Season Schedule
Musical Workshops
Skyward: An Endling Elegy
July 7–9, 2023
In the Powerhouse Theater
Music, Words and Story by Truth Future Bachman
Directed by Zhailon Levingston
Music Direction by Josh Kight
Aria is a seasoned birder on the brink of a new discovery. After sighting a flock of rare birds during a great migration, she recognizes each as an extinct species. Even more curious are the physical shifts in Aria's body as the flock's ghostly birdsongs awaken an avian adaptation that transforms her life forever. The next evolution of Truth Future Bachman's Shapeshifters saga, following Luna and the Starbodies (Powerhouse, 2022), Skyward: An Endling Elegy is a soaring musical vision for the first - and last - of our kind.
We Start in Manhattan: A New Queer Musical
July 14–15, 2023
In the Powerhouse Theater
Written by Ariella Serur and Sav Souza
Directed by Ellie Heyman
We Start In Manhattan is a slutty, romantic comedy written by and starring real life couple Ariella Serur (they/she) and Sav Souza (they/them). Filled with humor and heart, this two-person musical tells the story of a one night stand turned month-long road trip, exploring relationships with a looming expiration date, and the ways that brief intimacy can profoundly impact our lives.
Play Workshops
Call Fosse at the Minskoff
July 20–23, 2023
In the Powerhouse Theater
Written and Performed by Mimi Quillin
Directed by Michael Berresse
Set/Projection Design by Timothy R. Mackabee
Lighting Design by Jen Schriever
Costume Design by Claudia Brown
Sound Design by Joanna Lynne Staub
Dramaturgy by Anika Chapin
Developed and Produced by The Fabulous Invalid and Stop the Wind Theatricals
There are “legends” and then there are legends. In this entirely true, middle age coming-of-age story, dancer and actor Mimi Quillin brings audiences along with her into the inner sanctum of two of the greatest giants the theater world has ever known: Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Written and performed by Quillin, and directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Berresse ([title of show]), in Call Fosse at the Minskoff, Quillin recounts her experience working with Fosse and Verdon on what would be their final collaboration, investigating the life-altering effects of proximity to true greatness, and revealing all the thrills and terrors of walking the high wire on the riskiest platform in entertainment.
The Chevalier
July 22, 2023
In the Martel Theater, Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film
Part of the Concert Theatre Works residency
Written by Bill Barclay
Music by Joseph Bologne
Additional Music by Bill Barclay
Directed by Carl Cofield
Featuring the Harlem Chamber Players
Son of a slave and French aristocrat, Joseph Bologne has reached the top of his game – music teacher to Marie Antoinette and Europe’s fencer to beat. But when a bedridden Mozart is carried into his kitchen, he attracts the attention of a secret police force returning people of colour to slavery.
As Paris hurtles toward revolution, Bologne is forced to choose between his creative freedom and the crusade for equality. Can he sacrifice his bow for his sword? This is the true story of three immigrants – Marie Antoinette, Mozart, and Bologne – conflating the French Revolution with the Resistance against authoritarianism unfolding today.
Behind the Attic Wall
July 28–30, 2023
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of The Tank residency
Adapted from the novel by Sylvia Cassedy
Written by Peggy Stafford
Conceived and Directed by Meghan Finn
Music by Mike Cassedy
Puppets Designed by The Ladies of Mischief
Behind the Attic Wall is a beloved young adult novel by Sylvia Cassedy, adapted for the stage by playwright Peggy Stafford. When orphaned twelve-year-old Maggie Turner is sent to live with her two great-aunts in an old, empty boarding school she is bereft and alone. Soon she is called to the Attic by two, possessed china dolls, building a world that is at once intricate and theatrical—a place where she finds friendship and a sense of home. Featuring music by Mike Cassedy with masks and puppets designed by The Ladies of Mischief, Behind the Attic Wall is a play for all audiences directed by Meghan Finn.
Readings
Canaan Unremembered
June 25, 2023 - 7 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of the Theatre East residency
Written by Judson Jones
Directed by Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy
After losing a difficult pregnancy, a young evangelical couple faces another tragedy when Jenn suffers a stroke that not only removes all memory of the relationship with her husband, Matt, but also removes all memory of the faith she has spent her life depending upon.
birthday birthday birthday
June 30, 2023 - 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of The Tank residency
Written by Johnny G. Lloyd
Directed by Will Steinberger
Marissa and Clark are best friends who share a birthday. Marissa and Clark are best friends who share a birthday party. And Marissa and Clark plan on sharing that birthday party for the rest of their lives - and then some. If only the future doesn’t get in their way. A multi-decade romp through race, class, and time, birthday birthday birthday is about who we choose and how we change - and if we get any say in the matter.
