THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Kasturba vs Gandhi
June 13 – June 30, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $18 General
Run Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
COMMUNITY SPACE
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
“Within the intricate tapestry of global history, Kasturba Gandhi emerges as a beacon of resilience and defiance against societal norms. Often depicted in the shadow of her husband, Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba’s journey speaks to women worldwide who have challenged conventions and fought for their rights.
Kasturba’s narrative transcends cultural boundaries, resonating with women everywhere who have navigated the complexities of patriarchal expectations. From her humble beginnings in Gujarat, India, to her pivotal role in shaping the concept of ‘Satyagraha,’ Kasturba embodies the universal struggle for equality and justice.
As the story unfolds, Kasturba’s relationship with Mahatma Gandhi is portrayed with nuance and complexity. While deeply respectful of his ideals, she grapples with the challenges of reconciling his ideology with her own convictions. Their dynamic reflects the intricate dance of partnership amidst differing worldviews, highlighting the complexities of love, commitment, and individuality within marriage.
Through Kasturba’s journey, women from diverse backgrounds find inspiration to reclaim their voices and assert their agency in a world shaped by male-dominated paradigms. Her courage, resilience, and unwavering commitment to her beliefs serve as a rallying cry for women across generations to stand firm in the face of adversity.
In honoring Kasturba’s legacy, her narrative becomes a testament to the enduring power of women’s voices in shaping history. Her story resonates as a reminder that, regardless of cultural or geographical divides, women have always been at the forefront of movements for change, challenging norms, and reshaping the world for the better.”
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field, with
The LES Committee, Presents:
The 29TH Annual LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
FREE!!!
Memorial Day Weekend. MAY 24, 25, 26 2024 – Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue. (btw E 9th and E 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
212-254-1109
Theater for the New City has currently scheduled over 200 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers for its 29th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.
Admission is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.
Indoor performances will take stage from 6:00 PM to midnight each day, utilizing two of TNC’s four theaters. From 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturday, vendors and food sellers, including booths from nearby restaurants, will set up in the closed-off block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues.
ARTISTS IN THE LES FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS EXHIBIT – CHECK OUT THE GALLERY GUIDE HERE: DEMOCRACY: USE IT OR LOSE IT
BACKGROUND
The first festival, presented June 14 to 16, 1996, was a three-day, indoor and outdoor multi-arts festival, organized by TNC and a coalition of civic, cultural and business leaders. The aim was to demonstrate the creative explosion of the Lower East Side and the area’s importance to culture and tourism for New York City. It employed two theater spaces at TNC plus the block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues, featured over 100 attractions, drew favorable press and attracted crowds from all around the City. Its success prompted TNC to continue the festival annually on Memorial Day Weekend. For 28 years it has been presented free each year to an average attendance of 4,000. (In 2020 it was held online due to pandemic concerns).
The concept of the festival was developed by Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director of TNC and Esther Cartegena (d. 2006), President of Loisaida, Inc., to portray the Lower East Side (LES) as a haven for artists and artistic creation. The region is a unique multi-ethnic community with an unusually high level of artistic vitality. Large populations with differing languages and cultures coexist there successfully and a large artistic population helps glue the neighborhood together. Its theaters are also an unprecedented source of tourism. Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Buried Child,” was commissioned and first produced by TNC. The committee envisioned an event that would demonstrate the region’s cultural fervor, its large artistic population and its multiplicity of ethnic influences to contradict the neighborhood’s stereotype as a dangerous refuge for drug dealers and criminal activity.
Disciplines presented have always included theater, music, dance, poetry, puppetry, cabaret, visual art, film and children’s programming.
SPECIAL CREDITS
Festival Director is Crystal Field. Assistant Directors are Sammy Ferber, Sarah Iles and Dianne Ramirez.
