THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

THE GIGGLING GRANNY

January 9, 2025 – January 26, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $18.00, Students & Seniors $15.00
Run Time: 90 minutes
COMMUNITY SPACE

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

Drama Desk and Obie award winner MARILYN CHRIS is Nannie Doss AKA THE GIGGLING GRANNY, a world premiere solo show opening JANUARY 9th for three weeks at THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY.

THE GIGGLING GRANNY is a true story about the most mesmerizing, innocent and likable serial killer (looking for true love) that you are ever going to meet! The show was written especially for Marilyn by PBS’ Theater in America writer Marsha Lee Sheiness, and is directed by Jim Semmelman.

MARILYN CHRIS is also know from her many years as WANDA WEBB WOLEK on television’s ONE LIFE TO LIVE.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

A Shift of Opinion

December 19, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $20.00, Students & Seniors $15.00
Run Time:
JOHNSON THEATER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

“A Shift of Opinion” is a play based entirely on historical characters and events.

Jacob Schiff, a Jewish American banker and philanthropist, having heard of Jewish massacres in the Russian Empire, declares himself a personal enemy of the Russian Czar. Soon an opportunity for revenge presents itself.

The play features a parade of historical characters, from Teddy Roosevelt to Leo Tolstoy, and explores various historical parallels, including the subjects of antisemitism, immigration, and Russian expansionism.

CAST

PRODUCTION

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

BREAD + PUPPET

The Beginning After the End of Humanity Circus and The Possibilitarian Imperative Everything Show & Gray Lady Cantata #9

December 4 – 15, 2024
Tickets $18, Students, Seniors, Children $15
Run Time: Both shows are over 1 hour
JOHNSON THEATER

No one turned away for lack of funds. We mean it. If you need assistance with a ticket, please email breadandpuppetreservations@gmail.com.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

an Axial Theatre, Oberon Theatre Ensemble, & Strindberg Rep. in association with Fortify.Space & Michael Howard Studios
Production of

Orson’s Shadow

Theater for the New City presents a remount of “Orson’s Shadow” by Austin Pendleton, directed by Mr. Pendleton and David Schweizer

Originally Conceived by Judith Auberjonois

November 8 – December 1, 2024
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
No performance Wednesday, November 13
No performance Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving)
No performance at 2 PM, Saturday, November 30
ONLY 22 PERFORMANCES

Tickets: $25, Students & Seniors $18
Tuesdays Pay What You Can
Run Time: 2 hours with one 15-minute Intermission
JOHNSON THEATER
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sS1dXqHDPS6jp1ep6

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

“Orson’s Shadow,” based on true events, takes place on the stage of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and later on the stage of the Royal Court Theatre. Orson Welles is directing a production of Eugène Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros,” starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright. Olivier is fresh from his triumphant theatrical portrayal of vaudevillian Archie Rice in John Osborne’s “The Entertainer” and is about to reprise the role in its film adaptation. He and Plowright are in the early stages of a romantic liaison and his turbulent marriage to Vivien Leigh is all but ended. The noted critic Kenneth Tynan becomes entangled in the conflicts between Welles, Olivier, and Leigh, adding tension and complexity to their relationships and influencing their decisions and perceptions. The play debates the merits of stage versus screen, the internal struggle that theatrical performers endure when contemplating a leap to films, and the ways the studio system frustrated the careers of individual artists. It is also a study of theatrical egos, each of the protagonists living more on the stage than in real life, each one feeling insecure while jockeying for power.

The piece, originally conceived by Judith Auberjonois and scripted by Austin Pendleton, received critical note during its first production at Steppenwolf in 2000 and its New York debut at Barrow Street Theater in 2005. Its sharp writing and engaging performances contributed to its favorable reception, establishing it as a noteworthy work in contemporary theater. Since that time, Mr. Pendleton has worked on the play, making revisions and further developing the script. This production is historic, as it is not often that TNC productions are remounted.

