Welcome to the 14th Season!
A Woman's Place Is Everywhere
Graphic Design by Mika J. Nakano
Black Super Hero Magic Mama
by Inda Craig-Galván
presented through special arrangement with and all authorized performance materials are supplied by TRW PLAYS
1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.trwplays.com
Sabrina Jackson cannot cope with the death of her son by a white cop. Rather than herald the Black Lives Matter movement, Sabrina retreats inward, living out a comic book superhero fantasy, played out on stage. The greatest superpower is a mother’s love. In a comic book world from the mind of a 14-year-old boy, Sabrina becomes superhero Maasai Angel to take on her arch villains. Enter Lady Vulture, Human Hyena and more. Compared to the pain of her real world, this battle is child’s play.
by Inda Craig-Galván
presented through special arrangement with and all authorized performance materials are supplied by TRW PLAYS
1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.trwplays.com
Sabrina Jackson cannot cope with the death of her son by a white cop. Rather than herald the Black Lives Matter movement, Sabrina retreats inward, living out a comic book superhero fantasy, played out on stage. The greatest superpower is a mother’s love. In a comic book world from the mind of a 14-year-old boy, Sabrina becomes superhero Maasai Angel to take on her arch villains. Enter Lady Vulture, Human Hyena and more. Compared to the pain of her real world, this battle is child’s play.
Season 13 -
Brown Sugar Bake-Off
Produced in Partnership with Two Strikes Theatre Collective
Produced in Partnership with Two Strikes Theatre Collective
Bright Half Life
by Tanya Barfield
Directed by K. Tony Korol-Evans
September 13th-29th
Cast – Ayesis Clay, Katharine Vary
A moving love story that spans decades in an instant—from marriage, children, skydiving, and the infinite moments that make a life together.
“Most relationships develop in one of two ways—they endure or they don’t. Ms. Barfield’s variegated structure complicates this simple either/or, showing the volatility in a long-term partnership, the joy and desolation, the hurt and help—all intermingled, all at once. If these women, these maybe soul mates, could somehow suddenly see what the years will bring, would they still go out on that first date?” —The New York Times.
by Tanya Barfield
Directed by K. Tony Korol-Evans
September 13th-29th
Cast – Ayesis Clay, Katharine Vary
A moving love story that spans decades in an instant—from marriage, children, skydiving, and the infinite moments that make a life together.
“Most relationships develop in one of two ways—they endure or they don’t. Ms. Barfield’s variegated structure complicates this simple either/or, showing the volatility in a long-term partnership, the joy and desolation, the hurt and help—all intermingled, all at once. If these women, these maybe soul mates, could somehow suddenly see what the years will bring, would they still go out on that first date?” —The New York Times.
A Shayna Maidel by Barbara Lebow
Directed by Melissa McGinley
October 18th – November 3rd
Industry Night October 28th
Cast – Anna Adelstein, Alan Barnett, Emilie Zelle Holmstock, Hillary Mazer, David Shoemaker, and Christie Smith.
The setting of the play is the stylish Manhattan apartment of Rose Weiss, the time 1946. Although born in Poland, Rose, now in her 20s, came to the United States with her father, Mordechai, at the age of four and is now completely "Americanized." The plan had been for Rose's mother and sister to join the others, but the sister fell ill with scarlet fever, the mother stayed on to care for her, and soon the rise of the Nazis cut off their escape. Their ordeal in the concentration camps, which only the sister survived, has brought a burden of guilt to the aging Mordechai and deeply mixed feelings as he awaits the arrival of his elder daughter, Lusia, who has, at last, found her way to America. With her halting English and old world ways Lusia is a striking contrast to Rose, who is somewhat embarrassed by her rediscovered sister's presence, and fearful that it will threaten her own hard-won independence. Distraught, and concerned that she may never be reunited with her young husband, Lusia embraces a series of memories and fantasies which make real the joys and horrors of her life before the war, from which her father and sister were spared. But when Mordechai gives Rose a letter from her mother—a letter left many years earlier with a non-Jewish Polish friend—a "proof" of family is somehow restored, and old barriers and griefs give way to a renewed sense of hope and mutual dependence—and the conviction that a better future may yet arise from the bitter ashes of the troubled past.
