has brought the art of waacking to communities around the world, promoting self-love, building communities, and inspiring confidence. Princess is dedicated to preserving the history of waacking and conducted the interview for the oral history of Choreographer and Waacking Pioneer Bill Goodson for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Lockerooo has been featured on leading television platforms such as So You Think You Can Dance? and America’s Got Talent, and has collaborated with renowned pop artists such as Madonna, Jody Watley, Icona Pop, Bob The Dragqueen, Pangina Heals, and more. Her productions have been showcased at world- renowned venues including Lincoln Center, The Guggenheim Museum, NYBG, Summerstage, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, HATCH, Original Thinkers, ASAP NextGen, and the United Nations. Her impact on the dance world has earned her recognition from prestigious press outlets, including the New York Times, which featured her on the cover of the Sunday Times Metro section for her pioneering work in the resurgence of Waacking. She has also been featured in Brut, Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher, The Medium, Document Journal, and Get Out Magazine. Princess is not only an artist but also a philanthropist and activist for LGBTQ rights, producing a night of entertainment for Global Ambassadors at the United Nations event F4D, and working with and raising funds for organizations such as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Omomuki Foundation, The Center, GMHC, and NYC Pride. Lockerooo continues to push the boundaries of her art and industry through her current role as co-director of an untitled feature film with an Academy Award-winning team, and as writer and director of a new musical, Paradise Ballroom, supported by the Musical Theater Factory. She is an Artist in Residence with Guggenheim Works & Process and will be producing events with The New York Public Library for The Performing Arts and Lincoln Center in the summer of 2023.
Harold O’Neal (Music) is a versatile musician, producer, pianist, composer, public speaker, and storyteller, renowned for his association with the legacy of jazz pianists. He has worked with a diverse range of artists across various musical genres, including Jay Z, Damien Rice, Bob Geldof, and Lupe Fiasco. His work has garnered widespread recognition in top media outlets such as NPR, Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, and Fortune Magazine. Recently, O’Neal brought his expertise to Pixar’s Academy Award-winning film, Soul, as a creative expert. He has also made a name for himself as a sought-after director and producer, working on high-profile events like Electric Burma with U2, the CNN All Star Tribute, and The Albie Awards with The Clooney Foundation. O’Neal’s captivating presentations have been delivered to a diverse range of innovation leaders, including Salesforce, TIME, Google, McKinsey & Company, United Nations Ambassadors, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The World Economic Forum at Davos. Currently, O’Neal is working on a range of exciting projects, including producing and scoring a feature-length film with an Academy Award-winning director. With his impressive track record, O’Neal continues to make waves in the entertainment industry and beyond, inspiring audiences with his passion for creativity and storytelling.
Saturday Play Readins:
This Way To The Fire
Written by Jason Kim Directed by Danny Sharron Presentation: July 15
Set in the near future, This Way to the Fire imagines how racism is invented inside the walls of a marketingoffice — as a PR campaign — and the disastrous and violent impact it has on the world.
Jason Kim (Playwright) is a multiple Emmy nominated screenwriter, playwright, and producer. He received a Primetime Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series for Barry in 2022 and 2019, and won the Writers Guild Award for Best Comedy Series for Barry in 2020. In addition to writing on HBO’s “Girls,” he was a consulting producer for HBO’s “Divorce” and the Netflix series “Love.” He is currently in an overall television deal with 20th and Onyx Studios at Disney. In film, he is writing the spinoff to Crazy Rich Asians and adapted the true crime book The Flawless for Fox Searchlight Pictures. Along with Stacey Sher, he is producing an adaptation of the New York Times best seller Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner for Orion. In theater, his musical KPOP opened on Broadway at Circle in the Square in Fall 2022. The 2017 off-Broadway production of KPOP won the Richard Rogers Award, the Off-Broadway Alliance Award, and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical. MFA in Playwriting. Acclaimed Beyonce historian.
Danny Sharron (Director) is a Brooklyn-based Middle Eastern-American theater director with a focus on developing new plays and musicals. He is committed to creating work about the LGBTQ+ and MENA communities, and providing a platform from which those voices can be heard. Danny is the Senior Associate Director for the Tony Award-winning Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway/West End/Toronto/Tour). He has developed and directed work with The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ars Nova, LAByrinth Theater Company, Primary Stages, Ma-Yi, and The Lark. Danny was most recently a 2021-2022 Next Stage Directing Resident with The Drama League. He is also a recipient of New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, Williamstown’s Bill Foeller Fellowship, The Drama League’s New York Fellowship, and is an alumnus of the Ars Nova Director’s Troupe. BA/BS University of Florida. Proud member of SDC.
Soft Target
Written by Emily Kaczmarek
Presentation: July 22
Something bad has happened to 9-year-old Amanda, and her toys – Jonah, a stuffed penguin; Molly, an American Girl Doll; her trusted Diary; and newcomer Ugly, a weighted “emotional support” bunny – find their once-peaceful world thrown into darkness and chaos. Soft Target is a play about childhood, guns, and all the wounds we can’t see.
