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.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence
Directed by Sarah Germain Lilly
February 22 – February 25, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 PM, Preshow 7:45 PM, Sunday at 3 PM, Preshow 2:45 PM
Tickets: $18 General, $15 Seniors and Students
Run Time: 90 minutes with 10 minute intermission
COMMUNITY SPACE
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
Dedicated to the memory of Deandre Matthews, 19 years old, killed February 6, 2023.
What if young people everywhere in the US cried out on stages large and small across America, begging for peace and an end to the epidemic of gun violence they live in? Would we listen? Would we finally change the bloody status quo?
From the Principal’s office to a college dorm, from a 911 call center to a recording studio, we witness the violence guns make possible.
The plays are The Smiles Behind by Niarra C. Bell (Virginia), A Call for Help by Pepper Fox (Kentucky), Lightning Strike by HJ Kennedy (North Carolina), A Disorderly House by Sam Lee Victor (New Jersey), No Prospering Weapons by Justin Cameron Washington (Michigan), and The Matter at Hand by Valentine Wulf (Washington). Led by its creator Michael Cotey and Joaquin Oliver Artistic Producer, the ENOUGH! initiative calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country.
Out of 244 plays by High School and Middle School students, these six were chosen to be performed in communities everywhere across the nation on November 6th, 2023 in staged readings. Their voices represent the youth of America, those who were trained from an early age to hide from gunfire that could be a threat even in their schools. Gun Violence is now the leading cause of death among children in the US. These plays reflect youth experiences and those of their communities.
Our Cast:
Ms. Marie
Yesenia Ortiz
Sky Carrington
T Scott Lilly
Dan Kelley
Eddie Moore
Carlos Rodriguez
Wes Spencer
Sophie Schulman
Assistant Director Sean Stefanic bring their activism and experience to this project, and their artistry as well.
Director Sarah Germain Lilly is happy to be back with the Theater for the New City tribe and uplifted by this opportunity to spread peace and end gun violence.
We are happy to lift up the voices of the Gun Violence Prevention Community with these performances.
Director Sarah Germain Lilly thanks Crystal Field and the Theater for the New City community for making these performances possible, and Gays Against Guns NY for their support.
Dedicated to Deandre Matthews and his new baby brother Damari Matthews.
Deandre Matthews, age 19, of East Flatbush, Brooklyn , was killed February 6 2023. His suspected killers have been arrested and are awaiting trial. Deandre’s family grieve this Beautiful, out, gay young man who was employed, enrolled in college, and an encouragement and positive role model for his friends.
“These plays provide powerful insight into the perspective of a generation where the threat of gun violence has become ubiquitous with going to school growing up,” says ENOUGH! creator Michael Cotey.
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.
MARY SHELLEY’S TIMELESS NOVEL about the creation of a Monster who is abandoned – is brought to the stage by Emmy Award winning writer (Sesame Street) and La MaMa ETC Series Director (Poetry Electric) William Electric Black aka Ian Ellis James. Using 13 original songs and dynamic physical theater staging a la Andrei Serban and The Open Theatre, W. Electric Black brings Shelley’s horrifying ghost story back to life. Musical Director, William Wagner who did a masterful arrangement of Mr. Black’s Romeo & Juliet: Tribal Rock Musical, teams up with William Electric Black to heighten the actual story with Into The Woods like narration, at times, by Mary Shelley and a unique, Jim Henson-like imagineering by a 12 member ensemble.
The physically staged musical production, using four chairs, two platforms and an ensemble of 12 members depicts the book often using Mary Shelley’s own text to tell the Gothic tale of revenge after Victor’s reckless use of knowledge.
Kamryn Sarratt is the Monster’s Bride in The Frankenstein Project – Written & Directed by William Electric Black – Photo by Desiree Conston
CAST
Featuring:
Alberto Santiago
Aleesia Hernandez
Alina Garcia
Annabelle Skala
Indigo Phillips
Julianne Darden
Juliette Kulikovs
Kamryn Sarratt
Mario Greiner
Megan Walker
Romy Turner
Amanda Vazquez (Dance Captain)
PRODUCTION
MUSIC BY WILLIAM ELECTRIC BLACK
MUSIC DIRECTION BY WILLIAM WAGNER
TECH DIRECTOR – MARK MARCANTE
LIGHTING DESIGN – ALEXANDER BARTENIEFF
COSTUME DESIGN – DESIREE CONSTON
PROPS DESIGN – SUSAN HEMLEY
MAKE-UP DESIGN – MORGAN CUNNING & MARISSA JOHNSON
CHOREOGRAPHY – LAUREN BARETTE
ASSIST.CHOREOGRAPHY – GIANNA BARTOLINI
STAGE MANAGER – DHRUV BAROT
BOARD OP – MEGAN HORAN
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
Love n’ Courage
Theater for the New City’s Annual Benefit for its Emerging Playwrights Program
SOLD OUT! -SOLD OUT! -SOLD OUT!
