THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Tilted Axes: Circle With No Center
Music for Mobile Electric Guitars
October 2 – October 5, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 75 minutes
JOHNSON THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
Circle With No Center transforms the stage into a dynamic landscape where musicians playing mobile electric guitars and percussion move in choreographed formations, weaving intricate sonic textures that blur the lines between concert, dance, and immersive theater. Created by composer and performer Patrick Grant, the work invites audiences to experience music as a living, breathing environment — part ritual, part procession, and entirely unlike anything else currently on the New York stage.
Produced by: Peppergreen Media Music by: Patrick Grant & Tilted Axes composers Choreography by: Christopher Caines Recorded & sequenced elements produced by: Jeremy Nesse & Patrick Grant Performed by: Angela Babin, Elisa Corona Aguilar, Gene Ardor, Jeremy Nesse, Jim Lee, John Ferrari, Patrick Grant, John Halo, and Vince Caiafa
About Tilted Axes
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is an innovative performance ensemble that takes music off the stage and into unexpected places — streets, galleries, museums, and theaters. With amplified sound, choreography, and public engagement, Tilted Axes turns each performance into a unique, site-specific event.
Patrick Grant is a composer, performer, and producer living in New York City and creates audio for a wide range media and live performance. A native of Detroit, MI, he moved to NYC where he studied at the Juilliard School, worked on the production team for composer John Cage, and produced his first recordings in the studios of Philip Glass. For the stage he has created scores for theatrical visionaries The Living Theatre, Robert Wilson, and produced opening night spectacles for Obama portraitist Kehinde Wiley. He traveled to Bali three times to study the gamelan, work which manifested itself in his use of alternative tunings, ensembles with multiple keyboards, as Composer-in-Residence at Cornell University, and in his work with Robert Fripp & The Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists. He is the creator of International Strange Music Day (August 24) since 1998 and the mobile electric guitar procession (Tilted Axes) since 2011. He is a 2021 and 2023 recipient of a Composer Commissions Award from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a two-time recipient (2020 & 2021) of a Creative Engagement Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and a multiple nominee of the Detroit Music Awards (2017-2019). He is a Post Production professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Film & TV and helps produce the “How To Be A Better Human” podcast for TED & PRX. In 2023 he was a composer/judge for ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.
In 2010, the inaugural Dream Up Festival offered 25 shows consisting of 23 World Premieres and 2 American Premieres. The festival had reviewers from NY Times, NY Press, Show business Weekly, the Advocate, NYTheatre.com and others.
NEW YORK — From August 24 to September 14, 2025, Theater for the New City (TNC), under the direction of Crystal Field, will resume its 13th Dream Up Festival, a feast of adventurous theater. The annual event is an ultimate new works festival, dedicated to the joy of discovering new authors and edgy, innovative performances.
The Festival is helmed by the theater’s Literary Manager, Michael Scott-Price. This year it offers 22 plays. Audiences will savor the excitement, awe, passion, challenge and intrigue of new plays from around the country.
Theater for the New City has consistently been the most inexpensive theater of its caliber and it continues its commitment to affordable tickets with this festival. Dream Up Festival tickets are $15-$20 for all participating productions.
The festival does not seek out traditional scripts that are presented in a traditional way. It selects works that push new ideas to the forefront, challenge audience expectations and make us question our understanding of how art illuminates the world around us.
Theater for the New City (TNC) maintains a distinctive commitment to high artistic values and community service. In an effort to make theater accessible to all, TNC presents an assortment of distinct, exceptional events each year, including the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, which celebrates the artistic and cultural diversity of TNC’s Lower East Side community; an annual Village Halloween Ball and an annual summer Street Theater tour that presents a free, live, original musical in thirteen neighborhoods in all five boroughs. Most of these are free of charge to the public.
TNC Street Theater Summer Tour – HOME SWEET HOME or A LIFE IN NEW YORK
August 2 – September 14, 2025
Free! In The Streets!
Saturdays and Sundays @ 2 PM; Friday Performance in Coney Island @ 5:00 PM (full schedule below)
Writer and Director – Crystal Field Composer – Peter Dizozza
8/2 • 2pm • Manhattan • TNC at E. 10th St. & First Ave.
8/3 • 2pm • Bronx • St. Mary’s Park at 147th St. & St. Ann’s Ave.
8/9 • 2pm • Staten Island • Tappen Park btw. Canal & Water Streets
8/10 • 2pm • Manhattan • Central Park Bandshell, 72nd Street Crosswalk
8/15 • 5pm • Brooklyn • Coney Island Boardwalk at W. 10st St.
8/16 • 2pm • Manhattan • St. Marks Church at E. 10th St. & Second Ave.
8/17 • 2pm • Manhattan • Jackie Robinson Park at W. 147th St. & Bradhurst Ave.
8/23 • 2pm • Manhattan • Washington Square Park
8/24 • 2pm • Queens • Travers Park at 34th Ave. btw. 77th & 78th Streets
9/6 • 2pm • Brooklyn • Sunset Park at 6th Ave. & 44th St.
