Don’t You F**king Say a Word is a play about love and hate, about friendly and not so friendly competition. Tennis is just tennis...until it isn't.
In this structurally innovative comic drama, which takes place simultaneous over the course of a single tennis match, and over the course of two years, Kate and Leslie explore the complexities of their boyfriends’ competitive spirits. Russ has a temper. Brian has been known to cheat. As their weekly tennis sets play out aggressively on stage, Kate and Leslie dissect their friendship and rivalry in a volley of sharp observation and wry wit. An explosive comedy about love, relationships, and the consequences of a lousy backhand.
The cast will feature Michael Braun (The Crucible on Broadway; War Horse at Lincoln Center; Much Ado About Nothing at The Public), Jennifer Lim (Caught with PlayCo at La MaMa; The World of Extreme Happiness at MTC; Theater World Award and Drama Desk nominee for Chinglish), Bhavesh Patel (The Other Thing with Second Stage; Indian Ink with Roundabout; War Horse at Lincoln Center), and Jeanine Serralles (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominee for Gloria with Vineyard Theatre; Drama League nomination for The Black Eyed at NYTW; Drama Desk nominee for Hold Please with Working Theater).
The creative team will include Sound Design by Amy Altadonna (Cal in Camo with Colt Coeur at Rattlestick; Alter-Ego at NYTW; NYIT Award nomination for Mill Fire with Retro Productions), Costume Design by Asta Bennie Hostetter (The Wolves with Playwrights Realm; Men on Boats with Clubbed Thumb at Playwrights Horizons; The Way West with LAByrinth), Set Design by Amy Rubin (Ike at Night at Under the Radar; War Lesbian at Dixon Place; Assistant on Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), and Lighting Design by Masha Tsimring (The Wolf in the River at The Flea; Wyoming with Lesser America; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Triad Stage).
About the Company: Andy Bragen Theatre Projects
Andy Bragen Theatre Projects is an NYC-based writer-centered company that produces formally ambitious, highly theatrical plays. Building upon the legacy of 13P, ABTP believes in the value and vision of independent artists and producers, in a “de-institutionalized’ model, wherein artists are given the direct support they need to realize their work. By demonstrating the viability of a playwright-centered model, and by sharing this approach with other aspiring writers/producers, ABTP aspires to have a significant impact on the way theatre is made in NYC and regionally.
Another Sunday night shift. The smell of bread baking. The industrial thump, thump, thump of the machines that never stop. The ovens are cranked up to full blast, the factory is humming, and everyone wants to be somewhere else. But this shift is going to be different. Because when a crisis hits the factory, the men have more to lose than just their wages. Following the smash sell out production in London and UK tour, Richard Bean’s (One Man, Two Guvnors) hilarious and brilliantly observed play arrives in New York for a strictly limited Brits Off Broadway engagement.
TOAST, Richard Bean’s first major play, was originally produced at the Royal Court Theatre in 1999. The Snapdragon production marks the play’s the first major revival in London, and the Brits Off Broadway run marks its US premiere. The play, which was called “a fine piece of work: a tender, ambivalent portrait of working class men raging against the dying of the light” by Time Out London, is loosely based on Bean’s experiences working at a bread factory in Hull when he was 18 years old.
The stellar cast of TOAST features a veritable Who’s Who of British theater. Olivier Award-winner Matthew Kelly (Of Mice and Men in the West End) leads the cast as Nellie. He is joined by Simon Greenall (I’m Alan Partridge for the BBC), Steve Nicolson (War Horse at the National Theatre), Will Barton (Bedtime Stories at the Stephen Joseph Theatre), Kieran Knowles (Operation Crucible at Finborough Theatre), Matt Sutton (The Ladykillers at the New Vic), and John Wark (Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us for the National Theatre of Scotland).
Newlyweds Darren and Janet want nothing more than to build the perfect life together. But when Janet gives birth to a baby with both male and female genitalia, they find themselves in the unlikely position of having to choose a gender for their child—all while competing with the perfect couple next door and dealing with a misunderstood family dog—in this hilarious battle-of-the-sexes.
Acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang called HAPPILY AFTER EVER a “hilarious, innovative and ultimately wise new play… HAPPILY AFTER EVER strikes at the heart of today’s charged debates around sexual roles and gender identity.”
The cast features Jeffrey Brian Adams (Promises, Promises at San Francisco Playhouse), Jim Anderson, Brennan Lowery (Chicago’s Second City); Marlon Meikle (Le Poisson Rouge, Incubator Arts Project, The Bushwick Starr, Joe's Pub); and Molly-Ann Nordin (A.R. Gurney's Family Furniture at The Flea).
First broadcast on the BBC in 1957, All That Fall is Beckett's deeply personal, scorchingly funny and grippingly dramatic tale of one woman's comic and moving journey to meet her husband at the train station.
Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon, two of Britain's finest living actors, star in this highly praised staging, directed by Trevor Nunn, in an exclusive, limited run of just 39 performances.
The running time of All That Fall is 75 minutes with no intermission.
EILEEN ATKINS and MICHAEL GAMBON with BILLY CARTER, RUAIRI CONAGHAN, TREVOR COOPER, CATHERINE CUSACK, FRANK GRIMES, and JAMES HAYES
Front Page Productions in association with The University of Central Oklahoma presents
'A spirited, life-affirming production!'Chicago Sun Times
'100 uninterrupted minutes of buoyant pleasure!'
Variety
Six extraordinary actors embody thirty-six everyday Americans in this tuneful act of job creation! Don't miss the NYC premiere of this newly-revised version of Working, directed by Gordon Greenberg. Based on Studs Terkel's famous 1974 book of interviews, this critically-acclaimed musical features well-loved songs by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, and James Taylor as well as two brand-new songs from Tony Award-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights).
With MARIE-FRANCE ARCILLA, JOE CASSIDY, DONNA LYNNE CHAMPLIN, JAY ARMSTRONG JOHNSON, NEHAL JOSHI, and KENITA MILLER.
Newly widowed Virginia Carpolotti gets some shocking news-her husband Ed left her in perilous debt to shady bankers, mobsters, and embezzlers. Now an anonymous blackmailer wants a million dollars, or else! Celebrated actress Penny Fuller, playing Virginia, sparkles as this sensational scam comes to a head. Thirteen Things About Ed Carpolotti is an off-beat, funny and heart-warming musical tale of love that transcends the grave. One of the New York Theater's true treasures, Emmy award winning and Tony nominated actress Penny Fuller revisits her role from Three Viewings, Jeffrey Hatcher's acclaimed evening of monologues, this time decked out in a vibrant array of songs by award winning composer/lyricist Barry Kleinbort. Ms. Fuller, shares the stage with musical director Paul Greenwood in this funny, unique and genuinely touching story of a woman's struggle to overcome the mistakes of the past without diminishing the love for her husband of forty years.
Originally developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Cabaret and Performance Conference in Summer 2012.
Chicago Tribune
‘A skillful, punchy piece that careens expertly between the painful and the comic.’
Chicago Sun-Times
Writer Bruce Graham and director Bud Martin (Any Given Monday) return to 59E59 with a new play exploring the ebb and flow of a family dynamic, featuring an all-star cast. In a summer cottage on Chesapeake Bay, Gunner has hatched an unorthodox plan to secure his family's future but meets with resistance from his wife and grown son. This new drama by Barrymore Award winner Bruce Graham 'hums with dark humor and profound emotion' (Chicago Sun Times).
The cast for the US premiere features Sarah-Jane Casey (The Killing Room for One Year Lease; Xena Warrior Princess) and J.M. Russ (I Am My Own Wife for the Queensland Theatre Company).
The design team includes James Hunting (set design); Mike Riggs (lighting design); Christine Kahler (costume design); and Scott Fetterman (sound design). The play features an original score by Estelle Bajou. Natalie Lomonte (former dance captain for Broadway’s Spiderman) is the choreographer.
The cast, who were all in original Chicago production, includes Alex Hugh Brown, Lili-Anne Brown (David Cromer’s Rent at American Theatre Company), Falashay Pearson, and Stef Tovar (Jeff Award-nominated On An Average Day in Chicago and LA).
The design team features Stephen Carmody (set design), Sean Mallary (lighting design), and Lindsay Jones (sound design and original music). John Boesche, who won a Jeff Award for the Chicago production, is projection designer.