Austin Pendleton is an actor, director, and playwright. He has acted in about 250 movies and appeared several times in such TV shows as “Homicide,” “Oz” and the different versions of “Law And Order.” Onstage in New York he has acted on Broadway (“Choir Boy” at Manhattan Theatre Club, “The Diary Of Anne Frank” with Natalie Portman, and as Motel the Tailor in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”), Off-Broadway (Obie winner for “The Last Sweet Days Of Isaac,” “Rosmersholm” at Manhattan Theatre Club, “Up From Paradise,” a musical by Arthur Miller and Stanley Silverman at Jewish Rep; “Educating Rita” with Laurie Metcalf), and Off-off Broadway (title roles in “King Lear,” “Hamlet,” “Richard The Third,” “Richard The Second”; new plays including “City Girls And Desperadoes,” “Dress Of Fire,” “Consider The Lilies”). As a director he has been represented by the premiere productions of “A Thousand Pines” by Matthew Greene, “Between Riverside And Crazy” by Stephen Adly Giurgis, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize; “Fifty Words” by Michael Weller with Elizabeth Marvel and Norbert Leo Butz; Chekhov productions at Classic Stage Company such as “Three Sisters” (for which he won the Obie, and which starred Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jessica Hecht), “Ivanov” starring Ethan Hawke, and “Uncle Vanya with Mamie Gummer; “A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur” by Tennessee Williams with Kristine Nielsen and Annette O’Toole, “War Of The Roses” (Shakespeare, at HB Studio), “Hamlet” (also at CSC, with Peter Sarsgaard), “The Little Foxes” on Broadway with Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton (five Tony nominations, one for direction and three for actors including Ms. Taylor and Ms. Stapleton). He has written three plays: “Orson’s Shadow” (NY/London), “Uncle Bob” (NY/Paris) and “Booth,” which was done in New York starring Frank Langella and has just now been substantially revised.

David Schweizer, co-director, has been devising and directing new theater work, performance art, and opera theater since he emerged from Yale Drama School to make his 1974 debut mentored by Joseph Papp opening the Mizi Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center with Shakespeare’s “Troilus And Cressida” starring Christopher Walken. Subsequently, based in both New York City and Venice, California he has traveled the country and the world with his productions of new and old plays and new and old operas. These include “The Mines Of Sulphur” by Richard Rodney Bennett at New York City Opera, “The Greater Good” by Stephen Hartke at Glimmerglass Opera and “Powder Her Face” by Thomas Ade at Long Beach Opera, among many others. His work in New York City includes “God Created Great Whales,” an OBIE Award winner by Rinde Eckert, “Winter Time” by Charles Mee Jr at Second Stage Theater starring Marsha Mason and Michael Cerveris, and “Horizon” at New York Theater Workshop also by Rinde Eckert. His intense creative friendship with Austin Pendleton was launched with a production of Pendleton’s play “Booth” in 1994 at the York Theater starring Frank Langella.

TNC’s Executive Artistic Director Crystal Field has been a fan of Austin Pendleton and followed his career since their time together as young actors in the Lincoln Center training program and the opening of Lincoln Center under the direction of Robert Whitehead and Elia Kazan.

“This production of ‘Orson’s Shadow’ is one of the high points of my artistic life, and I’m so happy that it just keeps rolling along,” says Austin Pendleton. “I’ve worked several times over the years at Theater for the New City. Every single one of those times I had a productive, enriching, and exciting time. Crystal provides loving, comprehensive, and productively stern support. It’s wonderful just knowing that her theater is there. And I’ve never seen a show there, either, that wasn’t eminently worth seeing.”

“While co-directing the spring run, it was very clear that this witty, passionate play was making an immediate and acute connection with its audiences,” adds co-Director Schweizer. “The excitement was palpable. It’s a play that deals so entertainingly with the foibles of live theater, but also probes beneath the surface for their heart-breaking consequences.”

