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" 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