59E59 Winter 2016 Season Bulletin

Emotionally charged also applies to Dead Dog Park by Barry Malawer, directed by Bedlam Theater’s Eric All very best wishes Tucker with a cast led by Tom O’Keefe, who, when I saw this play at a reading, gave a staggering stageready performance. Don’t miss it. Peter D. Tear Executive Producer

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As always I wish you an enjoyable and thoughtprovoking season at 59E59. You know how much your support means to us and we try to repay your loyalty by presenting as much stimulating theater as possible. We hope you enjoy it. See you at the theater!

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Wide Awake Hearts extends our reach to Canada whose BirdLand Theatre from Toronto makes its 59E59 debut with this erotically charged piece by Brendan Gall.

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Part of the inaugural season at the Mosaic Theatre in D.C., this important play comes to 59E59 direct from a season at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. Again, don’t miss it.

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Neil LaBute is a great favorite of ours and it is a delight to present six new plays from St Louis Actor Studio’s LaBute Festival for the first time in New York, including one by LaBute himself.

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The title got a little reversed for Happily After Ever, which we saw and loved in Edinburgh and felt we simply had to present as it is the perfect Theater C show. This hilarious little play takes the battle of These two 5A shows are adventurous in the satisfying the sexes to the limit and beyond. way that plays upstairs in Theaters B and C tend Finally, in a very different vein, Aaron Davidian tests to be, so we feel we are now properly fulfilling the limits of understanding in his brilliantly written our mission. and performed solo piece, Wrestling Jerusalem.

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Aaron Loeb’s Ideation had delighted audiences and critics leaping from their seats in San Francisco with several paying multiple visits! A psychological thriller set in the corporate world, it seems to strike a note of recognition with its darkly comic edge and will probably draw a new audience from offices down Park and Madison Avenues!

Every 59E59 season has music and we like to keep ringing the changes in this area as well! We are particularly happy to welcome back little opera theatre of NY, who have converted hundreds of our Members into opera buffs! Who knew? The breadth and taste of our Members knows no bounds. But seriously, this is largely because of LOTNY’s wonderfully unstuffy, spectacularly sung takes on operas rarely or never seen in New York before. Adapted and directed by Philip Shneidman, this season’s treat is L’Amant Anonyme by Chevalier de Saint- Georges. But beware; this is in Theater B not A, so that means ‘sold out fast’ for all those Mozartean fans who know this outstanding composer’s work. For those who don’t it’s a revelation.

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The final show of the 5A Season is courtesy of Bill English and Susi Damilano’s burgeoning San Francisco Playhouse company who brought Bauer to us last season. It is wonderful when tastes coincide!

And yet another favorite, Michole Biancosino, returns with Project Y Theatre – this time directing Lia Romeo’s Connected, set in the wonderful world of the internet – with some deep observations!

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Merrimack Rep in Lowell, Massachusetts has an enviable regional record of presenting all new plays and we are delighted that their new Artistic Director, Sean Daniels is bringing his new production of Lauren Gunderson’s I And You to 59E59 in association with Broadway producer Richard Winkler. Lauren Gunderson of course wrote last season’s enormously successful BAUER so here is a completely contrasting treat for Lauren’s fans – she truly is in the top league of the hottest writers in America right now. I And You is the story of two extraordinary teenagers and may leave you flabbergasted. We hope so.

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Known as we are for presenting only plays new to New York, it is especially invigorating to announce two outstanding productions to close out a particularly successful 5A Season in Theater A. of an Ending).

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Another one not to be missed is our own Leah Gabriel (many of you will know her smiling face from our Box Office, where she works when not giving her Goneril in King Lear or some such leading role!). Leah’s appropriately named Joyseekers Theatre presents Emilie Collyer’s new play The Good Girl directed by Adam Fitzgerald who we are thrilled to welcome back to 59E59 (The Awake, Sense

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his time with some of the hottest new plays to be seen in New York in many months. And once again, as our Members expect, the variety is exceptional – and not without a little controversy to keep life stimulating!