CAST
Brad Fryman* as Orson Welles
Patrick Hamilton as Kenneth Tynan
Luke Hofmaier* as Sean
Natalie Menna as Vivien Leigh
Cady McClain* as Joan Plowright
Ryan Tramont* as Laurence Olivier

PRODUCTION
Co-Director: David Schweizer
Set Design: David Schweizer
Lighting Design: Alex Bartenieff
Sound Design: Nick Moore
Costume Design: Billy Little
Stage Manager: Bill Carlton
Assistant Stage Manager: Quinn Warren
Press Representative for Strindberg Rep: Jonathan Slaff
Press Representative for Axial Theatre: Dan DeMello

1. https://lavenderafterdark.com/2024/11/21/austin-pendletons-orsons-shadow-returns-to-nycs-theatre-for-the-new-city/
2. https://splashmags.com/index.php/2024/11/orsons-shadow-by-austin-pendleton-an-historic-remounting-at-theater-for-a-new-city-off-broadway/
3. https://saysmesaysmom.blogspot.com/2024/11/theater-thursday-orsons-shadow-tammy.html
4. https://theaterpizzazz.com/orsons-shadow-maintaining-artistic-relevance/
5. https://nitelifeexchange.com/orsons-shadow-six-actors-in-search-of-a-plot/

VILLAGE HALLOWEEN COSTUME BALL

Thursday, October 31, 2024
Outdoor attractions (Free) 3:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Indoor attractions ($20) 7:00 PM to Midnight
Costume or Formal Wear are requested.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

To delight its community and celebrate the creativity that comes with the season, Theater for the New City (TNC), 155 First Ave., will present its annual Village Halloween Costume Ball October 31. A large outdoor festivity will be held from 3:30 PM to 7:00 PM outside the Theater on East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues (or if it rains, in a big tent), featuring performances and a costume competition for kids. This will be followed by indoor performances from 7:00 PM to 11:00, ballroom dancing to Art Lillard’s Heavenly Swing Band and Mister Pablo (Latin Dance band), and an aerial dance concert by Constellation Moving Company. An indoor restaurant (The Witch’s Cauldron) opens at 7:00 PM, where guests can eat dinner for $4 with delightful gourmet dishes donated by local restaurants. Admission is free for the outdoor program and $20 for the indoor festivities. Costumes or formal wear are requested.

TNC has presented a Village Halloween Costume Ball annually since 1976. Traditionally, the celebration has taken up the entirety of TNC’s multi-theater complex at 155 First Avenue (the former First Avenue Retail Market building) and adjoining outdoor spaces. In 2020, due to the Covid shutdown, TNC maintained its Halloween tradition by presenting the entire event virtually. In 2021, with safety paramount, it was mounted entirely outdoors. In 2022 and 2023, TNC made the event hybrid, bringing some of it back inside while presenting an impressive set of offerings outside in the fresh air. The aim was to capture the event’s intensity and traditional magic while facilitating Covid safety for both performers and attendees. Now, TNC is bringing back the original format, complete with indoor dancing, dining and an extended performance schedule.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
(as of October 4)

PART 1 – OUTDOOR EVENTS

3:30 – 7:00 PM

ADMISSION FREE

ATTRACTIONS
Variety performances by Bond Street Theater, Joe Bendik, Peter Dizozza, Yip Harburg Rainbow Troupe, Carol Tendava, Arley Trice, Robert Varkony and others. Emceed by Mary Tierney.
Children’s Costume Contest judged by Crystal Field, Terry Lee King and Emily Pezzella. Winners will receive prizes.
Giveaway Table with gifts and racks of clothing.
The Red and Black Masque: an annual Medieval ritual ensemble theater piece which is performed by torchlight with audience participation. (6:45 – 7:00)
At 7:00, the celebration goes inside the four-theater complex for food, fun, and exciting new theater works, culminating with a costume contest at 11:00 PM whose winners will each receive a bottle of Moët & Chandon Champagne and a year’s free pass to TNC.

PART 2 – INDOOR EVENTS

7:00 – 11:00 PM

ADMISSION $20

CABARET PERFORMANCES (7:00 PM to 11:00 PM)
A succession of live, 10-minute performances staged in the Community Theater. Performing artists will be, among others, Austin Pendleton, Mimi Block, Peter Dizozza, John Grimaldi, Hollie Harper, Rome Neal, Bryce Payne, Elizabeth Ruf, Bina Sharif, TNC Street Theater Ensemble, Carol Tendava (Belly Dance) and Wise Guise. There will be over 30 playlets including works by Toby Armor, Briana Bartenieff, Joan Kane, New Yidddish Rep and Stefan Morrow, among many others. At 9:30, there will be a scream contest run by Lissa Moira. Emceed by Melanie Maria Goodreaux and Crystal Field.

