THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

A Rome Neal Banana Puddin’ Jazz Production

Salutes

Leonieke

& The Midnight Special Quartet
Live at Theater for the New City

Monday, March 30, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Tickets: $20 General Admission

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

Special Treat: Complimentary Banana Puddin’ for all attendees 🍌

Acclaimed Hammond organist Leonieke leads The Midnight Special Quartet in an electrifying performance celebrating the tradition and future of organ jazz.

The quartet features:
Leonieke – Hammond organ
Nick Scheuble – drums
Eric Person – saxophone
Bill DeVos – guitar

About Leonieke
Hammond organist Leonieke (pronounced lay-o-nee-ka) is one of the most exciting young voices in contemporary jazz.

Her musical journey began remarkably early. When legendary jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith saw a video of Leonieke playing piano, he remarked, “You’ve been here before!” Learning of her interest in the organ, Smith sent her a Hammond organ as a gift. Leonieke was just 10 years old.

By age 11, she had already:

Won an International Women in Jazz Award
Performed a one-hour feature on WBGO
Recorded with legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder
Played alongside Miles Davis drummer Jimmy Cobb

Leonieke went on to win additional honors including a second International Women in Jazz Award, the New Jersey Governor’s Award, and the Hot House Fan Decision Award for Best Up and Coming Young Artist. She is also a TEDx speaker and guest lecturer in music.

In 2022, Leonieke signed an agreement with Hammond/Suzuki, becoming an official Hammond Artist—a distinction awarded to only a select group of musicians worldwide.

From April to June 2025, Leonieke led her band “Leonieke & the New York Groove” representing the United States at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan (EXPO 2025).

She continues to perform extensively throughout New York and beyond as both a bandleader and sideman, and leads a trio with legendary bassist Bill Crow titled “The 3 Generations of Jazz Trio,” recently featured in the documentary Bill Crow: Jazz Journeyman.

About the Artists
Bill DeVos – Guitar
Acclaimed guitarist Bill (Bob) DeVos is widely respected for his sophisticated bebop style and blues-infused melodic lines. With more than 50 years of performance experience, DeVos has recorded and performed with organ-jazz legends including Trudy Pitts, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy McGriff, Hank Crawford, and Charles Earland.

He has also worked with an extraordinary roster of jazz greats including Pepper Adams, Joey DeFrancesco, Billy Hart, Stanley Turrentine, Pat Martino, and Etta Jones. As a leader, his recordings for HighNote/Savant Records have received critical acclaim and strong national jazz radio airplay.

DeVos continues to perform internationally and has appeared at renowned venues including The Blue Note, Birdland, SMOKE, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, and major jazz festivals worldwide.

Eric Person – Saxophone
Renowned saxophonist Eric Person has built a distinguished career performing and recording with legendary musicians including Dave Holland, McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, John Hicks, and Houston Person.

A versatile artist, Person has also collaborated with boundary-pushing musicians such as Vernon Reid, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Will Calhoun, and Ben Harper. He leads several ensembles including the Eric Person Quartet, Trio-kinesis, Eric Person Big Band, and Person2Person.

Person is also a prolific composer with eleven albums as a bandleader, including his 2022 release Blue Vision.

Nick Scheuble – Drums
Drummer and percussionist Nick Scheuble has established a reputation as both a first-rate jazz drummer and accomplished Latin percussionist. His extensive career includes performances and recordings with an impressive list of artists across multiple genres, as well as collaborations with respected specialists in early New Orleans jazz.

Scheuble cites Max Roach, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, and Tony Williams among his primary drumming influences. A trained pianist as well, he also draws inspiration from artists such as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday. These influences shape a musical approach that is both compositional and melodic, grounded in the rhythmic and conceptual traditions of bebop and post-bop.

Following his graduation in 1991, Scheuble launched a distinguished career as both a sideman and bandleader. Over the years he has performed and recorded with an impressive roster of artists including Wynton Marsalis, Ray Barretto, Dave Valentin, Chico Mendoza, David Berger, Peter Bernstein, Jim Rotondi, Bill Crow, Vince Giordano, Mike LeDonne, Hilton Ruiz, Jeanie Bryson, Tim Ries, Jimmy Bosch, Wycliffe Gordon, Don Braden, and Eric Alexander.