9/7 • 2pm • Brooklyn • Fort Greene Park, Myrtle Avenue & St. Edwards Street
9/13 • 2pm • Manhattan • Sol Bloom Playground, W 91st Street btw. Columbus Ave & Central Park West
9/14 • 2pm • Manhattan • Tompkins Square Park at E. 7th St. & Ave. A
NEW YORK – Theater for the New City’s award-winning Street Theater Company will open its 2025 annual tour Saturday, August 2 with “Home Sweet Home, or A Life In New York,” a rip-roaring original musical which tells a story of a young orphan, born in America but longing to understand his roots, as deportations shake the lives of his immigrant friends. Book, lyrics and direction are by Crystal Field, Artistic Director of Theater for the New City (TNC). The musical score is composed and arranged by Peter Dizozza. Free performances will tour parks, playgrounds and closed-off streets throughout the five boroughs through September 14.
TNC’s Street Theater has impacted generations of audiences, encouraging the younger generation to make a difference in their own neighborhoods. Productions have celebrated the diversity of our heritage, the strength of our citizens, and the optimistic hope for a successful road to their future. This year’s play is a story of a young man, an orphan seeking his family roots, at a time when many of his friends are being deported. He was born in America but he knows in his heart that he has a kinship to his fellow young New Yorkers who are suffering greatly and whose sense of security is greatly threatened. He dreams of his desire to become a teacher. In his dream, the Statue of Liberty rises up and embraces him. She reaches out to call out to his friends who hang onto her skirt as the waters of the ocean pull them away.
The owner of the local bodega, where the young man works, is an emigre from Guyana who had proudly obtained his citizenship 20 years ago. Every Sunday morning he plays chess with his friend, the local Firefighter from the Firehouse next door. Together, the two men take the Young Man under their wing and help him find his roots. They sing of fighting fires throughout history (Slavery! Fascism! Atomic War!). Now our beloved Nation suffers immigrant deportation. They summon Lady Liberty and plead for her aid. Lady Liberty appears surrounded by native New Yorkers who support her and guide her new-found children to safety. The musical score includes bold songs like “Pilgrims to the Present” and “We Fight Fire,” culminating in “Together at Last,” a hopeful finale that celebrates unity, diversity, and the dream of a just future.
The production will be staged with an elaborate assemblage of trap doors, giant puppets, smoke machines, masks, original choreography and a huge (9′ x 12′) running screen or “cranky” providing continuous moving scenery behind the actors. The company of 22 actors, ten crew members, two stage managers, three assistant directors and five live musicians (led by the composer at the keyboard) will share the challenge of performing outside and holding a large, non-captive audience. The music will vary in style from Bossa Nova to Hip Hop to Musical Comedy to classical Cantata. The play is a bouncy joyride through the undulations of the body politic, with astute commentary couched in satire, song and slapstick.
TNC’s free Street Theater productions are delightfully suited for family audiences, since complex social issues are often presented through children’s allegories, with children and neighborhood people as the heroes.
Michael David Gordon heads the cast of 22 as the Bodega Owner. The five-piece band is led by composer Peter Dizozza.
Theater for the New City has mounted a new musical for a five borough tour each year since 1976. In 2020, in response to the Covid-19 lockdown, TNC’s Street Theater production, “Liberty or Just Us: a City Park Story,” was an oratorio that live streamed for an eight week, 14 performance run. Each performance paid tribute to the park or other location it had been originally scheduled for. The popular tradition returned to live, in-person performances the following year.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Author/director Crystal Field began writing street theater in 1968 as a member of Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia. She wrote and performed her own outdoor theater pieces against the Vietnam War and also curated and performed many poetry programs for the Philadelphia Public Schools. There she found tremendous enthusiasm and comprehension on the part of poor and minority students for both modern and classical poetry when presented in a context of relevancy to current issues. She realized that for poetry to find its true audience, the bonds of authoritarian criticism must and can be transcended. Her earliest New York street productions were playlets written in Philadelphia and performed on the flatbed truck of Bread and Puppet Theater in Central Park. Peter Schumann, director of that troupe, was her first NY artistic supporter.
In 1971, Ms. Field became a protégé of Robert Nichols, founder of the Judson Poets Theater in Manhattan, and of Peter Schuman, founder of Bread and Puppet Theater. It is an interesting historic note that “The Expressway” by Robert Nichols, directed by Crystal Field (a Street theater satire about Robert Moses’ plan for a throughway to run across Little Italy from the West Side Highway to the FDR Drive) was actually the first production of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. Nichols wrote street theater plays for TNC in its early years, but as time went on, wrote scenarios and only the first lines of songs, leaving Field to “fill in the blanks.” When Nichols announced his retirement to Vermont in 1975, he urged Field to “write your own.” The undertaking, while stressful at first, became the impetus for her to express her own topical political philosophy and to immerse her plays in that special brand of humor referred to often as “that brainy slapstick.” Her first complete work was “Mama Liberty’s Bicentennial Party” (1976), in honor of the 200th anniversary of the American Revolution.
Field has an associate’s degree in Dance from Juilliard and a BA in Philosophy from Hunter College.