You can still make a contribution down below
Cocktail Hour Entertainment – 6 PM – 6:45 PM
The Head Peddlers
Peter Dizzoza
Human Kinetics Movement Arts
Monday, February 12, 2024
at The Players Club • 16 Gramercy Park South
Theater for the New City’s Emerging Playwrights Program will be beneficiary of the theater’s 21st annual Love ‘n Courage benefit Monday, February 12, 2024 at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South. The evening honors actress, performance artist and playwright Penny Arcade.
Theater for the New City (TNC) is a four-theater complex at 155 First Avenue. Its awards include the Pulitzer Prize, 43 Village Voice OBIE Awards, nine Audelco Awards, two Bessie Awards, five ASCAP Awards, ten Rockefeller Playwrights Fellowships, The Mayor’s Stop the Violence Award, the Manhattan Borough President’s Award for Public Service and Artistic Excellence in Theater, and a NY City Council Proclamation that pays tribute to TNC’s contributions to improving the quality of life in the City by its “rich tradition of bringing theater to people in underserved neighborhoods.”
The Emerging Playwrights program is integral to the theater’s mission, which includes being a center for new and innovative theater arts, discovering relevant new writing and nurturing new playwrights. TNC does not believe that readings are enough to help an artist to grow into the American playwriting mainstream. So the theater gives emerging artists full productions, with a minimum run of three weeks, with full lighting, sets, costumes and overall professional production values. The theater staff does marketing and ticket prices are kept low to ensure good attendance.
Each year there are between 20 and 30 emerging playwrights presented. No other theater approaches the volume of work by emerging playwrights that TNC has presented in the 53 years since its founding.
Playwrights are selected for the quality of their work and their historical and social vision. Executive Director Crystal Field declares, “That is our ballast. Everything else is just decoration.” Many colleges have playwriting programs, but the process at TNC is different from what happens in university theaters because at TNC, the playwright is involved in all aspects of the production and has final say on everything including budget, casting, designers and choice of director. Once the play is selected, the producer cannot fire the writer and there is no censorship in any way. It’s a nurturing relationship in which the author is also invited to create a new work for the following season.
Emerging playwright productions get to use the theater’s set and costume shops and its vast inventory of set pieces. Each theater space is fully equipped and since Covid began, TNC has added streaming capabilities.
“Love ‘n Courage” will be hosted by songwriter/playwright/performer Phoebe Legere and co-hosted by playwright Matt Morillo. Entertainment will include performances by Charles Bush and Accompanist Jono Mainelli, Phoebe Legere, excerpt from “Ella the Ungovernable” (bioplay on Ella Fitzgerald by David McDonald), Yip Harburg Rainbow Troupe, TNC Street Theater Ensemble, Carol Tandava (Belly Dance) and excerpt from “The Boy Who Listened to Paintings” by Dean Kostos and Paul Kirby, directed by Lissa Moira.
Penny Arcade (honoree) is one of America’s most influential theater and performance innovators and an iconic figure in theater and performance art. Born Susana Ventura, she adopted the moniker “Penny Arcade” as a declaration of her rebellious spirit and commitment to pushing artistic boundaries. A multifaceted artist, she captivates audiences with her unapologetic approach to storytelling. Her 30+ plays transcend conventional narratives, delving into the complexities of human experience and societal norms. Her most noted plays include “Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!,” “Bad Reputation,” “The Lower East Side Biography Project,” “Longing Lasts Longer” and “The History of the World (According to My Mother).” Her performances often illuminate cultural taboos and address LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and the loss of cultural identity. Beyond the stage, she is a passionate community activist. She will also perform at the event.
The benefit committee includes Mary Tierney (Chair), F. Murray Abraham, David Amram, Alexander Bartenieff, Charles Busch, Janet Piontek, Myrna Duarte, Carol Dudgeon, Renee S. Edelman, Crystal Field, Matthew Fitzgerald, Andrea Fulton, Assembly Member Deborah Glick, Robert Gonzales, Jr., Robert Greer, Philip Hackett, Alan Hanna, Deena & Ernie Harburg, Celia Kornfeld, Anne Lucas, Eduardo Machado, Nancy and Allan Manocherian, Mark Marcante, Audrey Heffernan Meyer, Louis Mofsie, Lissa Moira, Stephan Morrow, Emily Pezzella, Richard Ploetz, Tim Robbins, Liana Rosario, Michael Scott-Price, Jonathan Slaff, David F. Slone, Esq., Founder Betsy von Furstenberg (in memoriam), Jenne Vath, Joel Vig, Jonathan Weber and Patricia & Dr. Jay Weiner.