Caitlin Parrish (playwright) made her Route 66 debut as the author of the hit play A Twist of Water, which was the latest in a long line of collaborations with director Erica Weiss. A Twist of Water is her second Off Broadway production, and her first since she was 19. Her debut was The View from Tall at the Cherry Lane Theatre, produced by Young Playwrights Inc., after it won the National Young Playwrights Competition. Since then, her plays have been produced around the country, and Ms. Parrish has become a guest lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, Centenary College, and the University of North Florida. In Chicago, she is a proud collaborator with The Gift (10 Dimensions), The Inconvenience (Strapped), and Around the Coyote (Fuck Tori Amos). She is a recipient of the Annenberg Fellowship and the Humanitas Award. Ms. Parrish currently works as a staff writer on the CW's Emily Owens, MD.
Erica Weiss (director) is the Associate Artistic Director of Route 66 Theatre Company and a freelance director in Chicago. She directed the world premiere of A Twist of Water. Along with playwright Caitlin Parrish, she was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for “Best New Work” as co-creator of the play. Erica also directed and conceived NEXT STOP: A New Chicago Musical with composer Diana Lawrence and six Chicago playwrights at Route 66 Theatre in June of 2012. She directed the U.S. premiere of Making Noise Quietly at the renowned Steep Theatre Company, and will direct Vigils by Noah Haidle at The Gift Theatre in early 2013. Erica was the founding Artistic Director of Hypatia Theatre Company, where she produced four world premiere productions, two of which (the critically acclaimed Red Georgia Clay and Florida Styx, both written by Caitlin Parrish) she directed. Recently, she served as Assistant Director to Barbara Gaines on the productions of Elizabeth Rex and Timon of Athens at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. As a director, dramaturg, and assistant director, she has worked with many of Chicago’s biggest Equity Houses and smaller storefront companies, including Victory Gardens Theatre, where she was the Dramaturg for the workshop and world premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Jeff Award winner), Northlight Theatre, American Theater Company, Chicago Dramatists, Stage Left Theatre, MPAACT, and more. Erica is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University, where she earned her degree in Theatre Studies with an emphasis on directing and new play development.
Backstage CRITIC'S PICK
'A wonderfully realized gem - an achy, richly observant story!'
NY Daily News
'Poetic - a noteworthy highlight!'
The Village Voice
What if there were multiple futures and you could see them all at once? At a Maine summerhouse, three recent Princeton grads drop acid and are repeatedly hurtled forward in time to see multiple selves and futures. The hedonism and fluid sexuality of their idealistic youth twist in their love triangle on a wild summer night.
Chicago Tribune
Built entirely out of the writings of its central characters, North explores Anne Morrow Lindbergh's (wife to aviator Charles) fascination with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (author of The Little Prince), as well as her struggle to orient herself, to reconcile motherhood with work and love with duty, and to articulate the responsibility of the artist to a world sunk in war.
North is based on historical fact. But it is a work of fiction.
‘Toe-tapping, heart-lifting jazz – a musical tribute from one pair of swinging musical siblings to another!’
New York Post
‘A wonderful earful from expert jazz musicians!’
TheaterMania
‘Delightful, dazzling and infectious - this show is too good!’
Backstage
Saxophone/clarinetists Pete and Will Anderson tell the riveting story of the two bandleaders, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, who rise to the top – before sibling rivalry causes the act to split up. A blazing jazz sextet and footage from the 1947 film The Fabulous Dorseys bring this true story to life.
The cast features Tara Lynne O’Neill (the film adaptation of Disco Pigs) and Katie Tumelty (The Billy Trilogy and Remembrance at Arts Theatre Belfast and Irish Tour). The production designer is Niall Rea.
Marie Jones (playwright/director). Born in Belfast, Marie was writer-in-residence for Charabanc Theatre Company from 1983 to 1990. Her plays have toured extensively throughout the world, including the former Soviet Union, Germany, coast to coast in America, Canada, Britain and Ireland. Her plays include an adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector, which toured in Britain and Ireland; A Night in November (London, Glasgow, New York and three tours of Ireland); Women on the Verge of HRT (Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and London’s Vaudeville Theatre); and Stones in His Pockets, which toured Ireland prior to the Dublin Theatre Festival and its West End and Broadway debut in 2000. It garnered many awards including the Lawrence Olivier Award, The Evening Standard Award and three Tony Award nominations for Best New Play.
Other dramas include Lay Up Your Ends co-written with Martin Lynch; Somewhere Over the Balcony; The Hamster Wheel; The Blind Fiddler; Wedding, Weens and Wakes; Christmas Eve Can Kill You; Ethel Workman Is Innocent; Rock Doves; and Dancing Shoes - The George Best Story. The New York premiere of her newest play FLY ME TO THE MOON arrives after a critically acclaimed tour of cities in Scotland and England by Paines Plough and in North Ireland.
Marie’s drama work for BBC Radio Four includes The Hamster Wheel; Christmas Eve Can Kill You; Wedding, Weens and Wakes; and The Blind Fiddler. Her writing for BBC TV includes a three-part drama series Tribes and The Hamster Wheel and, for Channel Four, Wingnut and the Sprog.
As an actress, Marie has performed in most of the major theaters of Ireland and the UK. Marie’s television acting credits include Life After Life, You, Me and Marley and Space Oddity. Her work in film includes Hush-a-Bye Baby, Middletown and the role of Sarah Conlon in In the Name of the Father. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates of literature and an OBE. ###
An electric play about love, loss and the tiny moments that can change your life forever. An impossible love story is given a second chance and three scorched characters are about to learn that lightning does strike twice.
Childhood friends Lucien and Anthony escape for a summer in the country. When the dazzling Madeline explodes into their lives, she tears open old wounds, awakening bittersweet secrets of friendship and love.
From the BAFTA award-winning writer of the critically-acclaimed films The Iron Lady andShame.
Scientific fact and family history collide in this tale of a woman’s extraordinary transformation and her family’s absurd and tragic attempts to prevent it. Mixing performance, puppetry, and miniatures with a lush video design by Jim Findlay (Collapsable Giraffe, Cynthia Hopkins), EVOLUTION is a fascinating exploration of identity, family and illness cross cut with the story of the back-to-the-water evolutionary process of the whale.EVOLUTION, which was developed by the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, originally premiered at The Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, where the Syracuse Post Standard called it “a taut, creative, multi-character, one-woman show that will make you laugh as well as jolt your serious sensibilities.”
The design team includes Jim Findlay (set and vide design); Thomas Dunn (lighting design); Anna Alisa Belous (costume design); and Will Pickens (sound design). Marc Mellits composed the original score. The production stage manager is David A. Vandervliet.
TRAVELERS is an original double bill of two one-act operas by British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934).
With libretto by Clifford Bax, The Wandering Scholar is a comedy about a traveling scholar, his young wife, and a priest; and what the husband finds when he returns home. Based on the book The Wandering Scholars by Helen Waddell, the opera received its premiere on January 13, 1934 at the David Lewis Theatre in Liverpool, but Holst – too ill to attend – never heard a live performance of the opera.
Dating from 1908, SÄvitri features a libretto by Holst, and is taken from the episode from the MahÄbhÄrata, which Holst translated from Sanskrit himself. A moving tale of pure love and devotion, the myth of SÄvitri revolves around SÄvitri and SatyavÄn alone together in the woods, and their encounter with the god of death.
In Imogen Holst’s preface to the published score of SÄvitri, she noted that her father had suggested that if a prelude was needed, one of the hymns from his Choral Hymns of the Rig Veda would help establish the appropriate atmosphere. The Little Opera Theatre of NY’s production of TRAVELERS will incorporate that work as an interlude between the two operas.
The cast of The Wandering Scholar features Maria Alu, Sharin Apostolou, Ron Loyd, Jeffrey Tucker, and Benjamin T. Robinson. The cast of SÄvitri features Heather Johnson, Rufus Muller, and Toby Newman.
The design team includes Neil Patel (scenic design); Natalie Robin and Amanda Clegg Lyon (lighting design); and Sara James (costume design). The Production Stage Manager is Aaron Heflich Shapiro.
