Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series:

Never Let You Go

Written by Lisa del Rosso
Directed by Colleen Rebecca Britt

Monday, April 15, 2024 at 7:00 PM

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)

Martha Hodges is suffering an unimaginable loss. Confronting grief, guilt and the condemnation of those around her; her private turmoil becomes very public when captious, carping social commentary takes on a life of its own. With a tenuous grip on her identity and pilloried from all sides, Martha goes from tragic survivor to societal pariah. How can she find something to live for with such a great burden?

Never Let You Go takes you on Martha’s journey through the black thicket of loss – a journey, for better or worse that we all share, a journey that binds us.

CAST
Chief Leary: JT Waite
Patrick: Brandon Miller
Luis: Sean Church-Gonzalez
Martha Hodges: Cate Damon
Bradley Hodges: Neil Bradly
Nick Mercurio: Peter Evangelista
Maryann- Monica Wyche
Holly – Laura King Otazo
Susan – Elena Sartor
Dr. Gold- Sarah Bierstock

Lisa del Rosso (Playwright) originally trained as a classical singer and completed a post-graduate program at LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), living and performing in London before moving to New York City. Her plays, Clare’s Room and Samaritan, have been performed Off-Broadway and had public readings, while St. John, her third play, was a semi-finalist for the 2011 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Etched Onyx Magazine, The Night Heron Barks, Ran Off With the Star Bassoon, Barking Sycamores Neurodivergent Literature, The Chillfiltr Review, Sowing Creek Press, The Literary Traveler, Serving House Journal, VietnamWarPoetry, Young Minds Magazine (London/UK), Time Out New York, The Huffington Post, The Neue Rundschau (Germany), Jetlag Café (Germany), and One Magazine (London/UK). Her first book, Confessions of an Accidental Professor, was published in 2018, prompting an invitation by Brian Lehrer to be interviewed on his WNYC radio program. Her second essays-in-memoir, You Are All a Part of Me, was published in early 2021. The following year, she recorded the accompanying audio for You Are All a Part of Me, now available on Audible. In 2022, her essay “By Choice” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is the recipient of a 2018 NYU (New York University) College of Arts & Sciences Teaching Award, where she currently teaches writing. In 2019, she was awarded a New York Writers Workshop scholarship to Sardinia.

COLLEEN REBECCA BRITT (Director) is a New York based freelance director, actor and teaching artist. Recent directing credits include Legally Blonde JR., a pilot production with the creators of Legally Blonde the Musical for Music Theatre International. Other directing credits include: The Gin Game (Theatre Three) Showing by Gabriel Sinclair (The Setauket Neighborhood House), Clue (Theater at St. Jean), The Resolute (Wyoming Theater Festival), Svetlyachki (New York Fringe) and Clare’s Room, Actors Playhouse , for Waving Not Drowning Productions. She is the resident director for Hidden Well Theatre. Colleen is thrilled to be working with playwright Lisa del Rosso again. MFA – Directing, Actors Studio Drama School. Associate member, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

 

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

TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series:

The Coming Storm

The legacy of anti-Semitism endures

Written and Directed by Stephan Morrow

Monday, April 8, 2024 at 7:00 PM

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)

The Coming Storm the legacy of anti-Semitism endures – a nightmarish fable about the rise of the Nazis starting in 1933 when a non-Aryan professor is evicted from his University and attacked by University students who were young Nazis. His student Anton Einsbruck (based on Werner Heisenberg) – the youngest Nobel Prize winner ever awarded the prize is torn between loathing Hitler but nevertheless feeling a loyalty to his country – starts developing a nuclear fission program in competition with the Oppenheimer people. (the Germans were two years ahead of the U.S. program when Los Alamos was first started). After being interrogated by the Gestapo for a year Einsbruck’s mother uses her friendship with Himmler’s wife to have her son accepted as a loyal German despite his refusal to join the party and Einsbruch is allowed to continue his work on nuclear fission. Because he is in love with a non-Aryan young woman who flees to a desolate area on a farm he is vulnerable to Nazi harassment constantly and when there is an accident destroying his reactor the program dwindles until the end of the war when he is captured by the Americans who enlist him to work with them against the rising threat of the Soviets at the start of the Cold War.