Cocktails are at 6:00 PM with a seated dinner at 6:45 PM.
Performances begin at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $200 (individuals) and $1800 for a table of ten, available online at www.theaterforthenewcity.net. For info call (212) 254-1109. RSVP by February 5. Dress is festive.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
The MIRACLE
A special benefit for Theater for the New City and its Arts in Education Program
February 8 – 25, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $20 Donation
Run Time: 80 minutes
CINO THEATER
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
Picture this: Caracas 1971. A group of toddlers rehearse Jingle Bells for the holiday show, when a black-clad nun approaches one of the kids, and whispers in his ear: “Honey, don’t sing, just move your lips, but DON’T SING.” That kid was Alberto Ferreras, that nun is probably burning in hell, and that anecdote is the starting point of The Miracle—a part memoir, part musical, part improv (with a splash of celebrity gossip), Off Off Broadway immersive experience—that will run from February 8 to the 25, to benefit Theater for the New City and it’s Arts in Education Program.
“When you are told at a young age that you can’t sing, you don’t question it. You shut up for the rest of your life, no matter how unqualified was the idiot who told you that. I waited 30 years to get permission to sing, and that’s what The Miracle is all about,” says Ferreras, creator of this show about the transformative power of music.
Alberto Ferreras is known for art projects that give a voice to the voiceless (“Habla” for HBO, “Somos” for the National Museum of the American Latino, and the award-winning comedy “Hamlet in Harlem” for TNC). In this interactive show he is joined by Music Director Rachel Kaufman, a seasoned multi instrumentalist who’s played in over 300 musicals and cabaret shows world-wide, and in every piano bar (past and present) in NYC.
“The Miracle explores immersion from a different angle: it’s not about having a couple of video projections on the wall. The Miracle can not be replicated by a film, or a TV show”—explains producer Myrna E. Duarte (“Mussolini Behind the Counter”, “Hamlet in Harlem”). “You have to be physically present for The Miracle, and you will have to make choices, and you will have to live with those choices. It’s the kind of transformative show that you’d only find at Theater for The New City. That’s why we want to make it a benefit for this institution that has given a voice to so many artists.”
For the last 53 years Theater for the New City has hosted playwrights and actors such as Suzan-Lori Parks, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Charles Busch, Vin Diesel, Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, and the late Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman—but most important—, it has offered stages and resources to thousands of emerging playwrights, directors, actors, and small theater companies. Executive Director Crystal Field has staged thousands of plays in New York City, and that’s a miracle in itself.
“The Miracle” is created and performed by Alberto Ferreras, produced by Myrna E Duarte, music directed by Rachel Kaufman, set design by Jason Sturm, lights by Alex Bartenieff and Franklyn Rodriguez, and it will feature performances by a bunch of unsuspecting guests.
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
49th ANNUAL THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS’ POW-WOW AND DANCE CONCERT
January 12, 2024 – January 21, 2024
Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets $15
MATINEES ARE KIDS’ DAYS: At all matinée performances, children ages five to twelve who are accompanied by a ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $15). – Box Office (212) 254-1109
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
JOHNSON THEATER
PHOTOS AND VIDEO ARE AVAILABLE. See directions at bottom.
Theater for the New City 155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)
There will be dances, stories and traditional music from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions. The event has become a treasured New York tradition for celebrating our diversity by honoring the culture of our first Americans. TNC donates all proceeds from the event to college scholarship funds for Native American students.
A Pow-Wow is more than just a spectator event: it is a joyous reunion for native peoples nationwide and an opportunity for the non-Indian community to voyage into the philosophy and beauty of Native culture. Traditionally a gathering and sharing of events, Pow-Wows have come to include spectacular dance competitions, exhibitions, and enjoyment of traditional foods.
Throughout the performance, all elements are explained in depth through detailed introductions by the troupe’s Director and Emcee Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago). An educator, Mofsie plays an important part in the show by his ability to present a comprehensive view of native culture. He was awarded a 2019 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. In 2017, he was honored, along with Garth Fagan and Martha Myers, with a Lifetime Achievement Award from American Dance Guild.