Richard Cordova (Conductor) was recently appointed Music Director of The Little Opera Theatre of New York following his success as conductor for LOTNY's New York stage Premiere of Mozart's Mitridate, Re di Ponto. Mr. Cordova made his professional conducting debut leading the Scandinavian Premiere of Bernstein's Candide in Bergen, Norway, and has subsequently conducted productions for Oper der Stadt Bonn, Opera North (New Hampshire), Sarasota Opera, Opera Company of Boston, Long Beach Opera, Berkshire Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Baltimore Opera. He has served as Music Director for both Julie Taymor's Juan Darien during its initial off-Broadway inception (later conducting the work during its Tony Award nominated run at Lincoln Center Theater during the 1996-97 season); and earlier for Music-Theater Group's groundbreaking off-Broadway production of Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All, an opera he later conducted more often than any other living conductor. As a pianist, he has collaborated with such artists as Martina Arroyo, Frederica von Stade, Renato Bruson, Florence Quivar and Julia Migenes, and has worked in this capacity for several major opera companies around the world. For the past 18 years, he has toured internationally with various productions of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, conducting the work on four continents. He continues long standing artistic associations with both Des Moines Metro Opera and Sarasota Opera, having held various titles with the latter organization including that of Program and Music Director for the Studio Artists.
Philip Shneidman (Director) founded The Little Opera Theatre of NY in the summer of 2004. Work includes: Mitridate, re di Ponto - the NYC stage premiere; La Finta Giardiniera, The Mother of Us with the artist Sherrie Levine, and 2 Little Tragedies of Pushkin with Mungo Thomson. Concerts include: Make Believe, The Bohemians and New York Music all at Socrates Sculpture Park. Mr. Shneidman has directed Eugene Onegin and Dialogues of the Carmelites at The Mannes College of Music. His theater directing credits include: A Drowned Girl [1919] (HERE); Fully Committed (Adirondack Theatre Festival); Romeo & Juliet (Queens Theatre in the Park). On Broadway and at Lincoln Center Theater he has served as the Assistant Director on The Full Monty, A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, Pride’s Crossing, among many others. Early days found him stage-managing operas such as Albert Herring (Aldeburgh Festival) and The Marriage of Figaro (Aspen Music Festival.)
Called “inspiring” by the Star Tribune and “powerful and harrowing” by the City Pages in Minneapolis, this incredible story of survival arrives at 59E59 Theaters after traveling across the US, playing in Los Angeles, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Chicago.
About the Company: 59E59 Theaters
The Drama Desk Award-winning 59E59 Theaters is the number one Off Broadway destination in New York City. Nestled just around the corner from the famous Delmonico Hotel (now the Trump Park Avenue), 59E59 Theaters is a spectacular modern theater complex with three stages and a lively bar on the mezzanine level.
Owned and operated by the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation, a not-for profit foundation, 59E59 Theaters brings new, innovative and invigorating work to East Side audiences.
59E59 Theaters presents Off-Broadway productions by not-for-profit companies from across the United States and around the world, including an annual festival of new British theater called Brits Off Broadway and a preview of shows going to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe called East to Edinburgh.
Art, sex, conquest, and love collide on a fall day in 1923. Dashing mountaineer George Mallory, about to leave on his third Everest expedition, pays a surprise visit to the summer home of two of Britain's most important artists, the Bloomsbury Group painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Based on actual events, ETERNAL EQUINOX is a sexually charged look at the emotional impact of bedroom politics.
John Greer has a charmed life: he is a professor at a renowned university, a beloved father, and he is about to be named Poet Laureate. He owes much of his success to his wife, Diane, who aggressively shepherds his career. But when their daughter and her new boyfriend return home for the weekend, hidden secrets emerge that threaten to destroy the image he has cultivated in both his public and private lives. Poetic License is a biting drama set against the cut-throat, “publish or perish” world of academia that explores how one person's past can shape his art, his family and, in this case, his future.
Dates: FINAL WEEK! THROUGH SUNDAY JANUARY 2 ONLY!
Times: TUE-WED 7, THU 8, FRI (New Year’s Eve) 7, SAT (New Year’s Day) 8, SUN 3 & 7.
Tickets: $60 (59E59 MEMBERS $42)
When a captivating young woman enters the life of the quixotic Mr Berry, his desperation to ensure her return causes him to start secretly giving away his wife’s clothes in exchange for elocution lessons. But as the redoubtable Mrs Berry searches for an explanation for her rapidly diminishing wardrobe, Mr Berry finds both his relationships increasingly under threat. Two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn together with Niall Buggy and Beth Cooke bring Edna O’Brien’s dazzling new play to life - an enchanting exploration of desire and regret. Absolutely not to be missed!
“Brenda Blethyn and Niall Buggy bring grit and heart to Edna O’Brien’s drama.” The New York Times
“Just plain terrific!” Associated Press
“Brenda Blethyn’s Gladys is one of the season’s most memorable creations!” The New York Post
IF THAT’S ALL THERE IS, presented by Inspector Sands, London. Associate directed by Lu Kemp. Performed by Lucinka Eisler, Giulia Innocenti, Ben Lewis.
Dates: FINAL WEEK! THROUGH SUNDAY JANUARY 2 ONLY!
Times: TUE-WED 7:15, THU 8:15, FRI (New Year’s Eve) 7:15, SAT (New Year’s Day) 8:15, SUN 3:15 & 7:15.
Tickets: $35 (59E59 MEMBERS $24.50)
A couple, teetering on the brink of marriage…
As the happiest day of their lives approaches, the panic begins to rise. And everyone’s watching. Inspired by the Peggy Lee version of the bittersweet existential song ‘Is That All There Is?’ by Leiber and Stoller, this award-winning play dissects our obsession with finding fulfillment at any cost.
“It’s a kick! Perfect holiday entertainment” The New York Times
BONNIE LANGFORD: SPENDS CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK. Musical Direction by Michael Lavine.Performed by Bonnie Langford.
Dates: FINAL WEEK! THROUGH SUNDAY JANUARY 2 ONLY!
Times: TUE-THU 7:30, FRI (New Year’s Eve) 5:30 & 7:30, SAT (New Year’s Day) 8:30, SUN 3:30 & 7:30.
Tickets: $25 (59E59 MEMBERS $17.50)
Bonnie celebrates the festive season at Brits Off Broadway, singing landmark songs from the major musicals of her career, including Gone With The Wind, Gypsy, Sweet Charity and
Chicago – and the movie Bugsy Malone. She also shares stories of some of the leading ladies she grew up with, including Angela Lansbury, Carol Channing and Elaine Paige. A British treasure since she became a child star at the age of six, Brits Off Broadway is proud to present Bonnie in her first-ever cabaret engagement in the United States. This is only Bonnie’s second Christmas in New York – the first was when she appeared opposite Angela Lansbury in Gypsy on Broadway in 1974. A very special holiday treat indeed!
“Snap, crackle and pop!” Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“A Bright Brit of Xmas Cheer!” – The New York Post
COMING SOON
ScreenPlay, presented by Badlands Theatre Company. Written by Scott Brooks. Directed by Jenny Greeman. Performed by Scott Brooks, Diana DeLaCruz, Heather Dilly, Jonathan Sale.
Dates: JANUARY 12 - FEBRUARY 6
Times: TUE-WED 7:15, THU-FRI 8:15, SAT 2:15 & 8:15, SUN 3:15.
SUN 1/16 AT 7:15 ONLY
Tickets: $35 (59E59 MEMBERS $24.50)
They made him an offer he should’ve refused…
Dean is a failed screenwriter. Graham is a dot-com millionaire who wants to produce movies. These former college friends reunite when Dean’s Oscar-bait screenplay captures Graham’s imagination. How much is Dean willing to compromise to get the picture made? A biting Hollywood satire that examines friendship, rivalry and ambition, ScreenPlay traces the explosive journey of a film on its way to Oscar night.
8 nominations at Midtown International Theatre Festival
Winner! “OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY” and “OUTSTANDING PLAYWRITING FOR A NEW SCRIPT.”
Now in its first full production at 59E59 Theaters!
ROOM17B, presented by Parallel Exit. Written by Mike Dobson and Joel Jeske. Directed by Mark Lonergan. Performed by Mike Dobson, Danny Gardner, Joel Jeske, Brent McBeth.
Dates: JANUARY 13 - FEBRUARY 6
Times: TUE-WED 7:30, THU-FRI 8:30, SAT 2:30 & 8:30, SUN 3:30 & 7:30.