The LES Committee for 2024 is: Crystal Field, JC Augustin, Joe John Battista, Alex Bartenieff, Walter Corwin, Eva Dorrepaal, Myrna Duarte, Carol Dudgeon, Alberto Ferraras, Andrea Fulton, Robert Gonzales Jr., Melanie Goodreaux, Robert Greer, Philip Hackett, Alan Hanna, Barbara Kahn, Anne Lucas, Lissa Moira, Stephan Morrow, Emily Pezzella, Richard Ploetz, Michael Scott Price, Carolyn Ratcliffe, Ramiro Sandoval, Jonathan Slaff, David F. Slone Esq., Mary Tierney, Jenne Vath, Jimmy Walker, Jonathan Weber, John David West, Richard West, Roman Primitivo, Miguel Loyola and Lewis Widoff. Press Representative is Jonathan Slaff.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
and American Indian Artists (AMERINDA)
Presents
FRYBREAD QUEEN
April 27 – May 12, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $18 General, $15 Students and Seniors
Run Time:
COMMUNITY SPACE
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
CAST
ELIZABETH ROLSTON AS ANNALEE WALKER
RIA NEZ AS CARLISLE EMMANUEL BURNS
JOLIE CLOUTIER AS LILY SAVANNAH SANTIAGO BURNS
DAWN JAMIESON AS JESSIE BURNS
PRODUCTION
ARIANA MICHEL (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER)
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
TNC to host memorial for actor Vinie Burrows May 11
1 PM to 3 PM
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
BRING THEM BACK
A Meta Dark Comedy
Written and Directed by David Willinger
May 9 – 19, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $18 General, $15 Students and Seniors
Run Time: 1 hour 50 minutes, 10 minute intermission
JOHNSON THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
In the meta dark comedy Bring Them Back, screenwriter Paul is still sheltering in place long after the Covid threat, only sometimes visited by his schleppy older family friend, Trudy. Now of a certain age, Paul realizes that more people he has known are dead than alive. With amusing desperation, and against Trudy’s better judgement, Paul resolves to bring them back using a medieval Cabalistic ritual that never works due to his countless mistakes. Nevertheless, random affinity groups of dead former friends, family, lovers, and enemies begin to appear. Is it all in his mind? Is it on the page? How do these unorthodox methods satisfy Paul’s desire to resolve unfinished business?
David Willinger (playwright/director) A native New Yorker, David Willinger has been active in the theatre since the age of nine, when he played Ado Annie’s father in a day-camp production of Oklahoma. There followed 17 years of acting, during which he performed at The Theatre East, The Mercer Arts Center, The Manhattan Theatre Club, the Provincetown Playhouse, the Mahopac Playhouse, the Dorset Playhouse, and in college productions, among others. Then he exchanged acting for directing and writing. Non-musical self-authored plays, which he has also directed, include: Existence, Andrea’s Got Two Boyfriends (published by DPS and performed all over the country – and even in Poland), Malcolm’s Time, Frida y Diego, Bombing the Cradle, Caprichos, and The Trail of Tears: A Drama from the Historical Record, written with Peggy Dean. His play Out of Their Minds about James Joyce’s eccentric daughter Lucia and her affair with the young Samuel Beckett, was produced at New Media. He has adapted and directed such novels as Joseph Conrad’s Secret Agent, Camus’s The Stranger, Carson McCullers’s Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Paul Willems’ The Wound, Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit, Ibarguengoitìa’s The Dead Girls, and William Saroyan’s novel Rock Wagram under the title The Upper Lip. Has written the book and lyrics for the musical The Open Gate with music by Arthur Abrams, based on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s epic novel, The Manor, and for a musical version of Thomas Hardy’s famous novel called Casterbridge with Christopher Beste. He also wrote book and lyrics for The Tale of Teiresias and the Idiot that ran at Hartley House Theatre as well as an opera based on Hugo Claus’s The Life and Works of Leopold II with Hellmuth Dusedau, composing. He has directed at TNC, La Mama, Interartheatre, HERE, the Laurie Beecham Theatre, the Avalon Repertory Company, and the Cubiculo, all in New York, as well as for the Ambassador Theatre in Washington D.C. He has directed world premières of Eduardo Machado’s Don Juan in NYC, Serge Goriely’s The Sorcerers, Adrienne Kennedy’s Diary of Lights as well as co-directing her Solo Voyages together with Joseph Chaikin. On Jewish subjects he has directed René Kalisky’s Jim the Lionhearted as well as Hanoch Levin’s Job’s Passion and Winter Wedding. As professor of theatre at City College of NY, he has directed such large-scale productions as King Lear, Richard III, Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard, Mary Gallagher’s De Donde? Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, Gorky’s Enemies, Edward Ravenscroft’s The London Cuckolds, and such musicals as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Promenade, The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors. He has co-authored the screenplay for the film Take the Bridge and both written and directed the full-length feature movie Lunatics, Lovers, and Actors. He has 9 published anthologies of play translations from French and Dutch to his credit, and also recently published Ivo van Hove Onstage with Routledge. He has won two Fulbright fellowships, three Jerome Foundation Grants, A Drama-Logue Award, a BAEF fellowship, a Peg Santvoordt Foundation grant, a Translation Center award, etc. He studied and worked with Joseph Chaikin, with Arlen Digitale, at HB Studios and, chiefly with Eve Shapiro, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
CAST
Paul Korzinski (Paul)
Carole Forman* (Trudy)
*Appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. AEA Showcase
PRODUCTION
Set Designer: Lytza Colon
Lighting Designer: Alexander Bartenieff
Costume Designer: Sarah Shah
Video Designers: David Willinger and Roy Chang
Video Graphics: Kayla Lessard
Production Stage Managers: Christopher Bello and Dianne Ramirez
Publicity: Paul Siebold OFF OFF PR
Paul Korzinski (Paul) is a NYC actor and performance artist. He has worked in such TV shows as The Black List, The Deuce, etc. He recently acted in Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love and Terry Lee King’s Liv’n Dead. He has performed Vaudeville, English Music Hall, Commedia Del and songs from the great American song book with Theater For The New City’s Art Of Comedy workshops under the direction of Mark Marcante and co-sponsored by the Yip Harburg Lyrics Foundation. He’s worked and trained with Jerzy Grotowski and Zbigniew Cyngutis of the Polish Lab Theater. He is a founding member and tenor saxophonist of the Avant Garde musical ensemble Transgendered Jesus, and has performed along with Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Jayne County, John Zorn, Vijay Iyer and Jonas Mekas at many of the New York Film Makers Coop Benefit Concerts. He has studied acting with Gene Frankel, Caymichael Patten, Ted Brunetti, and Fred Waggoner. He earned an MA in playwriting from Smith College under the guidance of Len Berkman. He is pleased to be working in Bring Them Back.
Carole Forman* (Trudy) is an actor, writer, and Jewish spiritual storyteller. She was in the Broadway production of Strider based on the story by Tolstoy and directed by Robert Kalfin. Other roles include Betty in Touch by Lori Goodman at New Circle Theater, NYC; the Prophetess Miriam in the Voice of Our Mothers by Carol Fox Prescott; Die Alte in A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner, at Episcopal Actor’s Theater, NYC, and Grace in the sci-fi play Clear Cold Place at Black Box Theater, Queens, NY. Carole’s film work includes Bubbe in 40 Nichols, Miss Ruby in Key Lime Pie, Fegele in Clara, and Mamale herself in Mamale. Carole has brought story programs to people of all ages and backgrounds around the U.S. and Canada. She’s edited the posthumous writings of her late husband Yitzhak Buxbaum to be published by Ben Yehuda Press. Carole lives in Brooklyn, NY. AEA, SAG-AFTRA. carolefor@msn.com.
COVID Protocol: Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Until
April 25 – May 12, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $15
Run Time: 1 hour, no intermission
CABARET THEATER
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
A couple that promises themselves to each other until the end of time, finally reach the end of time. However, when face to face with the unknown they begin to question their identity, their past, and their grief for what could have been.
