The Coming Storm

The legacy of anti-Semitism endures

Written and Directed by Stephan Morrow

Monday, April 8, 2024 at 7:00 PM

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

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

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

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

*Actors Studio Members

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

COVID Protocol:
As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.
Wearing of masks is suggested in the lobby, restrooms and performance spaces at Theater for the New City, but they are not required.