Field has written and directed a completely new opera for the TNC Street Theater company each successive year. She collaborated for eleven years with composer Mark Hardwick, whose “Pump Boys and Dinettes” and “Oil City Symphony” were inspired by his street theater work with Ms. Field. At the time of his death from AIDS in 1994, he was writing a clown musical with Field called “On the Road,” which was never finished. One long-running actor in TNC street theater was Tim Robbins, who was a member of the company for six years in the 1980s, from age twelve to 18.
The Village Halloween Parade, which TNC produced single-handedly for the Parade’s first two years, grew out of the procession which preceded each Street Theater production. Ralph Lee, who created the Parade with Ms. Field, was chief designer for TNC’s Street Theater for four years before the Village Halloween Parade began.
Field has also written for TNC’s annual Halloween Ball and for an annual Yuletime pageant that was performed outdoors for 2,000 children on the Saturday before Christmas. She has written two full-length indoor plays, “Upstate” and “One Director Against His Cast.” She is co-founder and Artistic Director of TNC.
Composer Peter Dizozza was composer/musical director of TNC’s 2022 Street Theater tour, “Teacher! Teacher! or PS I Love You.” He appeared frequently in 2020-2021 in TNC’s weekly “Open ‘Tho Shut” walk-by theater productions, which demonstrated the theater’s ability to serve its neighborhood culturally during the lockdown. He is known for his simple, cheerful music with a Gershwinesque flair. He began writing plays with music for La Mama’s Experimenta Series in 1997 and became a regular composer for productions directed by George Ferencz. Among his TNC credits are his scores for Toby Armour’s plays “Aunt Susan and Her Tennessee Waltz” (2022) and “155 Thru the Roof” (2014). His song settings include poems and texts by Shakespeare, T.S.Eliot and Thomas Hardy. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild, The Lambs Club and The New York Composers Circle.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
A House Full of Flies
a tragic drama by WillieAnn Gissendanner.
Emotionally resonant exploration of intergenerational trauma, spirituality and the ties that both bind and break.
June 19 – July 6, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
There will be a performance July 4th
Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 1 hour 40 minutes plus 10 minute intermission
THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
Set in a small town in Georgia across two turbulent eras, 1937 and the early 1990s, “A House Full of Flies” weaves a haunting narrative of misunderstanding, delusion, deceit, and ego–fueled by religious dogma and racist mythology– that have heartbreaking consequences.
At the heart of the story is Savannah Holster, a Black American Christian woman who is a widow. She lives by her wits and presents her grown children as siblings, possibly to obscure her age. She is emotionally scarred by racist humiliations her family suffered in her childhood. From her kitchen table, she runs a faith-based healing practice, finding meaning and control in her strict religiosity. Her fraught relationship with her daughter, Deirdre, simmers with unresolved tension. She shares her home with her adult son, named Prayer, who is devoted to his controlling mother and defends their home fiercely.
When Savannah becomes involved with her lawyer, a rising white conservative politician named Jackson Vance, her world begins to unravel. Her adult daughter Deirdre, while seeking help with a legal matter of her own, inadvertently reveals to Vance that Savannah is her mother. That realization shatters Vance’s ego, triggering a night of confrontation that ends in tragedy. In the aftermath, visions, guilt, and grief descend upon Savannah in the form of a prophetic dream that warns of doom for her young grandson. When that vision comes true it is devastating, but through it all, the bonds of kinship remain strong and hope endures. Even as shadows gather, the light of faith and fierce maternal love refuses to go out.
The play is resonant with the folklore, atmosphere and dialect of 20th century central Georgia. The flies referred to in the title are, symbolically (and literally), evils. Playwright Gissendanner explains, “When somebody has sent a spell, it could be manifested by flies and this is one of Savannah’s deep beliefs.” The spells symbolize the collective anxieties weighing on southern Black women of her generation.
“A House Full of Flies” is a production of Theater for the New City’s Emerging Playwrights Program. This 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.
WillieAnn Gissendanner, born and raised in Gordon, Georgia, is a graduate of Paine College (Augusta, GA) and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (NYC). Her theatrical acting resume includes Euripides’ “Medea” (Workshop Theater Company) and the solo plays “BO” by G. C. Sullivan (Workshop Theater Company, John Houseman Theater and Staten Island Armory) and “Woman” by Lawrence Holder (Paul Robeson Theatre, Brooklyn). She created, produced, and directed the NAACP ACT-SO Evening of Theater. She is author of “Pearls and Swine/This Body Is Mine,” which premiered at Theater for the New City in 2023 and was praised for its bold, unapologetic take on women’s bodily autonomy. Her plays “Pearls and Swine/This Body is Mine” and “A Houseful of Flies” were selected for Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning’s Meet the Playwright Festival and scenes from both plays were presented there. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA.
Gissendanner writes, “Theater For The New City is a theater community where dreams can be realized. Its arms are open to artistic souls seeking expression as playwrights, poets and actors. I am privileged and thankful to be welcomed into this community and to have my work presented on its stages. So grateful to Ms. Crystal Field and the founders of TNC for bringing into existence this vital community for performing artists.”