Highlights will also include a Hoop Dance set to guitar and flute music that will be performed on alternating dates by Marie Ponce (Cherokee and Seminole) and Matt Cross (Kiowa); a Deer Dance (from the Yaqui Tribes of Southern Arizona) with Ciaran Tufford (Mayan/Cherokee) and Carlos Ponce (Mayan), and various ensemble dances: a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people), a Stomp Dance (from the Southeastern tribes), a Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes), a Fancy Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes) and a Smoke Dance (from the Iroquois). As the audience enters the theater, they will be serenaded by the Heyna Second Son Singers (various tribes).
Pageantry is an important component of the event, and all participants are elaborately dressed. There is a wealth of cultural information encoded in the movements of each dance. More than ten distinct tribes will be represented in the performance. The dozen-or-so dancers are people of all ages, raging from thirteen-year-old Isabel Cespedes (Mayan) to retirees.
Native American crafts and jewelry will be sold in the TNC lobby.
Matinées are kids’ days, when children aged five to twelve accompanied by a ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $15). At the conclusion of these matinées, young audience members are invited to pose for pictures with the dancers.
ABOUT THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS
The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are the oldest resident Native American dance company in New York. The troupe was founded in 1963 by a group of ten Native American men and women, all New Yorkers, who were descended from Mohawk, Hopi, Winnebago and San Blas tribes. Prominent among the founders were Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago) and his sister, Josephine Mofsie (deceased), Rosemary Richmond (Mohawk, deceased), Muriel Miguel (Cuna/Rapahannock) and Jack Preston (Seneca, deceased). Some were in school at the time; all were “first generation,” meaning that their parents had been born on reservations. They founded the troupe to keep alive the traditions, songs and dances they had learned from their parents, and added to their repertoire from other Native Americans living in New York and some who were passing through. Jack Preston taught the company its Iroquois dances, including the Robin Dance and Fish Dance. To these were added dances from the plains, including the Hopi Buffalo Dance, and newer dances including the Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance. The company was all-volunteer, a tradition that exists to today. Members range in professions from teachers to hospital patient advocates, tree surgeons and computer engineers. Now Louis Mofsie says, “To be going for 60 years is just amazing to me, and to be able to do the work we do.”
The troupe made a home in the old McBurney YMCA on 23rd Street and Seventh Ave. Within three or four years, they were traveling throughout the continental U.S., expanding and sharing their repertoire and gleaning new dances on the reservations. A number of Thunderbird members are winners of Fancy Dance contests held on reservations, where the standard of competition is unmistakably high.
The Thunderbird-TNC collaboration began in 1975, when Crystal Field directed a play called “The Only Good Indian.” For research, Ms. Field lived on a Hopi reservation for three weeks. In preparation for the project, she met Louis Mofsie, Artistic Director of the dance troupe and a representative of the American Indian Community House. Mofsie suggested a Pow Wow and dance concert to celebrate the winter solstice. Field, who is herself 1% native American, committed herself to bring this to fruition. The event has continued annually to this day.
The troupe’s appearances benefit college scholarship funds for Native American students. The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Scholarship Fund receives its sole support from events like this concert (it receives no government or corporate contributions), and has bestowed over 350 scholarships to-date. Theater for the New City has been presenting Pow-Wows annually as a two-week event since 1976, with the box office donated to these scholarships.
# # #
CRITICS ARE INVITED to all performances. Press contact Jonathan Slaff (212) 924-0496.
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
CONJUNCTION
A circus solo synthesis by Maia and Medea Ramnath-Christiansen
January 4 – 7, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $18, Students, Seniors, Children $15
Run Time: 80 minutes including 15 minute intermission
JOHNSON THEATER
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
Conjunction is a tale of two travelers, told through a blend of aerial, dance, contortion, text and video.
One is on a quest to find a place in the world through responsibilities to history, moving from alienation to purpose and meaning.
One is on a quest through the wilderness of the psyche, moving from mental health crisis to healing and recovery.
Each traveler becomes a witness to the other’s journey, first from a distance, then closer and closer, until witnesses become participants as the paths converge. Each course changes the other, along with all that we carried with us to that meeting place. Who am I? Where do I fit? Why am I the way I am? Why is it the way it is? The big picture and the inner landscape need each other to be whole. We help each other bear the things we carried. Two stories become one story. The path continues forward, together.
Performed by
Medea Ramnath-Christiansen, Maia Ramnath-Christiansen
Choreography, text and video by
Medea Ramnath-Christiansen, Maia Ramnath-Christiansen
Lighting Design by Michael-Zero Zumbrun
Photo credit:
@pcfwrk (main image), Andrew T. Foster (small images)
This production is funded in part by the DCLA and NYSCA.
This piece was created with the support of the Bindlestiff First of May grant, Dragon’s Egg Studio (Ledyard, CT) residencies, and the Circus Culture/Saltonstall Hupstate Residency (Ithaca, NY).
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.