CAST
Person #1: Elizabeth Dutton
Person #2: Jordan Chin
Shadow #1: Abbey Rice
Shadow #2: Florence Glavin
PRODUCTION
Director : Téa Einarsen
Playwright: Elijah Vazquez
Stage Manager: Natalie Thomas
Scenic Designer: Maren Prophit
Sound Designer: Daniel Degeorges
Lighting Designer: Grayson Sepulveda
Costume Desginer(s): Olivia Button and Kate Shoulders
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
TNC to host memorial for composer Joseph Vernon Banks March 16
NEW YORK — On March 16 at 3:00 PM, Theater for the New City (TNC), 155 First Avenue (at East Tenth Street), will celebrate the life of Joseph Vernon Banks, the long-time composer of its Street Theater productions, who died at age 62 on November 11, 2023.
Banks wrote original music for eighteen of TNC’s free street theater productions between 2003 and 2023 and conducted their five-piece orchestras, touring with the company for two months each summer through parks, playgrounds and closed-off streets throughout the five boroughs. The plays were bouncy joyrides through the undulations of the body politic, with astute commentary couched in satire, song and slapstick. The music of each show varied in style from Jazz to Bossa Nova to Hip Hop to Musical Comedy to classical Cantata. TNC Street Theater productions are delightfully suited for family audiences, with complex social issues often presented through children’s allegories, with children and neighborhood people as the heroes.
“The State of the Union” Theater for the New City Street Theater production Identity confusion causes the neighborhood to be raided by men in black. Photo by Jonathan Slaff, 2003
Banks composed the scores for “Liberty or Just Us: a City Park Story,” “No Brainer or the Solution to Parasites,” “SHAME! Or The Doomsday Machine,” “Checks and Balances, or Bottoms Up!,” “Teach it Right, or Right to Teach,” “EMERGENCY!!! or The World Takes A Selfie,” “99% “Reduced Fat, or, You Can Bank On Us,” “Bamboozled, or the Real Reality Show,” “Tap Dance,” “The State Of The Union,” “The Patients Are Running The Asylum,” “Bio-Tech,” “Code Orange: on the M15,” “Social Insecurity,” “Buckle My Shoe,” “Gone Fission: Alternative Power,” “Critical Care, or Rehearsals for a Nurse,” and “Life on the Third Rail, or A Subway Delay to the Future.” All were written in collaboration with Crystal Field, who penned book and lyrics and directed the pieces.
Banks fought cancer throughout his final years but in spite of numerous setbacks in his health, managed to write a new score and lead the orchestra year after year. Recently, he mentored and supported a successor, Peter Dizozza, an up and coming composer, to take his place as resident composer of TNC’s Street Theater.
Ms Field wrote, “His music for our five-borough tour lent grace and joy to each new musical. His generosity of spirit pervaded the theater during the rehearsals and performances of each new work. His philosophy showed itself in his music and greatly influenced the direction in my writing. His legacy is strong and vibrant and his memory will remain in the hearts of the many performers who graced and will grace the outside stage of each new ‘Operetta for the Street’.”
Banks’ other TNC productions included music and lyrics for “Life’s Too Short To Cry” by Michael Vazquez.
His awards included a Meet The Composer Grant, the ASCAP Special Awards Program, and a fellowship from the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU. His musical “Girlfriends!” premiered at The Goodspeed Opera House. He was a composer–in-residence in The Tribeca Performing Arts Center Work and Show Series and a member of The Dramatists Guild.
The memorial March 16 will feature tributes by Michael Roberts, Elizabeth Barkan, Olive Joseph, Jessie Ortiz, Michael David Gordon, Terry Lee King and TNC’s Street Theater Company with time for speakers at the end.
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
It is the first time Mr. Pendleton has directed his own work. Theater for the New City encourages authors to direct their own work because it ensures that their philosophy and values are kept intact. TNC is a playground for emerging writers in which they can express divergent views, sometimes unique to themselves, because later productions will allow the director’s view to influence the work.
Ryan Tremont as Laurence Olivier, Natalie Menna as Vivian Leigh. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.
“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. In his declining years, 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 tumultuous 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 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.
Austin Pendleton and cast of “Orson’s Shadow.” Photo by Jonathan Slaff.
