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| New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Last Edit: T.B._Admin. 08:46 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 06:06 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season FEATURING OLIVER BUTLER MADELEINE GEORGE JEREMY O. HARRIS MARTYNA MAJOK HEIDI SCHRECK LEIGH SILVERMAN ANNA DEAVERE SMITH 2018/19 SEASON WILL INCLUDE: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME BY HEIDI SCHRECK DIRECTED BY OLIVER BUTLER FALL 2018 SLAVE PLAY BY JEREMY O. HARRIS WINTER 2018 HURRICANE DIANE BY MADELEINE GEORGE DIRECTED BY LEIGH SILVERMAN A CO-PRODUCTION WITH WP THEATER WINTER/SPRING 2019 SANCTUARY CITY BY MARTYNA MAJOK SPRING 2019 A NEW PROJECT FROM ANNA DEAVERE SMITH SUMMER 2019 AND THE FIRST PRODUCTION OF THE 2019/20 SEASON: runboyrun & IN OLD AGE BY MFONISO UDOFIA FALL 2019 PLUS 2018/19 2050 ARTISTIC FELLOWS ANNOUNCED New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) (Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director Jeremy Blocker) is proud to announce five productions as part of its complete 2018/19 Season, and the first production of their 2019/20 Season. The season begins in Fall 2018 with WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME by two-time Obie Award winner Heidi Schreck (Grand Concourse, “I Love Dick”) and directed by Obie Award winner Oliver Butler (The Amateurs, The Light Years); followed by the New York Premiere of SLAVE PLAY by Jeremy O. Harris (Daddy). The season continues in 2019 with the first co-production of a two-play collaboration with WP Theater (Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag), HURRICANE DIANE, by Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George (The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence) and directed by Tony Award nominee, two-time Obie Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect Leigh Silverman (Violet). The second co-production will take place at WP Theater with details to be announced at a later date. Following HURRICANE DIANE is SANCTUARY CITY, by NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 Fellow Martyna Majok (queens, Ironbound). The 2018/19 Season will conclude with a new project from Pulitzer Prize finalist, MacArthur Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect Anna Deavere Smith (Notes from the Field, Fires in the Mirror). New York Theatre Workshop is also proud to announce the first production of their 2019/20 Season, NYTW Usual Suspect Mfoniso Udofia’s runboyrun and IN OLD AGE, two plays to be performed together as an evening of work. runboyrun and IN OLD AGE follow 2017’s Sojourners and Her Portmanteau, another pairing of work from Udofia’s nine-part saga, The Ufot Cycle. NYTW will also welcome six new artistic fellows into their artist community as part of the 2050 Artistic Fellowship Program. The 2018/19 Artistic Fellows are Melis Aker, Michael Alvarez, Nana Dakin, Philip Howze, Seonjae Kim, and Divya Mangwani. Full information about the fellowship program is available at nytw.org. The 2050 Fellowship is named in celebration of the U.S. Census Bureau’s projection that by the year 2050, there will be no single racial or ethnic majority in the United States. This projection provokes thoughts at NYTW about the transformations that will take place in the American landscape – technologically, environmentally, demographically and artistically. They are a catalyst for broader questions about our moral and artistic future. How do we define diversity? Whose stories aren't being told? What lies ahead for our world? In response to these questions, NYTW’s longstanding Fellowship program has continually evolved to support the diversity of voices and aesthetics that will make up this new minority majority. A sister program, the 2050 Administrative Fellowship, serves as a unique training ground for early-career arts administrators. 2018/19 SEASON WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME By Heidi Schreck Directed by Oliver Butler As a high school student seeking college scholarships, Heidi Schreck crisscrossed the country delivering impassioned speeches about the Constitution in American Legion Halls. As the captivating Obie Award-winning playwright and performer recreates those town halls, complete with droll Legionnaires and precocious adversaries, she exposes the profound impact the Ninth Amendment has had on generations of women and fiercely examines the very future of our inalienable rights. Obie Award winner Oliver Butler directs. This production originated as part of Summerworks 2017, produced by Clubbed Thumb in partnership with True Love Productions. What the Constitution Means to Me was commissioned by True Love Productions. SLAVE PLAY By Jeremy O. Harris The old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation — in the breeze, in the cotton fields...and in the crack of the whip. It’s an antebellum fever-dream, where fear and desire entwine in the looming shadow of the Master’s House. In this provocative and explosive new play, Jeremy O. Harris rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender and sexuality in 21st century America. Slave Play is the recipient of the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences. HURRICANE DIANE By Madeleine George Directed by Leigh Silverman A co-production with WP Theater Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity—the Greek god Dionysus—and she's returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac? Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards. Tony nominee and NYTW Usual Suspect Leigh Silverman directs. SANCTUARY CITY By Martyna Majok DREAMers. Lovers. Life-long friends. Negotiating the promise of safety and the weight of responsibility, they’ll fight like hell to establish a place for themselves and each other in America. NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 Fellow Martyna Majok brings us an unforgettable story that asks what we’re willing to sacrifice for someone we love. PLUS A NEW PROJECT FROM ANNA DEAVERE SMITH Preeminent writer and performer and MacArthur Award winner Anna Deavere Smith brings a vital new solo show to New York Theatre Workshop in the Summer of 2019. Posing insightful questions without easy answers, her vigorous and virtuosic verbatim-style theatre weaves together deeply personal narratives and academic perspectives. Covering subjects from race riots and healthcare to politics and the school-to-prison pipeline, she and her work have been recognized with tremendous acclaim and accolades including the prestigious National Humanities Medal. 2019/20 SEASON RUNBOYRUN & IN OLD AGE By Mfoniso Udofia After captivating audiences and critics in 2017, NYTW Usual Suspect Mfoniso Udofia returns with another pairing from her powerful, nine-part saga, The Ufot Cycle. Both rooted in the family's Massachusetts home, runboyrun and In Old Age pose questions about how to move forward when the past inhabits your very foundation. In runboyrun, Disciple and Abasiama Ufot have been living the same day over and over again for decades until the dam breaks and time rushes forward while also reeling backwards. They must uncover years of memories and cross great distances to find each other and unearth the roots of their marriage. In Old Age follows Abasiama far into the future as she learns the true nature of love just as life takes a new turn. Performance schedules, casting and full creative teams will be announced at a later date. A variety of 2018/19 Season membership packages are now on sale at www.nytw.org or by calling 212-460-5475 (Monday-Sunday noon-curtain time). This spring, three-time Obie Award winner Rachel Chavkin returns to New York Theatre Workshop with Caryl Churchill's incisive drama LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. In 1647 England, power is shifting and, amid the chaos and confusion, revolutionaries across the country are dreaming of a new future. Performances begin April 18, 2018 with an opening night set for Monday, May 7 for a limited run through Sunday, May 27, 2018. The 2017/18 Season will conclude this summer with THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND by Marcus Gardley. In the heat of summer in 1813, Louisiana passed from France to the United States. On the eve of the transfer, in a house in mourning, freedom hangs in the balance for a steely widow and her three eligible daughters, all free women of color. Inspired by Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, Marcus Gardley's lyrical, nuanced play, THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND, is directed by Obie Award winner, former 2050 Fellow and NYTW Usual Suspect Lileana Blain-Cruz. New York Theatre Workshop, now in its fourth decade of incubating important new works of theatre, continues to honor its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape all our lives. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village, NYTW presents five new productions, over 80 readings and numerous workshop productions for over 45,000 audience members. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs, including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies and artist fellowships. Since its founding, NYTW has produced over 150 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke’s Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power’s The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s Aftermath; Rick Elice’s Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh’s Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith’s The Gimmick and Forever; Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW’s productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, seventeen Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NYTW: www.nytw.org # # # WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME BIOS HEIDI SCHRECK is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn. Her latest plays include What the Constitution Means to Me, developed by Clubbed Thumb and True Love productions, and Grand Concourse, which debuted at Playwrights Horizons and Steppenwolf Theatre in 2014-15. Grand Concourse was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize, and winner of both a Claire Tow Fellowship and a Lily Award. Other plays, including Creature, There Are No More Big Secrets and The Consultant, have been produced by Long Wharf Theatre, Page73, Seattle Public Theatre, ART, SpeakEasy, New George, Rattlestick Theatre Company and more. Heidi has commissions from the Atlantic Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory Theatre and has been a playwriting fellow with the Claire Tow Foundation, Soho Rep and the Sundance Theatre Lab. Heidi’s television writing includes “I Love Dick,” “Billions” and “Nurse Jackie,” and she is