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Another one not to be missed is our own Leah Gabriel (many of you will know her smiling face from our Box Office, where she works when not giving her Goneril in King Lear or some such leading role!). Leah’s appropriately named Joyseekers Theatre presents Emilie Collyer’s new play The Good Girl Known as we are for presenting only plays new to directed by Adam Fitzgerald who we are thrilled New York, it is especially invigorating to announce to welcome back to 59E59 (The Awake, Sense two outstanding productions to close out a particularly of an Ending). successful 5A Season in Theater A. And yet another favorite, Michole Biancosino, returns Merrimack Rep in Lowell, Massachusetts has an with Project Y Theatre – this time directing Lia Romeo’s enviable regional record of presenting all new plays Connected, set in the wonderful world of the internet and we are delighted that their new Artistic Director, – with some deep observations! Sean Daniels is bringing his new production of Lauren Gunderson’s I And You to 59E59 in association Every 59E59 season has music and we like to keep ringing the changes in this area as well! We are with Broadway producer Richard Winkler. Lauren Gunderson of course wrote last season’s enormously particularly happy to welcome back little opera theatre successful BAUER so here is a completely contrasting of NY, who have converted hundreds of our Members treat for Lauren’s fans – she truly is in the top league into opera buffs! Who knew? The breadth and taste of the hottest writers in America right now. I And You of our Members knows no bounds. But seriously, this is the story of two extraordinary teenagers and may is largely because of LOTNY’s wonderfully unstuffy, spectacularly sung takes on operas rarely or never leave you flabbergasted. We hope so. seen in New York before. Adapted and directed by The final show of the 5A Season is courtesy of Bill Philip Shneidman, this season’s treat is L’Amant English and Susi Damilano’s burgeoning San Francisco Anonyme by Chevalier de Saint- Georges. But beware; Playhouse company who brought Bauer to us last this is in Theater B not A, so that means ‘sold out fast’ season. It is wonderful when tastes coincide! for all those Mozartean fans who know this outstanding Aaron Loeb’s Ideation had delighted audiences and composer’s work. For those who don’t it’s a revelation. his time with some of the hottest new plays to be seen in New York in many months. And once again, as our Members expect, the variety is exceptional – and not without a little controversy to keep life stimulating!

critics leaping from their seats in San Francisco with several paying multiple visits! A psychological thriller set in the corporate world, it seems to strike a note of recognition with its darkly comic edge and will probably draw a new audience from offices down Park and Madison Avenues!

The title got a little reversed for Happily After Ever, which we saw and loved in Edinburgh and felt we simply had to present as it is the perfect Theater C show. This hilarious little play takes the battle of the sexes to the limit and beyond.

These two 5A shows are adventurous in the satisfying way that plays upstairs in Theaters B and C tend to be, so we feel we are now properly fulfilling our mission.

Finally, in a very different vein, Aaron Davidian tests the limits of understanding in his brilliantly written and performed solo piece, Wrestling Jerusalem. Part of the inaugural season at the Mosaic Theatre in D.C., this important play comes to 59E59 direct from a season at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. Again, don’t miss it.

Neil LaBute is a great favorite of ours and it is a delight to present six new plays from St Louis Actor As always I wish you an enjoyable and thoughtStudio’s LaBute Festival for the first time in New York, provoking season at 59E59. You know how much your including one by LaBute himself. support means to us and we try to repay your loyalty by presenting as much stimulating theater as possible. Wide Awake Hearts extends our reach to Canada We hope you enjoy it. See you at the theater! whose BirdLand Theatre from Toronto makes its 59E59 debut with this erotically charged piece by Brendan Gall.

All very best wishes

Emotionally charged also applies to Dead Dog Park by Barry Malawer, directed by Bedlam Theater’s Eric Tucker with a cast led by Tom O’Keefe, who, when I saw this play at a reading, gave a staggering stage- Peter D. Tear ready performance. Don’t miss it. Executive Producer

THEATER A

THEATER C

THEATER B

THEATER C

THEATER A

THEATER C

THEATER B

THEATER C

JAN 15 - FEB 28

JAN 13 - FEB 7

JAN 14 - FEB 7

FEB 11 - MAR 6

FEB 11 - 28

MAR 5 - APR 17

MAR 3 - 26

MAR 12 - 20

MAR 24 - APR 17

MAR 30 - APR 16

MERRIMACK REPERTORY THEATRE in association with RICHARD WINKLER presents

ST. LOUIS ACTORS' STUDIO, WILLIAM ROTH FOUNDER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR presents

BIRDLAND THEATRE presents

BOZ AND THE BARD PRODUCTIONS, INC. in association with BEDLAM THEATER presents

JOYSEEKERS THEATRE presents

SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE presents

PROJECT Y THEATRE presents

THE LITTLE OPERA THEATRE OF NY present

SROLIK PRODUCTIONS presents

RICOCHET COLLECTIVE presents

WIDE AWAKE HEARTS

DEAD DOG PARK

THE GOOD GIRL

IDEATION

CONNECTED

L’AMANT ANONYME

WRESTLING JERUSALEM

HAPPILY AFTER EVER

By BRENDAN GALL Directed by STEFAN DZEPAROSKI

By BARRY MALAWER Directed by ERIC TUCKER

By EMILIE COLLYER Directed by ADAM FITZGERALD

By AARON LOEB Directed by JOSH COSTELLO

By LIA ROMEO Directed by MICHOLE BIANCOSINO

With CLEA ALSIP MAREN BUSH and TONY NAUMOVSKI

In this tautly written and riveting drama, a white police officer is accused of pushing a young African-American teenage boy out of a window during a routine police chase.

