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| Working Theater's Spring 2022 Season | New Partnerships with Waterwell, Radical Evolution, and New Ohio Theatre | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:06 am EST 02/09/22 | |
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| Working Theater, a company dedicated to producing theater for and about the essential workers of any town, is pleased to announce programming details for its Spring 2022 Season , which marks new partnerships with Waterwell, Radical Evolution, and New Ohio Theatre. A centerpiece of the season is the world premiere of Songs About Trains , a musical exploration of the many cultural communities that built the U.S. rail system. Produced by Working Theater, Radical Evolution, and New Ohio Theatre, this theatrical concert dives headfirst into conversations on immigration, labor, and Manifest Destiny. Created by a multicultural cohort of artists, Songs About Trains questions the complexity of progress while celebrating the diverse communities instrumental in creating the United States as we know it today. The production runs April 5 - 23 at New Ohio Theatre with an opening set for April 10. Waterwell, in association with Working Theater, will present the U.S. premiere of 7 Minutes. Originally written in Italian by Stefano Massini (The Lehman Trilogy), this production is also the English-language premiere of the play, with a translation by Francesca Spedalieri commissioned by Waterwell. Directed by Mei Ann Teo (SKiNFoLK: An American Show), 7 Minutes will play March 17 - April 10 at HERE in Manhattan. Based on actual events, 7 Minutes depicts an urgent meeting of the 11 women elected to the union council of their rural Connecticut textile factory. In May, Working Theater will host its annual Bridge Awards and Benefit , which celebrates its 37th season of theater and honors a community member who champions working people and helps to bridge the gap between arts, labor, and community. In June, playwrights and a small production team will gather for developmental readings of new plays from The Mark Plesent Commission Fund. The spring 2022 season also includes the continuation of Working Theater's longstanding and highly regarded education program, TheaterWorks! , which teaches playwriting and performance to working people and culminates in public performances. A final performance of plays written by 32BJ SEIU and Pathways2Apprenticeship playwrights will take place online on February 22. Producing Artistic Director Laura Carbonell Monarque commented, "Having spent 18 years under the leadership of Working Theater's long-time leader Mark Plesent and, most recently, partnering with Co-Artistic Director Tamilla Woodard for a remarkable season of online programming, it gives me great joy to welcome audiences back to in-person performances with my inaugural season as Working Theater's Producing Artistic Director. As we enter our 37th season, we are thrilled to embrace new collaborations as we continue to broaden access to brand new works of theater for and about working people- the essential workers we have all come to rely on in New York City and beyond." More information about Working Theater's spring 2022 season follows. To learn more and to reserve tickets, please visit www.theworkingtheater.org. Working Theater's Spring 2022 Season Waterwell, in association with Working Theater, presents 7 Minutes Written by Stefano Massini Translation by Francesca Spedalieri Directed by Mei Ann Teo March 17 - April 10 at HERE Based on actual events, 7 Minutes depicts an urgent meeting of the 11 women elected to the union council of their rural Connecticut textile factory. Changes at the factory seem inevitable when new owners take over, giving the council only 90 minutes to vote on a decision with serious consequences for everyone at the factory. Tempers flare and anxieties boil over as individual needs, perspectives and suspicions vie for position while the clock runs down. Working Theater, Radical Evolution, and New Ohio Theatre present Songs About Trains Created by Radical Evolution Directed by Rebecca Martínez and Taylor Reynolds Music Director/Arranger: Julián Mesri Choreographer: Joya Powell Artistic Producer: Meropi Peponides Lead Author: Beto O'Byrne Contributing Authors:Eugenie Chan, Reginald Edmund, Rebecca Martínez, Jay Muskett An Archive Residency premiere in partnership with IRT Theatre April 5 - 23 at New Ohio Theatre Through folk songs from various cultures and imagined letters from those whose stories have been lost to history, Songs About Trains welcomes audiences to an exploration of the many cultural communities that built the US rail system. Produced by Working Theater, Radical Evolution, and New Ohio Theatre, this theatrical concert dives headfirst into conversations on immigration, labor, and Manifest Destiny. Songs About Trains highlights how this pivotal moment in US history helped forge a global superpower, generated unbelievable wealth to a select few, and did so at the expense of thousands of lives, all while inspiring one of the deepest canons of music ever made in this country. Created by a multicultural cohort of artists, this theatrical concert questions the complexity of progress while celebrating the Chinese immigrant, Irish immigrant, Mexican American, African American, Appalachian, and Navajo communities instrumental in creating the United States as we know it today. 