CAST
WillieAnn Gissendanner – Savannah
Kai Brown
Marcia Hopson
Sania Hyatt
Lola Lukas
Obinna Nwako
Aubrey Smith
Bill Tatum
Douglas Walker
Scott Williams
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Classic Six
May 29 – June 1, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time:
COMMUNITY SPACE THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
CLASSIC SIX:
Join us for a showcase of 6 short plays featuring one New York apartment through the decades. Beginning in the 1950’s, we will follow a variety of New York tenants through their time in a single apartment as portrayed in these short comedies and dramas. For more information about this show, visit www.michaelluggio.com
Featuring:
Bolero by David Ives (1952)
Lunchtime by Leonard Melfi (1966)
Come Again, Another Day by Cary Pepper (1986)
Light by Jeni Mahoney* (1999)
You’re Invited! by Darren Canady (2016)
Closing Costs by Arlene Hutton (2025)
*Light is an Equity approved showcase produced by special arrangement with Playscripts Inc.
CAST
ALI CHRISTOVICH
SAMANTHA GORJANC*
SEAN CONNELLY
DYLAN CASTRO
ALLISON WELSH
EMILY MCKEON
JOHNY LUONG
JULIA ZANARDI
BRADLEY MARCO
RUSHI BIRUDALA
KIARA MELENDEZ
“Actors appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
A First Screening of
David Willinger and Ananim’s
New Full-Length Film
The Voyage Back
The Rough Cut
Based on the original play, Bring Them Back, which was presented at TNC in May, 2024
Monday, May 12, 2025 at 7:00 PM
SUGGESTED DONATION $10
Run Time: 2 hours
COMMUNITY SPACE
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
In the meta dark comedy Bring Them Back, screenwriter Paul is still sheltering in place long after the Covid threat, only sometimes visited by his schleppy older family friend, Trudy. Now of a certain age, Paul realizes that more people he has known are dead than alive. With amusing desperation, and against Trudy’s better judgement, Paul resolves to bring them back using a medieval Cabalistic ritual that never works due to his countless mistakes. Nevertheless, random affinity groups of dead former friends, family, lovers, and enemies begin to appear. Is it all in his mind? Is it on the page? How do these unorthodox methods satisfy Paul’s desire to resolve unfinished business?
Written and Directed by David Willinger
Cinematography by Tony McNally
Design and Production Management by Dianne Ramirez
Sound Recording by Tatia Mazmanian
Film & Sound Editing by Roy Chang
Technical Supervisor Wayne Grofik
Production Assistants Dayvis Ferreras, Christopher Bello, Fran Gold
Costumes by Sarah Shah
Music by
James Yaiullo
Brama Sukarna
Basia Schechter & Pharaoh’s Daughter
Arielle Korman
And featuring: The Wavos
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
PERSEPHONE PALMER STEPS OUT
A Play By CAITLYN WALTERMIRE
June 19 – July 6, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM NO PERFORMANCE JULY 4TH
Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, plus one 10 minute intermission
CABARET THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
Persephone Palmer Steps Out is set during a wintery, sub-zero Summer in the 1990s in a basement apartment hundreds of feet below the ground. This is the home of the Palmer family, headed by the tempestuous and charismatic Connie, whose marriage to the devoted and enabling Herm oversees a fraught dynamic with her fractious stepson Joe. The occasional wandering-ins of Stef, Joe’s girlfriend, and their new friend Paul punctuate the isolated family’s routine, as do the shambolic visits from Connie’s brother Richard and his much-younger wife Lisa. Despite the magical setting of the play, the dynamics between the characters are rooted in realism – except for the fact that Persie, the Palmer’s 13-year-old human daughter, is the family’s “cat.” Yet as the landscape shifts and Persie begins to bond with some of the new visitors, it appears that some changes may be underway – for better or for worse. With character archetypes derived from Greek mythology, Persephone Palmer Steps Out is a darkly hilarious exploration of the god-like nature of familial hierarchies, the contingencies of love, conditional acceptance, and the divine, desperate pursuit of control. Trigger warnings: Domestic violence, references to sexual assault.
“This play explores parents’ godlike power from their children’s perspective—divine abuse of power, fate v. free will, sexual influence, and a hero’s journey—and so, its characters’ relationships reflect those between figures in Greek mythology,” shared playwright Caitlyn Waltermire. “Hades is a woman now! References to perpetual winter, ferry rides, snake sex, goose foreplay, smell of sulfur, etc. are all in this vein. Being a thirteen-year-old girl has been a heady nightmare since ancient Greece.”
Playwright – Caitlyn Waltermire
CAST
Persephone Palmer – SOPHIE KELLY-HEDRICK*
Connie Palmer – ZUHAIRAH*
Herm Palmer – GUY VENTOLIERE*
Joe Palmer – ALEC FEBBRARO
Paul – DIOGO DE OLIVEIRA
Stef – JESSALYN CHARLES
Richard Scott – PHIL OETIKER
Lisa Scott – ELIZABETH SHERMAN
*these Actors are appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association
PRODUCTION
Director – Natalie Thomas
Assistant Director/Intimacy Coordinator – Alysia Homminga
Playwright – Caitlyn Waltermire
Sound Designer – Wendy Maciver
Lighting Designer – Lauren Lee
Scenic Designer – Maren Prophit
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
Four Evangelists Walk into a Fog
by Douglas Lackey
Founding of a major new world religion is an occasion for intellectual dark comedy.
