THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

The Great American Play Series in

The Story of Sal B. and Barbranne: A Mob Fantasia (Cyrano Redux)

December 18 2025 – January 4, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
No shows Dec 24 and 25, Dec 31 and Jan 1. (ten performances)

Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 100 minutes
CINO THEATER

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

The play, which was workshopped in TNC’s Dream Up Festival this summer, re-imagines “Cyrano de Bergerac” as a high-stakes mob story.

The play imagines a time 100 years in the future, after World War III, when organized crime has merged with the military and struggles with Eastern enemies over Middle East oil. With mob intrigue, romance, and absurdist action, Edmond Rostand’s classic story of eloquence, unspoken love, and heroism is transformed into a chaotic, modern, and often surreal fantasia, preserving the essence of Cyrano’s wit, heart, and valor.

We meet Sal B., a resourceful mob consigliere and horribly scarred veteran of Special Forces. He must orchestrate the heroic deeds of the impulsive and narcissistic Paul Jr., whose attempts at romance and military glory repeatedly put him–and those around him–at risk. Jr. courts a brave, irresistible, kidnapped journalist named Barbranne (also known as “B”) with poetic, often ridiculous, declarations of love while Sal, unseen, guides him. Tasked with protecting the journalist, Sal faces jihadists, international intrigue, and his own messianic impulses, all while orchestrating moments of poetry and unlikely love.

The play gives us romance, mob drama, geopolitical farce, and heroic action in a tone alternating between absurdist comedy, melodrama, and poetic reflection. At its core, it is a meditation on love, loyalty, and human folly, re-conceiving Cyrano’s themes in a modern, chaotic, morally ambiguous world.

Playwright Stephan Morrow has used the setting of Ukraine and comparable themes of peace and tyranny in a selection of prior plays. “The Assassination of J. Kaisar and the Rise of Augustus” (TNC, 2019) re-told Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” in a dystopian U.S. future. “Darkness After Night (Ukraine)” (TNC, 2022) and “The Sixth Column” (Unproduced, 2025) dealt with the conflicts of Russia and Ukraine. “The Coming Storm: the legacy of Anti-Semitism endures” (TNC Dreamup Festival, 2024) demonstrated how Germany’s tyrannical government actually inhibited its own scientists in the race to master nuclear fission.

Morrow writes, “I hope the play will resonate with the tragic war situation ongoing in Ukraine, and I hope that its doppelgangers of John Gotti and Paul Castellano showing up in its future world will make it relatable to today.” On the play’s love themes, he adds, “Personally, I’m intrigued by unrequited love, having gone through that trauma myself.”

CAST
Robert Aloi
Matthew Cade
Tsahai Gilchrist
George Lugo
Joe Marshall
Mark Evan Melendez
Napaht Na Nongkhai
Donata O’Neill
Aidan Peluso
Roy Rohrsetzer
Vaibhav Taparia

PRODUCTION
Lighting Design – Elijah Smith

Morrow has directed seven plays by Mario Fratti at Theater for the New City. His other TNC directing credits include all of his own plays written since 2019 plus “Recovery” by Anne Lucas, “Dogmouth” by John Steppling and “My Wife in a Chador” by Claudio Angelini. He is also an active member and frequent moderator of The Playwright Directing Unit of the Actors Studio. (He was mentored for that unit by Elia Kazan.) Morrow is founding Artistic Director of The Great American Play Series, which stages neglected American classics in “performances on book.” He is also a prolific actor in theater and film and a director of indie films. His cinematic adaptations of his political plays have been reaping numerous awards at festivals. (See: https://stephanmorrow1.tripod.com/stephanmorrowdirector/)

The Great American Play Series was founded by Stephan Morrow to present special event performances of classic American plays to the theater going public in Los Angeles and New York.