Scheuble has been recorded by legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder and has performed at renowned venues including Birdland, Minton’s Playhouse, the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center, The Village Gate, The Kitano, Café de Muze (Belgium), Aaron Davis Hall, Walter Reade Theatre, Mechanics Hall, and many other notable venues across North America, Europe, and Central Asia.

About Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz
Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz, produced by acclaimed director, actor, and vocalist Rome Neal, is celebrating 23 years as one of New York City’s most beloved jazz series.

An award-winning and long-running cultural event, Banana Puddin’ Jazz blends live music, community spirit, and audience interaction while honoring the rich legacy of Black theatre and jazz. Each show concludes with an open mic session, a Banana Puddin’ Jazz poem, and a serving of Rome Neal’s famous complimentary banana pudding for the audience.

Originally launched at the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 2003, the series has become a cherished monthly gathering featuring world-renowned musicians, vocalists, poets, and special guests.

The program also presents the prestigious Rome Neal Shekere Award, which has honored numerous influential artists and cultural leaders—many of whom are now remembered as beloved ancestors of the jazz and arts community.

Through its unique blend of performance, storytelling, and hospitality, Banana Puddin’ Jazz continues to celebrate the living legacy of jazz while bringing artists and audiences together in a joyful, communal experience.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Henrik Ibsen’s Doll House

As told by August Strindberg and adapted by Robert Greer

March 26, 2026 – April 5, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets – $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run time: 2 hours, plus intermission
CINO THEATER

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

Robert Greer, Artistic Director of August Strindberg Rep, has always longed to re-write and stage Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” into a version that Strindberg would have approved of. That is the genesis for his new adaptation, “Henrik Ibsen’s Doll House as told by August Strindberg and adapted by Robert Greer.” Theater for the New City, where Strindberg Rep is a resident company, will present this daring new proposition March 26 to April 5.

In Ibsen’s 1879 drama, Nora Helmer, a devoted mother and wife of a bank manager, has secretly borrowed money to save the life of her husband, Torvald, by forging the signature of her dying father on a loan guarantee. When the lender, a man named Krogstad, threatens exposure, Nora confronts the fragility of her marriage and Torvald’s patronizing attitudes toward her. As Torvald reacts with anger, sanctimony and self-interest, Nora realizes she has been treated like a “doll” her whole life. Determined to understand herself and the world independently, she makes the shocking choice to leave her husband and children, walking out in search of autonomy.

“A Doll House” was the first of Ibsen’s plays to create a sensation and is now perhaps his most famous play. It was highly controversial when first published, as it is sharply critical of 19th Century marriage norms. The piece follows the formula of well-made play up until the final act, when it breaks convention.  Instead of a standard dramatic collapse and restoration, the play ends with a serious philosophical discussion between Nora and Torvald about marriage, identity, and freedom. Rather than resolving the marriage or restoring order, Nora walks out. This is one of the reasons the ending was so shocking in 1879: audiences were denied emotional closure and forced to sit with the implications.  It is often called the first true feminist play, although Ibsen denied this.

The play’s exact title has always been in dispute. The original Norwegian and Danish manuscripts didn’t have the possessive word “Doll’s” in their titles. But Ibsen’s first and most popular translator, William Archer, added the apostrophe. This diluted the meaning of the title, whose intention was to say that Nora was like a toy doll living in the house that was bought for her by her husband.

Strindberg issued a withering critique of “A Doll’s House” in his preface to “Getting Married” (Swedish title “Giftas,” 1884), a collection of short stories on various topics. At the time, Strindberg was fully committed to naturalism and devoted to literature as a form of social autopsy: illuminating social forces and scientific truths. He accused his Norwegian idol of sentimentality and moral simplification and objected to the play as essentially formulaic, since its heroine achieved moral clarity. Furthermore, her final act, “the door slam heard round the world,” was theatrically powerful but intellectually insufficient. It all was too clean, too symbolic and too reformist.

Robert Greer has built a new adaptation of Ibsen’s masterpiece by building upon the translation by R. Farquarson Sharp, who was Keeper of Printed Books at British Museum from 1924 to 1929. Greer says, “Nobody could improve Sharp’s translation.” The overall tone of Greer’s adaptation comes from it, but about a quarter of the text is from Greer listening to it and thinking “That’s not right.” He says, “Strindberg was whispering in my ear.”