currently developing a new TV series with Annapurna Pictures and Amazon. As an actor, Heidi has performed at Berkeley Rep, Roundabout Theatre, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Shakespeare in the Park, Clubbed Thumb and Two-Headed Calf and on TV in “Nurse Jackie,” “Billions,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “The Good Wife.” Heidi is the recipient of two Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award and the Theatre World Award. OLIVER BUTLER’s directing credits include Jordan Harrison’s The Amateurs (Vineyard); the West Coast Premiere of Will Eno’s Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) starring Rainn Wilson (The Geffen); Christopher Shinn’s An Opening in Time (Hartford Stage); Daniel Goldfarb’s Legacy (Williamstown); and the premiere of Will Eno’s The Open House (Signature) for which the play won the Lortel Award for Best Play and he received the OBIE Award for Direction. In Australia, he directed the premiere of Lally Katz’s Timeshare at The Malthouse in Melbourne. Oliver is a co-Founder and co-Artistic Director of The Debate Society, a Brooklyn-based ensemble theater company, with whom Oliver has co-created and directed nine full-length plays since 2004 including The Light Years (Playwrights Horizons); Jacuzzi (Ars Nova); Blood Play (sold out runs at The Bushwick Starr, The Public’s Under the Radar Festival, and Williamstown); Buddy Cop 2 (Critic’s Pick in The New York Times, Time Out New York and Backstage); Cape Disappointment (PS122); You’re Welcome (The Brick); The Eaten Heart (The Ontological Incubator); The Snow Hen (Charlie Pineapple Theater); and A Thought About Raya (Red Room, The Brick, The Ontological Incubator). He is a Sundance Institute Fellow and a Bill Foeller Fellow (Williamstown). SLAVE PLAY BIO JEREMY O. HARRIS is a theatre artist currently residing in New Haven, CT by way of Los Angeles, CA. As a playwright, his full-length plays include Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1, "Daddy", WATER SPORTS; or insignificant white boys and Slave Play (Winner of the 2018 Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award). His work as a writer and director has been presented or developed by Pieterspace, JACK, Ars Nova, The New Group, NYTW, Performance Space New York and Playwrights Horizons. His work as an actor has been seen at About Face Theatre, The Goodman and most recently HBO’s “High Maintenance.” He is a 2016 MacDowell Colony Fellow, an Orchard Project Greenhouse artist, resident playwright with Colt Coeur, and is under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Jeremy is currently in his second year at the Yale School of Drama. HURRICANE DIANE BIOS MADELEINE GEORGE’s plays include Hurricane Diane, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award), Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Susan Smith Blackburn finalist), Precious Little and The Zero Hour (Jane Chambers Award, Lambda Literary Award finalist). Honors include a Whiting Foundation Award, the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting and three MacDowell Fellowships. Madeleine is an alumna of New Dramatists, a founding member of the Obie Award-winning playwrights' collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.), the Fellow for Curriculum and Program Development at the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College and the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Two River Theater in New Jersey. LEIGH SILVERMAN. Broadway: Violet by Jeanine Tseori/Brian Crawley (Roundabout; Tony nomination), Chinglish (David Henry Hwang), Well (Lisa Kron). Upcoming: Soft Power by Jeanine Tseori/David Henry Hwang (Ahmanson Theater/Curan Theater); Wild Goose Dreams (La Jolla Playhouse/Public Theater). Recent Off-Broadway: Harry Clarke (Vineyard Theatre/Audible at the Minetta Lane), Sweet Charity (New Group), On the Exhale (Roundabout), The Outer Space (Public Theater), All the Ways to Say I Love You (MCC), The Way We Get By (Second Stage), Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb), American Hero (Williamstown Theater Festival, Second Stage), No Place to Go (Public Theater), Kung Fu (Signature Theatre), The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons), The Madrid (MTC), Golden Child (Signature Theatre), In the Wake (CTG/Berkeley/Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination), The Call (Playwrights Horizons), Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award), From Up Here (MTC, Drama Desk nomination), Yellow Face (CTG/Public Theater), Oedipus at Palm Springs (NYTW). Encores: Really Rosie, The Wild Party, Violet. WP THEATER (Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director; Michael Sag, Managing Director) is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female-identified and trans theater artists at every stage in their careers. For nearly four decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond. WP empowers female-identified artists to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential female theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including Eve Ensler, María Irene Fornés, Katori Hall, Pam MacKinnon, Lynn Nottage, Leigh Silverman and Anna Deavere Smith. These powerful women found an early artistic home at WP and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force. WP was founded in 1978 by visionary producer, Julia