Emily Kaczmarek (Playwright) is an LA-based writer for TV, theatre, and film. Her TV credits include Monsterland for Hulu and The Staircase for HBO Max (for which she was nominated for a 2023 Writers Guild Award), among others. Her plays and musicals have been produced and developed at numerous theaters across the country, including the 5th Avenue Theatre, Second Stage Theater, American Conservatory Theatre, WP Theatre, and many others. Emily is a 2019 Princess Grace Award finalist, a 2019 Kilroys Honorable Mention (for Sam & Lizzie), a 2018 Jonathan Larson Award winner, and a 2018 Kleban Prize finalist, and has been in residence at SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Orchard Project, the O’Neill, the Hermitage Colony, Goodspeed, and more. Emily is the book writer of the original musicals Afterwords and Afloat (music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak), and is currently writing a feature and several TV projects for Amazon, Sony, and Fifth Season.
The Good Name
Written by Sopan Deb Directed by Trip Cullman Presentation: July 29
Sopan Deb (Playwright) is an LA-based writer for TV, theatre, and film. Her TV credits include Monsterland for Hulu and The Staircase for HBO Max (for which she was nominated for a 2023 Writers Guild Award), among others. Her plays and musicals have been produced and developed at numerous theaters across the country, including the 5th Avenue Theatre, Second Stage Theater, American Conservatory Theatre, WP Theatre, and many others. Emily is a 2019 Princess Grace Award finalist, a 2019 Kilroys Honorable Mention (for Sam & Lizzie), a 2018 Jonathan Larson Award winner, and a 2018 Kleban Prize finalist, and has been in residence at SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Orchard Project, the O’Neill, the Hermitage Colony, Goodspeed, and more. Emily is the book writer of the original musicals Afterwords and Afloat (music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak), and is currently writing a feature and several TV projects for Amazon, Sony, and Fifth Season.
Trip Cullman (Director). Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Choir Boy, Lobby Hero, Six Degrees of Separation, Significant Other. Select Off Broadway: Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow, YEN, Punk Rock (Obie Award), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Of New York City (MCC); Days Of Rage, The Layover, The Substance of Fire, Lonely I’m Not, Bachelorette, Some Men, Swimming In The Shallows (Second Stage); Unknown Soldier, The Pain Of My Belligerence, Assistance, A Small Fire (Drama Desk nomination), The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons); Choir Boy (MTC); Murder Ballad (MTC and Union Square Theatre); The Mother, I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard (Atlantic); Roulette (EST); The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing (Rattlestick); The Last Sunday In June (Rattlestick and Century Center); Dog Sees God (Century Center); US Drag (stageFARM); and several productions with The Play Company. London: The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, PA (Tricycle). Select regional: Geffen, Alliance, Old Globe, La Jolla, South Coast Rep, Bay Street, Williamstown Theater Festival.
Vikas Choudhury is a thoughtful but aimless young man living with his aunt and uncle in the New Jersey suburbs as he grieves the death of his parents. A mysterious bag appears at the door, sparking revelations that help them face ignored truths and a quietly buried past. As each family member wraps their hopes and fears up in the bag’s contents, they find themselves unraveling their relationships to each other. The Good Name is an examination of duty and cultural expectations, grief and forgiveness, and the love we have for our children.
Downstairs Neighbor
Written by Beth Henley Directed by Jaki Bradley Presentation: August 5
A waning playwright, Old Low, is trying to write a play in seven days, because her time is limited. The play is set in 1970s Tarson, Mississippi. Sharon Bunn, a pornographic puppeteer, moves into the downstairs apartment below Wayne Purvis and Young Low, and things go bad. Tilting between the struggle to write a play and the struggle within the play, a chaotic, horrific, and effervescent vision of creation is revealed.
Beth Henley (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and professor. Her plays include Crimes of the Heart (Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play) The Wake of Jamey Foster, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Am I Blue, The Lucky Spot, The Debutante Ball, Abundance, Control Freaks, Impossible Marriage, Family Week, Ridiculous Fraud, The Jacksonian Laugh, and The Unbuttoning. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally and translated into 12 languages. Originally from Mississippi, Ms. Henley now lives in Los Angeles.
Jake Bradley (Director) is a director for theater, TV and film. Recent theater projects include The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (IRT), How to Load a Musket (LTR) White Noise (Berkeley Rep); Radio Island and Good Men Wanted (NYSAF); House Plant and 1969: The Second Man (NYTW: Next Door); Mama Metallica (Denver Center); and Playing Hot (Ars Nova). She has developed and presented work with The Public, Williamstown, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, the O’Neill, and Arena Stage, among others. She has been a member of the Civilians R&D Group, an artist-in-residence at Ars Nova, a Drama League artist-in-residence and TV/Film Fellow, the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Williamstown Directing Corps, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. In TV and film, she has written for Netflix, FX, AGBO, Chernin, and Paramount and is in development with her feature directorial debut starring Adria Arjona, Nicholas Hoult and Riley Keough.