Tickets: $25 (59E59 MEMBERS $17.50)
The boss wants to maintain control.
His assistant wants to be the boss.
The sales rep wants to win.
The company man wants to avoid conflict.
Welcome to the chaotic office of Room 17B, where filing cabinets hold something stranger than paperwork. The ideal show for anyone who feels like they work in a circus. The Drama Desk nominated comedy troupe Parallel Exit (This Way That Way, Cut to the Chase) returns to 59E59 Theaters with a show that explores the power struggles, rivalries and one-up-manship in the most absurd office in New York City. If Buster Keaton and Monty Python did office work, it would look likeRoom 17B.
“They can get laughs simply by breathing.” The New York Times
The 1st IRISH FESTIVAL kicks off the Fall 2010 season at 59E59 Theaters, with the US premiere of Guna Nua’s critically acclaimed production of ABSOLUTION and Origin Theatre Company’s premiere of EXIT/ENTRANCE.
American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath would have turned 78 on October 27, so it is a fitting month to honor Plath at 59E59 Theaters. The New York premiere of her only play, THREE WOMEN, arrives Stateside after a 2008 sold-out run at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London. WISH I HAD A SYLVIA PLATH is a strikingly original look inside the mind of Esther Greenwood, heroine of Plath’s most famous novel The Bell Jar, while her head is in the oven.
Finally, BRITS OFF BROADWAY returns for a seventh spectacular season in November and December. Details will be announced soon.
September 8 – October 3
ABSOLUTION, written and performed by Owen O’Neill, directed by Rachel O’Riordan
Produced by Guna Nua Theatre (Dublin, Ireland)
Part of 1ST IRISH at 59E59 THEATERS
Tickets: $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members)
Tuesday – Wednesday at 7:30 PM; Thursday – Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8:30 PM; Sunday at 3:30 PM & 7:30 PM
From Perrier Award nominated Owen O’Neill comes a truly startling story. Timely and topical, O’Neill weaves a grim and riveting tale of a man who has taken upon himself the sins of so many and unleashed on them a terrible vengeance. Acclaimed Dublin company Guna Nua returns to New York after their critically acclaimed premiere last January with Best of Edinburgh Award-winner Little Gem at The Flea. And 59E59 welcomes Belfast director Rachel O’Riordan (Hurricane, Brits Off Broadway 2004) back to 59E59!
September 10 – October 3
EXIT/ENTRANCE, written by Aidan Matthews, directed by M. Burke Walker
Produced by Origin Theatre Company (New York, NY)
Part of 1st IRISH at 59E59 THEATERS
Tickets: $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members)
Tuesday – Wednesday at 7:15 PM; Thursday – Saturday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 3:15 PM. (There is no Saturday matinee performance on September 11)
Charles, a retired classics professor and his wife, Helen, quietly re-affirm their deep affection for each other and the life they’ve shared - its delights and disappointments - as they toast their commitment. Meanwhile, in a similar apartment, a much younger couple, also called Charles and Helen, are eagerly beginning their life together. Are these the same people 40 years ago? If not, who are they? The Irish Times called EXIT/ENTRANCE “One of the most challenging and satisfying evenings of pure theatre!”
October 5 – October 31
THREE WOMEN, written by Sylvia Plath, directed by Robert Shaw
Produced by Inside Intelligence (London, UK)
Tickets: $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members)
Tuesday – Wednesday at 7:15 PM; Thursday – Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; Sunday at 3:15 PM
A rare chance to see Sylvia Plath's only play! Three diverse women reveal what every woman knows about having a child, seeking a greater universal truth about the human condition. Fascinating, frank and powerful, The Stage called THREE WOMEN “Intimate, luminous and fearless!” THREE WOMEN was originally written as a radio play, which Plath wrote one year before her death. First presented in 2008 in London, Inside Intelligence is the first professional producers to mount the play since it premiered on the BBC in 1962.
October 5 – October 31
WISH I HAD A SYLVIA PLATH, written by Edward Anthony, directed by Anthony Wilks. Featuring Elisabeth Gray
Produced by New Umbrella (Asheville, North Carolina)
Tickets $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members)
Tuesday at 7:30 PM; Wednesday at 1:00 PM & 7:30 PM; Thursday – Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8:30 PM; Sunday at 3:30 PM
Esther Greenwood, heroine of The Bell Jar, must mix, blend and whip her memories, fantasies and illusions into the most perfect poem of her life before Olson the Magic Oven takes her away.
November 2 – January 2, 2011
BRITS OFF BROADWAY
The Brits return in time for the festive season! Programming details coming soon!
A wolf collides with a young couple’s automobile on a snowy New Year’s Eve, igniting this triptych on the violence of deception. Unfolding across three relationships, an impotent novelist grasps for affection from his resentful fiancé, a woman longs for the specter of her overbearing ex-girlfriend, and a child discovers her unwitting role in her parents’ divorce. Acclaimed playwright Delaney Britt Brewer weaves humor and compassion in this world premiere production of WOLVES.
Delaney Britt Brewer last collaborated with Kids With Guns for the 2007 critically acclaimed production of her play An Octopus Love Story. WOLVES reunites her with Octopus director Mike Klar and actor Josh Tyson (who Time Out called “a 21st Century Rock Hudson”). Brewer is a member of Ensemble Studio Theater’s Youngblood Writers Group and also developed WOLVES under the auspices of a Dramatists Guild Fellowship.
The full cast will be announced in the coming weeks.
Each July, 59E59 Theaters becomes the Edinburgh outpost right here in New York, hosting shows by US theater companies who are headed across the Pond to take part in the world’s largest cultural extravaganza, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 59E59 Theaters is proud to host numerous provocative, outrageous, hilarious, infuriating and always innovative productions each year before they journey across the Atlantic!
Created as a way to help shows get on their feet before flying off to Scotland, EAST TO EDINBURGH simulates the same production constraints that all shows experience during the Festival, while giving them a clean, comfortable and nurturing space to fine-tune their productions. This whirlwind festival reflects some of the most adventurous theater from across the United States.
The 2010 EAST TO EDINBURGH line up is:
YO GIRL! written and performed by Natalie Kim, directed by Kenneth Heaton
Produced by Claire Unabia
Tuesday, July 13 - Wednesday, July 14 at 7 PM; Tuesday, July 20 at 7 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
What happens when you meet the man of your dreams? For Natalie Kim, the answer is in her mothers. All three of them.
NO TRAVELER written and performed by Penny Pollack, directed by Samantha Jones
HI, HOW CAN I HELP YOU written and performed by Scout Durwood, directed by Lucile Scott
Produced by Mighty Little Productions
Wednesday, July 14 – Friday, July 16 at 9 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
NO TRAVELER combines vaudeville, music and monologue to explore the heartbreaking act of suicide with the one thing that helps us keep going... laughter. HI, HOW CAN I HELP YOU is a one woman musical following the silly side of working as an S&M mistress.
GIBBY STONE AND HER PROBLEM written by Paul Andrew Perez with music and lyrics by George Griggs, directed by Paul Andrew Perez
With Natalie Tiffany, Carlie Yaroscak, Christine Barnwell and Carolyn Stark
Produced by Infinity Repertory Theatre Company and Main Street Arts
Thursday, July 15 – Sunday, August 1
Tuesday – Saturday at 7 PM and Sunday at 2 PM
Tickets: $12 (59E59 Members $8.40)
Gibby is a regular teenaged girl until her acne strikes. Gibby’s face is either a dermatological wonder or the spawn of hell. Will she ever find a normal life? Teen angst at its worst!
SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE written by Gyda Arber and Wendy Coyle, directed by Gyda Arber
With Gyda Arber, David Arthur Bacharach, Aaron Baker, Wendy Coyle, Ian W. Hill, Heath Kelts, Iracel Rivero, Brandi Robinson, Heather Lee Rogers, Ariana Siegel, Ken Simon and Moira Stone.
Produced by The Fifth Wall
Saturdays July 17, 24 & 31 at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30 PM
Tickets: $20 (59E59 Members $15.50) Ticket price includes a drink at the E:Bar.
Advanced reservations are required.
Part performance, part live video game, this interactive experience uses iPods and the tony Upper East Side neighborhood around 59E59 to immerse audiences directly into the gritty world of film noir, where not everything is black and white.