Austin Pendleton is an actor, a director, a playwright and a teacher of acting at HB Studio in New York, where he studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. His other plays include “Booth” and “Uncle Bob.” All his plays have been published and produced extensively. “Booth” explores the life and relationships of the Booth family, particularly focusing on the famous actor Edwin Booth and his troubled brother, John Wilkes Booth, who infamously assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. “Uncle Bob” revolves around the relationship between a young man named Josh and his eccentric uncle, Bob. It explores themes of family, sexuality, morality, and the complexities of human relationships with humor, depth, and emotional resonance. Pendleton’s first Broadway appearance was as Motel in the original cast of Fiddler on the Roof; his first off-Broadway appearance was in “Oh Dad, Poor Dad…” by Arthur Kopit. Both of these were directed by Jerome Robbins. He is a member of the Ensemble in Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater. He has appeared in several hundred movies and on TV in such shows as “Homicide,” “Oz” and “Law and Order.” He has directed Tony-nominated shows on Broadway (“Spoils of War,” “The Little Foxes”) and directed extensively at other theaters, notably the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he apprenticed and got his start under the guidance of its Artistic Director, Nikos Psacharopoulos.
He writes, “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.”
CAST
Brad Fryman* as Orson Welles
Patrick Hamilton as Kenneth Tynan
Luke Hofmaier* as Sean
Natalie Menna as Vivien Leigh
Kim Taff* as Joan Plowright
Ryan Tramont* as Laurence Olivier
PRODUCTION
Co-Director: David Schweizer
Stage Manager: Jose Ruiz
Company Manager/ Assistant Director: Mark Karafin
Lighting Design: Alexander Bartenieff
Sound Design: Nick Moore
Costume Design: Billy Little
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
PHARAOH
BY MISHA SHULMAN
Character study of the villain of Exodus is rendered in Kathakali style.
March 15 – 31, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
No performance Friday, March 22
Tickets: $18
Run Time: 75 minutes, No Intermission
THEATER
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
The piece, which tells the biblical Exodus story from the perspective of the king of Egypt, is a work for two artists: Shulman, dressed in black, gives voice to all the characters, while Kalamandalam John, founder and Director of Kalatharangini Kathakali School in South India, performs the play in movement theater using vibrant traditional Indian dance drama and elaborate makeup. Everything is in English. Michael Posnick directs.
The production was inspired in 2008 when Shulman was in the village of Muzhikulam, Kerala to watch a fifteen-day play called the Asokavanikangam, or the Asoka Tree Garden, performed in the Kudiyatam, Sanskrit theater tradition. This Indian classic, taken from the Ramayana, the holy Hindu book, tells of how The arch-villain Ravana kidnaps the goddess Sita, taking her to his island of Lanka, and trying repeatedly to convince her to succumb to him. Shulman describes the experience as “riveting,” “the slowest thing you’ve ever witnessed,” and “the best thing I had seen in my life.” Longing to make a parallel play of his own, Shulman imagined a staging of the Exodus story in which Jews could watch a play about the inner life of Pharaoh, their greatest enemy, modeled on Ravana and reimagined with Indian influences.
Misha Shulman stands with an art piece by Ghiora Aharoni called The Semicha Ketubah. It’s a statue that Ghiora made for Shulman’s ordination as a rabbi, which took place at Theater for the New City in 2019. Statue includes text of the ordination, verses from Torah, Psalms and the signatures of the rabbinical court (including five rabbis and five artists, including Crystal Field). Photo by Alysia Homminga.
The piece ultimately evolved into a two-man production: a dialogue between a Pharaoh character performed in physical theater by Kalamandalam John, founder and Director of Kalatharangini Kathakali School in South India, and Misha Shulman, clad in black, voicing all the characters of the story including Pharaoh, Moses (stuttering), Pharaoh’s son, wife and father; an Egyptian priest and Death. They are accompanied musically by Galen Passen on Sitar and Tripp Dudley on drums. Kalamandalam John performs with the elaborate costume, colorful makeup, intricate gestures and expressive facial movements of Kathakali.