Mr. Morrow writes, “Crystal Field is a NYC gem and I am so lucky to have found a home at TNC. She is dedicated to giving artists free reign to pursue their artistic vision. In this age of institutional theaters dominating the Off Off Broadway arena with their deep pockets and huge amounts of funding, TNC is a gold mine of opportunity for independent theater artists and the only theater where you can go in, pitch an idea and get it up without waiting years to get into the pipeline. God bless Crystal.”

Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series:

Yesterday’s Bread

Monday, December 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM

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

Set in Newark, New Jersey in the 1980s, Yesterday’s Bread centers on Lina, a neighborhood matriarch and baker whose secret life and turn-of-the-century house become the target of a sinister local force. Lina, her live-in nephew, and those who crash into her daily routine, are swept up in a ridiculous and lethal plan to protect her home, family and the community who rely on her. This sharp, human comedy explores the secrets, regrets, and loyalties that bind us.

CAST (in order of appearance)
Lina – Mary Testa
Milly – Annie Golden
Val – Alec Ludacka
Brook – Cara Rose DiPietro
Rain – Stephanie Gibson
Gora – Joshua Davis
Bocce – Joe Barbara

RUSS PASTENA (writer) is a lifelong writer and communication expert who leveraged his degrees in Communication and Theatre to navigate a decades-long career in sales, viewing the corporate world as an elaborate form of performance art. Having honed his writing skills for business – skills he taught at the university level – he has now fully transitioned from corporate life to focus on his own creative writing. Russ lives in New Jersey with his family, listening carefully to the voices around him – voices of the overlooked, the underestimated, the wonderfully human. He writes to give shape to their stories. For Russ, the line between life and art is just a well-placed script cue.

DANNY SALLES (director) is writer/director/producer for television and theater. He directed the holiday movie, The Christmas Thief for ION TV and for 4 seasons of the ABC comedy The Middle. He is also a veteran showrunner and director on comedic TV reality series: Joan Rivers’ “Joan and Melissa (WeTV), Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (Bravo, Emmy nomination) Todrick (MTV), and The Joe Schmo Show. For the stage, Danny co-wrote book and lyrics, and served as Associate Director for the critically-acclaimed comedy Vape! The Grease Parody now running Off-Broadway at Theater 555. Last year, he directed the musical The Perfect Game at Theatre Row and he wrote book and lyrics and directed the musical comedy satire The First Annual Trump Family Special in LA and Off-Broadway starring Gina Gershon.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

CZECHOSLOVAK-AMERICAN MARIONETTE THEATRE

in

“A CHRISTMAS CAROL, OY! HANUKKAH, MERRY KWANZAA, HAPPY RAMADAN”

December 26, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Additional show matinee Saturday, January 3rd at 3:00 PM

Tickets $20, Students, Seniors, Children $15
Run Time: 75 minutes
COMMUNITY SPACE

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

Adapted, directed, reinvented and performed by Vít Hořejš
Set and Costumes by Michelle Beshaw
The Singers: Katarina Vizina, Valois Mickens

For the delight of audiences aged 5 to 105, this toy-puppet theater extravaganza is a new take on Charles Dickens’ classic with Old World accents and New World inclusiveness. Into the familiar story are woven a surprising and delightful blend of English, Jewish, African, American and Czech winter rituals, customs and holiday songs, all performed by over three dozen marionettes ranging in size from four to twenty-four inches as well as found objects and toys.

Vít Hořejš operates the whole cast of puppets, backed up by a live chorus: Czech, English, Hebrew, Slovak, Spanish & Swahili songs are performed by an “a capella monumentale” choir of Valois Mickens (West African/Celtic/Native American origin) and Katarina Vizina (a transplant from Slovakia).

The scenic design uses elements of a made-in-Prague 1920’s toy marionette theater donated recently by Madeleine Albright and a smaller set that Vit Horejs and his mother played with in their respective childhood years.
The production made its live TNC debut in 2019. In 2021 when theaters were closed due to the pandemic, it was offered as a virtual fantasy tour. Now playing again for live audiences, the show will be updated to contemporary sensibilities and restaged for this new TNC production.

