Threaded Order Chronological Order
| New Ohio Theatre & IRT’s Archive Residency premiere of iNegro, a rhapsody & work-in-progress A Burning Church | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:28 am EDT 03/23/22 | |
|
|
|
| NEW OHIO THEATRE & IRT THEATER’S ARCHIVE RESIDENCY TO PRESENT WORLD PREMIERE OF KAREEM M. LUCAS’S INEGRO, A RHAPSODY AND WORK-IN-PROGRESS OF ALEX HARE, ZHAILON LEVINGSTON & NEHEMIAH LUCKETT’S A BURNING CHURCH New York, NY – New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater proudly present the Archive Residency world premiere of iNegro, a rhapsody, written and performed by Kareem M. Lucas, and production concept by Stevie Walker-Webb, and a work-in-progress presentation of A Burning Church, with a book and direction by Alex Hare and Zhailon Levingston, music by Nehe?iah Luckett and lyrics by Zhailon Levingston, at New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street) in New York City. About iNegro, a rhapsody Born of disillusionment and a fierce self-excavation, Kareem M. Lucas’s Afro-surrealist solo show, iNegro, a rhapsody, takes the audience on a hilarious and harrowing ride through a young Black man’s consciousness as he carves out the space to wrestle with his community, his faith, his culture and himself. Production Concept by Stevie Walker-Webb and featuring an original jazz score by Mauricio Esc?milla, iNegro is a thrilling verbal dance and a poetic, vulgar subversion of the sacred culminating in a wondrous act of surren?er and salvation. It reminds us that we can save ourselves. Inspiring, intricate, intense, intoxicating, inciting, iNegro. iNegro, a rhapsody, is a part of a trilogy of solo shows written and performed by Kareem M. Lucas. The name of the trilogy is “3 Ages of a Negro.” Other parts of the trilogy have been workshopped at the Cherry Lane Theatre as part of its 2019 Mentor Project, Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop, the Under The Radar Festival at The Public Theater, among others. This production is dedicated to the memory of the late Craig muMs Grant, his mentorship was i?strumental to the ?evelopment of the trilogy. We love you, muMs. The iNegro production team includes Mauricio Escamilla (Composer & Sound Design), David Goldstein (Scenic Design) and Tyler Arnold (Costume Design). iNegro, a rhapsody, runs from April 28 - May 14, 2022. Previews begin April 28 for a May 1 opening. Performances are Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 4pm. Tickets are $26 and $19 (students and seniors). Running time is approximately 60 minutes. Purchase at https://newohiotheatre.org. About A Burning Church Jen believes that Heritage Christian Center, the Alabama megachurch she works for, is doing God’s will. To Cleo, it’s everything that’s wrong with America – not least because a recent incident outside its doors got her brother Richard sent to jail. When the two women agree to team up in order to free Richard, the inevitable friction gradually inspires both of them to question their most fundamental beliefs. With a dynamic s?ore that fuses gosp?l and secular tra?itions, A Burning Chu?ch is an original musical haunted by acts of destruction, reconstruction, and radical transformation. “All of the characters in the show are fundamentalists in some way – if not about Christianity, then about the story they tell themselves about themselves. In that way, their futures depend on how much they are willing to embrace uncertainty and radical self-questioning. We’re so grateful to New Ohio and IRT, who have given us spa?e and resources over the last 3+ years to engage in a lot of self-?uestioning “ of ourselves, our beliefs, our relationships with institutions, and our show. We™re looking forward to sharing this work-in-progress with audiences of any and all (or no) beliefs. “ Alex Hare,?Zhailon Levingston and Nehemiah Luckett A Burning Church runs from May 20 - 22, 2002. Performances are Friday at 3pm and 8pm, Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $26 and $19 (students and seniors). Running time is approximately 75 minutes. Purchase at https://newohiotheatre.org. Also part of this year’s Archive Residency lineup: the previously announced world premiere of Songs About Trains, a musical exploration of the many cultural communities that built the U.S. rail system. The production runs April 5 - 23 at New Ohio Theatre with an opening set for April 10. Songs About Trains is created by Radical Evolution, directed by R?becca Martínez and Taylor Reynolds, and presented by Working Theater, Radical Evolution and New Ohio Theatre. The creative team includes music director and arranger Julián Mesri, choreographer Joya Powell and artistic producer Meropi Peponides. The lead author is Beto O™Byrne with additional contributions by Eugenie Chan, Reginal? Edmund, Rebecca Martínez and Jay Muskett. 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. New Ohio Theatre’s Artistic Director Robert Lyons says, “These shows were all originally scheduled for presentation during Covid quarantine and their realization now speaks to the tenacity, patience, and relentless creative drive of these fierce artists. It is with the greatest pleasure that we share them with the city of New York! The Archive Residency is a vital incubator for New York City’s most electrifying independent theater artists. The two-year residency provides artists with an artistic home for the development and presentation of a new work. The residency includes multiple workshops in IRT’s 3B Development Series and culminates with a final presentation in the New Ohio™s main season. Current Archive Residen?y artists include Vieve Radha Price and Chuk Obasi (TÉA Artistry), Kareem M. Lucas (iNegro, a rhapsody), Zhailon Levingston, Alex Hare and Nehemiah Luckett (A Burning Church), and Beto O™Byrne, Rebecca Martinez,?Meropi Peponides and Taylor Reynolds (Songs About Trains). Archive Residency alumni artists include Lila Neugebauer, Qu? Nguyen, Daniel Irizarry & Laura Butler Rivera, Normandy Sherwood, Sanaz Ghajar & Jessica Almasy, Kim Weild & Charles Mee, Jr., Tara Ahmadinejad, Jess Chayes and Lee Sunday Evans. 