the week of june 7-13, 2024
Bible fanfic, Jellicle cats, the Philadelphia 76ers
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icymi: bills, bills, bills #25
It’s the second anniversary of Bills, Bills, Bills! In the last two years, Jenna and I have published twenty-five money diaries from theatre workers across the country (and one across the pond.) Each column averages over 10,000 views! Several of the diaries generated a comparable amount of salty opinions, per my inboxes. (My mom is also very concerned about some of your food budgets and wants to send you a lasagna.) Thanks to all of our contributors — and to everyone fighting for fair wages and salary transparency.
This month’s column is from an artistic staffer without a car juggling a festival schedule:
bills, bills, bills #25
world premieres
Marin Ireland’s Pre-Existing Condition starts previews June 7th at The Connelly Theater Off Broadway. Maria Dizzia directs the new work “exploring the challenges, shared community, and everyday indignities of learning to move forward after a life-altering, harmful relationship.”
The Hearth’s production of Nia Akilah Robinson’s Push Party runs June 7-23 at NYC’s Theaterlab. The ensemble comedy “inspired by Black women’s stories of birth and motherhood and by the joys and challenges of life in Harlem” is directed by Chesray Dolpha.
Rachel Lynett’s Letters to Kamala and Dandelion Peace start performances June 8th from DC’s Voices Festival Productions. A. Lorraine Robinson directs the double bill about “how Women of Color rise to power, its precarity, and what we all must sacrifice for change.”
Luis Quintero’s Medea: Re-Versed starts performances June 11th at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in a co-pro with Red Bull Theater and Bedlam. The “ice-cold, high-octane adaptation of Euripides’ play written in battle rap verse” is co-conceived and directed by Nathan Winkelstein.
Heidi Armbruster’s adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd starts performances June 13th at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, NY. The “highly theatrical adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1926 masterpiece delving deep into the human psyche’s intricate dance with truth and deception” is directed by Ryan Quinn.
Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road runs June 13 - July 21 at Steppenwolf in Chicago. The “comic, cosmic, intimate” new work about “a reclusive aunt and her gay nephew reuniting to sort the mess left behind after a troubled father's passing” is directed by Joe Mantello.
productions
Tue Biering’s Dark Noon runs June 7 - July 7 at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Biering also directs (and Nhlanhla Mahlangu co-directs and choreographs) the “equal parts ridiculous, horrifying and deeply profound” Wild Wild West circus retelling “the Hollywood story of a High Noon Western through an outsider’s lens: Native Americans, cowboys, missionaries, enslaved Africans, Chinese workers, European settlers, prostitutes, and Confederates.”
Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s starts performances June 6th in a co-production between ArtsWest and The Hansberry Project in Seattle, WA. Valerie Curtis-Newton directs the truck stop cafe-set comedy that “asks us to consider the long-term weight of the criminal justice system, the difficulties of reentry, and how we view second chances.”
Josh Rice’s Kayfabe runs June 6 & 7 at Dixon Place in NYC. The “puppet wrestling entertainment spectacular” is a “semi-autobiographical meta-fictional love letter to pro wrestling, where high art meets low art meets Samuel Beckett.”
August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean runs June 8 - 30 at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ. The first play in Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle is directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.
The Bushwick Starr’s production of Michelle J. “Micha” Rodriguez’s Presencia starts previews June 11th at The Connelly Theater in NYC. Mei Ann Teo directs the “tender and comedic millennial music theater piece that reshapes the Moses story for women of color grappling with the hazards and challenges of leadership, told with Bible-fan-fiction vibes, varying degrees of reverence and satire, and a vibrant anthemic musical score rooted in jazz/R&B.”
Justin Huertas’s Lizard Boy runs June 11 - October 12 at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Brandon Ivie directs the “queer, coming-of-age comic-book meets indie-rock musical about a lonesome outsider who only leaves his house once a year for Monsterfest after a childhood run-in with a dragon turned his skin to scales.”
Mike Lew’s Tiny Father starts performances June 12th at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. The “funny and heartfelt” new work about a “new dad learning to navigate the protocols and frustrations of NICU life on his uncertain path to parenthood” is directed by Mortiz von Stuelpnagel.
CATS: The Jellicle Ball runs June 13 - July 14 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in NYC. The “radical reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical staged as a spectacularly immersive Ballroom competition” is directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch and choreographed by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles.
workshops & readings
Jennifer Rumberger’s The Fires will have a reading on June 10th as part of The Gift Theatre’s In The Works series. Jess Hutchinson directs the play-in-progress set outside a Los Angeles 7/11 as two men “watch a wildfire come closer and closer, the latest in a series of natural catastrophes that have caused massive casualties all over the United States, as they are forced to contend with the end of not only their relationship, but their lives as well.”