2022 Bridge Awards and Benefit May 2022 Working Theater's Annual Bridge Awards and Benefit celebrates their 37th season of creating theater for, about and with working people, and honors members of the labor and arts communities who champion working people and help bridge the gap between arts, labor, and community. This year's honorees and location will be announced later in the spring. Working Theater's 2021-2022 Educational and Direct Access Programs Theaterworks! Playwriting and Performance Program February 22 at 7pm | Online via Zoom | Free and open to the public Join us for the final performance of plays written by 32BJ SEIU and Pathways2Apprenticeship playwrights completing the TheaterWorks! program. TheaterWorks! teaches playwriting and performance to working people. In this 10-16-week class, students write and rehearse short theatrical pieces based on their work experiences, and perform them alongside professional actors and directors. Due to COVID-19, this year's final performances will be held online. The 2022 TheaterWorks! program is co-sponsored by The 32BJ Training Fund, Pathways2Apprenticeship, and Working Theater. Mark Plesent Commission Fund Readings June 2022 The Mark Plesent Commission Fund supports the commission and development of new plays by working people- in particular, those who have not had the privilege or the resources to self-identify or support themselves professionally as artists, but who have shown extraordinary talent, consistency of practice, and a commitment to writing within the mission of Working Theater. The program launched in March 2021 and will continue into Spring 2022 with the announcement of the next two recipients at our Bridge Awards & Benefit in May, and a public performance of the two existing commissions from inaugural recipients Carlos Cotto and John Keane in June. About the Theater Companies Radical Evolution is a multiethnic producing collective committed to creating artistic events that seek to understand the complexities of the mixed-identity existence in the 21st Century. We advocate for the visibility of the nation's fastest-growing demographic - those who identify with more than one ethnicity or culture, and we seed the field of collaboratively created theatre with artists who embody the multiplicity of perspectives and aesthetics of our city. Founded in 2011 by Beto O'Byrne and Meropi Peponides, we create ambitious, ensemble-driven, cross-disciplinary performance works with a focus on artists of color who push the boundaries of the theatrical form. www.radicalevolution.org New Ohio Theatre is a two-time Obie Award-winning theatre under the leadership of Robert Lyons Artistic Director, Jaclyn Biskup Creative Producer, and Alex West Business Producer. The New Ohio serves New York's most adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting bold work from today's vast independent theatre community. They believe the best of this community, the small artist-driven ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of where American theatre is right now and where it's going. From their home in the West Village's historic Archive Building, the New Ohio provides a high-profile platform for downtown's most mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish and profound theatrical endeavors. https://newohiotheatre.org/ Waterwell (Lee Sunday Evans, Artistic Director; Adam J. Frank, Managing Director; Heather Lanza, Director of Education; Arian Moayed, co-founder and Board Chair) is a group of artists, educators and producers dedicated to telling engrossing stories in unexpected ways that deliberately wrestle with complex civic questions. Most recently, they released the short documentary Sé Lo Que Es Pandemia /I Know What Pandemic Means featuring interviews with undocumented workers in Queens, NY about their experiences during the pandemic. The short film is by Frisly Soberanis, a filmmaker and video artist from Queens via Guatemala, and co-produced with Documented, a non-profit news site devoted solely to covering New York City's immigrants and the policies that affect their lives. Another recent project, The Flores Exhibits, is a series of short videos in which artists, lawyers, and community leaders read the legal testimonies of children held in facilities at the U.S./Mexico border in June 2019. The project, which has been screened in partnership with education and advocacy organizations around the country, is designed to create transformative experiences that catalyze meaningful dialogue about new visions for immigration policy in the United States. The company's most recent in-person production, The Courtroom, which The New York Times named "Best Theater of 2019," was a verbatim re-enactment of one woman's deportation proceedings performed in active legal spaces around New York City, including the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. Waterwell's education program has been in residence at the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) since 2010, where it delivers top-quality, year-round, in-school theater training to over 200 NYC public school students. The program cultivates the student-artist holistically, demands that they develop both as an interpreter and as a creator, and aims to place their work in dialogue with what is going on outside the classroom - in their homes, communities, and the world at large. www.waterwell.org Working Theater believes the transformative experience of live theater should not be a luxury, but a staple. Now in its 37th season, Working Theater continues its mission to produce theater for and about working people-the essential workers of any city or town-and to make play-going a regular part of our audiences' cultural lives. By making productions relevant, accessible, and affordable regardless of geography or socio-economic status, Working Theater strives to celebrate the city's diversity while seeking to unite us in our common humanity. Working Theater has commissioned and produced over seventy culturally diverse world-premiere plays, with subjects and themes ranging from the struggles of women working in poultry plants (Lisa Ramirez's To the Bone) to the plight of the uninsured in America (Michael Milligan's Mercy Killers), to the shared journey of undocumented immigrants crossing the United States border, staged inside an actual 18-wheeler (Ed Cardona, Jr.'s La Ruta). The company has presented its work in 8 American cities, earned a Drama League Nomination for 2020's American Dreams, 6 Drama Desk Award nominations, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble for Rob Ackerman's Tabletop, and 3 Audelco Awards. Working Theater is under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Laura Carbonell Monarque. www.theworkingtheater.org |
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| Link | http://www.theworkingtheater.org |
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