Miles, to address the significant under-representation of women in theater. Today, WP accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs, including: the WP Lab, a two-year mentorship and new play development program for women playwrights, directors, and producers; the Domestic Partner residency program; the Developmental series; and the Mainstage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary theater artists. SANCTUARY CITY BIO MARTYNA MAJOK was born in Bytom, Poland. Her plays have been performed at theaters including LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Rattlestick, WP Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse and The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Awards include The Greenfield Prize, The Lanford Wilson Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Helen Hayes Award, ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize, The Kennedy Center Jean Kennedy Smith Award, David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, Global Age Project Prize, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Feminist Playwriting Prize and The Merage Foundation Fellowship for the American Dream. Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama; Juilliard; BA, University of Chicago. Commissions from The Public, Lincoln Center, The Bush Theatre in London, The Geffen, La Jolla, South Coast Rep and Manhattan Theatre Club. Alumna of EST's Youngblood and WP Lab. 2012-13 NNPN playwright-in-residence, 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center. Martyna is currently a Core Writer at Playwrights’ Center and a 2018 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. A NEW PROJECT FROM ANNA DEAVERE SMITH BIO ANNA DEAVERE SMITH is perhaps best known to television audiences as Nancy McNally on “The West Wing” and Gloria Akalitus on “Nurse Jackie.” In addition to her work in television and film, Smith is said to have created a new form of theatre. Following her interviews with scores of individuals, usually on a topic of civic and political interest, she creates theater works in which she plays many characters – as many as 52 in one production – representing multiple points of view. When granted the prestigious MacArthur Award, her work was described as “a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie.” Her work has been celebrated simultaneously for its journalistic detail as well as its empathic treatment of the people she portrays. David Richard wrote in The New York Times that Anna Deavere Smith “is the ultimate impressionist. She does people’s souls.” Ms. Smith is University Professor at New York University where she teaches at the Tisch School of the Arts. She is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, dedicated to supporting artists whose works address social issues and engender civic engagement. Smith is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the National Humanities Medal, presented to her by President Obama in 2013. She has been the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Award, The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, two Tony nominations, and two Obies. She was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Fires in the Mirror. Honorary degrees include those from Yale University, Juilliard, Barnard, the University of Pennsylvania, Radcliffe, Wesleyan, Williams College, Northwestern University as well as many others. runboyrun & IN OLD AGE BIO MFONISO UDOFIA, a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator, attended Wellesley College, obtained her MFA from the American Conservatory Theater [ACT] and, while at ACT, co-pioneered The Nia Project which provided artistic outlets for youth residing in Bayview/Huntspoint. Productions of her plays Sojourners, runboyrun and Her Portmanteau have been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Realm, Magic Theater, National Black Theatre, Strand Theater Company and Boston Court. She’s the recipient of the 2017 Helen Merrill Playwright Award, the 2017-18 McKnight National Residency and Commission at The Playwrights’ Center and is a member of New Dramatists. Mfoniso’s currently commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival [OSF], Hartford Stage, Denver Center, ACT and South Coast Repertory. Her plays have been developed by Manhattan Theatre Club, ACT, McCarter Theatre, OSF, New Dramatists, PCS’s JAW Festival, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, The OCC, Hedgebrook, Sundance Theatre Lab, Space on Ryder Farm, Page 73, New Black Fest, Rising Circle and more. Follow her at @mfudofia or visit mfonisoudofia.com. 2050 ARTISTIC FELLOW BIOS MELIS AKER is an actor, writer and musician from Turkey. Plays include Field, Awakening (2018 Sundance Theatre Lab finalist, 2018 Berkeley Rep Ground Floor finalist, Lark's 2018 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship finalist) which will receive a short run at the Signature Theatre and the Corkscrew Festival at Paradise Factory this spring; Manar (2017 Columbia@Roundabout finalist; 2016 Theatre503 Playwriting Award semi-finalist) which was accepted to Golden Thread Productions' 2017 ReOrient Festival, LPAC’s 2017 Rough Draft Festival, and was part of Silk Road Rising's featured Middle Eastern playwrights on New Play Exchange; 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter [Part I] (Lark's 2018 Jerome New York Fellowship