Merge Our Town with Dawn of the Dead and you have a slight idea of what happens when a small town is overrun by the undead. Best described as Our Town with zombies, with Thornton Wilder's Stage Manager moving between the different townspeople's stories to describe not their mundane sorrows and joys, but their encounters with, and last stands against, the zombie horde. The juxtaposition of Wilder's play, which is all about the continuity of communal life in the face of individual deaths, with a plot that posits that not only the town but all of humanity is doomed, makes for a heartbreaking story.
Red Thread Theater's new play, Facing the Minotaur, weaves together real life journeys of courageous self-confrontation by ensemble members DR Mann Hanson, Quai Nystrom and Kimberly Shelby-Szyszko. Julie Rosier directs an ensemble of six in a play framed by the Greek myth of Theseus, a young Athenian who braves the labyrinth to slay the man-eating minotaur at its center, relying only on a magical red thread to guide him back to freedom once the heroic deed is done. The multi-plot narrative unfurls as three storytellers descend into the twisting maze of lived experience to face the shadowy creatures that dwell at the core of consciousness. One protagonist searches for the antidote to her "toxic" voice while battling her aging ovaries. Another pushes boundaries by revisiting an interrupted childhood. The third struggles to reconcile authentic sexual expression with fervent religious strivings. After these modern-day heroes have faced their minotaurs will the red thread, a timeless and unbreakable bond of common human experience, reveal itself in time to lead them to a triumphant return?
About the Company: Red Thread Theater
Red Thread Theater provides an artistic home for small performance ensembles to create theater out of lived experience, weaving personal narrative into minimalist multi-plot productions. The intention of this devised theater process is to spur healing, connection and transformation on the individual, community and social level.
Retro Productions presents a revival of Norman Krasna's screwball comedy Dear Ruth.
It's WWII, and teenager Miriam Wilkins can't keep her nose out of other people's affairs. Fired up by patriotism Miriam begins a pen pal relationship with an Air Corps officer. Using her older sister Ruth's name and image, Miriam presents herself as a morale boosting love interest, never thinking for a moment that the officer would live to return home. Return he does; to the Wilkins home in Queens, to an astonished Ruth, and to Ruth's fiancé!
Dear Ruth premiered on Broadway in 1944 and ran for over 650 performances. The play was turned into a film of the same name, starring William Holden and Joan Caulfield. Legend has it that when J.D. Salinger saw the film’s billboard, he decided to name his Catcher in the Rye protagonist Holden Caulfield.
Cast: Becky Byers (2010 NYTheatre.com Person of the Year), Heather E. Cunningham (2007 Back Stage “Performance to Remember” for Still Life, Retro Productions), Shay Gines (The Lady in Question, TOSOS), Douglas B. Giorgis* (Three Wishes for Jamie), Joe Mathers (The Vigil, or the Guided Cradle, Impetuous Theater Group and Brick Theater), David Sedgwick* (Pearl Theatre Company and New York Classical Theatre), Alisha Spielmann (As You Like It and Native Speech, Boomerang Theatre Company), Matilda Szydagis* (The Desk Set, Retro Productions), and Matthew Trumbull* (The Desk Set, Retro Productions and Viral, Gideon Productions).
Scenic Design: Jeff Stander
Scenic Consultants: Jack Cunningham & Rebecca Cunningham
Costume Design: Viviane Galloway
Military Costume Design: Jeannette Aultz
Lighting Design: Jacqueline Reid
Sound Design: Jeanne Travis
Properties Design: Cassie Dorland & Heather Cunningham
Production Stage Manager: Ricardo Rust
About the Company: Retro Productions
It is the mission of Retro Productions to present works of retro theatre. Retro is defined as "involving, relating to, or reminiscent of things past (American Heritage Dictionary)." At Retro Productions we will strive to tell good theatrical stories which have an historical perspective -with an emphasis on the 20th century- in order to broaden our own understanding of the world we live in. We believe through stories of human lives and struggles, both dramatic and comedic, we can understand social history and culture and how it affects us today.
Retro received recognition from their first two productions of Catholic School Girls and Mrs. California (as River Heights Productions) then gathered momentum in their third season with the Retro production of Still Life. Also directed by Ric Sechrest, Still Life received accolades from playwright Emily Mann: "Your production got it...Every aspect of the experience was first rate. Retro is clearly a company dedicated to creating impeccable work that truly matters," and Heather E. Cunningham's performance was honored alongside Romeo and Juliet’s Lauren Ambrose and August: Osage County’s Deanna Dunagan as one of Backstage's ‘2007 Performances to Remember’.
Retro Productions put themselves on the map in their fourth season producing Sally Nemeth's Mill Fire and What I Did Last Summer, called "...first-rate: brisk, sweet and occasionally quite moving," by playwright A.R. Gurney. This, their first season in residence at The Spoon Theater, garnered six 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations: two for performance and four for design, a New York Magazine ‘Off-off Broadway pick’ and the growing reputation of ‘the finished effect of a Retro Production’ (The Fab Marquee, Mill Fire). Kicking off with The Tender Trap and concluding with When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder? Retro's fifth season is proving that with a design team that has the ability to achieve 'theatrical time travel,' (The Fab Marquee) and "a powerful display of New York's dramatic talent," (offoffonline) Retro Productions is “...becoming a reliable source for first-class work.” (United Stages).
About the Company: Nicu's Spoon, Inc.
Founded in early 2001, Nicu’s Spoon is dedicated to producing socially reflective theatre that presents new ideas, challenges stereotypes, and touches the heart in an unexpected way. We are the central theater group in New York City who acts as a home for all - differing colors, abilities, ages, genders - we do not specialize in ‘the sight impaired’ or ‘the hard of hearing’ or ‘people of color’ - we are the only company which from day one has been a home for all artists - many may now join us or use us as a model but we are the central home base. We celebrate collaboration in developing productions that are pertinent for today’s global, diverse and rapidly changing world. New York City is full of people of different ethnicities and abilities; on the move and unheard. We give voice to those who are very much a part of our world, but whose stories often go untold. We are committed to involving the spectrum of diverse and multi-abled voices in play selection, programs & internships, our artistic, production and volunteer staffs, and in our audience.
We are a leader in working with all colors, ages, genders, abilities and ethnicities in NYC. Each play involves the rainbow we see around us on the streets of NYC. We see only possibilities. We change the world, one play at a time….
Meet The Desk Set: Bunny Watson, head librarian of the reference department at the International Broadcasting Company, and her team of librarians. Besides being equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge and whip-smart wit, these hilarious working girls know how to have a good time while getting the job done in 1950’s Manhattan. But when an efficiency expert installs a new electronic brain into the office and rumors of pink slips fill the air, Bunny and the girls fear they may have met their match.
'W;t' by Margaret Edson, is a play that asks us to question the way we live our lives, the choices we make and the relationships we form. It presents us with Vivian, a woman forced to evaluate her life as she faces her death. Having focused her whole life on the academic analysis of the poetry of John Donne, Vivian realises that she has not achieved in her life what Donne has accomplished in his poetry; the harmonious unification of ‘wit’ (intelligence) and emotion. In the final stages of her life, Vivian begins to realise that having lived her life focused on the intellect, emotional and meaningful connections with others is what she now longs for to provide her with the comfort her ‘wit’ cannot.
Erosion is the story of a young gay man’s depression resulting from his inability to maintain relationships. After meeting a man of interest in a group therapy session he is catapulted into a parasitic relationship of drugs and dependency, which ultimately threatens to destroy him.
The story is told through a unique look inside his therapy workbook, his psychiatric sessions with his doctor, and the use of the ensemble who play various internal struggles and people in his life.