The Civilians 2022-2023 Season Brochure

WELCOME TO THE CIVILIANS’ 2022-23 SEASON

I’m delighted to welcome you to the 21st season of The Civilians. This passionate community of artists has now spent over two decades investigating and, with each new project, engaging deeply with the complex questions that shape our collective experience. These pursuits often take significant time and resources, and I’m heartened that The Civilians continues to find creative ways to follow the lead of the artists and nurture their work as each project evolves along its own unique path.

This Fall we’re opening The Unbelieving by Marin Gazzaniga, a gripping new play inspired by interviews with practicing clergy who have lost the faith they built their lives around. After multiple developmental workshops, The Civilians is excited to bring this ambitious new work to our audiences in its world premiere.

Also this season, we’ll be developing multiple new works, including several commissioned plays — Anne Washburn, Sylvia Bofill, and more. And we’ll see the culmination of the Michael Friedman Recording Project with the release of four more albums — Mr. Burns, a post-electric play , In the Footprint , our very first show Canard, Canard, Goose? and a collection of various songs inspired by interviews, Michael Friedman: Adventures in Reality .

It’s a lineup I’m very excited about — and a great way to start the next 20 years.

STEVE COSSON Artistic Director

DONATENOW

Our donors have helped The Civilians develop ambitious new plays and musicals for over 20 years, including the Tony Award-winning play Dana H. by Lucas Hnath; the Antham Award-winning Black Feminist Video Game by Darrel Alejandro Holnes; and the world premiere of The Unbelieving this season. Thank you for championing this extraordinary theater community.

HOW TO DONATE

Online: thecivilians.org/donate

Check: The Civilians, 138 South Oxford Street 3C, Brooklyn, NY 11217

QUESTIONS

Contact Dan Balkin, Development Director Dan@thecivilians.org

The Civilians is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered organization. Tax ID: 11-3621605

THEUNBELIEVING

The Unbelieving was commissioned through the support of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science.

This production is supported, in part, by the Sibylla Hesse Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation.

Based on interviews conducted for the book Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind (2013) by Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola

DANIEL C. DENNETT, LINDA LaSCOLA, AND THE CIVILIANS PRESENT

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BY MARIN GAZZANIGA DIRECTED BY STEVE COSSON

In the classic tale of religious conversion, finding God holds the promise of a life filled with purpose and meaning. But what happens when this transformation occurs in reverse, and a faith you have built your life around begins to fall away? The Unbelieving takes a penetrating look into the lives of practicing clergy members—Catholics, Episcopalians, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Jews, Mormons, Muslims—who have stopped believing in God.

The Unbelieving  tells the intimate stories of these faith leaders. Using their actual words, obtained during a groundbreaking study by philosopher Daniel C. Dennett and qualitative researcher Linda LaScola, the play explores the struggles, courage, and great humor of these “unbelievers” as they face the hardest decision of their lives—whether to continue living in secret or to risk everything by telling the truth.

MICHAEL FRIEDMAN RECORDING PROJECT

Alongside our partner Ghostlight Records, The Civilians have produced nine albums of Michael Friedman’s previously unrecorded work. These recordings will bring Michael’s music to a broader audience, helping to preserve the large breadth of work he created in his lifetime.

Thank you to our community, collaborators, supporters, and the countless artists who came together to make this celebration of Michael’s work possible.

RELEASED THIS FALL

MR. BURNS: A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY CANARD, CANARD, GOOSE? IN THE FOOTPRINT MICHAEL FRIEDMAN: ADVENTURES IN REALITY

WORKSHOPS

SEX

VARIANTS

CONCEIVED BY STEVE COSSON AND JESSICA MITRANI

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The Civilians is currently developing a stage adaptation of Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns , published in 1941 by the psychiatrist and researcher Geroge William Henry. The book centers on case studies of 80 queer and/or gender non-conforming Americans in the 1930’s, each of which includes the transcript of a detailed and intimate interview with the subject; together, these transcripts reveal experiences and worlds that are largely hidden from history.

This Fall, as part of the initial work on this new piece of investigative music theater, Steve Cosson and media artist Jessica Mitrani are collaborating with students in Princeton’s Atelier program to explore strategies for adapting the text and experimenting with visual elements including projection, animation, and costume design.

PROJECT COMMUNITIES INTENTIONAL

The Civilians’ collaboration with Seattle’s acclaimed theater specializing in new work, A Contemporary Theatre (ACT). The Civilians’ team has been collaborating—both remotely and in person—with ACT’s ensemble of actors, the Core Company, on an investigation of intentional living past, present and future. They’ve interviewed eco-villages in the Pacific Northwest, talked to a former cult member, and looked at the pleasures and perils involved in negotiating a community of your own design.