With CARRIE PAFF MARK ANDERSON PHILLIPS and MICHAEL RAY WISELY

By CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES Libretto by DESFONTAINES after MME. DE GENLIS

In a world where we are all constantly connected to the Internet – and through the Internet to one another – why do we still feel so alone?

Sung in French, dialogue in English, with supertitles.

By LAURA ZLATOS Written and performed by Directed by SHERRI EDEN BARBER AARON DAVIDMAN Directed by MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS Newlyweds Darren and Janet want Set in America, Israel and Palestine, nothing more than to build the Wrestling Jerusalem follows one perfect life together. But when Janet man’s journey to understand gives birth to a baby with both male the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. and female genitalia, they find Davidman’s excavation into the themselves in the unlikely position contours of conflict illuminates of having to choose a gender for a personal story that grapples their child – all while competing with the complexities of identity, with the perfect couple next door history and social justice. and dealing with a misunderstood family dog – in this hilarious Writer and performer Aaron Davidman gives voice to seventeen battle of the sexes. different characters, animating their struggles, soul searchings and HAPPILY AFTER EVER STRIKES barriers, shedding light and offering AT THE HEART OF TODAY'S CHARGED hope in the midst of one of the most DEBATES AROUND SEXUAL ROLES AND GENDER IDENTITY. enduring conflicts of our time. LAURA ZLATOS ENTERTAINS AND ENLIGHTENS WITH THIS Wrestling Jerusalem is part of Mosaic Theatre’s inaugural season HILARIOUS, INNOVATIVE, AND ULTIMATELY WISE NEW PLAY. in D.C. and comes to 59E59 – David Henry Hwang straight from a sold-out run at the Guthrie Theaterin Minneapolis. $18 (59E59 MEMBERS $12.60) REMARKABLE SOLO TUE, WED & THU 7:30 PERFORMANCE... FRI & SAT 8:30, SUN 3:30 YEARNING BEAUTY... RIVETING – San Francisco Chronicle

$35 (59E59 MEMBERS $24.50)

TUE, WED & THU 7:15 FRI & SAT 8:15, SUN 3:15

I AND YOU

By LAUREN GUNDERSON Directed by SEAN DANIELS With KAYLA FERGUSON and REGGIE D. WHITE Homebound due to illness, Caroline is a bit of a loner. So when Anthony – a popular classmate and total stranger – unexpectedly arrives to work on a school project about Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, she is less than thrilled. But, as the poetry project progresses, Caroline finds herself opening up in ways she never imagined possible, and together the two discover a much deeper mystery. An ode to life, love and human connection, I and You will warm your heart and leave you breathless. Lauren Gunderson, author of last 5A Season's Bauer, won the 2014 Steinberg/ATCA New Play award for I and You.

GUNDERSON'S PLAYS COME SPRING-LOADED WITH THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE... I AND YOU IS STARTLING ENOUGH TO DRAW GASPS – Don Aucoin, Boston Globe I AND YOU IS A SHARP AND FUNNY 80-MINUTE DRAMA – The Washington Post INDESCRIBABLE, MIND-BLOWING BRILLIANCE – Angelica Potter, OnStage $70 (59E59 MEMBERS $49) TUE, WED, THU 7, FRI 8, SAT 2 & 8, SUN 3 NO PERFORMANCE SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 AT 2 ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCE SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 AT 7

LABUTE NEW THEATER FESTIVAL

Plays by JOHN DOBLE, PETER GRANDBOIS AND NANCY BELL, GD KIMBLE, NEIL LABUTE, JJ STRONG and LEXI WOLFE Directed by MILTON ZOTH and JOHN PIERSON An evening of 6 New York Premiere one-act plays selected from amongst the more than 400 annual entries to the renowned LaBute New Theater festival at St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s Gaslight Theater. STAND UP FOR ONESELF By LEXI WOLFE Two unlikely hearts collide at a London house party. PRESENT TENSE By NANCY BELL and PETER GRANDBOIS A social media hook up. TWO IRISHMEN ARE DIGGING A DITCH By GD KIMBLE A joke with a hell of a punch line. THE COMEBACK SPECIAL By JJ STRONG A sweet Elvis comedy. COFFEE HOUSE, GREENWICH VILLAGE By JOHN DOBLE A blind date goes terribly wrong. KANDAHAR By NEIL LABUTE A soldier returns. $30 (59E59 MEMBERS $21) TUE, WED & THU 7:30, FRI 8:30 SAT 2:30 & 8:30, SUN 3:30 & 7:30

Four friends – a writer, actress, actor, and editor – are pulled through a wondrously strange, erotic landscape of love and infidelity while trying to make a movie about those very things. Against a film studio backdrop, Wide Awake Hearts is an original play about the complexities of human interaction told through wit and humor.

