| The SHEEN CENTER THEATER FESTIVAL w/Brenda Braxton, Ken Jennings, Mirirai Sithole & more | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 06:21 pm EDT 06/19/19 | |
|
|
|
| This week, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC) launches its third annual Sheen Center Theater Festival. Taking place June 20 - 23, participating Broadway and Award-winning stage veterans include Tony Award nominee Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe's Café, Chicago), Tina Fabrique (Ragtime, Noise/Funk),Drama Desk Award winner Ken Jennings (Urinetown, Side Show, Sweeney Todd), Matthew Sims, Jr. (National Tour of Motown The Musical), Lortel and Drama Desk Award winner Mirirai Sithole (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play), Zonya Love (The Color Purple).Rounding out The Festival company are Francesco Andolfi, Kent Coleman, Ty Corbin, Daniel Damiano, Matt Golden, Daniel Harray, Trevor Hayes, James Jelkin, James B. Kennedy, Gates Leonard, Joyce Miller, Kathleen O'Neill, Allison Lewis-Towbes, Marcel Mascaro, Mario E. Sprouse, Katie Warns-Steckel, Perri Yaniv,and Kayte Zhang. Celebrating the voices of established Catholic playwrights in staged reading presentations, this year's full-length plays feature works by playwright Caridad Svich (OBIE Award Winner), Nathan Yungerberg (Cherry Lane mentee under Stephen Adley Guirgus), William Baer (Guggenheim Fellowship recipient), and Erik Ehn (Whiting Award winner), as well as an adaptation of The Gospel of John interpreted by Ken Jennings, best known to Broadway audiences for his performances in the original Broadway companies of Sweeney Todd, Side Show, Urinetown and Grand Hotel. Admission is free. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.sheencenter.org/shows/festival. "Since its inception two years ago, The Sheen Center Theater Festival has proudly given Catholic playwrights a platform to present exciting, theatrically vibrant, and well-crafted works of theatre," says Kelley Girod, curator of The Sheen Center Theater Festival. "This year's festival features a program of plays by promising, award and prize-winning playwrights that tackle provocative, political, spiritual, and above all, human themes. Caridad, Nathan, William and Erik are writing exciting theater for today's audiences. The Sheen Center is proud to continue its mission of developing relevant new theater and shining a spotlight on the talent creating it." The Festival schedule... Thursday, June 20 at 7PM: Thea by Nathan Yungerberg Directed by Zhailon Levingston Musical Direction by Mario Sprouse Featuring Brenda Braxton, Tina Fabrique, Zonya Love, Matthew Sims Jr., Mirirai Sithole and Mario E. Sprouse An Afro-surrealist fantasy for anyone who feels they have run out of hope. A fantastical otherworldly journey of a fifteen-year-old girl inspired by the love and light of Sister Thea Bowman. During the early hours of March 30, 1990, a young black girl whose life is saturated with hopelessness finds herself situated in the sky, which isn't really the sky but because it felt like a place that was high above everything, the sky was the best way she could describe it. In the tradition of American oral storytelling, fantasy and folklore, Thea follows fifteen-year-old Josephine on an adventure where she encounters wicked trees, a kaleidoscope of butterflies, and Sister Thea Bowman and her ancestral guardians who are accompanying Thea "home" as she nears the final hours of her life. Friday, June 21 at 7PM: Red Bike by Caridad Svich Directed by Kate Bergstrom Featuring Allison Lewis-Towbes and Marcel Mascaro What kind of future will you have living in these here United States? Remember when you were eleven years old and you had a bike, one that made you dream about a world bigger than the one in which you live? This is that memory. Except it is now. Cities change. People change. Get on your bike and ride. Saturday, June 22 at 7PM: The Weak and the Strong by Erik Ehn Directed by Glory Kadigan Choreographed by Dana Boll Featuring Francesco Andolfi, Trevor Hayes, James B. Kennedy, Joyce Miller, Kathleen O'Neill, Perri Yaniv, and Kayte Zhang Inspired by Paul's letters to the Romans and Hebrews, the play is a contemporary look at the mysterious compulsions that lead us to do what we wouldn't and avoid what we would. A rodeo rider, too old to be riding, rides, as his mind and body slip, and his family struggles with the right ways to care. Sunday, June 23 at 2PM: Three Generations of Imbeciles by William Baer Directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan Featuring Kent Coleman, Ty Corbin, Daniel Damiano, Matt Golden, Daniel Harray, James Jelkin, Gates Leonard, and Katie Warns-Steckel He won't be able to prevent 70,000 forced sterilizations, but maybe he can prevent