NOVEMBER 22 AND DECEMER 30
DON'T TELL MAMA, 343 W. 46TH STREET
STEPHANIE TRUDEAU IN "BECOMING CHAVELA"
Actor/cabaret singer Stephanie Trudeau will perform an updated version of her docu-cabaret musical, "Becoming Chavela," at Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, November 22 and December 30, both at 7:00 PM. Written and performed by Ms. Trudeau, the piece is more than just a musical cabaret based on the songs of legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. It is also a documentary theater project that traces the famed ranchera singer's artistic evolution and her relationships with her musical mentor Jose Alfredo Jimenez (the world's greatest composer of ranchera songs), the painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the great Cuban courtesan Macorina, and producer Pedro Almodovar, who enabled her comeback at age 72 after a 15 year battle with alcoholism. Trudeau is accompanied by Ben Lapidus on guitar and percussion. Director is Tanya Moberly. The show won a 2020 Bistro Award for Outstanding Achievement: Tribute Show.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/becoming_chavela.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fCfXF1uFxLsy89VB8

DECEMBER 4
CHURCH OF ST. LUKE IN THE FIELD, 487 HUDSON STREET & STREAMING
WESTERN WIND, "THE LIGHT RETURNS: JOYOUS MUSIC FOR THE HOLIDAYS"
Since 1969, the Grammy nominated Western Wind has devoted itself to the special beauty and variety of a cappella music. The Grammy-nominated troupe will present "The Light Returns: Joyous Music for the Holidays" on Saturday, December 4 at 7:00 PM at Church of St. Luke in the Field, 487 Hudson Street, NYC (West Village). Program will include Hebrew, Sephardic and Yiddish Chanukkah Songs, Medieval and Renaissance Christmas Motets and Carols; songs by Woody Guthrie, Peter Yarrow and Bela Fleck; and new music by Gerald Cohen, Yehezkel Braun, and more. The concert will be performed to a live audience, live-streamed and available on-demand.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/WWholiday.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4K7H39XxMwnDzNKx9

DECEMBER 22 TO JANUARY 2
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
CZECHOSLOVAK-AMERICAN MARIONETTE THEATRE IN "A CHRISTMAS CAROL, OY! HANUKKAH, MERRY KWANZAA"
This recurring holiday show was presented virtually last year and returns to in-person performance. It's an adaptation of Dickens' classic with Old World accents and New World inclusiveness, adapted, directed and reinvented by Vit Horejs, featuring over 30 puppets by Milos Kasal including a quartet of Rockettes in Slovak, Moravian and Ruthenian folk costumes, and holiday songs in Czech, English, Hebrew & Swahili. Into the familiar story is woven a surprising and delightful blend of winter rituals, customs and holiday songs, all performed by over three dozen marionettes ranging in size from four to twenty-four inches as well as found objects and toys. It's all backed up by an "a capella monumentale" choir of Valois Mickens and Katarina Vizina. The piece is still set in Old London, but with Czech accents. Imagine that the familiar tale was told to you not by an English serial novelist, but by your Czech grandmother.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/vitxmas2021.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7eaYStdviUi2FL9S8

BEGINS DECEMBER 23, 2021
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"THE SLAVE WHO LOVED CAVIAR" BY ISHMAEL REED, DIRECTED BY ROME NEAL
Playwright Ishmael Reed uses satire to explore aspects of American culture and history overlooked by others. His "The Slave Who Loved Caviar: A Theatrical Investigation Into the Relationship Between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol" challenges the notion that Basquiat was merely Warhol’s "mascot." The take-no-prisoners satire digs into the exploitation of Basquiat by art world vampires. Reed examines the racism directed at Basquiat and the ways that Andy Warhol, the art establishment and the fashion industry exploited and profited from Basquiat's artistry. Why was racism toward Basquiat allowed to masquerade as "art criticism"? How does this implicate the New York City art world? Directed by Reed's frequent collaborator, Carla Blank, it's the latest work for the stage by the man The New Yorker called "America’s most fearless satirist."

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/ishmael2021.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7F9GZKRYGHF28Eyj9

JANUARY 6 TO 23, 2022
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"I JUST WANT TO TELL SOMEBODY" BY SMOKEY STEVENS
Ronald Smokey Stevens earned a place on Broadway thanks to raw talent and his wits, becoming a polished song-and-dance man in such productions as "Bubbling Brown Sugar," "Inacent Black," "Dreamgirls," his own musical, “Rollin’ on the T.O.B.A.," and tours of "One Mo' Time" and "Ain't Misbehavin." His films include "The Wiz" (as one of the Crows performing with Michael Jackson), "The Cotton Club" and "Times Square." He danced with such greats as tap master Charles "Honi" Coles, Lucille Ball, Cab Calloway and Gregory Hines, to name a few.