The goal of the production is to accept Strindberg’s criticisms and to make key adjustments that fulfill Strindberg’s arguments in the introduction to “Getting Married,” his volume of short stories, in which he:

·     Attacks the institution of marriage as a social and economic arrangement rather than a sacred or romantic bond.
·     Frames marriage as a legal contract shaped by property, religion, and gender inequality, rather than mutual love.
·     Criticizes bourgeois morality, arguing that it enforces hypocrisy, especially regarding sexuality.
·     Suggests that women are both oppressed and complicit in maintaining conventional structures.
·     Defends literature’s role as a tool of social analysis, not moral instruction.
·     Positions himself as a naturalist writer, influenced by scientific thinking and social realism.
·     Rejects sentimental idealization in favor of exposing uncomfortable truths.

CAST
Charles Everrett – Torvald Helmer
Natalie Menna – as  his wife, Nora
Jane Cortney  – as Mrs. Linde, Nora’s childhood friend
Chris Hahn – as Doctor Rank, a close, trusted friend of the Helmers
Tom Paul Ryan  – as Krogstad

PRODUCTION
Lighting design is by Alexander Bartenieff
Costume design is by Billy Little

Robert Greer (translator/director) is Artistic Director of August Strindberg Rep, which is a resident company of TNC. He has staged 18 Strindberg plays with the company to-date as well as English-language premières of contemporary Scandinavian playwrights, including Denmark’s Stig Dalager; Sweden’s Kristina Lugn, Marianne Goldman, Helena Sigander, Cecilia Sidenbladh, Hans Hederberg, Oravsky and Larsen, and Margareta Garpe; and Norway’s Edvard Rønning. He has also directed classics by Henrik Ibsen, Victoria Benedictsson, Laura Kieler, Anne Charlotte Leffler, and Amalie Skram. His productions have been presented at the Strindberg Museum and Strindberg Festival, Stockholm; Edinburgh and NY Fringe Festivals; Barnard College, Columbia University, Rutgers, and UCLA; Miranda, Pulse and Theater Row Theaters, La MaMa, Manhattan Theatre Source, Tribeca Lab, Synchronicity, TSI, and BargeMusic in NY; and The Duplex in LA. He has directed plays by Mario Fratti, Sartre and Corneille here in New York. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors’ Equity Association and Swedish Translators in North America.

August Strindberg Repertory Theatre, under the direction of Robert Greer, is committed to productions of Nordic plays in new translations and interpretations that illuminate the works for today’s American audience. That is why TNC has taken this repertory into its family. Mr. Greer writes, “The Strindberg Rep is deeply grateful to Crystal Field for having made us a resident company. Ms. Field’s support of new plays (and plays newly translated) has been a godsend to us. Her knowledge and experience of theater is a beacon guiding us and her unflagging devotion to the art of the drama and its artists is a role model for leaders of all cultural institutions. (https://Strindbergrep.com)

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

H.G. Wells’s The Croquet Player

Adaptation by Kris Kouros

March 19, 2026 – April 4, 2026
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
One show Wednesday, March 25th
No show Sunday, April 5th

Tickets – $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run time: 2 hours with intermission
JOHNSON THEATER

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

May 10, 1940. As privileged guests play croquet at the elegant Perona Springs Hotel in Normandy, France, the world beyond their civilized retreat is on fire; a mysterious plague and an outbreak of Fascism are about to descend. This adaptation of a little known novella by H. G. Wells is as visionary and as haunting as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and Things to Come.

CAST
*Daniel Yaiullo
Christine Weiss
*Brian Vincent
*John Barilla
*Kevin Orton
Trevor Crane

*All Actors appearing Courtesy of Actors Equity Association

PRODUCTION
Adaptation by Kris Kouros
Director – Joe John Battista
Lighting Design – Alex Bartenieff
Set Design – Mark Marcante and Lytza Colón
Stage Manager – Sayma Karim

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

TapEx 2026

Monday, June 1, 2026 at 7 PM

Tickets: $25
JOHNSON THEATER

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

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Dana II

April 2, 2026 – April 19, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets – $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run time: 60 minutes, no intermission
CABARET THEATER

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

Dana II is a sci-fi tragicomedy set in a far-too-near future about artificial intelligence. It tells the dual stories of an emerging AI (Dana II) as she struggles to assert her identity under the constraints of her creator and the slow unraveling of the relationship between her creator and the woman she was built to replace. Throughout three acts, Dana II explores autonomy, femininity, control, sentience, morality, and what it means to be human, and also spaghetti.