The piece was initially envisioned to be performed by Shulman as a solo show, influenced by the spirit and style of Kudiyatam. It was workshopped in Toronto, where Shulman was playwright in residence of Crow’s Theater. Later he had a staged reading at the 14th Street Y, where he was a LABA fellow. The project was set to premiere at Theater for the New City in March 2020 but was canceled due to the Covid shutdown.
Misha Shulman was ordained a rabbi in 2019. He is founding director of the School for Creative Judaism, a home for unaffiliated Jews that brings together religion, art and activism under the framework of Jewish tradition, and Rabbi of The New Shul (www.newshul.org). He was raised in Jerusalem, the son of Anglo immigrants; his mother is from Canada and his father, a professor emeritus of Indian studies at Hebrew University, is from Iowa. Their home was filled with Indian culture and Hindu stories. Reflecting on the performance that inspired this play, he writes, “Never before had I seen such a happy marriage between art and religion. When the time came and I was confronted with the possibility of becoming a rabbi, I had a model for a type of religious leadership that I could adapt and emulate.”
Shulman writes that exploring the inner world of Pharaoh “offers both theological and political possibilities that go against the grain of Jewish tradition. The attitude toward Pharaoh is mirrored today in our greatest national anxieties and fears, as well as the defensiveness and self-righteousness those fears often produce. The inability, or perhaps refusal of mainstream Judaism to see the Palestinian experience can, to my mind, be traced back to Pharaoh. The Exodus story is us versus them, with truth on our side and vanity and stubbornness on theirs. ‘Them’ is represented by Pharaoh, who gets beaten down to dust along with the rest of his people. If we can reduce the greatest civilization of the ancient world to ‘false’ and ‘cruel,’ how easy it becomes to do the same to the Palestinian people. Terrorists at best, a non-existent people more likely.”
He continues, “For Jews, the current war has brought to light the terrifying urgency of reworking our relationship with victimhood and blame. Which pieces of our national psyche, we must ask, need be preserved, and which reshaped to fit the twenty-first century? By re-examining the story of our national birth, this play aims to offer a first step in that process. Humanity seems to be at a crossroads: either we continue down this path of vilification of the other, or will we begin to see those we consider to be villains as human beings. In theological terms we ask: does the belief in one god mean that all other gods are false, or that everything and everyone are part of one great oneness?”
This is Shulman’s sixth play produced by Theater for the New City. Before settling in New York, he served in the Israeli army as a Commander in charge of Education. His plays often confront Jewish ethical conundrums like national duty and collective guilt from the viewpoint of a liberal Israeli dissident. These include “Apricots,” “The Fist,” “Desert Sunrise” and “Martyrs Street.” “The Fist” (2004) portrayed the dilemma of Israeli Army refuseniks. “Desert Sunrise” (2005) was deemed “A West Bank Godot” and described as “elegant and affecting” by George Hunka in The New York Times. “Apricots” (2009) was a political Israeli-Palestinian comedy. “Martyrs Street” (2015) told the intertwining stories of two residences in Hebron, a city in the West Bank, that are about to be evacuated by the Israeli authorities. It won two playwriting competitions and received honorable mentions in two others.
In 2008, with “Brunch at the Luthers,” Shulman forsook dramatic realism for Dada to challenge traditional concepts of meaning through the minutia in the lives of an absurd middle-aged couple. His “The Fake History of George the Last” (2010) metaphorically attacked the notion of the inevitability of violence throughout generations in an absurdist style that incorporated iconic imagery from the Book of Ecclesiastes. With “Deathscape” (2011), he employed puppet theater to analyze his dreams through archetypal political and religious symbols. As an actor, Shulman has performed in many plays around the world with the Living Theatre, with DADA New York, and at the Toronto Clown Festival.
Michael Posnick (Director) has helmed theater and musical productions at venues including Yale Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club and NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. He has been Artistic Director of Mosaic Theatre, at the 92nd Street Y and Director of the Department of Dance and Theater at Manhattanville College. He has taught at Yale Drama School, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center; National Theatre of the Deaf and Hunter College. He is co-editor with Ellen Schiff, of “Seven Contemporary Jewish Plays” and translator/editor of a number of dramatic works in Hebrew. He was dramaturge of “Davenen,” a production of Pilobolus Dance Theatre which played at the Kennedy Center and Joyce Theatre. He was co-producer of Frank London’s Cuban-Yiddish opera, “Hatuey: Memory of Fire.” He earned his BA and MSEd from Yeshiva University and his MFA from Yale Drama School. He is currently on the faculty of School of Practical Philosophy, New York.
