JUNE 1 TO 18
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
RONALD "SMOKEY" STEVENS IN "I JUST WANT TO TELL SOMEBODY"
Return engagement of a solo show by one of Broadway's great musical comedy
performers, who has adapted his autobiographical novel, "I Just Want
to Tell Somebody: The Autobiography of Ronald Smokey Stevens," into
a one-man, two character theater production. The play dramatizes Stevens'
meteoric rise in the entertainment industry and his life long battle with
drugs in which he, at long last, prevailed. Smokey plays both himself and
his nemesis, a sarcastic doppelganger called "D MAN." The play
ushers us through modern moments of theater history that were Smokey's triumphs
and the journey through drug usage that was nearly his undoing. This tour
de force performance earned critical plaudits last January.
COMPLETE INFO: https://www.jsnyc.com/season/smokey.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NVd2P8Ki8kqj9SmV8
JUNE 8 TO 25
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"FREEDOM SUMMER" BY TOBY ARMOUR
"Freedom Summer," a suspenseful play by Toby Armour, takes its
name from the now-famous civil rights campaign in June 1964, when a cohort
of mostly northern college students attempted to register as many African-American
voters as possible in Mississippi. Police, white citizens' councils and
the KKK used arrests, arson, and murder to oppose the project. This play
is inspired by the playwright's firsthand experiences in the campaign
as a civil rights worker and reflects the excruciating stresses of the
time. It centers on two young women who are thrown together by chance
as volunteers in the effort.
COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/freedom_summer.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BwEjmxs16y6MpFbJA
JUNE 22 TO JULY 2
LA MAMA E.T.C.
NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY IN "MECCA IS BURNING"
The Negro Ensemble Company, as part of their 2022-23 residency, perform
the world premiere of “Mecca is Burning,” an original play commissioned
by Penn Live Arts and funded by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.
The play explores social and racial themes through the use of protest
poetry. A world premiere play that examines our current social climate
through the perspective of four Harlem families. Their personal and universal
realities of fear, anger, hope and love provide a glimpse into the harsh
truths of our divisive political atmosphere. Directed
by Karen Brown. Playwrights & Poets: Cris Eli Blak, Karen Brown, Lisa
McCree, Levy Lee Simon, Mona R. Washington. Cast of eight.
JULY 13 TO 22
PARKING LOT OF THE CLEMENTE, 114 NOFOLK STREET
SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKING LOT, "THE COMEDY OF ERRORS"
The Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot will present "The
Comedy of Errors," directed by Hamilton Clancy, in the Parking Lot
of The Clemente, 114 Norfolk Street (betw. Rivington & Delancey Streets)
. Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has been a Lower East Side neighborhood
institution since 1995. Its concept--presenting Shakespeare plays with
a "poor theater" aesthetic in a working parking lot--is now
widely imitated around the US and around the world, with productions as
far away as New Zealand.
JULY 21 TO AUGUST 5
59E59 THEATRES
NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY IN "UNENTITLED" BY CHARLES WHITE
Winner of Negro Ensemble Company's 2022 Emerging Playwrights Competition.
This play of class conflict in a Black family is set in the midst of the
2008 presidential campaign, when the country was on the verge of economic
collapse and no one was safe from its fallout. Attorney Frank Saunders,
a first generation achiever who married into the Black middle class, has
lost his job and is determined to start a sports agency with his brother-in-law,
Ben Walters. Frank plans to get the start-up cash from the sale of the
summer home co-owned by Ben and by Frank’s wife, Deanna, who is Ben's
sister. Ben reluctantly buys into Frank's plan but Deanna values her family
history and traditions and will have none of it. The Saunders are caught
up in an illusion of affluence and material success as their marriage
is collapsing. Into the scene comes Aaron, a working class man from the
other side of the tracks. He brings news that he is Deanna and Ben's brother
and entitled to his share of the house and all the material things he
has long been denied. His presence brings out the best and the worst elements
of the family for a reckoning that changes their lives forever. Directed
by Florante Galvez.