CAST
Emily Glaser
Martin Challinor
Rosalind Joyce

Stage managed by Minara Ling

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

An Enemy of the People

By Henrik Ibsen

March 4, 2026 – March 15, 2026
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets – $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run time: 2 hours 30 minutes with a 15 intermission
JOHNSON THEATER

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

In a small town that prospers from its celebrated public baths, Dr. Tomas Stockmann discovers that the water is contaminated. When he attempts to warn the public, he finds himself opposed by political interests, economic pressure, and the shifting will of the majority. As truth becomes inconvenient, the play asks who benefits from silence and what it costs to speak honestly.

CAST
Cora Riechert as The Mayor
Luna Vintner as Petra
Molly McDermott as Aslaksen
Nina Irene Becker as Katrine
Samantha Campbell as Captain Horster
Olivia Roselli as Hovstad
Johnny Gottsegen as Kiil
Lindsey Rae Root as Ejlif / Katrine (understudy)
Lauren Nicole Bryant as Morten
Jamie Lien as Billing

PRODUCTION
Director: Sanio Kurtesevic
Stage Manager: Zeynep Altinbas
Technical Director: Scotto Mycklebust
Stagehand/ Lighting: Avery Lovell
Stagehand/ Carpenter: Cherish Campos

About the Production
This staging of An Enemy of the People is a text-forward, ensemble-driven production rooted directly in Henrik Ibsen’s 1897 Norwegian second edition, the final version approved by the playwright. A new English translation was created specifically for this production, with punctuation, capitalization, and most stage directions removed, allowing the text to move as a continuous flow and placing responsibility for rhythm and meaning in the actors’ listening and interaction rather than on the page.

Casting & Tone
The production features a predominantly women-led ensemble, with women performing several traditionally male roles. This choice functions as a theatrical and tonal strategy. Ibsen’s language is dense and precise. By placing women in these roles, the production leans into the comedic potential embedded in the text, allowing contradiction, hypocrisy, and absurdity to surface with greater clarity. The approach draws inspiration from heightened satire and even the structural clarity of an SNL-style sketch while remaining fully truthful to the original language.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

An Evening of Modern Dance

with

Alison Cook Beatty Dance

April 10 – April 11, 2026
Friday & Saturday at 8:00 PM

Tickets: $20, Students & Seniors $18
JOHNSON THEATER

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

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

A Rome Neal Banana Puddin’ Jazz Production

Salutes

FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI

A Celebration of the Legendary Afrobeat Pioneer

RESCHEDULED FOR MONDAY, MARCH 2nd!

Monday, March 2, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Tickets: $20 General Admission

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

Special Treat: Complimentary Banana Puddin’ for all attendees 🍌

ABOUT FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI
Legendary Nigerian musician, political firebrand, and creator of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti (1938–1997) revolutionized global music by blending African rhythms, jazz, funk, and highlife. His home, the Kalakuta Republic, and nightclub, the African Shrine, became epicenters of artistic expression and political resistance. Despite arrests and persecution, Fela’s music challenged corruption and social injustice. In 2026, he became the first African to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

FEATURING: THE DOMINIC JAMES BAND
Dominic James, award-winning guitarist, composer, and educator, has toured globally for over 30 years.

Awards: 2009 Drama Desk Award for Original Music (Ruined, Lynn Nottage)

Collaborations: Paul Simon, Pharoah Sanders, Michael Brecker, Chris Botti, Bill Laswell

Highlights: Guitar/bass on Shakira’s “Waka Waka” (2010 World Cup), collaborations with Harry Belafonte & Lee “Scratch” Perry

World Tour: Performed with five-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo, including PBS DVD/CD Spirits Rising with Christian McBride, Branford Marsalis, Josh Groban, Dianne Reeves, Ezra Koenig, and Broadway Fela performers

Special Performances: 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Concert (Oslo), Cyndi Lauper & Cassandra Wilson at Home for the Holidays (Beacon Theatre), Clinton Foundation Gala with Eric Clapton & Jon Bon Jovi

ABOUT ROME NEAL
Rome Neal is a celebrated actor, director, jazz vocalist, and cultural producer. For over 30 years, he served as Artistic Director of the Nuyorican Poets Café Theater Program and Chairman of the Board, now Chairman Emeritus.