May 1 – May 18, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets $20 tickets, $15 Students and Seniors
Run Time: 1 hour 15 minutes plus intermission
JOHNSON THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003 Directions
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote four differing gospels and created Christianity. These four evangelists actually never met, but they do–as members of a comedic literary synod –in “Four Evangelists Walk into a Fog” by Douglas Lackey. The results are hilarious and profound. Theater for the New City (TNC), which has been Lackey’s theatrical home since 2003, will present the work’s premiere run May 1 to 18, directed by Mark Harborth.
Playwright Douglas Lackey has two lives, as a playwright and a philosophy professional. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale and is a Professor of Philosophy at Baruch College, CUNY, where he has taught since 1972. As a playwright, he specializes in serious portraits of historical/intellectual figures in moral dilemmas, including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Giulio Caesare Vanini (a free-thinking physician-philosopher of 17th century Italy), Bertrand Russell, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and General Heywood Hansell (who advocated for a strategy of daylight precision bombing over saturation bombing in WWII). All of Lackey’s previous plays at TNC have been praised for their deft mixtures of philosophy, romance and politics. He has also written several other historical plays that he calls “comedies of ideas.” This is one of them.
It was inevitable, perhaps, that Mr. Lackey would take up the subject of contradictions among the Gospels, which is quite popular in theological, academic, and secular circles. It has been widely discussed for centuries and remains an active topic in biblical studies, apologetics, and skeptical critiques of Christianity. The four Gospels differ on key details, which include Jesus’ genealogy, his final words on the cross and the timing of the resurrection appearances. Mark and John omit the virgin birth. Paul’s letters, written earlier than these four accounts, rarely mention Jesus’ earthly life and contradict Gospel accounts on the resurrection’s witnesses and Jesus’ teachings on the Law.
These various disagreements provide food for fun and amicable debate in the play, with the contradictions providing natural comedic tension. It could be mistaken for a debate between philosophy professors in the faculty lounge of an American college. The foursome are aware that their writings will become the foundation of a major world religion, so their tone is collegial and good-natured. If there is any intellectual critique, it is based on logic. Comedic anachronisms heighten the satire as the evangelists struggle with the weight of shaping a new faith, bickering over details while Mary Magdalene, their “reality check,” cuts through their abstractions with raw lived experience. It’s done with rapid-fire dialogue, shifting alliances and moments of deep introspection. Think “No Exit” meets “The West Wing” with a theological twist.
Lackey even manages to inject some backstage humor, as in this argument:
John: The psalms say the Messiah’s bones shall not be broken. No broken legs. Let’s move on to the Resurrection.
Matthew: We have problems with the resurrection. Lots of skepticism. Many Jews say the body was stolen from the tomb. Some even say that the followers of Jesus hired an actor to go around Judea pretending to be Jesus. The actor put holes in his hands to make it real.
Mark: Who would believe that? No actor will put holes through his hands just to get paid.
Luke: Apparently you don’t know many actors.
Douglas Lackey has a 22 year relationship with Theater for the New City, which has presented all his plays to-date. His first play, “Kaddish in East Jerusalem” (2003), dealt with issues of the Second Intifada. His “Daylight Precision” (2014) was a historical drama examining “just war” theories through an unsung hero of World War II, Gen. Haywood Hansell. Lackey’s “Arendt-Heidegger: A Love Story” (2018) dramatized the unlikely romance between Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. His “Ludwig and Bertie” (2019) charted the forty-year love/hate relationship between Bertrand Russell and his most famous student, Ludwig Wittgenstein. His “The Wayward Daughter of Judah the Prince” (2021) was a sort of a philosopher’s “Thelma and Louise” in which the daughter of Judah the Prince (compiler of The Mishnah–the core section of The Talmud) runs off with her Christian slave girl lover to measure herself against the conflicting philosophies of the period. His “Spies for the Pope” (2023) charted the tragic career of Giulio Caesare Vanini (1585-1619), an Italian philosopher recruited by the Vatican (in Lackey’s telling) for an impossible mission: averting the Thirty Years War by reconciling the Catholic and Protestant antagonisms in key European countries. All these plays have been critically praised as explosive dramas of ideas, romance and politics.
Lackey writes, “I am grateful to Crystal Field and Theater for the New City for encouraging me to present this story. TNC is willing to take on my ‘comedies of ideas’ and these are quite different from the contemporary obsession with plays of jumbled identities and failed relationships. Kudos to a theater that will buck the mainstream.”
Director Mark Harborth was Producing Artistic Director of Gallery Players in Brooklyn, where he has staged “Ragtime,” “Dreamgirls,” “Gypsy,” “Evita,” “Rent,” “It Shoulda Been You,” “A Few Good Men,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Chess” and “Run For Your Wife,” among others. His regional credits include “Hello Dolly,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “High Spirits,” “Chicago,” “Children of a Lesser God,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Pirates of Penzance.” He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
CAST
Zephyr Caulfield (Matthew)
John Gionis (Mark)
Nick Freedson (Luke)
Matthew Foley (John)
Andy English (Paul)
Barbara McCulloh (Mary Magdalene)
PRODUCTION
Set design is by Jerry Mittelhauser
Lighting design is by Scott Cally
Costume design is by Joey Haws
Stage manager is Cassidy Byron
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field, with
The LES Committee, Presents:
The 30TH Annual LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
FREE!!!