MARY&WILLIAM written and performed by Mary MacDonald Hamill, directed by Eddie Lew
Saturday, July 17 at 4 PM; Sunday, July 18 at 7 PM; Wednesday, July 21 at 7 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
Shakespeare’s words have a powerful resonance in the life of a woman seeking intimacy and her place in the world. The voices of Hamlet, Prospero, Ophelia and Juliet intertwine with a deeply personal autobiography.
TWO ISLANDS: ISLAND BLOGOSPHERE and THE JEWISH NUN written and directed by Vanessa Garcia (Island Blogosphere) and Wendy White (The Jewish Nunn)
Featuring Nicole Garcia, Casey Dressler and Vanessa Garcia
Produced by New Light Foundation and Krane, Inc.
Saturday, July 17 at 2 PM & 9 PM; Sunday, July 18 at 4 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
Two Islands explores the two worlds inhabited by a Jewish American woman and a Cuban American woman. Two stories of culture clashes, the world of outsiders and the women who strive to find themselves through the pulsing life of the two particular islands who made them: Manhattan and Cuba.
CITY LOVE SONG, written, directed and performed by Jack Finnegan
Produced by Four Fins Ink
Tuesday, July 20 - Wednesday, July 21 at 9 PM; Tuesday, July 27 at 9 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
Jack Finnegan narrates an expressive and philosophical journey through the United States from the window of a train and the sidewalks of two dozen American cities. What is the state of America? Prepare to find out.
RIGHTEOUS MONEY written by Michael Yates Crowley, directed by Michael Rau. With Michael Yates Crowley and Michael Rau.
Produced by Wolf 359
Thursday, July 22 – Saturday, July 24 at 9 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
Dishing out advice on stock trading, deal-making and seducing your assistant, this filthy rich TV provocateur takes on the tanking economy. What begins as a send-up of financial gurus and morally dubious I-bankers becomes a searing exploration of finance and the state of America today.
A PERHAPS-TOO-INTIMATE EVENING OF MUSIC AND HILARITY written by Jesse Andrews and Micah Shapiro, directed by Jesse Andrews. With Mr. Andrews and Mr. Shapiro.
Produced by The Young Dads
Thursday, July 22 – Saturday, July 24 at 9 PM
Tickets: $12 (59E59 Members $8.40)
This charming comedic duo mixes catchy original music with witty comedic musings about pirates, the meaning of existence and how tough it is to be a teenage girl. Their vocal harmonies, strangely compelling choreography and subversive Power Point presentation will have you laughing to the point of irreversible face damage.
RETREAT written by Steven Levenson, directed by Dawn Fuller
With Lucinda Allen, Yasmeen Audi, Cristina Cortes, Tate Daugherty, Joey Doyle, Caroline Johnson, Nikhil Mehra, KC Morse, Ben Prout, Alexa Salamé and Anna Skelsey.
Produced by Red Chair Players East
Friday, July 23 – Sunday, July 25 at 7 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
Two rebellious young women are caught at the intersection between modernity and madness. Retreat explores the perils of self-discovery in a psychiatric clinic, circa 1906.
SKINNY BITCH JESUS MEETING written and performed by Katie Hartman and Leah Rudick
Wednesday, July 28 – Saturday, July 31 at 9 PM
Tickets: $10 (59E59 Members $7)
Delightfully dark duo Katie Hartman and Leah Rudick turn daisies into daggers and filth into fancy with their absurd and disarmingly fun show. Named "biggest revelation" by the Guardian at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe, the pair returns to the 2010 festival with their bizarre world of giggles and nightmares.
CONSIDERING GEORGIA O'KEEFFE written, directed and performed by Allison Hetzel
Produced by One Voice Productions
Saturday, July 31 at 2 PM & 4 PM; Sunday, August 1 at 4 PM
Tickets: $15 (59E59 Members $10.50)
Considering Georgia O'Keeffe is a unique and honest look at O'Keeffe's life as a female artist in a man's world. A compelling portrayal of one of the most iconic American artists of the 20th Century.
In 1824, on the edge of the frontier, a college president, his wife and a former slave explore the limits of their freedom. Based on the true story of John Newton Templeton, the first African-American to attend college in the Midwest -- 40 years before the Emancipation Proclamation.
The story of John Newton Templeton is extraordinary. He was the first African American man to attend and graduate from college in the mid-west (Ohio University), and the fourth to do so in the entire country. He went on to become the first teacher, and later Principal, of the African School in Pittsburgh, the first school for African American children in the city. A relentless political activist, he was also co-editor of The Mystery, a newspaper “dedicated to the fight for freedom and political emancipation.”
The cast of FREED includes Sheldon Best (Vampire Cowboy’s Soul Samurai) as John Newton Templeton, Emma O’Donnell (The Hairy Ape at Irish Rep) as Jane Wilson and Christopher McCann (Charles Mee's Paradise Park at The Signature Theater; Buried Child on Broadway) as Robert Wilson.
For more information, visit www.59e59.org.
Set in a posh hotel room in The Hague, Lee Blessing’s new play imagines former president George W. Bush on the eve of his trial for international war crimes. Tended to by an inscrutable Dutch butler and an alluring masseuse, the former President embarks on a night of drinking, joking and rumination.
When We Go Upon The Sea explores how we regard our leaders and exposes one of the world’s most intriguing conflicts: the battle between the elected leader of the free world and a democracy of millions.
Performed by Conan McCarty, Peter Schmitz and Kim Carson.
For more information, please visit www.interacttheatre.org.
IDEAL was written in 1934, during a time of great professional turmoil in Rand’s life. At the time, her novel We the Living was rejected by a succession of publishers for being "too intellectual" and too opposed to Soviet Russia; her play Night of January 16th had not yet found a producer; and Miss Rand's meager savings were running out. IDEAL was written originally as a novelette and then extensively revised and turned into a stage play.
The cast of IDEAL includes Liz Aldefer, Jessie Barr, Ted Caine, Bill Griffin, Sean Ireland, Lee Kasper, Emily Marrow, Cara Massey, Dan Pfau, Kim Rosen, Ariana Seigel, Carly Walsh and Andrew Young. Produced by Karina Martins and Drew Vanderburg in association with FGP NYC, INC.
A video of insurgents beheading Jack Lewis is released over the Internet. Back home in Idaho, Jack’s twin, father and widow are left to pick up the pieces – so to speak. The only solution to this Christian family’s grief and mounting spiritual crisis is The Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO.
Presented by New Jersey Repertory Company by special arrangement with Pat Addiss and Vasi Laurence.
1944. While War is raging overseas, May, Alice, and Billie are home in Brooklyn marking the days until the men return. Into their carefully crafted world enters Sophie, a woman who has fled the Holocaust, and her appearance on the scene threatens the delicate equilibrium that the housewives have so skillfully created.
Performed by Pheonix Vaughn, Corey Tazmania, Wendy Peace and Natalie Mosco.
with Special Guest Daryl Sherman | Open: 05/25/10 Close: 05/30/10
Performed by Clarinet/Saxophonists Pete and Will Anderson and their band with special guest Daryl Sherman.
Acknowledged by their peers and the jazz community as musicians with a promising future, The Anderson Twins are joined in their centennial tribute to the great Artie Shaw by New York favorite Daryl Sherman.
Benny Goodman Meets Artie Shaw: Who Was King? | Open: 05/18/10 Close: 05/23/10
In the first week of their centennial tribute to jazz giant Artie Shaw, the identical Anderson Twins take on two new musical masters – Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw! Who was King? You decide as The Anderson Twins duel with dazzling virtuosity!
Give your Sunday a little extra fizz!
Come and celebrate Artie Shaw’s 100th Birthday at the 3PM performance on Sunday May 23. Champagne will be served at intermission.
The gripping true story of fourteen-year-old Edgar, who fled Guatemala’s deadly gangs and his legal struggle to be allowed to stay in the United States. This documentary play crafted entirely from immigration court transcripts as well as interviews and letters, provides a rare glimpse into the lives of undocumented youth, many thousands of whom make the harrowing journey across the border and through the U.S. system of justice every year.
About the Company: Houses On the Moon Theare Company
Houses on the Moon Theater Co. exists to dispel ignorance and isolation through the theatrical amplification of unheard voices.We help communities come together and make meaningful connections through the public sharing of their untold stories.Through original performances, post-show discussions and pre-and post- performance issue-based creative workshops, Houses on the Moon is able to offer communities a powerful tool to educate and offer support around the complex issues of our time.
