Playwrights Horizons 2016/17 season brochure

Playwrights Horizons 2016/17 Season

Julia Cho

Adam Bock

Dan LeFranc

Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, Oliver Butler — The Debate Society

Zayd Dohrn

Kirsten Childs

Tim Sanford Artistic Director

Who we are

E

very play we produce at Playwrights sparks a unique reaction from each audience member — though we all view the same event, we experience it differently.

Similarly, every writer brings their singular voice to our stages. Every year, we assemble a collection of distinct artistic voices ready to share their stories with you. Beginning with a blank canvas, these intrepid artists put pen to paper, bringing their ideas to vivid life in imaginative, often gamechanging ways. As they rewrite, revise, and write on, their ideas get refined and fine-tuned.

Through drafts, workshops, rehearsals, and — ultimately — performances, each writer leaves their unique mark on their story, our company, and our audiences.

While you may recognize some names in this season’s lineup and others may be new to you, one constant holds: our steadfast commitment to championing the voice of the American writer. This enticing mix — of voice, form, style, experience — is the heartbeat of Playwrights. It’s the stuff that, throughout our history, has guided us as we present the stories of today by the writers of tomorrow.

Just as we introduce our six newest plays, we’re also excited to unveil a new look for our company. This new logo puts our very essence in the hands of those who shape it most directly: our playwrights. As you leaf through this brochure, click onto our website, and visit us on 42nd Street, you’ll notice that our name is written many different ways, in the hand of the writers themselves.

They make this company the institution that we’re proud to be, and we’re excited to highlight their distinct writing styles in our very name.

We are Playwrights, and we invite you to join us this season.

See you at the theater!

Tim Sanford Artistic Director

Julia Cho Kate Whoriskey Directed by

Written by

Aubergine

A

man shares a bowl of berries, and a young woman falls in love.

A world away, a mother prepares a bowl of soup to keep her son from leaving home. And a son cooks a meal for his dying father to say everything that words can’t. In Julia Cho’s poignant and lyrical new play, the making of a perfect

“Sweet, savory, and uncommonly nourishing, Aubergine is a deeply moving tale of caring, loss, and reconciliation that never loses its sense of humor.

A combination of theatrical ingredients so fulfilling that a standing ovation is in order!”

San Francisco Chronicle

meal is an expression more precise than language, and the medium through which life gradually reveals itself.

New York Premiere Mainstage Theater Starts August 2016

N

ate Martin is hopelessly single.

When his most recent breakup, another in a lifelong string of ill-fated matches, casts him into a funk, he turns to the only source of wisdom he trusts: the stars. Poring over astrological charts, he obsessively questions his past and his place in the cosmos. But in Adam Bock’s

“Adam Bock’s plays are like Chopin études: disarmingly light, rigorously structured, and built with a powerful underlying logic.”

Time Out New York

disarming new play, the answer he receives, when it comes, is shockingly obvious — and totally unpredictable.

World Premiere Peter Jay Sharp Theater Starts September 2016

A Life

Directed by

Written by

Adam Bock Anne Kauffman

Rancho Viejo

“A very skilled writer who knows how to slash your jugular vein but — to his great credit — never forgets what his audience is feeling and constantly reaches to touch their hearts.”

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

W

e never meet young Richie and Lonna, whose marriage is on the rocks. But miles and miles away, in the affluent southwestern suburb where their parents live, this couple’s separation is disturbing the tranquility of a community they’ve barely met. In Dan LeFranc’s comedy of anxiety and awkward neighbors, the residents of Rancho Viejo drift from one gathering to the next, wrestling

life’s grandest themes while fending off existential despair — set against the lustful, yearning strains of a distant bolero.

Playwrights Horizons Commission World Premiere Mainstage Theater Starts November 2016

Written by

Directed by

Dan LeFranc Daniel Aukin

Oliver Butler Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen

World Premiere Mainstage Theater Starts February 2017

Developed and Directed by

The Light Years is an epic, intimate tale of two families struggling to meet their future, and a spectacular tribute to man’s indomitable spirit of invention.

Written by

B

ehold The Spectatorium: an audacious, visionary 12,000-seat theater designed for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 by Steele MacKaye, the now forgotten theatrical impresario around whom this haunted, 40-year love story spins. From the minds of celebrated playmaking company THE DEBATE SOCIETY,

The Light Years

“The Debate Society has emerged as the most beguiling and visually inventive experimental troupe in years.�

Time Out New York

Zayd Dohrn Written by

The Profane

S

afe in the liberal fortress of Manhattan, Raif Almedin is a firstgeneration immigrant who prides himself on his modern, enlightened views.

But when his daughter falls for the son of a conservative Muslim family in White Plains, he discovers the threshold of his tolerance.

In Zayd Dohrn’s sharp and timely tale, two

“Brutal, funny, and powerful, Dohrn writes fantastic dialogue, masterfully balancing grit and humor.”

Time Out Chicago

families are forced to confront each other’s religious beliefs and cultural traditions, and to face their own deep-seated prejudice.

World Premiere Peter Jay Sharp Theater Starts March 2017

tale with soulful tunes and madcap antics aplenty. Giddy-up to our get-down!

Directed by

Kirsten Childs Robert O’Hara

Playwrights Horizons Commission New York Premiere Mainstage Theater Starts May 2017

Book, Music, and Lyrics by

A

ll aboard for a Western musical adventure the likes of which you’ve never experienced. As a wanted woman of mythic proportions looks to begin life anew out west, Bella takes us on the trip of a lifetime to escape her scandalous past and bounce into the arms of her awaiting Buffalo Soldier. Rowdy, wild, and hilarious, Kirsten Childs infuses this tall

Bella: An American Tall Tale “Ms. Childs possesses an enthusiastic, generous spirit and playful wit that are naturally suited to musicals.�

Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Taylor Mac

Directed by

Niegel Smith

“The first important new play of the fall season.”

The New York Times

The Christians Written by

Lucas Hnath

Directed by

Les Waters

“A beautiful trinity of Kristine Nielsen’s pained and profound performance, Taylor Mac’s script, and Niegel Smith’s direction.”

Hir

“A brilliant incubator of new plays and voices, Playwrights Horizons has been having an exceptionally Jesse Green, New York Magazine good season.”

Written by

The New Yorker

Time Out New York Critics’ Pick

“A brilliant play worth remembering.”

New York Magazine

“God bless Anne Washburn.”

Antlia Pneumatica

New York Magazine

Written by

Anne Washburn

Directed by

Marjorie Prime

Anne Kauffman

Ken Rus Schmoll

Time Out New York

May 13– June 26, 2016 “Moss conjures astonishments.”

Village Voice

Written by

Danai Gurira

Directed by

Rebecca Taichman

Written by

Indian Summer

Jordan Harrison

Directed by

“Familiar is heavenly! Big laughs and a juicy cast make this family dramedy a reason to come home to a muchtraveled genre.”

Familiar

Written by

Gregory S. Moss Directed by

Carolyn Cantor

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Playwrights Horizons 2016/17 Season