BALLROOM DANCING
Art Lillard’s Heavenly Big Band, a 17 piece swing orchestra performing an extensive repertoire of songs from swing to samba to jazz ballad to Bossa Nova with a swinging singing soloist (8:00 – 9:30)
Aerial Dance with Constellation Moving Company, performing high over our heads in exciting new challenges to eye and ear (9:30 – 9:45)
Mr. Pablo’s Latin Dance Band, a five-piece fusion band with vocalist, mixing Salsa, Samba and Flamenco with Rock, Reggae and Funk (9:45 – 11:00)

DINING IN THE WITCHES’ CAULDRON
Downtown’s most sensational Halloween café, featuring a variety of American and international delicacies at peoples’ prices ($4 buys you entrée and dessert). Holiday dishes are contributed by neighboring East Village restaurants, some with celebrity chefs. You can gobble couscous from a coffin lid beginning at 7:00 pm while enjoying spine-tingling performances by performance artists, songwriters, poets and variety artists. (7:00 – 11:00)

MONSTERS AND MIRACLES COSTUME PARADE
The annual costume contest. All costumed attendees are invited to march past a panel of celebrity judges. Winners will receive one-year passes to TNC and a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne. Attendees will be judged in such categories as “Most Politically Relevant,” “Most Gluten Free,” “Most Uncompromised,” “Most Visionary” and “Most Oxygenated.” Judged by Joe Batista, Crystal Field, Phillip Hackett, Lissa Moira, Rome Neal, Emily Pezzella, Barry Primus and Jenne Vath. (11:00 to Midnight)

VAUDEVILLE PERFORMANCES
Vaudeville in The Womb Room (Basement Cabaret Theater). Performers include JC Augustine, Danielle Aziza, Stan Baker, Joe Bendik, Dr. Sue, Larry Litt, Alex Sisk, Claude Solnik, Richard West, Lei Zhou and more. (8:00 – 10:00)

LOBBY EVENTS
Performances by Cobu (all-women Taiko drum group), Hellsouls, flute-playing goblin Kahley Mitchell, tap dance with Laraine Goodman and The Mad Tappers, Fish Pond (casting for giveaway gifts), Fortune Teller Penny Diora (free readings), Champagne Bar served over a coffin with a live vampire inside.

HALLOWEEN DECOR
Murals painted by Olga Castillo, Gilma Diaz, Sean Finnerty and many others.

BACKGROUND
Since its beginning in 1976, TNC’s Halloween extravaganza has been a point of origin for many of the City’s most original entertainers. Six full-length plays have grown out of playlets written for the fest and it is probable that the theatrical movement in Performance Art began there. It has been a launching pad for such formative artists as Paul Zaloom, Alice Farley, Bloolips, The Red Mole, Penny Arcade, Basil Twist and Alien Comic Tom Murrin. Each year, many acts, skits, sketches, and skadoodles go on to become the basis of larger theater works. It is also interesting to note that TNC originated the Village Halloween Parade as part of its annual Halloween Ball. The procession wound its way through the Village from TNC’s second home at the corner of Jane and West Streets to Washington Square Park. In its second year, TNC won an Obie for this parade.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Woman on a Ledge

November 7 – 24, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $18, Students & Seniors $15
Not recommended for children under 12
Run Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
CABARET THEATER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

World Premiere of “Woman on a Ledge,” starring celebrated harpist Rita Costanzi

What happens when a sensitive artist, a woman destined to become an acclaimed world-class musician, has her journey of self discovery and liberation cruelly interrupted by old world Italian Catholic Patriarchal ideas of female place and obligation, and by her own obsessive all-consuming love for a man she meets on his one way street? You get “Woman on a Ledge,” a story of Life, Art, Love, Beauty, Devotion, Betrayal, Conflict and Loss- all told and acted through spoken word and the glorious strains of her heart and soul- her harp. Will she jump or will she break free and fly? Come see “Woman on a Ledge” and find out.