one. After forced sterilizations are approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927, David Prescott, a young lawyer in Delaware, fights against all odds to prevent the sterilization of a helpless sixteen-year-old girl. At the Delaware Colony for the Feebleminded (1927), Dr. John Campbell is forcibly prevented from sexually mutilating Abigail Smith against her will. Eventually, David Prescott, a former prosecutor, agrees to try and prevent Abby's forced sterilization, assisted by Eugenics expert Rebecca Dawson. The historical background of this play is the U.S. government's involvement in the forced sterilizations of genetic "defectives" - over 70,000 Americans - made possible by the Supreme Court's Buck v. Bell decision to prevent future "generations of imbeciles." Sunday, June 23 at 6:30PM: The Gospel of John Adapted and performed by Ken Jennings Drama Desk-winning Broadway actor Ken Jennings (Sweeney Todd, Grand Hotel, Sideshow) started memorizing the Gospel According to John as a spiritual practice during a difficult time in his life. He always had an affinity for the Gospel of John, which seemed to him to be a firsthand account by a man who was actually there. So he memorized it. To make it theatrical, he made a few cuts for time, which he cleared with a Jesuit priest, an Episcopalian priest, a Baptist minister, and a nun of The Order of the Sacred Heart - all of who encouraged him to go on with his presentation. St. John must have told this story over and over again before it was in written form. Ken hopes to tell it to the audience as it might have first been heard. The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (www.sheencenter.org) is a New York City arts center located in NoHo that presents a vibrant mix of theater, film, music, art and talk events. A project of the Archdiocese of New York, The Sheen Center serves all New Yorkers by presenting performances and artists that reflect the true, the good, and the beautiful. Named for the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best remembered as an inspirational author, radio host and two-time Emmy Award-winning television personality, The Sheen Center reflects his modern-day approach to contemporary topics. The Sheen Center is a state-of-the-art theater complex that includes the 270-seat off-Broadway Loreto Theater, equipped with five-camera high-definition TV and live-stream capability and a multi-track recording studio; the 80-seat off-off-Broadway Black Box Theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery. ABOUT THE 3RD ANNUAL SHEEN CENTER THEATER FESTIVAL PLAYWRIGHTS WILLIAM BAER (Playwright, Three Generations of Imbeciles), a recent Guggenheim fellow, is the award-winning author of twenty-two books, and his various plays have been produced at over thirty American theaters. He grew up in the Bronx and Wayne, New Jersey, where his family was actively involved in "little theater." A graduate of Rutgers (B.A.) and New York University (M.A.), he completed his dissertation in creative writing at the University of South Carolina under the direction of James Dickey. After attending the Johns Hopkins' Writing Seminars (M.A.), he served as a Fulbright at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. He then attended the University of Southern California's Graduate School of Cinema (M.A.), where he received the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award. The recipient of a Creative Writing Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he currently lives in North Jersey. www.williambaer.net ERIK EHN (Playwright, The Weak and the Strong). Work includes The Saint Plays, No Time Like the Present, Wolf at the Door, Tailings, Beginner, A Child's Drawing of a Monster, What a Stranger May Know, Pony, New Noh, Pieces for Puppets and Ideas of Good and Evil. The Soulographie project, recently premiered at La MaMa in NY (November 2012) is a series of 17 plays written over 20 years, on the history of the US in the 20th Century from the point of view of its genocides (scripts includeMaria Kizito, Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, Yermedea, Drunk Still Drinking). His works have been produced in San Francisco (Intersection, Thick Description, Yugen), Seattle (Annex, Empty Space), Austin (Frontera), New York (BACA, Whitney Museum), San Diego (Sledgehammer), Chicago (Red Moon), Atlanta (7 Stages), Los Angeles (Cal Rep, Museum of Jurassic Technology), Belgrade (Dah); elsewhere. He has taught at the U of Iowa, Naropa, UC San Diego, UT Dallas, and Cal Arts (graduate); U San Francisco, SF State, Santa Clara, and Skidmore (undergrad); in 2010, he led a writing workshop with the Belarus Free Theater in Minsk. He conducts annual trips to Rwanda/Uganda, taking students and professionals in the