FEBRUARY 2 TO 19
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"AUDIENCE" BY VACLAV HAVEL, PERFORMED WITH CZECH MARIONETTES
Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre performs a puppet production of "Audience" by Vaclav Havel, translated and directed by Vit Horejs. The play, a dark comedy of spying in a brewery, will be staged with projected closeups of puppets from security cameras in order to suggest surveillance. The production's concept is by Vit Horejs and Theresa Linnihan, who act the play together.

Havel’s classic autobiographical play follows Ferdinand Vanek, a distinguished playwright forced to a life of manual labor in a brewery because his writings have been banned by the Communist regime. He is called into the bleak office of his boss, a brewmaster who habitually summons him for endless repetitions of dialogue amidst excess consumption of beer. The writer must take part in a game of cat and mouse -- pointless chat, clumsy interrogation, flattery, and alcohol consumption -- with an implied threat of a more dire consequences: the loss of even such menial job or imprisonment. Tiresome bureaucracy and constant fear under Communism have driven the boss to alcoholism and stints of rage and despair, which are often turned upon his inferiors. One way out of Vanek's predicament is for the writer to help his boss by writing weekly reports on himself, which he refuses to do, further offending his superior by mentioning his “principles.”

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/audience.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HRiNkodWA275RZhs7 and https://photos.app.goo.gl/rvNkkwB4kdUj98Hp9

FEBRUARY 2 TO 19, 2023
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"WHO MURDERED LOVE?"
"Who Murdered Love?" by Lissa Moira and Richard West is a Dadaist musical comedy set in 1924 New York City and in a Paris dreamscape. Its story follows WWI veteran and private eye "Sleepy" Sam Speed, his girl, Gail Friday and his junior detective, Everett Greene, as they attempt to unravel the disappearance and possible murder of DaDa Love at the behest of their client, a stunning heiress named Honey Potts. DaDa Love--enigmatic, handsome and charismatic--is at the center of the world for Dadaists in a time when Surrealists are vying with them for artistic supremacy. The sleuthing trio's quest for him leads them through a mad psychedelic adventure that is populated by takeoffs on artists of the post-WWI period who were also known for their artistic and sexual jealousies. It all makes for a lighthearted adventure story, which Theater for the New City will present from February 2 to 19 in its large Johnson Theater.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/DadaLove.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bZcxxuz1bVoGnMXK6

FEBRUARY 13
THE PLAYERS, 16 GRAMERCY PARK SOUTH
"LOVE & COURAGE" BENEFIT FOR THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Theater for the New City's Emerging Playwrights Program will be beneficiary of the theater's 20th Annual Love 'n Courage benefit at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South. The evening honors Eduardo Machado, playwright, and Carlina Rivera, representative of the the 2nd City Council District.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/love-n-courage.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/k3YLCY3mbsQcykd67

FEBRUARY 23 TO MARCH 5
LA MAMA
"HAN!" DIRECTED BY THOMAS RICHARDS
La MaMa will present Theatre No Theatre, the successor to the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, in the New York premiere of "Han!" The play is a solo work devised and performed by Hyun Ju Baek and is directed by Thomas Richards. In it, a woman explores her generational memories in relation to the Korean concept of han, a combination of sadness and hope that lies at the core of life.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/han.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ncmuvnizfA5dJC2b8

MARCH 9 TO 26
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"THE CONDUCTOR" BY ISHMAEL REED
Playwright Ishmael Reed uses satire to explore aspects of American culture and history overlooked by others. His newest play, "The Conductor," is based upon the recall of three school board members accused of instituting a lottery system that would lead to a more diverse student body at one of San Francisco’s elite high schools. The recall pitted Asians against Asians, Blacks, and Latinos against Asians. The play shows how Blacks and Whites are not the only racial groups contributing to the racial divide. Directed by Carla Blank.

MARCH 16 TO APRIL 2, 2023
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"KATY AND JENNIFER VS. THE FLASHER ON NEW YEAR'S" BY MATT MORILLO
With the heat crapped out in their East Village apartment on New Year's Eve 2001, Katy and Jennifer, two recent college graduates, try to get to Jennifer's grandmother's place. But every attempt to leave is thwarted by a creepy flasher whom they seem to have accidentally let into the building. Written and directed by Matt Morillo (author of "Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues").

APRIL 6-8
LA MAMA E.T.C.
KARI HOAAS PRODUCTIONS IN "SHADOWLAND"
Choreographer Kari Hoaas from Oslo, Norway will open the La MaMa Moves! dance festival with the world premiere of "Shadowland," a work of muscularity, grace, and partnering. She is a Norwegian choreographer, dancer and teacher from Oslo. Her award-winning work has been co-produced and presented on over 20 countries on four continents. Postmodern, abstract and contemporary, her work invites comparison with Germany's Sasha Waltz, Belgium's Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Britain's Russell Maliphant. During the period 1993-2006 she lived and worked in the Downtown dance scene in NYC. She regards this return with her presentation of "Shadowland" as sort of a joyous homecoming.

MORE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/shadowland.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Nmwj9YAxjior3rps7

APRIL 19 TO MAY 7
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"BLISS STREET"
Written and directed by Lissa Moira, music and lyrics by Charlie Sub, story by Charlie Sub and Richie Brotman. Charlie Sub & Sound Dogs, an indie rock band, perform original music inspired by an iconic era in Rock & Roll history. Their performance takes you back to a chaotic NYC in the ’70s when Charlie’s family owned the famous nightclub, the Coventry. Artists such as Kiss, The Ramones and The New York Dolls debuted here.

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

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