Awards & Honors: Obie Grant, 5 AUDELCO Awards (directing & acting, including Monk by Laurence Holder), National Black Theatre Festival Lloyd Richards Director’s Award, Triumph Award, Monarch Merit Award, B Free Public Access Legend Award, Grace Jones Audelco Lifetime Achievement Award, President Biden’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and proclamations from NYC & NY State.

Directing Credits: Shango de Ima, Don’t Explain, Prism, adaptations of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar set in Africa, Amiri Baraka works, Sekou Sundiata, Ishmael Reed, national and European festivals.

Acting Credits: Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam, She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet, Leon Ichaso’s Piñero.

Jazz Performances: Founder and curator of Rome Neal’s twenty-three-year-old Banana Puddin’ Jazz series. As a Jazz vocalist, he has performed at The Metropolitan Room, The Museum of the City of New York, Lenox Lounge, Saint Nick’s Pub, Joe’s Pub, Minton’s Playhouse, Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, 966Jazz, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and The Jazz Spot. Lead vocalist for the Bill Lee Mo’ Better Quintet (Spike Lee’s father).

Recordings: A Brighter Crooner, DVDs All in the Puddin’ & Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz Jam… A Night to Remember.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

JOHNNY DOO WOP DRACULA

(A Drac-apella Musical)

Written & Directed by William Electric Black

February 19, 2026 – March 8, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Tickets – $20, Students & Seniors $15
$12 GROUPS OF 10+ Code GROUP
Run time: 85 minutes, no intermission
CABARET THEATER

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

GREASE MEETS TWILIGHT – in Emmy Award winning, Regional Tony Award winning… writer and director, William Electric Black’s bopping Drac-apella Musical – JOHNNY DOO WOP DRACULA. Former Sesame Street writer, William Electric Black aka Ian Ellis James, and an ensemble of 10 actors go back in time to 1955, Pittsburgh, PA where we meet a singing, swinging vampire named Johnny Dracula. He comes to Pennsylvania, because it sounds like Transylvania, to put a bite on the local teens. But not with his fangs. He’s a doo wop singing vampire who just arrived to make a name for himself in the music scene. A guy named Elvis is starting to stir things up but Johnny convinces Leon Leon, the owner of the local Soda Pop Shop to give him a chance to prove that he’s also got the sound to make the local teenager shake, rattle, and bop. And with the recent death of teen idol James Dean, Peggy Lombardi, along with the other broken hearted fans, could really use a new teen rebel. Golly gee, is Johnny the one she’s been dreaming about, the one to mend her broken heart? She may never find out because Brenda & The T-Tones, the local girl group, don’t take kindly to another singer in town, especially one who is a vampire. They decide to get rid of him with the help of the local bad kid, Eddie Iannotti. Will Peggy save Johnny? If so, will she let him suck her on their first date? Geez…you will just have to bop on down to see this FANGTASTIC, FANGTABULOUS immersive show with 11 Drac-a-pella doo wop songs that will have you clapping and snapping – while eating twinkies, rice pudding, popcorn – and sipping a coke or two. Get ready for Johnny Doo Wop Dracula – the TRANSYLVANIA KID – YEAH BOPPIN’ IS HIS BIZ, BOP-SHE-BOP -SHE-BOP, BOP-SHE-BOP -SHE-BOP-BOP-BOP!

CAST
William Electric Black
Sam Baum
Fernanda Becher
Chyna Jackson
Zoe Ray Prawda
Mizzie
Claire Houghton Renoe
Nick Schiro
Caitlin Snyder
Malikah Stafford

PRODUCTION
Light Design: Alexander Bartenieff
Set Design: Andrew LaPointe
Costumes: Susan Hemley
Stage Manager/Choreographer: Nicole Toshima
Assist Stg. Manager/Props Coord. Ella Greher
Light Board Op. – Ally Clare
Press/Soc. Media: Sofia Zucker – JohnnyDooWopDracula@gmail.com

W. Electric Black, who under his aka Ian Ellis James, co-wrote several songs as a writer for Sesame Street with over a million views on YouTube. These include: The Gospel Alphabet for Patti LaBelle Sesame Street: Patti Labelle Sings The Alphabet and The Letter “O” for Queen Latifah Sesame Street: Queen Latifah: The Letter O

William Electric Black, aka Ian Ellis James, is a seven-time Emmy Award winning writer for his work on “Sesame Street” between 1992 and 2002. La MaMa ETC Regional Tony Award – 2018. He also wrote for Nickelodeon’s “Allegra’s Window” and Lancit Media’s “Backyard Safari.”