field to study the history of these countries, and to explore the ways art is participating in recovery from violence. He produces the Arts in the One World conference yearly, which engages themes of art and social change. Erik conducts silent retreats in collaboration with Anne Washburn, Gary Winter, and Jen and Madeleine George of Pataphysics. Artistic Associate, Theatre of Yugen. Graduate of New Dramatists. Former Dean of the CalArts School of Theater. Current Director of Writing for Performance, Brown University. www.aoiagency.com/erik-ehn KEN JENNINGS (Adapter, Actor, The Gospel of John) is a veteran of eight Broadway shows: Sweeney Todd, originated the role of Tobias, won the Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World Award; Urinetown, Sideshow, Grand Hotel, All God's Chillun' Got Wings, Present Laughter, London Assurance, and Mayor. He was also in A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. A lot of Off-Broadway. A lot of regional theater. TV, film, voice work. He considers himself fortunate to have the Jesuits as his educators. And the most important piece of advice he got from the Jesuits was "Never forget to pray - if you pray, the Lord will hear you." So he has spent time in prayer every day of his life. He always had an affinity for the Gospel of John. Always seemed to him to be a first hand account - written by a man who was actually there. So he memorized it. And presents it to you. CARIDAD SVICH (Playwright, Red Bike). As a playwright, songwriter, editor and translator living between many cultures, including inherited ones, the idea of departure has always been not only an actual or metaphorical basis for Svich's work, but also an idea made manifest through the enactment of writing, its performance, and her living of it. Born in the US of Cuban-Argentine-Spanish-Croatian parents, Svich felt in a strange kind of exile even while growing up as an "American." This sense of dislocation extends to the fact that as a child and adolescent, she lived in several states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina, Utah, New York, and California, not to mention many cross-country road trips in between. The nomadic strain was thus instilled in her and has become an inevitable part of her writing vision. Explorations of wanderlust, dispossession, biculturalism, bilingualism, construction of identity, and the many different emotional terrains that can be inhabited onstage form the basis of her plays and other writing projects. Visions of migration (both physical and spiritual) dominate the plays, which have become, in turn, documents of internal diasporas. As a playwright, songwriter, editor and translator living between many cultures, including inherited ones, the idea of departure has always been not only an actual or metaphorical basis for her writing. www.caridadsvich.com NATHAN YUNGERBERG (Playwright, Thea) is a Brooklyn-based playwright. His plays include Esai's Table, Evelyn Dreams of Horses The Son of Dawn, Pousada Azul, Orchids and Polka Dots, Golden Gate, Brush Strokes, Seven Pools of Lebanon, And She Became the Rain and Isosceles. Nathan's work has been developed or featured by The Cherry Lane Theatre (2017 Mentor Project with Stephen Adly Guirgis), Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwrights' Center, JAG Productions, Crowded Fire Theater, The Brooklyn Museum, The Nuyorican Poets Café , The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Brava Theater, The Lark, The Fire This Time Festival, 48 Hours in Harlem, Climate Change Theatre Action, The National Black Theatre, The Hansberry Project, The National Black Theatre Festival, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Blackboard Reading Series, T. Schreiber Studio, The Dramatist Guild, Flashpoint Theater, The August Wilson Red Door Project, New Venture Theater, The Brooklyn Generator, The Bushwick Starr, Multistages theater and BBC Radio Afternoon Drama. Nathan is one of seven black playwrights commissioned by The New Black Fest for HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments which was published by Samuel French. Awards and honors: The 2016 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (Semifinalist), Ken Davenport 10-Minute Play Festival (Winner), 11th Annual InspiraTO Festival (Finalist), and the Blue Ink Playwriting Award (Semifinalist), 2019 Djerassi Resident Artist and a 2019 Headlands Center for the Arts Artist in Residence. www.nathanyungerberg.com |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | re: Is Faye Dunaway as Hepburn definite for Broadway? - ryhog 06:57 pm EDT 06/19/19 |
| Next: | Roundabout's TONI STONE opens tomorrow 6/20 - Official_Press_Release 06:18 pm EDT 06/19/19 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.008409 seconds.