The play includes musical excerpts by: Debussy, Tournier, Bach-Gounod, Puccini, Albinoni, Liszt, Paganini/Mchedelov and Traditional Irish and Scottish Folk Songs.

“Rita Costanzi’s performance of Woman on a Ledge during the Sunflower Music Festival 2021 was easily one of the best theatrical performances I have seen in my life. The depth of emotion conveyed by Costanzi throughout her performance had me by my soul during the entirety of the show, and her distinctive features are delightful and necessary for the full effect of the piece. The plight of an artist is conveyed so honestly, with the struggle of art versus family versus one’s own fulfillment presented passionately, yet entertainingly, that I can’t imagine anyone not completely going on this journey with Costanzi. Interestingly, the premiere was in front of an incredibly diverse crowd of all sorts of demographics, a near perfect focus group, and the entire crowd was full and into it. Absolutely riveted by the performance. As I was there for the entire festival, for days after the performance I heard many people praising all different aspects of Woman on a Ledge. By far the most discussed performance.
Do not miss this!”

 

-Matthew Nyquist
Filmmaker and Assistant Professor – Department of Mass Media, Film and Video
Executive Director of the WIFI Film – Washburn University

CAST
Rita Costanzi and her Harp Maria

PRODUCTION
Writer: Hershey Felder
Director: Lissa Moira
Set Design: Lytza Colon
Lighting Design: Marsh Shugart
Stage Manager: Rachel Drummer
Assistant Stage Manager: Alisa Ermolaev
Light and Sound Op: Marsh Shugart

BIO
Rita Costanzi is an internationally recognized and award-winning classical harp soloist, teacher, actor and writer. Formerly Principal Harp of the Vancouver Symphony and CBC Radio Orchestra, she relocated to New York City in 2007 and worked with Hal Prince’s Associate, Arthur Masella, on a One-Woman Show with Harp that was presented in New York, Canada, Australia and Brazil.  She has taught and performed at Music Festivals in North and South America and Europe. Winner of the Hershey Felder Presents Arts Prize (2020) for her Covid Documentary, her latest CD, Amoroso, (2023) streamed two million times in its inaugural year.
www.ritacostanzi.com

PLAYWRIGHT BIO
Hershey Felder is a pianist, actor, producer, playwright and director. He is known to audiences for his “composer plays,” Chopin, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Bernstein, Berlin, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff. He has directed and produced plays in the United States and the United Kingdom focusing on great music and musicians. In 2020, Hershey Felder established LIVE FROM FLORENCE, An Arts Broadcasting Company that broadcasts high quality musical programming throughout the world, directly from his studios in Florence, Italy.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

and

FULTON ARTS FOUNDATION

Presents

The Prior 55

ANTHEM AWARDS 2024 WINNER

December 19, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Talkbacks every Sunday

Tickets: $18, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
CINO THEATER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

In a rural part of southeastern Louisiana, Mahala, raised by her parrain Takoda, became an upwardly-mobile professional and upon losing him realizes all she has worked so hard to achieve has not satiated her. Wanting to connect on a deeper level and live the values he instilled in her, she became a psychiatric nurse and set her sights on a French Quarter bluesman she realizes is unhoused and wants desperately to help. But as she seeks to get to the bottom of his trauma, what does one do when they realize the one helping them needs help too?

Post-show talk-back including the playwright, director, actors and subject matter experts, moderated by John David West every Sunday that the show runs.

CAST
Michael Green
Martine Fleurisma*

PRODUCTION
Playwright – Andrea J. Fulton
Director – Patricia Floyd
Set Design – Ulric O’Flaherty
Light & Sound Design – Ken Coughlin
Costume Design – Omar Sama’ey
Stage Manager – Lawrence Floyd
Asst. Stage Manager – Megan Zammit
Producer – Fulton Arts Foundation
Associate Producer – Allen Craig Harris

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

THE GOLDBERG – VARIATIONS

a play by GEORGE TABORI

September 19 – October 6, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $18 General, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 2 hours
COMMUNITY SPACE

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

This is the Amerian premiere of “The Goldberg-Variations” by George Tabori, a major play by a master of experimental theater who confronted the darkest aspects of human history with wit, insight and innovation.