CAST
Dan Simon
Corrine Chateau*
Bryan Hickey*
Liam McGowan
George Lugo
Joe Marshall
Christina Toth*
Emilie Bienne
Stephen Anthony
Giorgio Varipapa
Alan Ceppos

*Actors Studio Members

BIO
Stephan Morrow is a proud veteran of the Off Off Bway and independent film arena where he finds the work most intriguing. He has been very busy over the last dozen years at Theater for the New City and the post pandemic period has been a full one for him: He has just finished writing directing and acting in ‘Darkness After Night: Ukraine about the terrible invasion of Ukraine which won ‘Best Original Screenplay (adapted from another medium) in The Marina Del Rey Film Festival. Just months before that he dramaturged, directed and acted the lead in Richard Bruce’s play ‘Sometime Child’ about a lawyer who is mugged and who turns the life of the two at risk youths away from a life of crime – in fact they end up becoming attorneys themselves (based on a true story). Ken Kelsch (DP for many Abel Ferrara films: Bad Lt w/ Harvey Keitel, The Addiction, Kings of NY et al filmed the stage production of ‘Sometime Child).It was doubly honored to win awards in the News Fest/ True Stories Film Fest: ‘Overall Winner- True Story Narratives’ and ‘Best Directing of Young People in a Feature Film. As Artistic Director and founder of The Great American Play Series he has had the pleasure of resurrecting neglected American classics in ‘performances on book’ such as ‘After the Fall’ by Arthur Miller with Rebecca De Mornay (Maggie) and Mark Rydell (Quentin), Barry Primus, Lyle Kessler, Stefan Gierasch and Sally Kirkland, ‘The Price’ by Arthur Miller with Barry Primus, Lyle Kessler, Paul Mazursky and Judith Light. And most notably, he has had the honor of being personally backed by Arthur Miller for his work on ‘Incident at Vichy’ – a four year mission to get it to a major venue. He staged four ‘performances on book’ with casts that included F. Murray Abraham, Richard Dreyfuss, Austin Pendleton, David Margulies, Fritz Weaver, Peter Weller and Fisher Stevens among others. At The Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92St Y he presented his own adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ phantasmagoric epic ‘Camino Real – Ten Blocks Plus One’, with Betsy Von Furstenburg and Larry Block. Also at Makor he had the pleasure of presenting Genet’s ‘The Balcony’ with Angelica Torn, Larry Block and Larry Pine, setting the play in a country similar to the U.S. His most recent presentation with the serie was a staged reading of Tony Kushner’s remarkable first play ‘A Bright Room Called Day’ with Angelica Torn, legendary Judith Malina (founder of The Living Theater), Joan Macintosh, Henry Stram, Larry Block et al. Stephan was mentored by Elia Kazan into the Playwright Directing Unit of The Actor’s Studio and has been a long time member of The PD Unit of the Actor’s Studio East and West and in 2018 was honored to begin being a frequent guest moderator. Education : Stuyvesant H.S. Manhattan – General Excellence Award. Latin Award. University at Buffalo – B.A. English. Magna Cum Laude. NYU – Film Program

 

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

In Crocodile’s Lair

May 2 – 19, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $18 General, $15 Students and Seniors
Run Time: 90 minutes, no intermission
CINO THEATER

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

Human enterprise threatens natural order in this dark comedy written and directed by JC Augustin.

Gramps, an ancient crocodile, rules New York City from his palatial den in abandoned aqueduct tunnels beneath Manhattan. He targets world-famous rapper and business mogul 50 Cent, whose new health drink promises to alter mankind with a genetic boost. In his quest to maintain natural order, Gramps encounters NYC rat revolutionaries, a singing skunk, and reunites with an urban coyote who is clinging to the last vestiges of his wildness. Gramps relentlessly maintains his rule. To what lengths will mankind go to lose its fear, and become primal?

Tortas Y Tacones returns to Theater for the New City with this wild comedy with a cyber-genetic twist. In Crocodile’s Lair follows Augustin’s mind-bending comedy, Whiskey River, which was named Best Play at Frenzy Theater Festival in 2022. Cast members of Whiskey River, T. Scott Lilly and Jay W. Walker (Best Actor, Frenzy Festival 2022) return in wildly different roles. They are joined by Jose Ruiz, Zoë Gray, Alec Pacheco and Cal Behr in this high-stakes comedy about survival.