Finalist) which received a reading at NYTW via Noor Theatre's Highlight series; Azul, Otra Vez [Blue, Revisited] which was workshopped at NYTW, directed by Tatiana Pandiani with music by Jacinta Clusellas, and at the BRICLab Residency. Selected acting credits include “The Blacklist: Redemption” (NBC), Love in Afghanistan (Arena Stage/Roundabout), Opium (New Dramatists), Tear A Root From the Earth (Kennedy Center/New Ohio), We Live in Cairo (New World Stages, NAMT). Melis recently gave a TEDx Talk in Ankara and will be performing in Daybreak (Pan Asian Rep). BA in Drama/Philosophy (Tufts), Acting (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), 2018 MFA Playwriting (Columbia). melisaker.com MICHAEL ALVAREZ is an international theatre director and is a recipient of the 2017 Drama League Directing Fellowship. His work in London includes a site-specific residency with Punchdrunk, leading new musical workshops with Mercury Musical Developments at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, curating an international theater festival at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, creating performance art pieces at the British Museum, directing at the Arcola Theatre and Westminster Library and directing Susannah York and Edward Petherbridge in a workshop at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End. Additionally, he was a guest director in Ljubljana, Slovenia and at the Brighton Theatre Festival. Selected New York directing work includes Pistrix and Falcon and Sparrow both by Annie R. Such; Trouble: A New Rock Musical that he co-wrote with composer Ella Grace at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and Back by Brett Epstein at Galley Players. Most recently, he directed Chekhov’s The Seagull in Los Angeles. Upcoming: Peter Pan at the Serenbe Playhouse. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and California Institute of the Arts. michael-alvarez.com NANA DAKIN is a Thai-American director of new plays, classics and devised performance based in New York City. Having grown up in multiple countries, Nana’s work is driven by a great curiosity and empathy for diverse cultural and sociopolitical realities. She is committed to promoting social justice and challenging her audience through the interplay of language, movement and bodies in space. Nana is a core member of B-Floor Theatre, Thailand’s vanguard physical theatre company. Her directorial work with B-Floor, Begin Again (2009) and Damage Joy (2011) ranked in the top 5 theatre productions of that year by the Bangkok Post. Recent projects include an all-female production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Wonder/Wander: An Interactive Tarot Card Reading, and the development of new plays by Anchuli Felicia King, Gina Stevensen and Nora Sørena Casey. As an Assistant Director she has worked with Anne Kauffman on Amy Herzog's Mary Jane (NYTW) and this summer will assist Anne Bogart on the SITI Company’s production of The Bacchae at the Getty Villa. BA: Sarah Lawrence. MFA Theatre Directing: Columbia. nanadakin.com PHILLIP HOWZE is a playwright whose work has been developed or produced at American AF Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, BRIC-Arts Media, Clubbed Thumb, PRELUDE 2015, The Public Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and Yale Cabaret. A graduate of Yale School of Drama, he is a Fellow of the Sundance Institute Theater Lab, a Lucas Artist Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center, a member of the 2016 Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater, and a Resident Writer at Lincoln Center Theater. His play Frontieres Sans Frontieres premiered at The Bushwick Starr in 2017 in a sold-out, extended engagement. SEONJAE KIM. Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Seonjae (she/hers) collaboratively creates narrative-driven theater that is maximalist, epic, passionate, sincere and in robust conversation with the zeitgeist. Riot Antigone, her original Riot Grrrl musical adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy, played at La MaMa in February 2017 and received subsequent productions at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and Bryn Mawr College. She recently served as Associate Director for the immersive musical KPOP (Ars Nova/Ma-Yi/Woodshed Collective). Her work has been seen at Atlantic Theatre Company, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Dixon Place, Williamstown Theatre Festival, PEN/World Voices Festival, New York Theatre Barn, Prelude Festival, Checkmark Theatre Company and Chicago Fringe. She has assisted Pam MacKinnon, Bill Rauch and Stafford Arima and is an alumna of Directors’ Lab West, SITI Company Summer Workshop, Powerhouse Training, Williamstown Directing Corps and the Director’s Symposium and Playwrights’ Retreat at La MaMa Umbria. Honors include the Van Lier Fellowship for Directing (Asian American Arts Alliance), Mike Ockrent Fellowship (Stage Choreographers and Directors’ Foundation) and Robert Moss Directing Fellowship (Playwrights Horizons). Seonjae is a New Georges Affiliated Artist. This Spring, she is assisting Lee Sunday Evans on Dance Nation at Playwrights Horizons and developing projects about Tila Tequila, artificial intelligence, Southern belle mythology and more. BA: Northwestern. DIVYA MANGWANI is a playwright from Pune, India, based in New York. She