Playwright Anne Washburn, director Steve Cosson, and dramaturg Siting Yang lead

WRITTEN BY ANNE WASHBURN

A RE-ENACTMENT OF THE (IMAGINED) TRIAL OF DAISY THE COW, WHO (ALLEGEDLY) CAUSED THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE

THE 2022-23

INSHALLAH

URSA MAJOR

R&D GROUP

BY DIVYA MANGWANI

BY XANDRA NUR CLARK

An interrogation of our legal and criminal justice systems through the completely fabricated trial of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, Daisy, accused of causing the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and thereby killing 300 people.

BLASIA

BY JULIA IZUMI BY ANDREW SAITO

DIRECTED BY AMY MARIE HAVEN

We are the rejects. The unwanteds. The hypersexualized and the desexualized. Blasia will sing the blues of our perpetual aloneness and explore the potential of BlackAsian love.

Now in its 12th year, The R&D Group is The Civilians’ lab for writers, directors, and composers who meet throughout the season to develop original pieces of investigative theater. The process culminates in our annual FINDINGS reading series, which is free and open to the public.

Games of chance have influenced historical and mythological events from the Mahabharata to the Mughal era and the Partition in South Asia. What are the ripple effects of these gambles?

A story of heritage, perspective, defiant love, and the work that often gets overlooked in the historical record, inspired by the stories of three real Soviet women and with a live soundtrack of Russian and Ukrainian folk songs.

UNTITLED NURSING HOME PROJECT

YOKO’S HUSBAND’S KILLER’S JAPANESE WIFE, GLORIA

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BY ADAM CHANLER-BERAT

MUSIC BY JULIAN HORNIK

As an artist devises a new work for the residents of a nursing home, destabilizing truths are revealed. This meta-theatrical interview-based musical will explore memory, usefulness, and fantasy as palliative care.

BOOK BY BRANDY HOANG COLLIER

LYRICS BY CLARE FUYUKO BIERMAN

MUSIC BY ERIKA JI

A musical fever dream that asks: Did Yoko Ono really break up The Beatles? Was Gloria Abe Chapman somehow responsible for John Lennon’s murder? Why do all these egotistical white guys have Asian wives? That’s weird, right?

NEW WORK DEVELOPMENT

The Civilians supports the creation and development of new plays and musicals through commissions, workshops, and The R&D Group. Commissioned artists include Jorge Cortiñas, Sylvia Bofill, and Anne Washburn.

ARTISTIC PROGRAMS

EXTENDED PLAY

An online journal for The Civilians and other artists working at the intersections of theater and society, featuring interviews, project profiles, and other explorations of community, politics, and new innovations in storytelling.

EDUCATION

We’re expanding the reach of our workshops, classes, and residencies, bringing the experience of making investigative theatre to a growing public of artists, students, and community groups.

Times Square, 2018, Minji Kim

SPECIAL PROJECTS

2023 SPRING BENEFIT CONCERT

This brilliant annual event brings together our everexpanding community of artists, citizens, and supporters –all while raising essential funds for The Civilians.

PUBLICATIONS

We’re thrilled to be publishing three Civilians scripts this season with Smith & Kraus: The Great Immensity , The Abominables , and The Undertaking

Read The Civilians’ Racial Justice Action Plan, Land Acknowledgement, and ongoing efforts to address systemic racism and oppression in our community.

COSSON

MOLL

BALKIN

MELISSA HARDY

CORDE

WILKERSON

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ALAIN ERIC GROENENDAAL Chair

SUANY CHOUGH Secretary

JOHN WOOD Treasurer STEVE COSSON Artistic Director

MICHAEL ABRAHAMS

REBECCA AGBE-DAVIES

AGENCY

CAROLINE BLAYNEY HENRY DONAHUE MICHAEL FRAZIER

JEANHEE KIM JULIA LAZARUS

BUTTAR

GRAPHIC DESIGN

JENNIFER R. MORRIS

ARMEN NERCESSIAN LAURIE STEMPLER

ELIZABETH ANGELL PETER FRIEDLAND

JESSICA HARRIS

MEMORIAM

MICHAEL FRIEDMAN

JOIN OUR BOARD

The Civilians is expanding and diversifying our Board of Directors. This is an exciting opportunity for professionals across a variety of fields to engage and support this brilliant artistic community, and join our off-Broadway theater company at a critical juncture.

INTERESTED?

Contact Margaret Moll, Managing Director at Margaret@thecivilians.org

THANK YOU

The Civilians is grateful for the support of The Howard Gilman Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; The National Endowment for the Arts; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; The Axe-Houghton Foundation; The John Golden Fund; The Leon Levy Foundation; The Lucille Lortel Foundation; Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation; NYC COVID - 19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust; and many generous individual donors. Subsidized studio space provided by the A.R.T./New York Creative Space Grant, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Undertaking, 2018, Aysan Celik and Dan Domingues

Spring Gala, 2018, Rebecca Naomi Jones and Jennifer Morris