Memorial Day Weekend
MAY 23, 24, 25, 2025 – Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (btw E 9th and E 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
212-254-1109 Directions
Listen to our LES promo on 1010 WINS!
Theater for the New City has currently scheduled over 200 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers for its 30th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.
Admission is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.
Indoor performances will take stage from 6:00 PM to midnight each day, utilizing two of TNC’s four theaters. From 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturday, vendors and food sellers, including booths from nearby restaurants, will set up in the closed-off block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues.
The festival has been presented annually since 1996, although in 2020 it was produced online due to pandemic concerns. A cohort of theater, dance, performance, music, film, literary and visual artists are participating on all three days. Multidisciplinary indoor performances will take stage from 6:00 PM to midnight each evening, utilizing two of TNC’s four theaters. From 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Saturday, vendors and food sellers, including booths from nearby restaurants, will line the closed-off block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues. On Saturday afternoon inside in the Johnson Theater, there will be performances by and for children, curated by T. Scott Lilly, Danielle Hauser and Miguel Loyola, emceed by John Grimaldi. A fine art show, curated by Carolyn Ratcliffe, will be hanging throughout the fest in the theater’s lobby gallery. A film program will be presented Saturday from noon to 10:00 PM in the Cabaret Theater, featuring works by auteurs from the Lower East Side/East Village along with works that reflect the essence of the neighborhood. Over 25 films curated by Burak Tatar will be screened, accompanied by talkbacks with a number of the film makers. On Saturday from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, an Outdoor Stage adjoining the theater will offer music and multi-discipline performances curated by Richard West, assisted by Didi Champagne. On Sunday from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM in TNC’s Community Theater, there will be a “Poetry Jam with Prose on the Side” curated by Lissa Moira.
This year, the festival is mounted with the theme “We will not be silenced, speak up for democracy.” The subject will be addressed in some of the playlets and acts written for the festival.
As of this writing, the performers’ roster includes such luminaries as David Amram, Austin Pendleton and Penny Arcade. City council member Carlina Rivera will speak on Saturday, May 24 at 6:30 PM.
Performing ensembles participating will include Bond Street Theater, Chinese Theatre Works, Cobu, The Drilling Company, Ego Actus, Folksbiene National Yiddish Theater, Kinding Sindaw, Le Squeezebox Cabaret, New Yiddish Rep, Textile Theater Company, Wise Guise, Tilted Axes, Oyu Oro and many more.
There will be original writings (many penned exclusively for the festival) by Anne Lucas, Barbara Kahn, David Willinger, Douglas Lackey, Eduardo Machado, Elizabeth Ruf, Ishmael Reed, Lissa Moira, Larry Littany Litt, Miguel Loyola, Pamela Enz, Toby Armour, Tom Diriwachter, and Victor Vauban Jr.
Excerpts of plays performed will include works by Toby Armour, Briana Bartenieff, Stephan Morrow; Peter Welch, and Roman Primitivo, Stephan Morrow, projects of Mary Tierney’s TNC Theater Workshop, and songs from TNC’s 2024 Street Theater.
Individual performers appearing will include Austin Pendleton, Bryce Payne, Jeff Davis, John Grimaldi, Lei Zhou, Stan Baker, Terry Lee King (Amazin’ Grace), Thomas Baker, Tym Moss, Zero Boy, Ed Malin and JC Augustin.
Dance performances will include works by Ashley Liang Dance Company, Carol Tandava, Charly Wenzel, Infinity Dance Theater, Rastro Dance Company (Julieta Valero), Rod Rodgers Dance Company and Thunderbird American Indian Dancers. Aerial dance will be performed by Constellation Moving Co.
Musical performers appearing will include Alessandra Belloni, Art Lillard Quartet, Citizens United Protest Band, David Amram, Ejyp Johnson, Joe Bendik, Judy Gorman, Louisa Bradshaw, Maude Lardner Burke, Michael A Green, Michael David Gordon, Mimi Block, Mister Pablo, Noam Finegold: Burning City Orchestra, Peter Dizozza, Rew Starr, Richard West, Robert Gonzales Jr. and Yip Harburg Rainbow Troupe.
Comedy performers will include Hollie Harper, Joan Reinmuth and others TBA.
“Poetry Jam with Prose on the Side,” curated and hosted by Lissa Moira, will take stage Sunday, May 26 from 4-7pm in TNC’s Community Space Theater. Wordslingers are TBA. An open mic will follow as time permits.
Throughout the festival, an art show curated by Carolyn Ratcliffe will grace the TNC lobby spaces. This art show will have its own free, special opening Wednesday, May 21 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Curtis Widem, who’ll be performing as the “Free Art Dude” in the lobby and in front of TNC this Friday 5/23 from 6pm- 8pm.