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 ?merican 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. For info visit https://n?wohiotheatre.org, Like them on Facebook at https://www.Facebook.com/NewOhioTheatre, an? follow on Twitter (https://twitter.com/NewOhioTheatre) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/newohiotheatre) at @NewOhioTheatre. IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. For info visit https://irttheater.org. Audience members are required to have proof of full Covid-19 vaccination and wear a mask to be admitted into the venue. For the latest health and safety protocols, visit https://newohiotheatre.org/playing-now/covid-19-protocols. # # # ARTIST BIOS - iNegro, a rhapsody Kareem M. Lucas is a Brooklyn born and Manhattan based Actor/Writer/Producer/Director. His solo pieces include iNegro, a rhapsody, Black Is Beautiful, But It Ain’t Always Pretty, RATED BLACK: An American Requiem, From Brooklyn With Love, A Boy & His Bow, and A Warm Winter. Kareem’s performed his work at The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, American Repertory Theater, The Fire This Time Festival, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, HERE Arts Center, Hi-ARTS, among others. He™s an in?ugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and a Usual Suspect at NYTW. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting Program. For more info visit ht?ps://www.kareemmlucas.com or on Instagram @KareemMLucas. Stevie Walker-Webb is an Obie Award-winning Director, Playwright and Cultural Worker who believes in the transformational power of art. He is Founder of HUNDREDSofTHOUSANDS, an arts and advocacy non-profit that makes visual the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally ill people and the policies that adversely impact their lives. He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Theatre, The Lilly Award in honor of Lorraine Hansberry awarded by the Dramatists Guild of America, and a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. Stevie™s served as the Founding Artistic Director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas and has created art and theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, Mississippi and across America. He™s worked as the Outreach Coordinator for Theatre of the Oppressed-NYC. His work has been produced by The Public Theatre, The New Group, American Civil Liberties Union, National Black Theatre and Zara Aina. For more info about Stevie visit https://www.steviewalkerwebb.com. Mauricio Escamilla, MOWRI, is a sound design artist, music producer, composer, drummer, percussionist and audio engineer based in Brooklyn. Having a decade of experience composing and designing for theatre, film, commercial and live music performance, MOWRI thrives within creative collaboration and experimental applications. As a first-generation artist of Central American immigrant parents, MOWRI focuses his creative energy and expertise in collaboration with primarily Black and Indigenous artists of color. MOWRI holds both a BFA in Kinetic Imaging from VCU in Richmond, Virginia, as well as a Masters of Science in Sound Design through The University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Mauricio has mixed, designed and composed for The Billie Holiday Theatre, The Lark, Cherry Lane, Powerhouse, Soho Rep and Long Wharf Theatre. http://www.mescamilla.com ARTIST BIOS - A Burning Church A Louisiana-raised director and storyteller, Zhailon Levingston specializes in the development of new plays and musicals. In 2021, he became the youngest Black director in Broadway history with Douglas Lyons’ play Chicken & Biscuits. He’s the co-director of Reconstruction with Tony-award winner Rachel Chavkin. Other credits: resident director at Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway, associate director of Hadestown in South Korea. Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Nehemiah Luckett has been leading and accompanying choirs for more than 25 years. From an early age he connected his deep love of music to the transformative power of building community through breathing and singing with family and friends. Beyond A Burning Church, current projects include an afro-futurist queer Bible-based opera, Jonathan and David, and new musical Triple Threats with Tracy Conyer Lee. Alex Hare is a director/writer of new musicals. In 2021, he co-created (with playwright Julia Izumi) the digital movie Capricorn 29 for The Tank/Post Theatrical. He has developed A Burning Church alongside his collaborators through New Ohio/IRT’s Archive Residency, MTF’s MAKERS Fellowship, Goodspeed’s JMF Writers Grove, and A Blade of Grass. In 2020, Alex received SDC Foundation™s Charles Abbott Fellowship. Assistant credits: School of Rock, Side Show (Broadway). |
|
| Link | https://newohiotheatre.org |
| reply to this message | |
Time to render: 0.006237 seconds.