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," attacks the race-baiting and divisiveness that were widely seen in the recent, widely-reported San Francisco School Board Recall. Theater for the New City will present the world premiere of this play, offering both live and livestreamed performances, from March 9 to 26. Director is Carla Blank.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/conductor.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fUifjq3kG6MXaPxx8

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 broken in their East Village two-bedroom apartment on New Year's Eve, plans for the evening are on hold for Katy and Jennifer. In desperation, the two recent college graduates try to get to Jennifer's grandmother's place. But when they open the door to leave, they are confronted by a creepy flasher whom they have inadvertently buzzed into the building. Thus is the situation of "Katy and Jennifer vs. The Flasher on New Year's," the newest play by Matt Morillo (author of "Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues"). Theater for the New City, which has been Morillo's creative home since 2007, will present the world premiere of the play March 16 to April 2. Director is Phoebe Leonard Dettmann.

The play is set on the first New Years Eve after 9/11, when Generation X had their whole lives ahead of them but every moment was colored by the shock of the attacks. At this unique time, Katy and Jennifer are savoring their breakthrough into young adulthood and independence. They had both intended to ring in the new year with their boyfriends, celebrating with erotic raptures. But earlier in the evening, Jennifer's boyfriend had turned her off by immature and inappropriate behavior. So as the ball was dropping, he'd gotten the boot. Katy's casual partner, Bobby, has accidentally anesthetized himself with a generous helping of the meds he takes to stave off his PTSD from the attacks. He is zonked out in her bedroom. Slamming the front door to shut out the flasher, Katy and Jennifer look to this now-somnolent example of manliness for protection, with hilarious consequences.

COMPLETE INFO: www.jsnyc.com/season/katy-jennifer-flasher.htm
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fvVEJsq7vbLCymGU6

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 April 6-8, 2023 with the world premiere of "Shadowland," a work of musicality and grace that contemplates the world's pandemic-imposed state of liminality. The performance will employ Norwegian dancers Ida Haugen, Matias Rønningen and Christine Kjellberg and a short appearance by Kari Hoaas herself. Hoaas' award-winning work has been co-produced and presented in over 20 countries on four continents. Postmodern, abstract and contemporary, her artistry 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 New York City and regards her return with this presentation of "Shadowland" as a sort of 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

JUNE 8 TO 25
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
"FREEDOM SUMMER" BY TOBY ARMOUR
Mississippi, summer 1964. Sylvie, white from up North, knows too little. Terry, African-American born and raised in Mississippi, perhaps knows too much. They struggle, face danger and disappointment. Persisting together, they discover some old fashioned home truths and well-kept secrets. Directed by Joan Kane.

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