Emcees will be Crystal Field, Robert Gonzales Jr., Danielle Aziza, Melanie Goodreaux and Sabura Rashid (in the Johnson Theater) and David F. Slone Esq. and Joan Kane (in the Cabaret Theater). The film program will be emceed by Burak Tatar.
Specialty curators of the festival include Lissa Moira (poetry), Burak Tatar (film), T. Scott Lilly and Danielle Hauser (kids’ performances), Carolyn Ratcliffe (visual art) and Richard West and Didi Champagne (outdoor theater-dance-music). The whole festival is run by the LES committee (see below) and chaired by Crystal Field.
Lower East Side Festival of the Arts Exhibit
LES: We Will Not Be Silent-Speak Up For Democracy
FRIDAY EVENING IN THE JOHNSON – MAY 23
6:00 PM – COBU
6:22 PM – A Play by Richard Ploetz
6:34 PM – CONSTELLATION MOVING COMPANY
6:46 PM – Thunderbird American Indian Dancers
6:58 PM – PENNY ARCADE
7:20 PM – Glitter Kitty
7:32 PM – Rita Constanzi (Harp)
7:44 PM – Rod Rodgers Dance Company
8:06 PM – Folksbiene
8:18 PM – The Shine Challenge by Ishmael Reed
8:30 PM – Julieta Valero (Dance)
8:42 PM – Scammed Into Love by Briana Bartenieff
8:54 PM – KT Sullivan
9:06 PM – A Play by Anne Lucas
9:18 PM – Mister Pablo (Music)
9:30 PM – Inma Heredia (Dance)
9:42 PM – Jose Francisco Ruiz
9:54 PM – Sylvain Leroux (Flute)
10:06 PM – Austin Pendleton
10:18 PM – Boxcutter Collective
10:30 PM – Louisa Bradshaw
10:42 PM – Ejyp Johnson
10:54 PM – Hollie Harper
11:06 PM – Drilling Company
11:18 PM – Gravity
11:30 PM – Bryce Payne
11:42 PM – Rocco George
11:54 PM – Terry Lee King w/ Billy Little
FRIDAY EVENING IN THE CABARET – MAY 23
6:30 PM – Star ’69 (Rob Varkony)
6:52 PM – Catalina Beltran
7:04 PM – Hija de la Tierra by Yenny Sanchez
7:16 PM – Devorah Shubowitz
7:28 PM – Viktoriya Papayani
7:40 PM – Miguel Loyola
7:52 PM – Stan Baker
8:04 PM – Textile Theater Collective (Claude Solnik)
8:16 PM – Clara (Ego Actus)
8:28 PM – David Jacobsen
8:40 PM – Anita Daswani
8:52 PM – Stefan Harris
9:04 PM – Michael A. Green
9:16 PM – Evan Laurence
9:28 PM – Larry Litt
9:40 PM – Ed Malin (Monologue)
9:52 PM – William Electric Black
10:04 PM – Wendy Stuart
10:16 PM – Elisa Blynn
10:28 PM – Dana II by Jasmine Hyman
10:40 PM – Luke Grande
10:52 PM – Loretta Auditorium
11:04 PM – Ellen Steir
11:16 PM – Lady Clover Honey
SATURDAY AFTERNOON YOUTH PERFORMANCES
JOHNSON THEATER
Coordinators: Danielle Aziza & T. Scott Lilly
Hosted by John Grimaldi
2-5 PM
2:00 PM JOHN GRIMALDI
2:15 PM MOVE. MAKE. BLOOM
2:30 PM MARTIAL ARTS FAMILY STUDIO
2:45 PM TNC ARTS IN EDUCATION
3:00 PM THE ZYLIK BROTHERS
3:15 PM COBU “NEXT GENERATION”
3:30 PM THE YIP HARBURG RAINBOW TROUPE
3:45 PM SOCIETY OF AMERICAN MAGICIANS YOUTH, MILES WEINBERG
4:00 PM EAST SIDE DANCE COMPANY
4:15 PM PS 166 AMAZING ATHLETE’S CIRCUS
4:30 PM FAIRY TALE MARIONETTES
SATURDAY FILM PROGRAM 12 PM – 10 PM
The Cabaret Theater (downstairs) seats about 65
Curator: Burak Tatar
Technical Director: Roy Chang
Hosted by Burak Tatar and Eva Dorrepaal Q&A After each block.