Karina Billini’s Apple Bottom will have a reading on June 13th as part of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s First Light Festival. The new work follows two women — a humble neighbor and high-strung influencer — at a post-BBL recovery center.
festivals
The New Group’s FreeFest runs June 13-20 at the Pershing Square Signature Center in NYC. The weeklong festival of free new work readings includes Shannon Burkett and Heather Christian’s The Female Pope (directed by Johanna McKeon, music direction by Brian Usifer), Banna Desta’s Red Taxi (directed by Yohana Desta), Nadia Davids’ Hold Still (directed by Jay Pather), Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley’s The Last Bimbo of The Apocalypse (directed by and developed with Rory Pelsue, music direction by Dan Schlosberg), and Kate Douglas and Grace McLean’s Hag (directed by Kate Whoriskey, music direction by Or Matias).
Ars Nova’s ANT Fest runs June 10-27. This week’s offerings from the annual showcase of new work from “New Yorks most adventurous emerging artists” includes Gemma Soldati and Scott R. Sheppard’s House Fire Flag Father (June 10), Mikey Rose’s cyber-folk concert SUNFACE, (or music-for-robots) (June 11), Elijah Guo and Dylin Taylor’s Tourist Trap (June 12), and Alex Beige’s Website Evangelist: Eulogy for a Laptop (June 13).
digital & live audio
Kate Attwell’s Testmatch is available to stream on demand June 4-7 from Orange Tree Theatre in the UK. Diane Page directs the ensemble dramedy about cricket, colonialism and nationalism that “explores and explodes the mythology of fair play.”
Press Play: The Parsnip Podcast Experience will take place June 8th at JACK in Brooklyn. The in-person day of interactive listening experiences includes the launch of Jesse Jae Joon’s 12 Chairs (directed by Charlotte Murray with musical guest Mike O’Malley) and two live podcast recordings of radio plays: Darrel Alejandro Holnes’ Bird of Prey (directed by Phillip Christian Smith with musical guest Justice LaBrave) and Janelle Lawrence’s Trenzas (directed by Jean Carlo Yunen A. with musical guest Two32).
the regional theatre game of thrones
Derek Charles Livingston is the new artistic director of Stages in Houston. He is currently the director of new play development at Utah Shakespeare Festival. Livingston succeeds Kenn McLaughlin, who retires this month after 25 years with the company.
Sherri Eden Barber is the new artistic director of Diversionary Theatre in San Diego. Barber, the current AD of Ricochet Collective and resident director of Hamilton on the West Coast, succeeds Matt M. Morrow, who departed the LGTBQIA+ theatre last June.
Paul Daigneault is stepping down as artistic director of SpeakEasy Stage after 32 years. He founded the Boston theatre in 1992 and will depart next June.
end of an era
SPACE on Ryder Farm is ceasing operations after thirteen years. Citing the pandemic and “the loss of major funding sources”, the artist residency program in Brewster, NY will suspend operations at the end of 2024, but will not dissolve. (The Board is investigating options for SPACE’s future.)
2024-25 season updates
Woolly Mammoth announced its summer & fall line-up. The DC theatre will produce Julia Masli’s ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (co-directed by Julia Masli and Kim Noble), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ The Comeuppance (directed by Morgan Green, co-pro with The Wilma), The Second City’s Dance Like There’s Black People Watching (directed by Rob Wilson), and a special presentation of Waterwell’s The Ford/Hill Project (created by Lee Sunday Evans and Elizabeth Marvel).
Philadelphia Theatre Company announced its 2024-25 season. The line-up, focused on local artists and stories, includes Erlina Ortiz’s La Egoista (directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo), The Lazours’ new musical Night Side Songs (directed by Taibi Magar, in association with A.R.T.), and Mickle Maher, Merel van Dijk and Anthony Barilla’s musical Small Ball (directed by Taibi Magar & Tyler Dobrowsky, commissioned and co-produced by Daryl Morey, President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers). The company will also host a reading of MK Tuomanen’s Night Science next spring.
American Repertory Theater announced its 2024-25 season. The Cambridge, MA company will produce Romeo & Juliet (directed by Diane Paulus and choreographed by Sidi Larbi Chekaoui) and three world premieres: Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer (directed by Torya Beard), Kate Hamill’s adaptation of The Odyssey (directed by Shana Cooper), and The Lazours’ musical Night Side Songs (directed by Taibi Magar, in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company).
ArtsEmerson announced its 2024-25 season. The Boston performing arts center will present Christopher Rivas’ Rough Magic, Ontroerend Goed’s Fight Night, Dianne McIntyre Group’s In the Same Tongue, Papel Machete’s On the Eve of Abolition, J.M Coetzee’s The Life & Times of Michael K, Romeo Candido and Carmen De Jesus’ Prison Dancer: The Musical, FlawBored’s It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure, The Seasons (co-pro with Boston Lyric Opera), and Theater Mitu’s Utopian Hotline.
Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA announced its 2024-25 season. The line-up includes David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s Soft Power (directed by Ethan Heard), Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust (directed by Taylor Reynolds), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (directed by Matthew Gardiner), Max Wolf Friedlich’s Job (directed by Matthew Gardiner), Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ In the Heights (directed by James Vásquez), John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch (directed by Ethan Heard), and Joe Iconis and Gregory S. Moss’ The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (directed by Christopher Ashley).