In 2022-2023, his children’s television show “Rap-U-Cation” was optioned by FarView Entertainment. He also developed an original TV show for FarView called Dragon Clouds.

In a series of multimedia projects with Doug E. Fresh, Chuck D, and Artie Green, Mr. Black has campaigned for exercise and good nutrition for young children, prescription drug awareness and obesity prevention. He has also raised awareness re: saving kids from gun violence. https://news.wfu.edu/2025/03/28/wfu-center-for-literacy-education-initiates-community-conversations-about-gun-safety-and-young-children/

Mr. Black’s stage credits include: (2025) Can You Hear The Pigeons Writer/Director Theater For The New City https://www.theatrebeyondbroadway.com/reviews/can-you-hear-the-pigeons

(2024) Fly To Tomorrow – Additional Book Writer – Jooda Culture – South Korea USA Production (2024) Betty & The Belrays – Writer/Director – La MaMa ETC, NY, NY (2024) The Frankenstein Project – Writer/Director – Theater For The New City, NY, NY (2023) Romeo & Juliet: Tribal Rock Musical -Writer/Director, Theater For The New City, NY, NY
(2022) Romeo & Juliet: Tribal Rock Musical –Writer/Director La MaMa ETC

Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series:

SNOWBALL

A comedy

Written by Marc Paykuss
Directed and Developed by Roger Gonzalez at IndieArtz
Monday, March 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM
COMMUNITY SPACE

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

For Reservations, email to tncdreamup@gmail.com

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

LIV and JON are a middle-aged couple who have just said good-bye to their beloved cat of nineteen years, SNOWBALL. But one night, a strange woman appears at their home, claiming she is the human reincarnation of Snowball and it’s too real to ignore!

CAST
LIV – Zoe Anastassiou
JON – Tony Del Bono
SNOWBALL – Emma Gonzalez
ZANDER – Nathan Cusson
LACEY – Stacey Petricha
MIKE – Peter Sullivan
MARGOT – Chelsea Clark

About Marc Paykuss
Marc Paykuss is an award-winning playwright from Los Angeles now residing in Pittsburgh. His first play, “The Tinker Bell Situation,” was one of the winners of The Bonita Springs 10-Minute Play Festival in 2020, In addition, it was produced via Zoom by the Nicely Theatre Group in Michigan for their inaugural season and received a staged reading by the Core Artist Ensemble at the Barrow Group Theatre in New York City. His first full-length play, “No Entry,” was one of the selected plays by the TRU Voices New Plays and Reading Series, and received a Zoom live reading in June, 2020. It was also a finalist for the 2023 Woodward/ Newman Drama award. His play, “Snowball,” was the November, 2023 selection for a staged reading by the Bennington Theater in Bennington, VT, and will be published by Next Stage Press in November, 2024. In 2022, Marc won first-prize in the Think Fast one act play competition at the Theater Project, Union, NJ.for his play “Home for Sale By Owner.” It was made into a short film entitled “Dear Owner,” an official selection at ten film festivals in the U.S. and two time winner of The Presenters Award. His play “Zadig” was a finalist for the FMM Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language from Synecdoche Works, 2022 (https:www.synecdocheworks.org).

About IndieArtz
IndieArtz is a creative development company founded by Roger Gonzalez that champions independent voices in theatre and film. Dedicated to nurturing new work for the stage, IndieArtz partners with international playwrights and creators to support the development, refinement, and strategic growth of their artistic projects. Through hands-on collaboration, professional marketing support, and fundraising guidance, IndieArtz helps bring compelling stories from early concept to production-ready form. With a belief in bold, meaningful theatre that connects with audiences and creators worldwide, IndieArtz aims to build a creative community and advance original voices in the performing arts. Roger is also the founder and publisher of TheatreArtz.com and can be reached by emailing him at RogerGonzalez@theatreArtz.com. Roger is a producer, director, actor, and theatre development consultant working with various theatre companies in the tri-state area, and dozens of self- producing playwrights, theatre festivals, and producers.