CAST
T. Scott Lilly – Gramps
Jay W. Walker – Coyote
Zoë Gray – Rat
Jose Ruiz – Skunk
Alec Pacheco – Crispy
Cal Behr – Boy

PRODUCTION TEAM
Assistant Director – KM Jones
Stage Manager – Matthew Seepersad
Costume Design – Clara Chon
Set Design – Jason Sturm
Sound Design and Projections – Brian Park
Lighting Design – Alexander Bartenieff
Fight Choreography – Dante Jayce
Dramaturgy – Charlotte Hoogenboom

 

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: 90 minutes, no intermission
JOHNSON THEATER

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

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

TapEx 2024

Monday, June 3, 2024, at 7:00 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY

Tickets: $25
Run Time: 2 hours
CINO THEATER

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)

“TapEx 24” is all the way live again as we present our 2024 Honorees and cutting edge performances. “TapEx 24″, a production which features today’s great tap dancers and their choreography / improvography, and honors those who have contributed to the life, history, preservation and expansion of Tap Dance and the Jazz Arts.
Mickey Davidson will present her piece “Cobi’s Suite” dedicated to Cobi Narita and jazz pianist Frank Owens.
Gene Medler has taught renowned tap dancer and MacArthur Genius Award recipient Michelle Dorrance among other top tap dancers, including Adriana Ogle and others who will perform at this years show.

2024 HONOREES
Mickey Davidson – Jazz Dancer and Choreographer
Gene Medler – Renowned tap teacher, founder and artistic director of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble

Tap dancers:
Adriana Ogle & Toru Sakuragi

Jazz dancers:
Mickey D. and Friends

Other performers TBD

Hosts:
Laraine Goodman & Hank Smith

Producers:
New York Committe to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day & Flo-Bert
Ltd: Laraine Goodman, Chair

Committee Members:
Hank Smith
Barbara Shenton
Megan Haungs
Michael “Toes“ Tiranoff
Helene Berson

Special thanks: Jackie Heyward

 

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

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.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Barbra Herr

Starring in

TRANSMISSION

April 4 – 21, 2024
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets: $18, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 1 hour
CABARET THEATER

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)

From a little bullied Boricua boy in the Bronx to blonde bombshell drag queen to transgendered actor to outspoken trans activist: Barbra Herr has lived a whole lot of life. But even after all those experiences, she’s still a late bloomer. After 30 plus long years of gender transition — the NYC nightlife legend is ready to be complete.
Follow Barbra on her sometimes painful, often funny — but always honest — journey to sexual awakening and gender confirmation in this compelling one-woman show directed by Helen Hayes Award Nominee Luis Caballero at Theater For The New City
April 4th -21st

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

ROME NEAL BANANA PUDDIN’ JAZZ

LADY …. JAZZY THESPIANS

Monday, March 25, 2024 at 7 PM – 10 PM
Tickets: $18 General Admission
COMMUNITY SPACE

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)

Celebrating Women History Month

Featuring vocalists:
Ria Alexander
Daralyn Jay
Lady Leah
Allison Semmes
Tracey Titus

Musicians:
Melissa Slocum (b)
Wen- Teng Wu (ds)

with complementary banana puddin’ for ALL
And Open Mic / Jam Session
The evening includes actresses who love and sing Jazz music:
Ria Alexander, an AUDELCO award winning actress recently seen giving a sterling performance as lead actress in TNC’s LEAVES by Victor Vauban Junior.

Leah Finnie (aka Lady Leah) who was nominated for a Featured Actress AUDELCO Award in NEC’s production of Charles White’s UNTITLED. She can be seen in National TV & Radio advertisements for Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Colonial Penn Life Insurance, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoWellcome, Nestle’, AT&T, and many more.
Leah’s professional singing career also began in New York City, performing at the Red Rooster, Lenox Lounge, Sugar Bar, The Metropolitan Room, and the Apollo. She’s always been inspired by Billie Holiday, Nancy Wilson, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles; some of her mother’s favorites. Her sultry voice and demeanor have captured audiences everywhere.
Daralyn Jay is vocalist that truly defies categorization—as capable of scatting her way through a swing chorus as tossing a soulful riff. She interprets standards as well as Latin, R&B and pop tunes, incorporating rarely performed verses and using French, Portuguese and Spanish lyrics to tell the story.
Daralyn has appeared on the stages of top New York venues, including The Kitano, Minton’s, Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club, Smoke and Ginny’s. She has also performed as a guest artist in such international locales as France, Italy, Turkey, China, Cuba and Israel.
An accomplished actress, Daralyn has numerous theater, film, television, commercial and voiceover credits, including TV series “Law & Order” and “Blue Bloods.”
Allison Semmes who appeared on Broadway as Diana Ross in Motown the Musical, and The Book of Mormon (2011)…. On February 4, 2024 Allison completed a run on Broadway as Josephine Baker in the musical Harmony with music by Barry Manilow.

Sponsors:
Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, Woodie King Jr.,
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Carl Clay, Hollis King,
John D. Smith, Askia Davis Jr., Toni Petersen,
Steve Cromity, Barbara Muhammad, Larry Cherry
Perri Gaffney, Sheryl Renee Productions

 

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.

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.