The piece is a backstage comedy set in Jerusalem, where a play based on disasters in the Old and New Testaments is being rehearsed. The director of this play, Mr. Jay, is deliberately named with the initial of Jehovah. His assistant, Goldberg, is a Jew and an Auschwitz survivor. They enact the Creation, the Fall of Man, the near-sacrifice of Isaac, the Golden Calf and the Crucifixion with a satirical combination of seriousness, farce and unashamedly bad jokes.

The play is named after Bach’s famous musical composition, “Goldberg Variations.” Like the music, it explores variations on a theme, delving into the different ways in which individuals cope with trauma and loss.

George Tabori’s plays customarily deal with the Holocaust, Jewish identity, human suffering, and the absurdity of existence. They are deeply reflective and often unsettling, pushing audiences to confront difficult truths about history, humanity, and the self.

Director Manfred Bormann is now regarded as America’s primary interpreter of Tabori.

CAST
Jeff Burchfield*
Jee Duman
Derrick Peterson*
Alyssa Simon
Matt Walker*
Dana Watkins*

*these Actors are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase.

PRODUCTION
Set Design: Mark Marcante
Lighting Design: Alexander Bartenieff
Costume Design: Holly Pocket
Props Design: Lytza Colon
Sound Design: Cliff Hahn
Stage Manager: Mathew Seepersad
Production Associate: Defne Halman
Public Relations: Jonathan Slaff/jsnyc.com
Graphics: Julie Mardin

This production is funded in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)

Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Dream Up Festival, Special Engagement Reading:

Today I’m In Heaven Again

Written by Kara Gordon
Directed by Kyle Dunn

Wednesday, September 11, 2024 at 6:30 PM
JOHNSON THEATER

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

You can make reservations at literary@theaterforthenewcity.net

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

On a bare stage, a dead woman tells the audience her story. As the night stumbles on, a surreal confessional devolves into a retelling of the myth of Van Gogh–and ends with two strangers laughing in the face of death.

CAST
Miranda Volpe
Catherine Bloom

Writer Bio:
Kara Gordon is an actress and playwright based in Brooklyn. Plays produced include Teeth (New York Theater Festival, 2023), The Pool (The Attic @ The Tank, 2023), and Cardboard Moon (Hippodrome Theatre New Works Festival, 2020). She graduated from the University of Florida (BFA Acting & BA English) in 2022. This year, she founded ELEGIE, a New York-based theatre company that produced an intimate production of Jean Genet’s The Maids at The Tank’s loft Attic space that will transfer to Circle Theater Festival at The Flea this fall.

Director Bio:
Kyle Dunn is an actor and director. He has appeared in AMERICAN HORROR STORY (Disney/FX), UNCOUPLED (Netflix), and EVIL LIVES HERE (Hulu). He has also appeared at the Tank, Soho Playhouse, Beckett’s Place, Adult Film, and the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research, plus a pair of works by the artist Wayne Koestenbaum: THE COLLECTIVE (2022) an improvised feature film, and TRASH BLOSSOMS (2021), the world’s first ever TikTok playlet. He trained at Terry Knickerbocker studio and with the Atlantic Theater Company. This fall, you can see The Maids at the Flea Theater, which he directed.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Soup in the Second Act

By Barry Primus

September 26 – October 20, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $20 General
Run Time: 2 hours with intermission
JOHNSON THEATER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

In one’s late career, it’s natural to ruminate on the community of artists you have known, which has sustained you throughout your career. Mr. Primus has written such a reflection in “Soup in the Second Act,” which could be called a paean to theater people. On the road, in an ill fated tour of a 1920s period play, five veterans of the stage and screen end up in a blizzard in Syracuse, waiting to hear if their show will continue, or if they will all be set adrift again. The evening’s performance–or cancellation of the tour–relies on the safe entrance of the evening’s only audience, a busload of school kids with special needs. Awaiting its arrival–the bus is marooned in a snowbank–the family of actors fills the time with jokes, songs and fond memories, all in an attempt to avoid dealing with their long and troubled histories with each other and the uncertain future before them.