Directed by Melissa McGinley
October 18th – November 3rd
Industry Night October 28th
Cast – Anna Adelstein, Alan Barnett, Emilie Zelle Holmstock, Hillary Mazer, David Shoemaker, and Christie Smith.
The setting of the play is the stylish Manhattan apartment of Rose Weiss, the time 1946. Although born in Poland, Rose, now in her 20s, came to the United States with her father, Mordechai, at the age of four and is now completely "Americanized." The plan had been for Rose's mother and sister to join the others, but the sister fell ill with scarlet fever, the mother stayed on to care for her, and soon the rise of the Nazis cut off their escape. Their ordeal in the concentration camps, which only the sister survived, has brought a burden of guilt to the aging Mordechai and deeply mixed feelings as he awaits the arrival of his elder daughter, Lusia, who has, at last, found her way to America. With her halting English and old world ways Lusia is a striking contrast to Rose, who is somewhat embarrassed by her rediscovered sister's presence, and fearful that it will threaten her own hard-won independence. Distraught, and concerned that she may never be reunited with her young husband, Lusia embraces a series of memories and fantasies which make real the joys and horrors of her life before the war, from which her father and sister were spared. But when Mordechai gives Rose a letter from her mother—a letter left many years earlier with a non-Jewish Polish friend—a "proof" of family is somehow restored, and old barriers and griefs give way to a renewed sense of hope and mutual dependence—and the conviction that a better future may yet arise from the bitter ashes of the troubled past.
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
Adapted and Directed by Erin Riley
December 6th – 22nd
Industry Night December 16th
Cast – Bill Brekke, Surasree Das, Kathryn Falcone, Anabel Milton, JC Payne, Alexander Scally, Elizabeth Ung, Katharine Vary, and Kay-Megan Washington
A new and dynamic stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved story. The Civil War is in full swing, and the March sisters -- Meg, the oldest, a romantic, the spirited and tomboyish Jo, sweet and loving Beth, and irascible, playful Amy -- live in Concord, Massachusetts with their Mother while their father is on the battlefield. Filled with adventure (both real and imagined), heartbreak, and a deep sense of hope, the struggle of these little women to find their own voices mirrors the growing pains of a young America. Likewise, the timeless story also provides lessons about the idea of gender and how it is not particularly inherent, but educated and performed. This concept is executed through the lens the story’s narrator, Jo, a feminist before the movement’s birth. With memorable characters, and a big-hearted message, “Little Women” has been referred to as the “mother of all girls’ books” and is an uplifting tale for the holiday season.
by Louisa May Alcott
Adapted and Directed by Erin Riley
December 6th – 22nd
Industry Night December 16th
Cast – Bill Brekke, Surasree Das, Kathryn Falcone, Anabel Milton, JC Payne, Alexander Scally, Elizabeth Ung, Katharine Vary, and Kay-Megan Washington
A new and dynamic stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved story. The Civil War is in full swing, and the March sisters -- Meg, the oldest, a romantic, the spirited and tomboyish Jo, sweet and loving Beth, and irascible, playful Amy -- live in Concord, Massachusetts with their Mother while their father is on the battlefield. Filled with adventure (both real and imagined), heartbreak, and a deep sense of hope, the struggle of these little women to find their own voices mirrors the growing pains of a young America. Likewise, the timeless story also provides lessons about the idea of gender and how it is not particularly inherent, but educated and performed. This concept is executed through the lens the story’s narrator, Jo, a feminist before the movement’s birth. With memorable characters, and a big-hearted message, “Little Women” has been referred to as the “mother of all girls’ books” and is an uplifting tale for the holiday season.
Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine
by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Christen Cromwell
February 21st – March 8th
Industry Night February 24th
Cast: Grant Chism, Albert Collins, Juan Hunter, Nate Krimmel, Leiah Poindexter, Kay-Megan Washington, Aladrian C. Wetzel, and Dana Woodson
A social satire about an ambitious and haughty African-American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn's Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories in a battle to reaffirm her right to be. Fabulation is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist.
by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Christen Cromwell
February 21st – March 8th
Industry Night February 24th
Cast: Grant Chism, Albert Collins, Juan Hunter, Nate Krimmel, Leiah Poindexter, Kay-Megan Washington, Aladrian C. Wetzel, and Dana Woodson
A social satire about an ambitious and haughty African-American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn's Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories in a battle to reaffirm her right to be. Fabulation is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist.
The Most Massive Woman Wins by Madeleine George (cancelled due to Covid-19)
Directed by Nicole Mullins
April 3rd – 19th
Industry Night April 13th
Cast 4 Women
Challenging, brutal and hilarious, four women of various shapes and sizes sitting in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic explore their perceptions of body image. The women reveal their experiences dealing with their weight issues through monologues, short scenes, and even schoolyard rhymes. From painful childhood memories to frustrations with the opposite sex, these experiences both haunt and empower these women as they imagine their way to a new vision of themselves as beautiful and whole.
Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love by Mallery Avidon (cancelled due to Covid 19)
Directed by Emily Hall
May 15th – 31st
Industry Night May 25th
Cast 10 Women, 2 Men (Doubling)
Grace is 27, married to her high-school sweetheart, makes good money, and should be way happier than she is. But her husband lost his job and now all he does is play Xbox and smoke pot and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen might be her best friends but maybe they only like her because she's their new target demographic. Or maybe…they're going to save her. A funny play about sad people.
Directed by Nicole Mullins
April 3rd – 19th
Industry Night April 13th
Cast 4 Women
Challenging, brutal and hilarious, four women of various shapes and sizes sitting in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic explore their perceptions of body image. The women reveal their experiences dealing with their weight issues through monologues, short scenes, and even schoolyard rhymes. From painful childhood memories to frustrations with the opposite sex, these experiences both haunt and empower these women as they imagine their way to a new vision of themselves as beautiful and whole.
Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love by Mallery Avidon (cancelled due to Covid 19)
Directed by Emily Hall
May 15th – 31st
Industry Night May 25th
Cast 10 Women, 2 Men (Doubling)
Grace is 27, married to her high-school sweetheart, makes good money, and should be way happier than she is. But her husband lost his job and now all he does is play Xbox and smoke pot and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen might be her best friends but maybe they only like her because she's their new target demographic. Or maybe…they're going to save her. A funny play about sad people.
Photos by Shealyn Jae
Photos by Jim Preston
Past Seasons
2018-2019 Night Mother, by Marsha Norman directed by Ann Hammontree Detroit '67, by Dominique Morrisseau, directed by Erin Riley Sojourners by Mfoniso Udofia, directed by Cheryl Williams And Baby Makes Seven by Paula Vogel, directed by Emilie Hall 2017-2018 Origin of the Species by Briony Lavery, Directed by Erin Riley Women's Performance Workshop, organized and facilitated by Jayme Kilburn Countdown by Dominique Cieri, Directed by Bari Hochwald 2016-2017 Frank Talk directed by Miriam Bazensky Net Worth conceived and performed by Bari Hochwald Exit Pluto by Amy Bernstein, directed by Alice Stanley Women on Top Festival: She Rises by Full Circle Dance Company Sally McCoy by Alice Stanley, directed by Deidre McAllister The A Word, by Rosemary Friscino Toohey, directed by Miriam Bazensky 2015-2016 Saving Myself for Steve Martin by Ann Wixon. Directed by Miriam Bazensky (in partnership with the Baltimore Playwrights Festival) Kerrmoor by Susan McCully. Directed by Eve Muson (in partnership with Interrobang Theatre Company) Harry and the Thief by Sigrid Gilmer. Directer by Susan Stroupe 2014-2015 God's Country by Michelle Antoinette Nelson aka "LOVE" the poet The Pillow Book by Anna Moench (a co-production with Cohesion Theatre Company: Directed Jonas Grey. Parity Fest: Directed by Susan Stroupe. 