“[a] delightful holiday hodgepodge that still hews closely to Dickens’s tale and also has contemporary humor.” –Laurel Graeber, New York Times
“exactly what an audience would want from a holiday show. It tells a familiar tale with an added twist, it reminds us about the spirit of the season, and it puts a smile on the face of even the scroogiest of spectators. –Kelly Aliano, New York Theatre Wire
“a refreshing theatrical oasis in the holiday desert of over-ripe TV films, large Broadway musicals and the Radio City Christmas Show” — Joel Benjamin, TheaterScene.com

Supported by GOH Productions. Made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support: Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Materials for the Arts, Czech Center NY, and private donors.

Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series:

Cardanos Formula

Monday, November 24, 2025 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

Cardano’s Formula is a historical drama about Gerolamo Cardano, a brilliant 16th-century mathematician forced to confront the accusation that he stole the solution to the cubic equation. As he reflects on his breakthroughs, troubled marriage, and tumultuous rivalry with the renowned engineer Niccolò Tartaglia, a deeper obsession emerges: Cardano’s quest for immortality—and its tragic cost. Cardano’s Formula explores genius, ambition, and the price of legacy.

BIOS
Alexander Uglov was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia. Before discovering his passion for theatre, he worked as an engineer. His plays — One-Way Ticket, The London Triangle, and The Interview — have been staged in various cities across Russia and in Riga, Latvia. His plays have won multiple playwriting competitions. The London Triangle has been performed in Germany and Switzerland and, as of today, remains in the repertoire of theatres in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. In 1991, he moved with his family to the United States and now lives in New Jersey.

Roger Gonzalez is an actor, producer, director, and founder of TheatreArtz.com, a theatre development company. He recently portrayed President Teddy Roosevelt in a new play directed by longtime friend Joe Battista and written by Vadim Astrakhan right here at Theater For The New City. His other past credits include Honeymoon in Vegas, 9 to 5 The Musical, Anna in the Tropics, and Of Mice and Men. Learn more about Roger at RogerGonzalez@theatreartz.com

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

ALWAYS YOUNG The Musical

January 15 2026 – February 1, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM

Sunday January 25 performance is CANCELLED due to incoming weather.

Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 2 hours, 15 minute intermission
COMMUNITY SPACE

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

Always Young is a heartwarming, magical reflection on school days in the eighties. Discover the possible stories behind the characters we all remember from school. An insightful and thought provoking look at how our childhood experiences and parenting influenced who we are today.
A show for adults about our collective memories. A nostalgic yet disconcerting reality check, that uses music, and tall tales to deliver powerful messages.
Our unreliable Narrator takes you on a journey through his past and introduces us to many different characters in a British school somewhere. These individuals, often seen as misfits, outcasts or troubled youths explore their own self-discoveries, reflections, passions, ambitions, and nightmares as they try to conform to society or just fit in at school.
20 Original musical numbers with lyrics by Mark Tunstall and musical score by Lulu Chen and various artists, accentuate the stories with genre bending sounds and styles that traverse musical history. Honky-Tonk Piano meets Contemporary Rock Anthem Stylings, Hip Hop, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Bitter-Sweet Ballads and Toe Tapping Feelgood Broadway and Vaudevillian style numbers.
Always Young explores many themes at large today, not just childhood insecurities. The show explores acceptance and inclusivity of LGBTQ, the development of individuality verses forced conformity, crime, neglect, abuse, mental health, bullying and unrecognized neurodiversity in its many guises.

CAST
Haywire – Mark Tunstall
Little Short Sally – Eleanna Fin
Celia Bott – Marion Avila
Quiet Thomas – Max Hunkler
Tiffany Olsen – Lexi Rosenblum
Moel Rothwell – Zach Liddick
Hairy Harry – Braderick Morrison
Greasy Gary – Mark Edelstein
Johnny – James Freeman
Joe Smiley – Tony Azzaro
No-Name Jones – Lily Aman

PRODUCTION
All information including the content warnings are on our website, www.alwaysyoungthemusical.com
The website is our programme as a QR code on a school Hall Pass handed out on arrival.

Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series:

A Part of the Noise

Based on the Life and Times of Franz Kline

Monday, November 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM

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

The year is 1959, and Franz’ art dealer, Sidney Janis, refuses to include his new color abstractions in an upcoming one-man show. Franz wants to include two new ones and Sidney threatens that if he does, this will be his last show at his gallery.
Later, at the Cedar Tavern, Franz’ interview with young art critic Artie Mendelbaum starts a roller coaster ride of stories, surprises, and a cavalcade of emotions ranging from grief to laughter.
The show at Sidney’s gallery presents a twist involving his biggest collector, a couple of disguises, and Sidney.

CAST
Franz Kline: Daniel Yaiullo
Sidney Janis: Jack Kerouac, Ben Shaw
Dr. Marsh: Peter Welch
John the Bartender: David Dobbs: John Barilla
Artie Mendelbaum: Alex Elmaleh
Jerry: Dr. Fenneman, Jackson Pollock
David Amram: Peter Welch
Willem de Kooning: Prologue
Robert Motherwell: Alex Elmaleh
Joan Mitchell and Elizabeth: Zoe Anastassiou
Grace Hartigan and Annie: Alexandra Laliberte

BIO
Carl Kline has been a farmhand, a factory worker, a soil conservationist, an actor, a teacher, and a writer who received a BS in Agronomy from Delaware Valley College, worked for the USDA Soil Conservation Service, and received an MFA in Theatre from Michigan State University. While living in Los Angeles in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, he started writing poetry because he thought that he had something to say.
Since then, acting and writing have been like two slow horses limping neck and neck, pulling his many jobs and his imagination along with them. Writing won. To date, writing has spawned a cookbook, The Cookbook for Actors and Other Survivors, a book of fiction, Blue Collar Kids, a book of poems, On My Sleeve, and his play, A Part of the Noise.

Theater for the New City

Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Staged Reading:

BIKE SHOP the musical

Monday, November 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

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

This is an Equity reading
https://bikeshopmusical.com/

The Musical chronicles three generations of an immigrant family. The main character, Bobby, while working, suffers a life changing trauma after the tragic death of a young girl. The show begins 20 years late when an old love interest shows up. She works alongside her Vietnam vet father, and her uncle, along with her Aunt,The show explores the human tragedy of longing for redemption and absolution only to find the forgiveness we’re all seeking is our own.

CAST
*Elizabeth Barkan – (Bobby, Book/Lyrics/Music)
*DAVID EDWARDS – (Jack)
*JOE SYMON – (Bernie)
Judy Gray – (Jane)
*Andrew Zachary Cohen – (Frank)

* Actors appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

A Rome Neal Banana Puddin’ Jazz Production

OMAR EDWARDS & THE NEW YORK JAZZ GYPSIES

Monday, November 24, 2025 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

“Where the Tap Dancer Leads the Band”

New York, NY — Prepare to be transported through a powerful pool of sound as virtuoso rhythm tap-dancer Omar Edwards and The New York Jazz Gypsies take audiences on a vibrant journey from Jazz to Funk—and beyond.

The driving percussion of Edwards’s tap shoes, combined with the rich instrumentation of horns, congas, drums, keyboards, and bass, creates a one-of-a-kind experience where the cadence and rhythm of his feet—not his voice—lead the way.

“In my work, I use the tap-dance vocabulary to speak the language of music to the audience,” says Edwards. “My feet sing, dance, and recite poetry. I call my dance Afro-feet—honoring the spirit of the ancestors.”

ABOUT OMAR EDWARDS
An internationally acclaimed dancer, Omar Edwards’s “foot music” has taken him to more than 20 countries and countless stages across the globe. His credits include:

• Broadway’s “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk”
• The national touring company of “Black and Blue”
• A seven-year run as The Sandman on NBC’s Showtime at the Apollo
• Performances at the Hollywood Bowl with Alicia Keys and a Command Performance at the White House alongside Savion Glover
• Featured artist at the 2021 Soul Train Music Awards, where he reprised his role as The Sandman
• Recent appearances at the Harlem Cultural Festival and the Inaugural John Coltrane Festival in Harlem, NYC

Edwards continues to push boundaries where music and movement meet, bridging the power of rhythm, spirit, and storytelling through tap.