The 2023 NYSAF Summer Season is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the New York State Council on the Arts and by leadership support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Shubert Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Board of Directors of New York Stage and Film.
Leadership support for Stories That Move: Developing Dance Musicals, inspired by Jerome Robbins, provided by the Jerome Robbins Foundation with additional support provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Frederick Loewe Foundation and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation
Casting and Artists-in-Residence to be announced at a later date. Tickets go on sale on May 1. For more New York Stage and Film Summer Season information, visit www.newyorkstageandfilm.org/summer.
New York Stage and Film is a not-for-profit company dedicated to artists developing new stories for theater, film and beyond by supporting responsive processes and by providing a home for artists free from critical and commercial pressures. Since 1985, New York Stage and Film has been a vital incubator for emerging and established artists and their work, a catalyst for stories that start with us and continue across the country and around the world. Through this work, NYSAF has established itself as a vital cultural institution for residents of the Hudson Valley and the New York metropolitan region. The New York Times calls the company a “formidable breeding ground for new work,” and dozens of notable works trace their developmental roots to NYSAF, includingthe Tony Award winners Hamilton, Hadestown, Side Man and The Humans; Broadway productions such as American Idiot, Junk, and Bright Star; and Pulitzer winners and finalists such as Doubt, The Wolves and Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. www.newyorkstageandfilm.org
Located on the banks of the historic Hudson River and at its Florence, Italy campus, Marist College is a comprehensive, independent institution grounded in the liberal arts. Its mission is to “help students develop the intellect, character, and skills required for enlightened, ethical, and productive lives in the global community of the 21st century.” Marist is consistently ranked among the best colleges and universities in America by The Princeton Review (Colleges That Create Futures and The Best 386 Colleges), U.S. News & World Report (3rd Most Innovative School/North), Kiplinger’s Personal Finance (“Best College Values”), and others. The College is top-ranked for long-term study abroad (#3 in the U.S.) by the U.S. State Department’s Open Doors report. Along with the College’s prestigious reputation as a whole, it also boasts a robust Arts and Music scene for itsstudents and the community. Marist offers more than 15 academic programs in music and arts including Art History, Digital Media, Studio Art, Music, Theatre, and its world-renowned Fashion Design and Fashion Merchandising programs, ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Colleges That Are Shaping The Future of Fashion.” Marist also provides a wide range of non-academic opportunities in the arts, such as over 15 College- and student-run music ensemble groups and the Marist Theatre program and performances. The College also operates the Institute for Data Center Professionals, which provides individuals and corporate teams with skills- based education and credentialing to support the data center and enterprise computing environments of the future. Marist educates more than 5,000 traditional-age undergraduate students and 1,400 adult and graduate students in 47 undergraduate majors and numerous graduate programs, including fully online MBA, MPA, MS, and MA degrees, and also Doctor of Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant programs.
Are you at least 18 years old, between 5’5 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches tall in stocking feet? Are you proficient at jazz and tap. The choreography of the dance numbers is demanding, complex, and rigorous in its precision. You need first-rate technique. If you do audition registration for the Radio City Rockettes, ensemble and more is officially open for the 2023 Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes presented by QVC. Audition to be a part of New York City’s favorite holiday tradition and register today.
Dancers auditioning for the Radio City Rockettes will also be considered for Rockettes Conservatory, the dance company’s invite-only, week-long training intensive, which serves as the main talent pipeline for the line.
The auditions will be held April 20th with call backs April 21 and April 22. For male identifying dancers who sing that audition is April 26.
Female Identifying Dancers*, Voice Ensemble and Principal Roles will be cast through invited agent calls only – there will be no open call audition for these roles.
*Includes gender expansive identities (trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and gender queer.)
The Radio City Rockettes are a world-renowned dance company known for their athleticism and iconic precision style combining elements of ballet, jazz, and tap, as well as techniques of modern and contemporary dance. In addition to the Christmas Spectacular, the Rockettes perform annually in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Christmas in Rockefeller Center tree lighting, and have appeared on some of the biggest events in entertainment, including the Tony Awards, the MTV VMAs, the NYC Pride Parade, and “Saturday Night Live.” Most recently, the Rockettes were featured in the Hallmark movie “A Holiday Spectacular” and performed with Mariah Carey in her holiday special filmed at Madison Square Garden, “Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!”
As a Rockette, dancers have access to excellent benefits, including year-round health insurance, a competitive 401K, and a tuition assistance program for accredited and approved courses, as well as a reimbursement plan for many voice, dance, technique, wellness, and fitness classes.
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