2013-2014 One Glitz Wish by Kristin Harrison: Directed by Tara Cariaso. 2012-2013 Mother, May I by Dylan Brody: Directed by Rain Pryor. Everybody keeps secrets from one another, except for the narcissistic and deeply repressed mother who keeps secrets only from herself while blithely revealing them to anyone who will listen. Sexuality, finances, and self-esteem are all fair game when the Grunmans get together. Thomas Wolfe was wrong; it's not that you can't go home again, it's that it's so hard not to. Dylan Brody's work has been compared to that of Garrison Keillor, David Sedaris, and Woody Allen. Inexcusable Fantasies by Susan McCully: Directed by Eve Muson. Baltimore performance artist McCully talks, often comically, about her secret and not-so-secret obsessions with Martha Stewart, Harleys, and a certain sex toy. One critic calls it "outrageous and downright inspired." A scholar of feminist theater at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, as well as a dramaturge, playwright, and performer, McCully opened the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival a few years back with this show. What A Girl Wants by Deletta Gillespie: Directed by Deletta Gillespie. Start with six women responsible for preparing a charity clothing sale and fashion show. Add copious amounts of coffee, wine, arguments, gossip, a copy of Playstud magazine, and an eight-hour deadline, and you have the recipe for a comic romp through the minds and lives of women who have lived enough to know exactly what they want out of life...or...not. The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin by Kirsten Childs: Directed by Ryan Haase. An Obie-winning autobiographical "smartly sweet" musical about a woman named Bubbly learning to embrace her color as she pursues a dream of becoming the greatest dancing star in the world. You Probably Think This Play Is About You by Maja DiGiorgio, Adam Greenbaum, and Tony Martinelli: Directed by Rain Pryor. A one-woman tour de force that turns Shakespeare on his head. A hilarious and meaningful exploration of love and life, artifice and theatrics, through the eyes of modernized Shakespearean characters. In her truly unique way, DiGiorgio is able to convey the truths of Shakespeare's amazing insights, making them absolutely contemporary and accessible. 2011-2012 Anna Bella Ema by Lisa D'Amour. Ten-year-old Anna Bella and her hermetic mother Irene live in a ratty trailer on the edge of town. When the threat of a new interstate looms, Anna Bella animates a new playmate out of dirt, sweat, and spit. Glitter and Spew by Alison Luterman. This three-ring circus of short plays from our Friends & Neighbors Festival forms a rendition on media exposure, shame, and personal responsibility in 21st-century America. That Pretty Pretty; or the Rape Play by Sheila Callaghan. Radical feminist ex-strippers, Agnes and Valerie, scour the country on a murderous rampage, blogging their exploits in gruesome detail. Meanwhile, scruffy screenwriter Owen tries to bang out his magnum opus in a hotel room while his buddy Rodney indulges some baser instincts. When Owen writes the strippers into his screenplay, reality unravels. Can Jane Fonda – yes, that Jane Fonda – prevent complete chaos? Blood-bound and Tongue-tied by Jacqueline E. Lawton. One of humanity's most primal stories reimagined with compassion and poetry in this ambitious offering from our Friends & Neighbors Festival. Well by Lisa Kron: Directed by Rain Pryor. Noted solo performer Lisa has written her first multi-character play, a riff on her and her mother Ann's knotty history with chronic illness. But as she presents her story, nothing goes to plan. Ann won't stay put in her recliner. The chorus can't keep track of their scenes. Childhood nemesis Lori Jones keeps popping up. As Lisa struggles to maintain control of the show and herself, she confronts her greatest fear: turning into her mother. 