It’s Gen X vs. Gen Y in this slacker comedy of manners that follows the romantic adventures of part-time workers in a Tokyo manga café. This new play from one of Japan’s leading theatre artists reveals a portrait of Japanese youth culture adrift and the current socio-economic rifts that have widened the gap between generations. Enjoy is the inaugural project in The Play Company's Universal Voices translation program, a new initiative to commission American translations of foreign-language plays. From the producers of Rainbow Kiss, The Attic, Romania. Kiss Me! and Sakharam Binder.
Don’t miss the first-ever stage adaptation of the famous story adapted by Matt Pelfrey and directed by Joe Tantalo for his acclaimed, award-winning Godlight Theatre Company, returning for their sixth season at 59E59 Theaters. It’s 1962. A hot August night lies heavy over the small town of Argo, Alabama. A dead white man is discovered and the local police arrest a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs. The police discover that their prime suspect is in fact a homicide detective from California. As it happens, Tibbs becomes the racially-tense community’s single hope in solving a brutal murder that is turning up no witnesses, no motives and no clues.
Inner Voices: Solo Musicals is part of Primary Stages Spring Celebration celebrating 25 years with 25 days of events.
In 2008, PREMIERES embarked on a new initiative in keeping with its mission to support creative talent, and produced Inner Voices: Solo Musicals at the Zipper Factory Theater. Three new pieces by Ellen Fitzhugh & Michael John LaChiusa, Laura Harrington & Jenny Giering and Michele Lowe & Scott Davenport Richards were presented, featuring Victoria Clark, Jennifer Damiano and Barbara Walsh. Inner Voices: Solo Musicals, inspired by Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads,’ introduced a new genre of theater that unites the spoken monologue into a tapestry of lyrics and music.
Mosaic, by Cheri Steinkellner & Georgia Stitt, is a multi-media, real-time half hour in the life –and on the MacBook – of Ruth, a woman blogging at the crossroads of birth, death, love and Diet Coke. Featuring Heidi Blickenstaff as Ruth with musical direction by Steve Marzullo.
Whida Peru: Resurrection Tangle, by David Simpatico & Josh Schmidt, brings us into the chambers of a rare creature, as she is forced to evaluate the quality of life, death and what lies in between for her. Featuring Judith Blazer as Whida Peru with musical direction by Andy Boroson and J. Oconer Navarro.
The creative team includes Dane Laffrey (Set & Costumes), Jennifer Schriever (Lights), Toby Algya (Sound), and Rocco DiSanti (Video). The Production Stage Manager is Robert Bennett.
Inner Voices: Solo Musicals, a 95-minute presentation,will play a sixteen-performance schedule.
In Franco’s 1960’s Spain, an Israeli scholar is detained for stealing a confidential Inquisition file. An interrogation follows, reviving the story of Spanish priest Andrés González (1447-1486), whose faith is tested when he finds himself in love with a Jewish woman. Conviction is an award-winning play based on a true story of the Spanish Inquisition.
The three men from Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler battle it out at a bachelor party. Camaraderie and good-hearted competition devolve into drunkenness and debauchery as they confront a dark vision of the future. Is there any way to avert the coming disaster, or are we all doomed? Smart, masculine and wildly funny! Following their enormous downtown success last year with Christmas Is Miles Away by Chloe Moss, this is Babel Theatre Project’s first visit to 59E59.
Arriving in New York after a hugely successful run at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A British Subject is an extraordinary true-life tale of international politics and the media colliding with justice, civil liberties and ultimately, faith.
“Gem of a play…This is documentary theater at its best.” The Leader
If you had the power to revise your past, what would you change? Who would you be? In A Lifetime Burning, trust fund darling Emma imagines what her life would have been like had she come from a less privileged background. Trouble is, she chronicles her alternate life in a new tell-all “memoir” that was sold for a hefty advance. When Emma is exposed, will her sister, Tess, stand by her? Or will Emma’s deceit destroy their already fractured relationship? This dark comedy brings up questions of legacy, loyalty and what it means to belong.
Cusi Cram’s work has been hailed as imaginative, original, poetic and has been produced across the country at theaters such as Barrington Stage, The Public Theater and South Coast Rep. “This season, Primary Stages is excited to highlight the plays of three exciting voices in the theater,” said Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director. “We are thrilled that Cusi Cram’s play opens our 25th Anniversary Season.”
The creative team includes Kris Stone (Set), Theresa Squire (Costumes), David Weiner (Lights), and Daniel Baker (Sound). The Production Stage Manager is C.A. Clark.
ONE, is an original rock musical based both on the iconic novel Siddhartha and the uniquely personal story of its author, Herman Hesse. Originally produced in 2005 by Portland’s Insight Out Theatre Collective, ONE employs eastern and western musical influences, exploring the timeless quest for human understanding, the lines that separate fact and fiction, and the singular responsibility an artist holds in service of their art.
In this whimsical fable playing at 59E59's East to Edinburgh Festival, two couples headed West wonder why they've changed from ambitious pioneers to stir-crazy settlers. Does the Empire State Building hold the answers? Don't miss this exclusive opportunity to see Page 121's highly anticipated world premiere before its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! The Syracuse New Times said “Dykstra outdoes himself here. The rapidity and studied verbal miscues will remind old timers of classic Abbott and Costello routines, but the dissection of everyday expression sounds like vintage George Carlin.”
A PLAY ON WORDS stars Brian Dykstra and Mark Boyette (Clean Alternatives at 59E59). The design team includes: Kelly Syring(set), E.D. Intemann (lights), Hannah Kochman (costumes) and Nate Richardson (sound).
BRIAN DYKSTRA (Playwright / Max) last played 59E59 Theaters in 2006 with his play Clean Alternatives, which went on to win the coveted Fringe First Award at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before a production at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, NY. A Play On Words started at The Kitchen and now it's at 59E59! His plays Strangerhorse, The Two Of You, and The Jesus Factor (all directed my Ms. Perry) premiered at the Kitchen Theatre. The Jesus Factor is out on DVD and received a 3-month Off-Broadway run at The Barrow Street Theatre. His first solo show, Cornered & Alone, received an extended Off-Broadway run and was hailed by critics, but landed him on several watch-lists including the NRA and Rush Limbaugh. Last Spring his play, Spill The Wine, was given its first production at GayFestNYC, directed by Ms. Perry. Brian's play Hiding Behind Comets (awarded the National Theatre Conference Playwright Award) saw its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park during its 2004 Tony Award-winning season and then received an extended Off-Broadway run at 29th Street Rep. It has also seen productions in California (World Premiere Theatre), Alabama (Birmingham Theatre Festival) Boston (Zeitgeist Theatre) and is slated to happen again in New York this September with Nicu's Spoon producing. Other productions include: Forsaking All Others (Pentameters Theater/London, Powerhouse Theatre/Los Angeles, Access Theater/NY), Clean Alternatives (Yellow Taxi Productions/NH), That Damn Dykstra (Access Theater), Silence (Holy Cross College, Stella Adler/NY, At Hand Theatre/NY.) Brian most recently closed The Seagull at A.R.T. where he played Trigorin. He has appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry" with his piece "Pushing Bush" and Chappelle's Show in the famous “Blind Supremacist.” He was a Playwright Fellow with the Lark Play Development Center and was awarded The Vault's It's the End of the World As We Know It Award for exceptional cutting edge artists who consistently take risks with their art.