A FEW OF THE WITTIEST LINES OF DIALOGUE TO DEBUT ON A TORONTO STAGE IN YEARS – The Toronto Globe Mail BIRDLAND THEATRE HAS PRODUCED SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING THEATRE OF THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation BirdLand Theatre is a winner of six Dora Awards, Canada's answer to the Tonys. $35 (59E59 MEMBERS $24.50) TUE, WED & THU 7:15, FRI 8:15 SAT 2:15 & 8:15, SUN 3:15 & 7:15

Anjali works her routine governmentissued job as a madam to a sexbot, when maintenance man Ven arrives to find the robot exhibiting unusual – and illegal – human-like behavior. The pair strike up an uneasy partnership The effects of a tragic incident can, – she expands the robot’s repertoire in a moment, forever redefine the of behaviors and he brings in the highlives of all those intimately connected paying clientele. But when the clients to it. This relevant tale explores the start asking for more, Anjali must decide malleability of guilt and innocence just how far she is willing to go. when pitted against prejudice and presumption, truth and sensationalism. This darkly comedic sci-fi play As the former officer stands at the examines the boundaries of precipice of fate, neither he nor the consciousness and the moral grey boy can distinguish fact from fiction, area of exploitation. certainty from doubt, guilt from COLLYER'S WITTY TWO-HANDER innocence. MERGES BLACK COMEDY WITH THE ABSURD AND THE POLITICAL, $35 (59E59 MEMBERS $24.50) USING SHARP, WELL-OBSERVED AND FUNNY DIALOGUE TUE, WED & THU 7:15, FRI 8:15 SAT 2:15 & 8:15, SUN 3:15 & 7:15 – The Herald Sun, Melbourne

SMART, SLICK AND FUNNY HILARIOUS ONE-LINERS... ARE PEPPERED LIBERALLY THROUGHOUT THIS CLEAR, COMPLEX, CRYSTALLISED STORY: BIG IDEAS, WITH AN EVEN BIGGER HEART – Heckler.com.au $18 (59E59 MEMBER $12.60) TUE, WED & THU 7:30 FRI & SAT 8:30, SUN 3:30

Aaron Loeb brings a darkly comic edge to this psychological suspense thriller, in which a group of corporate consultants work together on a mysterious and ethically ambiguous project. As the lines between right and wrong are blurred, these characters must navigate the cognitive dissonances and moral dilemmas to decide for themselves if everything is as it really seems.

DEVILISHLY FUNNY AND DEMONICALLY DARK ... LOEB'S HILARITY MAKES US, AS THE TITLE SUGGESTS, THINK – San Francisco Chronicle SUPERB! [IDEATION] IS NOTHING SHORT OF MIND-BLOWING STUFF – Stark Insider LOEB'S SCRIPT IS SMART AND FUNNY AND FULL OF SURPRISES, AND COSTELLO AND THE CAST KEEP THE SUSPENSE TIGHT AND THE HUMOR SHARP – KQED $70 (59E59 MEMBERS $49) TUE, WED & THU 7, FRI 8, SAT 2 & 8, SUN 3 NO PERFORMANCE SATURDAY, MARCH 6 AT 2

Connected examines love and friendship in the age of social media through a series of interrelated vignettes – a young girl's most embarrassing moment goes viral; a high school student must choose between real life and role-playing games; two girls spend Saturday night endlessly searching for the “perfect party;” and a teacher is accidentally seduced by her student on an internet dating site.

LIA ROMEO'S NEW PLAY IS VERY, VERY GOOD. A WRY, FAST-PACED LOOK AT AMERICAN LIFE IN THE AGE OF YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, ONLINE GAMING AND ONLINE DATING – St. Louis Post-Dispatch CONNECTED, BY LIA ROMEO, IS A FASCINATING LOOK AT THE CYBER WORLD WE LIVE IN TODAY AND HOW IT DIRECTLY AFFECTS OUR YOUNGER GENERATION – Broadway World $25 (59E59 MEMBERS $17.50) TUE, WED & THU 7:30 FRI & SAT 8:30, SUN 3:30 NOPERFORMANCEWEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 AT 7:30

Conducted by ELLIOT FIGG Adapted & Directed by PHILIP SHNEIDMAN Art Direction by SANFORD BIGGERS

L’Amant Anonyme is an 18th Century opera that tells the story of a lover afraid to reveal his true identity to the object of his affections. This is perhaps modeled on composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ own experience as someone of African ancestry, able to love – but never marry – a European woman. One of the earliest known composers of color, Saint-Georges rose to fame in the period before the French Revolution. This original adaptation of his only surviving complete opera score incorporates the composer’s swashbuckling biography and celebrates the unusual environment of Saint-Georges’ life.