2010-2011 The Glory of Living by Rebecca Gilman. The Glory of Living tells the story of Lisa, a 16-year-old girl, and her marriage to Clint, an ex-con twice her age. Systematically abused by her husband, Lisa is coerced into helping him commit crimes of varying magnitude, including murder. "…intelligent and provoking…Gilman has created a couple whose degeneracy is the vehicle for a searing analysis of moral codes, sexual abuse, fear, love, poverty and the value of a life" (The Sunday Times). "…plays don't come much tougher, or more compassionate… It's a viscerally powerful piece that, not unlike Bond's Saved, makes you look closely at a violent subculture from which you would normally shrink" (The Guardian). "…psychological shrewdness and on-target language…" (New York Magazine). A Peppermint Patty Christmas by Kate Bishop. A Peppermint Patty Christmas is brought to you by local playwright, Charm City Kitty, and lesbian activist, Kate Bishop. Patricia dreads going home for the holidays. It seems her winter gloom descends like the dancing robot Santas and the light-up Messiahs, earlier and earlier every year. But this year, she's going to set a different dinner table. Patricia made a promise to herself, her girlfriend, and her therapist that this is the year – no matter how much her mom tries to keep conversation meteorological in nature – this year she's going to try something new. She will tell the truth. The whole truth. And nothing. But. The truth. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. In this dramatic adaptation of her award-winning, bestselling memoir (which Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times called "an indelible portrait of loss and grief . . . a haunting portrait of a four-decade-long marriage"), Joan Didion transforms the story of the sudden and unexpected losses of her husband and their only daughter into a stunning and powerful one-woman play. One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. Hilarious and deeply moving by turns, One Flea Spare is set in plague-ravaged 17th-century London where social roles and the boundaries that describe them have been set into chaos. The definition of morality is up for grabs. History is being tantalized. And whilst the wealthy William Snelgrave dreams of sweating, swearing tars, and of how sailors satisfy their "baser instincts" so far away from female company, his own wife, untouched for 40 years, is discovering that her dreadfully burned body may not be numb after all. The human heart craves comfort, contact, tenderness; survival may take many forms. 2009-2010 The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute. Directed by Danielle Young. Set on September 12, 2001, The Mercy Seat continues Neil LaBute's unflinching fascination with the often-brutal realities of the war between the sexes. In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. A man and a woman explore the choices now available to them in an existence different from the one they had lived just the day before. Can one be opportunistic in a time of universal selflessness? [sic] by Melissa James Gibson: Directed by Jayme Kilburn. In adjacent apartments that resemble nothing so much as broom closets with windows, the three young, ambitious neighbors of Melissa James Gibson's [sic] come together to discuss, flirt, argue, share their dreams, and plan their futures with unequal degrees of deep hopefulness and abject despair, all the while pushing the limits of their friendship to the max and demonstrating that language can be both an instrument of intimacy and a weapon of defense. The Lacy Project by Alena Smith: Directed by Josh Bristol. Her mother's photographs turned Lacy into an icon of childhood innocence and beauty. Now, on the night of her 22nd birthday, Lacy has to navigate between image and reality, sex and friendship, self-indulgence and responsibility. This wild tragicomedy presents a portrait of a young woman held captive by her own childhood, and a vivid picture of a generation unable to grow up. The Mai by Marina Carr: Directed by Jayme Kilburn. An accomplished, beautiful forty-year-old woman, The Mai has always sought an exceptional life. Robert, her cellist husband, has always felt stifled by The Mai's ideals of perfection. After seventeen years he leaves her, whereupon she sets about building a dream house in the hope that he will one day return to her. From her fairytale castle, The Mai waits by the window for her dark-haired prince to return. Set in the inspiring surrounds of the West of Ireland, on the banks of the legendary Owl Lake, we enter this world on the day of Robert's return after an absence of four years. In the midst of Mai and Robert's troubled reunion are the idiosyncratic characters that comprise the family. Irreverent and unapologetic, the opium-smoking one-hundred-year-old matriarch, Grandma Fraochlan, presides over all. The "Spanish Beauty," as she is known, with her "ancient and fantastical memory" and mythical presence, reminds us that the past is looming ever present. |
|