Culture Shock
July 1, 2023 - 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of The Leah Ryan Fund residency
Written by Gloria Majule
Directed by Shariffa Ali
Two African students, Zahra from Tanzania and Hawi from Kenya, start school in an Ivy League institution. They are placed in Salama House, an all-black dorm and affinity space for black students. Faced with cultural, academic and economic challenges, Zahra and Hawi try to make it through Freshman Year, while facing the reality of what it means to be black in America.
Useful People
July 2, 2023 - 2 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Written by Peter Gil-Sheridan
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Useful People tells the story of Susan and Ethel, two septuagenarians who turn to selling their prescription drugs to turn a profit. When Susan’s grandson, Patrick, returns in disgrace from the college he works for, it doesn’t take long for him to discover that his grandmother is a very different woman than she was before. The play takes a comic look at aging in America while examining each character’s longing for love and safety in a world that devalues the elderly.
All readings are free. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 15, 2023.
The Training Company
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
July 14–16, 2023 - 7 p.m.
In the Preserve at Vassar
Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted and Directed by Doug Paulson
Have you ever woken up in a panic? Shot up with a start in a cold sweat, certain what you had just been seeing, hearing and experiencing was real? You're scared for your life, out of breath, angry and confused... You've been defeated in battle and enslaved by your conqueror, forced to wed and your father wants you dead... Your lover loves another and forgets you're alive while all your friends have abandoned you, you're obsessively infatuated with a disgusting monster, RUNNING OUT OF TIME and everything's falling apart?! Aren't those feelings real one way or another? Dreams are powerful communications from our subconscious, so what are they trying to tell us when all they show us are our worst nightmares? Come wander the winding paths of Shakespeare's subconscious forest and get lost in the thoughts of a restless collective humanity.
Free and open to the public. No ticket required.
Macbeth
July 21–23, 2023 - 7 p.m.
In the Preserve at Vassar
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Caley Chase
After killing their king, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are thrust into the depths of desperation, torment, and profound imagination. Shakespeare’s great tragedy is a tale of fate and its conclusions. They must go on. Macbeth is inevitable and it tumbles on itself with speed and energy, one piece knocking over the next. “I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er.” - Macbeth, Act III
Free and open to the public. No ticket required.
Real Human Beings
July 6, 13, 20, 27, 2023 - 6 p.m.
In the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Conceived by members of the Training Company
Composed and Directed by Max Reuben
At the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Greetings, fellow humans. We are real human creators who were birthed from our real human mothers. We were not created by scientists on a computer at all. We exist tangibly in space. Not as bytes and bits on the cyberweb. We are excited to bring you a very human performance, created live by us: real human beings.
Real Human Beings utilizes the gestural composing language of Soundpainting to create a spontaneous, ensemble-based improvised performance.
Free and open to the public. No ticket required.
Once In A Hundred Years
July 23 - 24, 2023 - 7:30 p.m.
In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater
Based on The Seagull by Anton Chekov
Conceived and Written by Hal Cosentino
Directed by Ellenor Riley-Condit
Chekhov’s The Seagull opens with a play within a play, its creator Treplev insisting “We need new forms!” Once In A Hundred Years uses this demand to launch a devised performance incorporating Chekhov's text and characters with original material to ask the questions: What was Treplev trying to create? What would a new form for the theater look like? With a form as ephemeral as live performance, what can we draw from the creators of the past and what can we hope to send into the future?
Free and open to the public. Reservation required. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 15, 2023.
New Works Play Festival
July 29, 2023 - 7:30 p.m.
In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater
Written and Directed by members of the Training Company
This festival of new works is the culminating event for the directors and writers of the Training Company. Along with their coursework, directors and playwrights will have observed the process of bringing a new script to life in a professional rehearsal setting. Each pair of writers and directors will workshop a play which they have developed over the summer. Featuring performances by the actors of the Training Company, these short plays reflect the student's unique voice and vision for the future of American theater.
Free and open to the public. Reservation required. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 15, 2023.