JULY 25 TO 29
CHAIN THEATRE, 312 W. 36TH STREET, 4 FL.
RENAISSANCE THEATRE & FILM PERFORMS "HAMLET" AND "A
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM"
Renaissance Now Theatre & Film, led by Kathy Curtiss, adapts Shakespeare
plays with mixed texts, adding brief modern language passages that are
performed in the style of a "Greek chorus." "A Midsummer
Night’s Dream" is directed by Laurie Harrop Purser with Vocal/Text
work by Steven Rimke. This production/adaptation is set in Laurel Canyon
in the early 1970’s, in the California Rock music culture scene. "Hamlet,"
adapted by director Kathy Curtiss, is a shorter cut that includes the
original text punctuated with contemporary monologues from Hamlet and
Ophelia. Hamlet is still in college at 30, struggling with a search for
an identity. His election to be King in Denmark is overridden by fear-mongering
that the King’s brother, Claudius, has created to push the politics of
the nation into rushing the election, so he can claim the throne. This
atmosphere of panic and political confusion is all too familiar in our
time.
VIDEO ON DEMAND
"USED AND BORROWED TIME" BY SOPHIA ROMMA
"Used and Borrowed Time," written and directed by
Sophia Romma, is now available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Roku and the
Vyre Network. This experimental avant-garde film, a psychological drama
phantasma, has amassed over 45 festival awards and 26 festival film selections.
An interracial couple's idyllic love rises above the hatred of a vengeful
white supremacist family in segregationist Alabama during the 1960s. The
film pays homage to the French New Wave films of Goddard, Truffaut and
Agnès Varda. It has been translated from its original English into
Greek, Spanish and Italian.
COMPLETE INFO: www.usedandborrowedtime.com
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY & NEW YIDDISH REP PRODUCTION
OF "THE DYBBUK"
"The Dybbuk" is arguably the most well-known play in the Yiddish
theater lexicon. It was premiered on December 9, 1920 by the Vilna Troupe
at the Eizeum theater in Warsaw. Its success catapulted that company onto
the International stage. It has since been translated into 27 languages
and performed worldwide. From December 9-13, New Yiddish Rep celebrated
the play's 100th birthday with a live performance streamed from Theater
For The New City. A recording of the production has now been released
for the general public to view on Vimeo.
MORE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/Dybbuk.htm
"FEATHERS OF FIRE--THE MOVIE"
CINEMA VERSION OF AWARD-WINNING ANIMATION SHADOW PLAY, "FEATHERS OF
FIRE"
Fictionville Studio has completed "Feathers of Fire--The Movie,"
a cinema version of its live animation shadow play, "Feathers of Fire."
This ingenious production of theater-on-film, conceived and directed by
Hamid Rahmanian, is readying for a multi-platform release.
"Feathers of Fire" is the most elaborate shadow theater experience
ever created, and this recording, captured on an actual theater stage,
transforms it into a video-on-demand production for all ages. The story
is adapted from Shahnameh (the Persian Book of Kings) and tells the action-packed
tale of two star-crossed lovers of old Persia. Zaul, an outcast albino
boy, is brought up by a bird-goddess and grows up into a wise ruler. He
enters into a forbidden love with Rudabeh, a princess who is the granddaughter
of the dreaded Serpent King. Their young, impetuous romance survives many
precarious adventures before they finally receive blessings for their
union. When they ultimately have a child, it is Rostam, "the Hercules
of Iran." Aspects of the story are reminiscent of "Romeo and
Juliet," "Rapunzel," "The Firebird" and "Jungle
Book."
The piece is created and directed by Hamid Rahmanian, a 2014 Guggenheim
fellowship-winning filmmaker/visual artist living in Brooklyn. It is endorsed
by Francis Ford Coppola, who called the production "Fantastic! One
of the greatest epics of all time and my favorite Shahnameh brought to
life in a spectacular fashion by Hamid Rahmanian with shadow puppets design
and cinematic wizardry."
COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/feathers.htm
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