He 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. It dramatizes his lifelong 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 his triumphs and the journey through drug usage that was nearly his undoing.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/smokey.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NVd2P8Ki8kqj9SmV8

JANUARY 14 TO 23
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS' POW-WOW AND DANCE CONCERT
Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, will present its 47th annual Thunderbird American Dancers Pow Wow and Dance Concert. There will be dances, stories and traditional music from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions. The event, emceed by Bessie-winner Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago), has become a treasured New York tradition for celebrating our diversity by honoring the culture of our first Americans. TNC donates all proceeds from the event to college scholarship funds for Native American students. The event is recommended for all ages.

FEBRUARY 21 TO MARCH 13, 2022
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"DANCE OF DEATH" PARTS ONE AND TWO BY AUGUST STRINDBERG
This two-part play, written in 1900, is is being presented together for the first time in North America by August Strindberg Rep. It is labeled by some critics, not without justice, as Strindberg's greatest work. In an isolated fort Edgar, a captain of artillery, and Alice, his wife, have lived for 25 years, hating each other with a deadly venom and each wishing the other's death. Their home becomes peopled with devils. When Kurt, Edgar's friend, comes to stay in it, he is caught up in the atmosphere of evil. He falls in love with Alice and becomes her associate in a plot designed to destroy her husband. During a stroke, Edgar suddenly gains a new vision of life, realizing his own errors and pleading for reconciliation. Thus ends the first part of the drama.

The second shows the final triumph of the wife. Remorselessly, she drives Edgar to his death--although in the very process of doing so, a bitter doubt enters her mind. The play's legacy can be seen in a number of contemporary plays. In "Play Strindberg," Friedrich Dürrenmatt condensed the two parts into a terse, brutal series of boxing rounds. The claustrophobic atmosphere and treatment of marital dysunction in Strindberg's masterpiece reverberate through Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," Harry Kondoleon's "The Houseguests" and even John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves."

FEBRUARY 3 TO 20, 2022
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"WHO MURDERED LOVE?"
"Who Murdered Love" by Lissa Moira and Richard West is set in 1924 New York City and in a Paris dreamscape. The story follows WWI veteran & private eye, "Sleepy" Sam Speed, Gail Friday & Everett Greene as they attempt to unravel the disappearance and possible murder of DaDa Love, at the behest of their client, the stunning heiress Honey Potts. DaDa Love is at the center of the world of DaDa artists, at the time when the Surrealists are vying for artistic supremacy. Their quest leads the trio through a mad adventure sparked by artistic and sexual jealously as they find themselves inside an Absinthe dream, peopled by outrageous artists of every stripe – some very predatory.

DATES TBA (RUN RESUMES AFTER BEING INTERRUPTED BY MARCH, 2020 SHUTDOWN)
THEATER 80 ST. MARKS
NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY PRESENTS "GRANDMA'S QUILT"
Run resumes for the Nego Ensemble Company's production of "Grandma's Quilt" that was suspended when theaters went dark in March, 2020. In this solo play by Karen A. Brown, an elderly poor, unpretentious Black woman in rural Arkansas is sewing a quilt as the final act of her life. Each scrap of material is a prism into a chapter of her family's past. As she reflects on each period, she transforms into younger versions of herself to lead us through the history that she intends to pass on to her granddaughter. Grandma’s strength is her humanity and ability to survive; to hope, to love, and to just carry on. Her quilt is significant, her story universal and her message inspirational. One actress portrays the old woman at six points in her life as well as the granddaughter. Performed by the author, who is is Executive Artistic Director of The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. Directed by Anthony J. Hamilton.

PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bJCKe8iq8X1zbdXf9

APRIL, 2022
THE NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY, INC. (VENUE TBA)
"LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER" BY KHALIL KAIN
During the Covid-19 quarantine, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. has been developing "Lambs to Slaughter" by Khalil Kain, a new play with poetry and music, under the direction of Reginald L. Douglas. Kalil 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 film "Tiger Woods." Reginald L. Douglas is a distinguished developer of new works and advocate for new voices. Off-Broadway opening is projected for April, 2022. Venue is TBA as of this writing.

The play is a 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. The piece will be 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 and pulsating through an incendiary look at the current state of America. Kain will portray the ex-lover, a former convict who has turned his life around and seeks to save the single mother who is the play's tragic heroine.

APRIL 25 TO MAY 15, 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?

JUNE 2022
THE NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY, INC.
"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.

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

SEPTEMBER 19 TO OCTOBER 9, 2022 (POSTPONED FROM JUNE 3-20, 2021)
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"OCCASIONALLY NOTHING" BY NATALIE MENNA
The near future. The world is nearing its end. In a bizarre bomb shelter, Harry, Clay and Luella cope by taunting each other with warped games of verbal wordplay and by blurring each other's realities while losing touch with their own. It's a bleak glimpse at life in the dystopic wake of a failed revolution where war abounds, words have lost their meaning and people have lost their way. "Occasionally Nothing" premiered in Theater for the New City’s DreamUp Festival 2018.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/Occasionally_Nothing.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kTTGZVE85YcWwrfX7

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