MAY 27 TO 29
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
With the roster still building, Theater for the New City has currently scheduled over 190 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers for its 27th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, which will be mounted May 27 to 29 in and around Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. (at E. 10th Street). Admission is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.

The festival has been presented annually since 1996, although in 2020 it was produced online only due to pandemic concerns. This year it is back full-scale as an in-person, indoor and outdoor, live audience event. A cohort of theater, dance, performance, music, film, literary and visual artists are participating on all three days. An afternoon of performances for and by kids has been reinstated for Sunday afternoon. A fine art show will be hanging throughout the fest in the theater's lobby gallery. A film program will be presented Saturday from 1:00 PM to 11:00 PM, featuring works by auteurs from the Lower East Side/East Village along with works that reflect the essence of the neighborhood. A poetry jam will be offered Sunday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/LES_2022.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PaEec9F8qGbRPK3n7

JUNE 2 TO 19
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"A HEALTHY HOUSE" BY TIM DIRIWACHTER
A wickedly funny play about a Staten Island family trying to preserve its run-down house and its memories without getting too scammed by the contractor. Devilishly deadpan yet explosive and deeply personal, it's built on deeply affecting themes of family closeness, the unstoppable advancement of time, life and death.

Tim, a forty-something Staten Island screenwriter and his indomitable father, a cancer survivor, aim to preserve their aging family house with new siding. Tim's mom has passed on and most of their neighborhood friends have died off or moved away. A siding company's salesman has gained their confidence with his competence and earned their trust with his empathy.  But as the renovation contract becomes increasingly expensive, the father and son struggle to keep faith with each other as they face the question: is it worth trying to hold off the march of time by restoring the house?

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/AHH.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jxs5Q3Gqe8jre1Zu5

JUNE 6 TO JULY 3, 2022
NEW OHIO THEATRE
NYLON FUSION THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS "ZEN A.M." BY NATALIE MENNA
IN ROTATING REP WITH AN EVENING OF ONE-ACTS BY JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY
Info TBA

BEGINS JUNE16 TO JULY 3
CHERRY LANE THEATER
THE NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY, INC.
"LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER" BY KHALIL KAIN
During the Covid-19 pandemic, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) has been developing "Lambs to Slaughter" by Khalil Kain, a new play with poetry and music, under the direction of Reginald L. Douglas. Khalil Kain is an urban icon who is renowned for his performances in the 1992 crime thriller "Juice," the UPN/CW sitcom "Girlfriends" (2001-2008) and the title role in the Showtime biopic "The Tiger Woods Story." Reginald L. Douglas is a distinguished developer of new works and advocate for new voices. From June 16 to July 3, NEC will present the play's world premiere in an Off-Broadway production at Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street (West Village).

The play is a lyrical life drama of a single mother who has lost her older son to gun violence and must navigate the mourning process with the help of an upstairs neighbor and an ex-lover. She fears failing her younger son, who wrestles with his own demons and guilt. This NEC production is Kain's first produced play. It blends compelling realistic dialogue with verse that is crafted for call-and-response. Instrumental underscore is provided by Keith Edward Johnson. The verse, seamlessly woven into the story, provides an emotional release for the characters, exploding with heightened truth. The overall tone is sophisticated and nuanced, sensitively illuminating its compelling subject matter. What emerges is a daring and polished combination of spoken word, jazz and family drama. Imagine a choreopoem with traditional structure and realism.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/Lambs.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1vdXaZesEt5u4u6R7

SEPTEMBER 16 TO OCTOBER 16, 2022
FIRST ANNUAL PHOENIX LIVE ARTS FESTIVAL IN NYACK, NY
The award-winning Phoenix Theatre Ensemble presents the First Annual Phoenix Live Arts Festival in Nyack, NY, featuring live theater, music andinteractive cultural programs. Five weekends of performances will be held Fridays through Sundays. All performances are live – all outdoors -- in repertory. There will be three productions by Phoenix Theatre: "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde (September 17-25, directed by Leo Lion), "The Harmfulness of Tobacco" by Anton Chekhov (September 30 & October 7, directed by Leo Lion), and "The Skin of our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder (October 1-16, directed by Robert Hupp). Plus festival-related film screenings, jazz performances, guided nature hikes, river excursions, art exhibits and more.

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble is an Audelco, IRNE, Elliot Norton, NYIT Award-winning nonprofit committed to presenting great stories of the classical canon and innovative stagings of new adaptations of language-rich texts that speak to and serve contemporary audiences. It nurtures a diverse resident company of classically trained and highly skilled theatre artists. Founded in New York City in 2004, the Ensemble makes Rockland County its second home. Ensemble artistic directors Elise Stone and Craig Smith lead the Festival creative team, engaging local, county and New York State institutions, educational organizations, businesses and non-profits in support of this exciting event.

COMPLETE INFO: https://www.nyackartsfestival.com

SEPTEMBER 22 TO OCTOBER 9, 2022
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"COMMITTED" BY NATALIE MENNA
A work of historical fiction about the last two days of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's life. When his highly controversial and vulgar documentary causes a tremendous uproar in Amsterdam and abroad, Theo spirals downward. The play explores the collision of an artist's radical temperament and unyielding vision with modern political realities and the inevitable tragedy when uncompromising values clash. Can friendship, family, or love save Theo from his biggest threat - himself?

WORKSHOP PERFORMANCES JUNE 24 & 25, 2022
RUNS FEBRUARY 13 TO MARCH 5, 2023
THE NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY, INC.
59E59 THEATER C
"THE ROOTWOMAN" BY MICHAEL BRADFORD
For June, 2022, The Negro Ensemble Company Inc. is preparing to mount "The Rootwoman," a contemporary play by Michael Bradford with accompanying music and vocals. In a small rural community on the outskirts of New Orleans, Cleveland Temple hasn’t been able to keep a morsel of food in his stomach for weeks. His wife, Wanda Temple, is finally pregnant. His best friend, Lucias Steady can’t seem to shake a twenty year old dream. His former mistress, Cecelia Shacklefoot, is drowning in the river flowing in her own back and Ms. Janie, the Rootwoman, has a secret for which even she cannot find the cure. At the end of the day, it is the whistle of a coming train that sounds the final blue note of this syncopation. This is a play about the seduction of love, the bitter taste of regret and the necessity of redemption.

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" 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