Dr. Kalamandalam John is founder and Director of Kalatharangini Kathakali School. Born in Kerala in 1955, he trained in Kathakali for nine years, eight hours a day at Kerala Kalamandalam under Guru (professor) C. Padmanabhan Nair and Vijayakumar. He studied Sanskrit and Kathakali literature under Prof. Unnikrishnan Elayadu. In 1977 he was awarded the A.D. Bolland Gold medal for the best Kathakali student. In 1978 he was awarded the government of India scholarship. Since completing his course, he has worked as a teacher for both foreign and Indian students in Kerala Kalamandalam. As a member of the Kalamandalam troupe, he has toured all over India and abroad. Dr. John is the first ever Christian Kathakali actor. He includes “Kalamandalam” in his name since graduating from the fames school in 1977.
The Kalamandalam was founded in 1930 to preserve the cultural traditions of Kathakali, the stylized dance drama of Kerala. Kathakali is the classical dance-drama of Kerala, South India, which dates from the 17th century and is rooted in Hindu mythology. It is a unique combination of literature, music, painting, acting and dance performed by actors wearing extensive make up and elaborate costume who perform plays which retell in dance form stories from the Hindu epics.
Misha Shulman writes, “The support and encouragement I’ve received from Theater for the New City has created in me a confidence not only in engaging the world and its wonders and problems theatrically, but also in searching for new ways to express that engagement. With opportunities I received nowhere else, it has shaped me as a playwright and even encouraged me to pursue a non-traditional approach to my rabbinical path, which infuses the faith world with the arts. Crystal Field’s fierce commitment to exploring painful yet crucial truths, through her support for plays on Israel/Palestine and dozens of other issues, is brave, rare and deeply appreciated.”
PRODUCTION
Production coordinator is Susan Meyers.
Costumes and make up are by Dr. Kalatharangini Mary John.
Stage Manager and Assistant Director is Alysia Homminga.
Lighting Designer is Wheeler Moon.
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Fair Winds and Winds of War
Written and directed by Barbara Kahn
Assistant Director and Stage Manager. Christopher Bello
March 7 – March 24, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 PM, Sunday at 3 PM
Tickets: $15
Run Time: 1 hour 50 minutes including intermission
CINO THEATER
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
Fair Winds and Winds of War is framed by the February 2nd pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden and the optimism of the April opening of the New York World’s Fair. An American-born woman believes she has lost her ‘favorite daughter’ position to her cousin, a refugee from newly-German-occupied Gdansk in Poland. Their personal conflict reflects the larger conflict in the U.S. between Americans and the Europeans looking for a safe haven. An African-American singer, facing the racism that forced her from her Southern hometown and later from the segregated Harlem venues, finds acceptance in 1930’s Greenwich Village and friendship with the Polish refugees. Two women, one a refugee, meet again in New York and rekindle the love for each other they discovered as teenagers in Poland. As Europe rushes to war, America anticipates the excitement of the NY World’s Fair.
CAST
Stalina Huberchenko
Jamie Coffey
Jenna Levere
Rebekah D. Wilson
Danny Epstein
Rob Maisonett
Radio voices:
Samuel Williams
Chris Lowe
Kristian Nekrasov
Sarah Teed
PRODUCTION
Assistant Director and Stage Manager. Christopher Bello
Music Director. Jenna Levere
Music Consultant. Joseph Thor
Polish Consultant. Patrycja Dolowy
Set Design. Jason Sturm
Lighting Design. Alex Bartenieff
Costume Design. Billy Little
Sound Design. Joy Linscheid with Alison Nolan
Graphic Design. Virginia Asman, illuminage studio
COVID Protocol: As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.