was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre (MFT), where she wrote and directed plays that were staged all over India, Singapore and Glasgow. MFT used theatre as a tool for education for underprivileged students and conducted workshops in high schools. Her plays include Yes, Uncle (semi-finalist, Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship 2018; finalist, Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers 2018), Rise of the River (Pipeline Theatre Company), For Sale (Theatre East; Dramawallah Theatre), Turn off the Lights (Earth Day, Blue Frog), Sometimes, Stillness (a dance drama with djembe music) and One, Two, Three (best script, director, play and audience vote, Short+Sweet Festival; World Theatre Day, Khichidi Theatre). Before theatre, Divya worked as a journalist and editor for media houses like ESPN, Times of India and Crisis Response Journal. Her grandparents are from Sindh and she has grown up listening to stories about the Partition. She is currently working on a three-play cycle about Sindh. MFA: Tisch, NYU. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: summertheater 07:36 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
| In reply to: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - Official_Press_Release 06:06 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| With the huge popularity of the reboot of Roseanne, is it smart economically for a theater to skew only towards the radical-left crowd with a show like Sanctuary City? (I'd say the same thing if there was a far-right show, but NYC off-Broadway theaters these days tend to skew far-left). Why make a show that is so far-left (or so far-right) that the vast majority of people will be turned off by the ideology? | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: andPeggy 09:31 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 07:36 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| Roseanne skews to the right and is popular. Why would something that skews to the left be any less popular? GIven it's a piece of theatre in NYC, it's likely to be more popular. I don't follow your Roseanne reference. | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 08:05 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 07:36 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| Have you read the play? Do you know anything about it aside from the blurb in the press release? | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: summertheater 08:17 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - Singapore/Fling 08:05 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| No, I am just going by the description as it appears to be an ideology that only the far-left will agree with. Before the reviews come out, the description is all that most people I know read before deciding whether or not to purchase tickets. This is as opposed to the wonderful play "Admissions" which I loved and which flew by. That show presented both sides of an ideological debate, so as not to turn off a large swath of ticketbuyers. Shows should encourage us to think and view both sides of an argument, not be propaganda for either the far-left or far-right. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 12:28 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 08:17 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| The play promises to humanize immigrants. Where do you see any ideology beyond that? I can imagine that the far-right would be upset by a play that says DREAMers are human beings, but I hope that most of New York would still be open to that possibility. | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: summertheater 07:41 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - Singapore/Fling 12:28 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| Without getting into too much detail - People in this country believe there is a big difference between screening immigrants like we've been doing, and allowing any immigrant to sneak in unscreened. Nobody is against immigrants, especially in the big melting pot of NYC. It's similar to: do we screen bags before entering a theater, or do we screen people before boarding an airplane? People need to be consistent in their ideology. People should either be for all three, or against all three. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 12:06 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 07:41 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| Congratulations on a wonderful pivot. I had how you can immediately know the ideological content of a play you haven't seen purely by a few sentences of a press release, and instead you talked about screening people as if they were bags. While that may speak to my suggestion that humanizing immigrants is threatening to some, I wonder if it speaks more to your reaction to anything that pushes against a narrative of America as a Christian, native-born, gun-loving nation (to include your recent rants against Playwrights Horizons programming of plays that rather tamely explore the function of organized religion and the question of how a school shooting affects children and adults in a small town). If depoliticized fare like "This Flat Earth" is your idea of far-left theater, than I think you have an unreliable barometer for what stories are being told. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: summertheater 01:18 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - Singapore/Fling 12:06 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| I'm not speaking about what I personally feel. I'm asking if it's wise for a theater to present a work so far-left or so far-right that they turn off a huge percent of ticket buyers. Broadway shows don't do this, but these days, off-Broadway shows don't seem to have a problem with it. With the number of off-Broadway companies closing within the past year, you'd think theaters would be on their hands and knees begging to get more people to come into their buildings, not turning away huge numbers of them with radical ideology (far-left or far-right). |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: ryhog 01:49 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 01:18 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| wow. actually wanting off-B theatres to act more like Broadway is so far from what I want them to do that it's mind-blowing. Seriously? and on the substance, I can't think of a single off-B company ) that I would call radical ideologically. As others have said, based on your take on certain recent shows, I think your barometer is way off kilter. and I second the question about these theatres closing: do tell. Give us a list of what's closed and, while you are at it, what has opened. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: sirpupnyc 01:33 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 01:18 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| A well-established, long-standing company like NYTW probably has a pretty clear idea of what their supporters and audience are interested in seeing. If there are people who want something else, well, that's why we have so many theatre companies. There's no reason for every small (ish) company in NYC to attempt to please every member of the theatregoing public with every show. That, again, is why we have so many different companies. | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: Ann 01:22 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 01:18 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| I'd prefer they choose works they want to produce, rather than choosing works that will sell more tickets. It's a give and take. I do think they know their audience, though. How many Off-Broadway companies did close in the past year? (and how many is typical - they do seem to come and go) |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: summertheater 01:42 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - Ann 01:22 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| The 3 most recent off-Broadway company closings I can think of are TACT (after their current show), the Pearl Theater Company, and Musicals Tonight. From the dire fundraising email sent out today by Theater 80, it sounds like that theater may be on the brink of closing too. | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 10:50 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 01:42 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| All four of those companies occupy very different real estate than NYTW. While technically all are Off-Broadway companies, the ones that you cite are small, predominantly itinerant companies that are engaging an older audience and style of theater making. The Pearl is the only company that even remotely resembled NYTW, and they failed because they made poor real estate choices and weren't able to reach a younger, more diverse audience. If they had managed to attract the NYTW audience and pay for their expensive midtown theater, they probably would still be in business. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: ryhog 10:45 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 07:41 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| This discussion strikes me as well beyond this website. What isn't beyond it is the notion-one I would have thought close to universally accepted-that artists (and arts presenters) get to articulate whatever point of view they wish in their art. You, otoh, seem to be thinking arts institutions need to be objective. That's anathema to the essence of art. (And if you don't like the prevailing point of view, make (or at least support) your own art, or the point of view with which you align.) But aside from the freedom of expression aspect, objective art strikes me as boring art. | |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: drummergirl 08:56 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - summertheater 08:17 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| I probably shouldn't weigh in here -- and I'm sure I'll regret it -- but artists should present their art as they see fit, and audiences can then decide whether or not they want to go experience it. Art isn't journalism. Really enjoyed Admissions. |
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| re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season | |
| Posted by: dbdbdb 10:42 am EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: New York Theatre Workshop Announces Complete 2018/19 Season - drummergirl 08:56 pm EDT 04/04/18 | |
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| Longtime lurker here. I'd suggest that the overlap between Roseanne fans and NYTW subscribers may be so small as to be insignificant. | |
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