MARGARETT PERRY (Director) was last at 59E59 when she directed the world premiere of Brian Dykstra’s Clean Alternatives. The production went on to win the Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then traveled upstate to the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca. Since then she has directed several productions at the Kitchen including 3 new Brian Dykstra plays, A Play On Words, The Two Of You and Strangerhorse. Other KTC credits include Rachel Lampert’s musical comedy TONY & The Soprano, A Marriage Minuet andOld Times. Recent NY credits include S.W.A.P. ‘08 (The Spoken Word Almanac Project) at the Nuyorican Poets Café, Welcome To Arroyo’s (Hip Hop Theater Fest) and Spill The Wine and Competing Narratives (GayFestNYC). Perry has worked on many solo shows including the extended Off-Broadway runs of 2 Brian Dykstra shows, The Jesus Factor (Barrow Street Theatre) and Cornered & Alone(Triad). Other favorites include: Carlo D’Amore’s No Parole (San Francisco’s The Marsh Theatre and Sacramento Theatre Company), Rachel Lampert’s The Soup Comes Last (KTC), Darian Dauchan’s Media Madness (KTC) and Vickie Tanner’s Running Into Me (KTC). Perry won the 2007 DayTony Award for Best Overall Production for Tina Howe’s Painting Churches at the Human Race Theatre and her cast (including Mark Boyett) won the 2005 DayTony Award for Ensemble Acting for her production of The Retreat From Moscow (also at the Human Race). Her short film “Wet” won the Houston Film Festival Remi Award for Direction. Perry was the Producing Artistic Director of Access Theater for six years where she directed and produced numerous plays and world premieres. She is an Artistic Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center where she has worked with a variety of writers developing new plays and produced the Playwrights’ Workshop with Arthur Kopit. She received her MFA in Directing from SMU and is a Drama League Directing Fellow alumni and a member of the SSDC.
Chasing Manet is a new comedy in which a rebellious painter from a distinguished family in Boston and an ebullient Jewish woman with a huge adoring family form an unlikely bond. Inside the confining walls of Mount Airy Nursing Home, the two plot an escape to Paris aboard the QE2. But can they possibly pull it off amidst the chaos of their surroundings? The tension and comedy grow as they struggle to take wing for the last time. Tony Award-nominated playwright Tina Howe is best known for Coastal Disturbances and Painting Churches. This world premiere of Chasing Manet marks her first collaboration with Primary Stages.
Casey Childs, Executive Producer at Primary Stages said, "I am thrilled to have Tina Howe join our growing roster of illustrious playwrights.” Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director, added, "we are delighted to have Michael Wilson return to Primary Stages following the success of the critically acclaimed production of Dividing the Estate that recently ended on Broadway after receiving its New York premiere at Primary Stages.”
The creative team includes Tony Straiges (Set Design), David C. Wollard (Costume Design), Howell Binkley (Light Design), and John Gromada (Sound Design). The Production Stage Manager is Susie Cordon.
1984 is a chronicle of one man’s struggle against the ubiquitous, menacing state power Big Brother that tries to dictate nearly every aspect of human life. A classic in dystopian fiction and a trenchant political satire, 1984 resonates with themes as salient today as they were when this novel was first written.
1984 features Katherine Boynton (Fahrenheit 451, Church at the Public), Enid Cortes (Blindness), Gregory Konow (Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse Five), Deanna McGovern (Slaughterhouse Five), Dustin Olson (Slaughterhouse Five), Nick Paglino (Blindness, Slaughterhouse Five), Aaron Paternoster (Slaughterhouse Five), Michael Shimkin (Blindness and Slaughterhouse Five), Scarlett Thiele (Neighborhood Playhouse), Michael Tranzilli (Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse Five) and Sammy Tunis (Futurity at the Zipper).
Written by acclaimed Irish author Frank McGuinness, who earned a Tony Award nomination for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, and received a Tony Award for best revival in 1997 for A Doll's House, GATES OF GOLD is an acerbic duel between Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir, fashionable and eloquent theatrical trailblazers who founded Dublin's Gate Theatre. GATES OF GOLD is funny, witty, deeply moving and a vibrant celebration of art, love, and, finally, life itself.
59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is thrilled to welcome Dublin, Ireland's Rough Magic Theatre Company in their US premiere with their masterful wartime musical comedy. IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY is a joyously surreal satire that lifts the lid on Ireland's fragile neutrality during World War II and cuts to the heart of the tempestuous, can't-live-with-'em-can't-live-without-'em affair with its nearest neighbor, Britain.While war rages across Europe, Dublin revels in its knife-edge neutrality as the fledgling Irish Free State tries to remain open for business. A hotbed of political and cultural bohemians, the city is host to a volatile mixture of exiled intellectuals, literary bar-lizards, British spies and Nazi sympathizers.
When coded messages, broadcast during an Irish radio-requests show, draw the attention of the British, a young code breaker called Tristram Faraday is sent across the Irish Sea to investigate. His enquiries lead him into a series of deeply improbable encounters, where the truth is more improbable than anyone could have imagined.
There are subversive agents to placate, comely maidens to seduce, and a plot fizzing with deals, capers and extraordinary war-time conspiracies. IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY is a madcap, anarchic poke at the real and imaginary howlers of history which showcases writer Arthur Riordan's delight in the rough and tumble of words, orchestrated from vaudeville to cabaret through Bell Helicopter's jauntily witty score.
Biographies
Simon Green makes his 59E59 debut as a performer, after helming several wildly successful shows for Brits Off Broadway, including Cooking for Kings, Beau Brummel and Fascinating Aida in Absolutely Fascinating. He served as Consulting Director for The Hired Man.
With Sam Coppola, Tony Crane, Kevin Isola, Shannon Koob, Nancy Lemanger.
A sexy fusion of humour and mystery drives this world-premiere by Alan Hruska about two married couples approaching forty who reunite in the lake district town where they all grew up. It has been fifteen years, but old rivalries and passions as well as long-buried secrets ignite, and re-entangle, their relationships. New House Under Construction features a stellar New York cast directed by the author.
Rex Reed called THE 1959 BROADWAY SONGBOOK, "Big Voices, Big Talents and One Great Song After Another!" The New York Times called it "Superb!" and the Chicago Tribune declared the show "A Hit!"
Made In Poland is one of three plays comprising MADE IN POLAND: A FESTIVAL OF NEW POLISH PLAYS Presented by the Polish Cultural Institute. As Poland continues to adapt to a political democracy regained in 1989, and in the midst of a contentious Presidential election in the United States, this timely and provocative festival thrusts Poland's vibrant contemporary theater scene onto the world stage. Featuring productions by two of New York's top theater companies producing contemporary international work." The Play Company and Immigrants' Theatre Project (both OBIE Award-winners) "along side Theatre of the Eighth Day, one of Poland's oldest and most prestigious avant-garde companies, in their US debut.
SPECIAL OFFER: BUY A POLAND PASS AND SEE ALL 3 SHOWS FOR JUST $60!!
These two one-act comedies by Michal Walczak examine the ferocious, tragicomic, rough-and-tumble between the sexes. Both plays explore different stages of relationships, underlaid with a cynicism and absurdism often found in Eastern European theater. The battle of the sexes literally starts in the Sandbox, in this hilarious confrontation between a boy guarding his space and a girl who just wants to play. The First Time is an outrageous look at erotic interplay under absurd circumstances, when a woman demands from her eager boyfriend that their "first time" be perfect.
Sandbox/The first Time is one of three plays comprising MADE IN POLAND: A FESTIVAL OF NEW POLISH PLAYS Presented by the Polish Cultural Institute. As Poland continues to adapt to a political democracy regained in 1989, and in the midst of a contentious Presidential election in the United States, this timely and provocative festival thrusts Poland's vibrant contemporary theater scene onto the world stage. Featuring productions by two of New York's top theater companies producing contemporary international work. "The Play Company and Immigrants' Theatre Project (both OBIE Award-winners)" along side Theatre of the Eighth Day, one of Poland's oldest and most prestigious avant-garde companies, in their US debut.
SPECIAL OFFER: BUY A POLAND PASS AND SEE ALL 3 SHOWS FOR JUST $60!!
Who are we without our memories? A Body of Water is a haunting drama that explores the slippery nature of reality and conviction. Avis and Moss awake one morning in a house set in the forested hills above a picturesque body of water. The weather's great, the view's magnificent. However, neither of them seems to know whose house this is or who they are. Will the stranger at their doorstep be able to help?
Lee Blessing is the author of such notable plays as the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize nominated A Walk in the Woods and the Primary Stages Outer Critic's Circle Award winning production of Going to St. Ives, directed by Maria Mileaf.
The Files is one of three plays comprising MADE IN POLAND: A FESTIVAL OF NEW POLISH PLAYS Presented by the Polish Cultural Institute. As Poland continues to adapt to a political democracy regained in 1989, and in the midst of a contentious Presidential election in the United States, this timely and provocative festival thrusts Poland's vibrant contemporary theater scene onto the world stage. Featuring productions by two of New York's top theater companies producing contemporary international work." The Play Company and Immigrants' Theatre Project (both OBIE Award-winners)" along side Theatre of the Eighth Day, one of Poland's oldest and most prestigious avant-garde companies, in their US debut.