4:30 – 5:30 PM : FILMMAKER NETWORKING PARTY
5:30 PM – (block of 6 films)
[1-6 / #15] Lovearthcam
[2-6 / #16] Clock Shop
[3-6 / #17] Brooklyn
[4-6 / #18] Not So American
[5-6 / #19] The Bad Daughter
[6-6 / #20] PRIME REAL ESTATE
6:58 PM – (block of 4 films)
[1-4 / #21] The Gender Symphony
[2-4 / #22] The Price of Gum
[3-4 / #23] Moonlight in the Bronx
[4-4 / #24] The Voyage Back – Lovers scene
7:45 PM [#25] A Phantom Song
8:45 PM – (block of 4 films)
[1-4 / #26] Stalled
[2-4 / #27] Launch at Paradise
[3-4 / #28] Don’t Forget You Are A Boy
[4-4 / #29] Out to Run: A Tale of Blood Velvet
SATURDAY EVENING IN THE JOHNSON – MAY 24
6:00 PM – Tilted Axes (Procession in)
6:22 PM – John Grimaldi (Juggler)
6:34 PM – A Play by Douglas Lackey
6:45 PM – Councilmember Carlina Rivera
6:51 PM – Councilmember Gale Brewer
6:58 PM – Infinity Dance Theater
7:10 PM – Yara Arts (Ukranian Theater)
7:22 PM – A Meeting of Minds by Crystal Field
7:34 PM – Sunscreen by Amy Coleman
7:45 PM – Judy Gorman
8:02 PM – Mimi Block
8:14 PM – Ego Actus
8:26 PM – Carol Tandava (Belly Dance)
8:38 PM – Rainbow Troupe
8:50 PM – Ashley Liang (Dance)
9:12 PM – Chinese Theater Works
9:24 PM – A Play by Tortas Y Tacones (JC Augustin)
9:36 PM – Zylik Brothers
9:48 PM – Artichoke Dance Company
10:00 PM – David Amram
10:22 PM – A Play by Victor Vauban
10:34 PM – TNC Street Theater
10:46 PM – Peter Dizozza
10:58 PM – Tym Moss
11:10 PM – Bennet Pologe (Opera)
11:22 PM – The Wise Guise
11:34 PM – A Play by Eduardo Machado
11:46 PM – The Prior 55 by Andrea Fulton
11:58 PM – Ms. Phillip
SUNDAY EVENING IN THE JOHNSON – MAY 25
6:00 PM – Oyu Oro
6:22 PM – Joan Reinmuth (Comedienne)
6:34 PM – Here I Am by Toby Armour
6:46 PM – Zero Boy
6:58 PM – A Play by Tom Diriwachter
7:10 PM – Lex and the Cult of Spirits
7:22 PM – Charles Krezzel
7:34 PM – Alessandra Belloni
7:46 PM – Barbara Kahn (Excerpt from The Road Ahead)
7:58 PM – Charly Wenzel
8:10 PM – WillieAnn Gissendanner
8:22 PM – Melange
8:34 PM – Kinding Sindaw
8:46 PM – David Mandelbaum – New Yiddish Rep
8:58 PM – Kanpai
9:20 PM – Toni Renee Taylor (Dance)
9:34 PM – The India Center
9:46 PM – Art Lillard Quartet
9:58 PM – A Play by Barbara Kahn
10:20 PM – Rori Nogee
10:32 PM – Zen Mansley
10:44 PM – Lily James Roberts
10:56 PM – Robert Gonzales Jr. (Music)
11:08 PM – A Play by Stephan Morrow
11:20 PM – Valery Oisteanu (Poet)
11:32 PM – Darling Toby
11:44 PM – Le Squeezebox Cabaret (David Slone)
SUNDAY EVENING IN THE CABARET – MAY 25
6:30 PM – Burning City Orchestra
6:52 PM – Maude Lardner Burke
7:04 PM – LES Performing Arts
7:16 PM – Anwar Suleiman
7:28 PM – J Dolan Byrnes
7:40 PM – Richard Weber
7:52 PM – Joe Bendik
8:04 PM – Peter Welch
8:16 PM – Roman Primitivo
8:28 PM – The Head Peddlers (Elizabeth Ruf and Karl Bateman)
8:40 PM – Rew Starr
8:52 PM – Michael Sanders
9:04 PM – Beth Griffith
9:16 PM – Sarah Lilly
9:28 PM – Dante Jayce
9:40 PM – Thomas Goggans
9:52 PM – Randy Mchaney
10:04 PM – Justine Hall
10:16 PM – Christine Stoddard
10:28 PM – Levi Frazier
10:40 PM – Dada NY
10:52 PM – Thomas Baker
BACKGROUND
The first festival, presented June 14 to 16, 1996, was a three-day, indoor and outdoor multi-arts festival, organized by TNC and a coalition of civic, cultural and business leaders. The aim was to demonstrate the creative explosion of the Lower East Side and the area’s importance to culture and tourism for New York City. It employed two theater spaces at TNC plus the block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues, featured over 100 attractions, drew favorable press and attracted crowds from all around the City. Its success prompted TNC to continue the festival annually on Memorial Day Weekend. For 28 years it has been presented free each year to an average attendance of 4,000. (In 2020 it was held online due to pandemic concerns).
The concept of the festival was developed by Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director of TNC and Esther Cartegena (d. 2006), President of Loisaida, Inc., to portray the Lower East Side (LES) as a haven for artists and artistic creation. The region is a unique multi-ethnic community with an unusually high level of artistic vitality. Large populations with differing languages and cultures coexist there successfully and a large artistic population helps glue the neighborhood together. Its theaters are also an unprecedented source of tourism. Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Buried Child,” was commissioned and first produced by TNC. The committee envisioned an event that would demonstrate the region’s cultural fervor, its large artistic population and its multiplicity of ethnic influences to contradict the neighborhood’s stereotype as a dangerous refuge for drug dealers and criminal activity.
Disciplines presented have always included theater, music, dance, poetry, puppetry, cabaret, visual art, film and children’s programming.
Check out the Gallery Guide here: 