LISTEN & LEARN MORE
🎧 Latest Album: All Unique – Where the Tap Dancer Leads the Band
Available now: https://omaredwards.hearnow.com

📖 Featured in: Tap Dance America: A Short History by Constance Valis Hill (Library of Congress)
https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-about.html

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

Beauty Bites

a new play with music Written and Directed by Terry Lee King

December 18 2025 – January 4, 2026
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
No shows on: Thursday, December 25, 2025, and Thursday, January 1, 2026

LAST SHOW on Sunday, January 4, the showtime will start at 3:00 PM

Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
CABARET THEATER

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

In this musical fantasy extravaganza, conceived and created by Terry Lee King (featuring the soundtrack of our lives), there is a popular quiet area where many neighborhood residents park their vehicles at the cul-de-sac. Some to have a quick snack, many to make out or even to star gaze at night. All of a sudden, there has been some strange goings-on. Neighborhood people are disappearing from this certain location, and no one knows why.

Performed by the Award-Winning Theater Group “Jewel’s Earthbound Angels”.

PRODUCTION
Written and Directed by Terry Lee King
Assistant Director – Mathew Seepersad
Stage Manager – Lola Lukas
Production Assistant – Maria Lucena

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

BREAD + PUPPET

Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution in Progress Circus and The Christmas Story

December 3 – 14, 2025
Tickets $20, Students, Seniors, Children $15
Run Time: Both shows are about 1 hour
JOHNSON THEATER

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

Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution in Progress Circus

Wednesday, December 3 @ 8pm
Thursday, December 4 @ 8pm
Friday, December 5 @ 8pm
Saturday, December 6 @ 3pm
Saturday, December 6 @ 8pm
Sunday, December 7 @ 3pm

Ladles and Jellyspoons! The one and only Bread & Puppet Circus is back with Anti-Empire Art that acknowledges our beloved Mother Dirt, who makes us and unmakes us, and who presents urgently needed domestic resurrection services for the victims of this latest genocide. We are joined by Palestinian cranes on their way to Washington to replace the excrement in the White House with organic bird droppings, green frogs who teach the art of hopping over seemingly insurmountable problems, and gaggles of kindergarten butterflies who frolic to their hearts’ desire. Join us for a serious and silly circus: Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution In Progress!

The Christmas Story

Thursday, December 11 @ 8pm
Friday, December 12 @ 8pm
Saturday, December 13 @ 3pm
Saturday, December 13 @ 8pm
Sunday, December 14 @ 3pm

Join Bread & Puppet for an urgently-needed retelling of the first Christmas. In the tradition of the medieval mystery plays, this show combines reverence and impudence to speak to this exact moment. Mary and Joseph sleep with the cows because they don’t have $26.50 for a room at the Sandy Arms motel. King Herod laments the balance-of-payment deficit. The bubble-headed bourgeoisie of Jerusalem dismiss the star in the east as a publicity stunt. See this ancient story remade for today’s horrors and today’s badly needed cry for an end to war.

Originally created in 1962, Bread & Puppet’s The Christmas Story was performed every year at Christmastime until the mid 1980’s. The puppeteers have revived the show with the help of archival video and interviews with the original performers. In 1967 The New York Times said of the piece: “The scene is at once the holy land and super America; the time then, and now… The approach may seem campy or sacrilegious. It is neither. The play says that Jesus’s world was, in essence, ours; that both need saving.”

As always, the shows will include puppets large and small, music, up-to-the-minute politics, and spectacles not to be missed. After the show Bread & Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread & Puppet’s “Cheap Art” – books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread & Puppet Press – will be for sale.