Just in time for the holidays, Parallel Exit returns with Cut To The Chase - a new family vaudeville revue. Music! Magic! Tap and Slapstick! A backstage adventure full of comic chaos and fast-paced action! It's like nothing you've seen before! "They get laughs simply by breathing." – The New York Times
THE CITY THAT CRIED WOLF is a rollicking theater-noir starring favorite nursery rhyme characters a la Monty Python! Little Bo Peep is a sultry singer who seeks her sheep. Jack B. Nimble is the Private Eye hot on her tail. With sex and adrenaline pumping violence, can Jack crack Rhyme Town's stickiest murder? Or has he fallen for the wrong dame? With three little pigs in satin, bears in teddies, and rub-a-dub-dub three men in a tub, this not your average fairytale. Rhymetown is going to the wolves! Bob Clyman's biomedical thriller "sparkles with wit and substance". A brilliant young research scientist is on the verge of finding a cure for cancer. When the dynamic director of New York's leading cancer research institute becomes his mentor and champion he is suddenly thrust into the high-stakes world of medicine and money...
A brilliant young student, an unorthodox detective and a young woman forced into a life of prostitution are hurtled together by a brutal life of murder. Three actors bring to life one of the world's greatest pyschological novels to life in this thrilling, award-winning 90-minute adaptation. Part of 59E59 Theatres GoChicago! Festival.
Representing Chicago's 'out there' quotient are The Hypocrites with Sean Graney's The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love Suicide, a daring work of astonishing beauty and grace that comes 'highly recommended' by Chicago critics-"one of the richest, most theatrical and emotionally satisfying hours of theatre." Part of 59E59 Theatre GoChicago! Festival.
Directed by Sheryl Kaller with choreography by Christopher Gattelli and musical direction by Fred Lassen
An American priest held by the Taliban is seized by U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. Is he an innocent victim or a terrorist in waiting?Eerily shadowing the current Middle East crisis, "The Cleric," Tim Marks' penetrating new hostage drama, leads us deep into a world where religious, national and personal loyalties create a dizzying maze of meaning and misunderstanding. When an Irish-American priest believed to have been abducted by Hezbollah in Beirut in the mid 80's is discovered by U.S. Special Forces in post-9/11 Afghanistan, he immediately comes under suspicion for being an Islamic sympathizer at best, and a terrorist in waiting at worst. Is this a man of principle caught in the middle of a war of political, ethnic and religious wills from which he doesn't have a prayer to escape? Or is he too, through his own mysterious actions, fanning the flames of hatred?
Presented by the Mind the Gap, "The Cleric" features Richard T. Lester as the hostage priest, Father Sean Pearson. Also in the cast of five are Armand DesHarnais as a rabidly pro-American career intelligence officer, James Kloiber as a seemingly more reasonable high-level operative, Daniel Haughey as a defense liaison and Sean Heeney as Father Neil, a military chaplain.
Tim Marks', a Welsh-born and Baltimore-based playwright, is the author of a trilogy of plays about Irish living abroad, two of which have been produced in New York -- "Locating the Plant," set in Belfast, at the Irish Arts Center, and "Pearldivers," set in London, which was performed at the American Theatre of Actors.
Directed by Paula D'Alessandris, Mind the Gap's artistic director, the world premiere of "The Cleric" performs at 59E59 from Wednesday October 25 through Sunday November 12
Ibsen's Rosmersholm centers on the relationship between reluctant rebel John Rosmer and his driven and secretive "friend" Rebecca West, as well as the hypocrisy of the powerful, conservative individuals ho interfere with their unconventional union. This new translation/adaptation firmly plants the story into a modern American setting, as it stays true to Ibsen's exploration of the motivation for John's late wife's suicide and the depth of Rebecca's involvement.
The performance schedule for Henrik Ibsen's Rosmersholm, adapted/translated by Anna Guttormsgaard and Bridgette Wimberly, with Oda Rodoor, and directed by Timothy Douglas, is:
Week of August 7
Tuesday at 7:15 PM (double bill with deathvariations);
Thursday at 7:15 PM (double bill with deathvariations);
Friday at 8:15 PM;
Saturday at 4:15 PM;
Sunday at 7:15 PM
Week of August 14
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 7:15 PM
Week of August 21
Wednesday and Friday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 3:15 PM
Week of August 28
Tuesday, Thursday at Saturday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 3:15 PM
Week of September 4
Wednesday at 8:15 PM; Friday at 7:15 PM (with deathvariations) and
Saturday at 4:15 PM
The performance schedule for Jon Fosse's deathvariations, in a new American translation by and directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde is:
Week of August 7
Tuesday at 7:15 PM (double bill with Rosmersholm);
Wednesday at 8:15 PM;
Thursday at 7:15 PM (double bill with Rosmersholm);
Saturday at 8:15 PM;
Sunday at 4:15 PM
Week of August 14
Wednesday and Friday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 4:15 PM
Week of August 21
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 7:15 PM
Week of August 28
Wednesday and Friday at 8:15 PM; Sunday at 7:15 PM
Week of September 4
Tuesday and Thursday at 8:15 PM; Friday at 7:15 PM (with Rosmersholm); Saturday at 8:15 PM
The evening will feature the winners of Reverie's 2005 Next Generation Playwriting Award: Havana Bourgeois by Carlos Lacámara and Ping Pong Diplomacy by Joe Basque.
Havana Bourgeois is the compelling story of an advertising agency in Havana in 1958. Alberto Varela is a young, talented commercial artist on the verge of getting the life he always wanted—big promotion, nice house, beautiful wife. Then Revolution comes. With clear-eyed objectivity about a subject that inspires strong passions, Havana Bourgeois explores the impact of Fidel Castro's Revolution on the middle class inhabitants of Havana, Cuba.
Running in rotating repertory will be a work set at the opposite geographical end of the Cold War: Ping Pong Diplomacy, which recounts the historic moment of the 1971 U.S. Table Tennis team's Goodwill tour of China. With equal parts of wit, humor and tenderness, the play follows protagonist Nick Bedford as he learns about table tennis, tolerance, and true love.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
Havana Bourgeois
Sunday, January 8th at 7:30pm
Wednesday, January 11 at 8:30pm
Thursday, January 12 at 8:30pm
Saturday, January 14 at 2:30pm
Sunday, January 15 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, January 17 at 8:30pm
Friday, January 20 at 8:30pm
Sunday, January 22 at 2:30pm
Wednesday, January 25 at 8:30pm
Thursday, January 26 at 8:30pm
Sunday, January 29 at 2:30pm
Tuesday, January 31 at 8:30pm
Friday, February 3 at 8:30pm
Saturday, February 4 at 2:30pm
Ping Pong Diplomacy
Tuesday, January 10 at 8:30pm
Friday, January 13 at 8:30pm
Saturday, January 14 at 8:30pm
Sunday, January 15 at 2:30pm
Wednesday, January 18 at 8:30pm
Thursday, January 19 at 8:30pm
Saturday, January 21 at 2:30pm and 8:30pm
Sunday, January 22 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, January 24 at 8:30pm
Friday, January 27 at 8:30pm
Saturday, January 28 at 2:30pm and 8:30pm
Sunday, January 29 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, February 1 at 8:30pm
Thursday, February 2 at 8:30pm
Saturday, February 4 at 8:30pm
Sunday, February 5 at 2:30pm
With a winning mix of clever wit and surprising warmth, The Tutor tells a fresh, funny, contemporary tale of romance, art, and what it really takes to get into Princeton. When a struggling young novelist takes a job tutoring a sullen Manhattan girl, he thinks he's just out for quick cash. But when the characters in his novel start to come to life, and his teenage pupil begins to open up, his life takes a surprising turn. This award-winning musical offers inventive, memorable music, vibrant characters, and way more laughs than taking the S.A.T.!
In CHRISTINE JORGENSEN REVEALS, Bradford Louryk brings his lipsynched recreation of America's first famous transsexual's only recorded interview to life. The result is a disarming and enlightening new play about personhood and the nature of humanity in which Ms. Jorgensen – displaying extraordinary intellect, charisma, poise, and grace – speaks candidly about her sensational life.
CHRISTINE JORGENSEN REVEALS will be presented at the 2005 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival beginning August 6, 2005