At the center of the group are Warren, the leading man, who is recently abstemious and secretly fighting a life-threatening illness, and Barbara, the leading lady, who couldn’t have him to herself but will always love him. As they brace themselves for the show’s cancellation, their old romantic feelings, as well as their old conflicts (largely, due to his infidelities), make for high drama. Around them swirl a collection of characters who embody the qualities we sometimes love and sometimes only grin and bear about actors. Austin, a Cowardesque stage and TV actor, sees through the faults of all around him and can’t do anything about them. Gavin is matchless in his love for his sick dog, Caliban, who is accompanying him on the tour. Rene, a singer, inspires jealousy in everyone she touches. Derrick, the selfless stage manager, almost dies of exposure fetching donuts for his hungry cast in the blizzard.

Occasionally, they break out into Gershwin songs in musical breaks that are choreographed by Julie Arenal Primus. They also regale each other with self-referential actor-jokes like, “Two actors bump into each other on Times Square. ‘God, where have you been? I haven’t seen you in such a long time.’ ‘I’m doing a one man play all over the country.’ So the other says, (hopeful, excited) ‘That’s great. That’s great. Anything in it for me?'” The title of the show is the punchline of a similar joke.

CAST
Paul Coates
Kip Gilman*
Equiano Mosieri*
Lisa Passero*
Connor Stewart*
Dey Young*
Bill Waters
Sam Wiek

*these Actors are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase.

PRODUCTION
Lighting By Alexander Bartenieff
Sets By Mark Marcante
Set Elements and Props by Lytza Colon
Sound Design By Joy Linscheid
Stage Manager Connor Stewart
Choreography by Julie Arenal Primus
Supervising Producer Bill Waters

Barry Primus is a distinguished character actor and film director. He was an original member of the Lincoln Center Repertory Company, where he was directed by Elia Kazan in “After the Fall” (1964) and “The Changeling” (1964) and began a comradeship with fellow company member Crystal Field, Artistic Director of Theater for the New City, which endures to this day. His stage acting career spans over 20 shows including three original Broadway plays by Arthur Miller and several plays at the Public Theater. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, he has been a moderator at its Directors and Playwrights Unit and a member of its national board. He assisted Jerome Robbins and acted in his American Theater Lab. He has directed plays at the renowned Stockbridge Playhouse in Massachusetts and Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City. He staged his own play, “Wonder Comes On The Seventh Day” (2005), in NYC at American Theater of Actors, winning the Jean Dalrymple award for Lifetime Achievement. He directed David Rabe’s “Those the River Keeps” in Los Angeles.

In Hollywood, Primus has appeared in more than 60 films and over 30 TV series, working with directors including Jerry Schatzberg (“Puzzle of a Downfall Child” 1970), Martin Scorsese (“Boxcar Bertha” 1972, “New York New York” 1977, “Taxi Driver” 1976, “The Irishman” 2019), Mark Rydell (“The Rose” 1979, “The River” 1981, “The James Dean Story” 2001), Claude Lelouch (“Bolero” 1981, “Les Uns et Les Autre” 1983), Sydney Pollack (“Absence of Malice” 1981), Roger Vadim (“Night Games” 1980), Martin Ritt (“The Brotherhood” 1968) and Quentin Tarantino (“Inglorious Bastards” 2009). He was a series regular on the groundbreaking “Cagney and Lacey” and a principal actor on “Washington: Behind Closed Doors,” a fictionalized version of the Watergate scandal, where he played a character modeled after Carl Bernstein. He was a casting associate for “On Golden Pond,” “The Rose,” “The James Dean Story” and “The River.”

Primus was Assistant Director to Mark Rydell on four films and directed the second unit for “The Rose.” After directing two short films, “Monologue” (with Patti Lupone, Micky Rourke and Kevin Kline) and “Final Stage,” he directed his first feature, “Mistress” (1992), which features Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Eli Wallach and Ernest Borgnine and now enjoys cult status among filmmakers. He has directed several television shows, including the anthology series “Tribeca” produced by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. He has taught at LMU, UCLA, American Film Institute and Maine Media Workshop and coached well-known actors for projects.