the week of march 29 - april 4, 2024
adaptations, riffs, spins, reinventions
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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim
world premieres
Deborah Zoe Laufer’s The Last Yiddish Speaker runs March 29 - April 21 at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Seth Rozin directs the new work set in an alternate future where “a white supremacist regime has come to power after a successful January 6th insurrection” and a Jewish father and daughter living under the radar must “decide between fleeing again or fighting for their faith, their heritage and their identity.”
Paula Vogel’s Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions starts performances April 3rd on Broadway. The “bitingly funny and unflinchingly honest new play about the hold our family has over us and the surprises we find when we unpack the past” is directed by Tina Landau.
Nelson Diaz-Marcano’s Las Borinqueñas runs April 3-28 at NYC’s Ensemble Studio Theatre. Set in 1950s Puerto Rico, the “story of the birth control pill and the women who risked everything for the chance to live free” is directed by Rebecca Aparicio.
Nicholas Griffin’s Dangerous Days runs April 4-28 at Miami New Drama. Jen Wineman directs the adaptation of Griffin’s acclaimed book chronicling the Cuban refugee crisis, cocaine epidemic, and riots that dominated Miami in 1980 before the city’s transformation into a premier vacation destination.
Lisa Sanaye Dring’s Kairos starts performances on April 4th at East West Players in Los Angeles. The “deeply sensitive investigation of two humans whose ideal ‘happily-ever-after’ is terrifyingly outpaced by relentless technological and societal upheaval” is directed by Jesca Prudencio.
Keiko Green’s The Bed Trick is now running through April 7th at Seattle Shakespeare. Makaela Milburn directs the new comedy about two college freshmen partying their way through the school year until their “drama-nerd-roommate brings in baggage from a student production of All’s Well That Ends Well, [causing] ideas of consent and manipulation to seep into their lives.”
productions
Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein’s Unknown Soldier starts performances March 29th at DC’s Arena Stage. The generations-spanning musical “about one woman’s journey to unearth the secrets buried in her family’s past” is directed by Trip Cullman.
Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City runs March 29 - April 25 at TheaterWorks Hartford. Jacob G. Padrón and Pedro Bermúdez co-direct the “compelling story of two teenagers, young DREAMers who are fighting to establish a place for themselves in America, the only country they know as home.”
Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind starts performances March 29th at Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, SC. The revival of Childress’ 1955 “funny, moving, and heartbreaking look at racism, identity, and ego in the high-stakes world of New York theatre” is directed by Amanda Washington.
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord runs March 30 - May 5 at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Chay Yew directs the Pulitzer finalist solo performance following the early pandemic days of Wong’s “Auntie Sewing Squad, a work-from-home sweatshop of hundreds of volunteers—including children and her own mother—to fix the U.S. public health care system while in quarantine. It was a feminist care utopia forming in the midst of crisis. Or was it a mutual aid doomsday cult?”
The American premiere of Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams’ Ride starts performances March 30th at The Old Globe in San Diego. The 1895-set, continents-spanning new musical about Annie Londonderry, the first woman to bicycle around the world, is directed by Sarah Meadows.
Heidi Schreck’s new version of Uncle Vanya starts previews April 2nd at Lincoln Center Theater. Lila Neugebauer directs the “strikingly immediate new translation” of Chekhov’s 1898 masterwork following “a family forced to reckon with the ghosts of their unlived lives.” (I’ve also linked it in a section below, but I highly recommend Helen Shaw’s profile of Lila in The New Yorker this week.)
Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando runs April 2 - May 12 at NYC’s Signature Theatre. The “theatrical, wild, fantastical trip through space, time, and gender” adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel is directed and choreographed by Will Davis.
Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Brecht’s The Good Person of Setzuan starts performances April 2nd at The Wilma in Philadelphia. The “classic parable is retold and radically reclaimed through the vision of director Justin Jain with original live music and members of the Wilma HotHouse Acting Company.”
James Ijames’ Fat Ham starts performances April 3rd at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Stevie Walker-Webb directs the Pulitzer Prize-winning reinvention of Hamlet, set at an “uproarious family cookout…a compelling examination of love, loss, masculinity, pain and joy.”
Nick Brooke’s Ten Transcendental Etudes runs April 4 - 7 at HERE in NYC. The 10-movement theater piece features “six performers belting, twirling, seesawing, and crooning through a mashed lexicon of love songs [as the performance] melds sampling, sound design, and physical theater and looks at how songs dominate how we talk about each other.”
workshops & readings
The 2024 Fresh Ink Reading Series runs April 3 - 12 at Primary Stages. This year’s readings include Eric Micha Holmes’ Skybox, Benjamin Benne’s this man i call mi primo, Oscar A. L. Cabrera’s A Good Goodbye, Jonathan Norton’s Malcolm X and Redd Foxx Washing Dishes At Jimmy's Chicken Shack In Harlem, Calamity West’s Sgt. Hank Cole's Drama Club of Algona, Fedna Jacquet’s Uncle V, and Madhuri Shekar’s The Little Clay Cart.
digital & streaming
Jordan Seavey’s The Seven Year Disappear will livestream its final performances on March 29 - 31. Scott Elliott directs the “funny, deeply human mystery about mothers and sons, coming of age, and coming apart” starring Cynthia Nixon and Taylor Trensch.
2024-25 season updates
Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC announced its 2024-25 season. The line-up includes Comedy of Errors (directed by Simon Godwin), Joe DiPietro’s Babbitt (directed by Christopher Ashley, in association with La Jolla Playhouse), Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (directed by Carey Perloff, in association with The Huntington), John Kani’s Kunene and The King (directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, in association with Octopus Theatricals), Conor McPherson’s adaptation of Uncle Vanya (directed by Godwin, in association with Berkeley Rep), Emily Burns’ adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (also directed by Burns), and Patrick Page’s solo performance All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain (directed by Godwin).
McCarter Theatre Center announced its 2024-25 season. The Princeton, NJ theatre will kick off with the world premiere of Zoe Sarnak and Carol Heikkinen’s musical adaptation of Empire Records (directed by Trip Cullman and choreographed by Ellenore Scott), 7 Fingers’ Duel Reality, Tectonic Theater Project’s Here There Are Blueberries (conceived and directed by Moisés Kaufman), Karen Zacarías' Legacy of Light (directed by Sarah Rasmussen), and Eboni Booth's Primary Trust (directed by Timothy Douglas, co-pro with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park).
Geva Theatre announced its 2024-25 season. The Rochester, NY theatre will produce the musical Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (directed by Stuart Ross, co-pro with Berkshire Theatre Group and Bay Street Theater), August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned, Christina Ham’s Nina Simone: Four Women, Heather Chrisler’s adaptation of Little Women, Vickie Ramirez’s Pure Native (directed by Randy Reinholz), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (directed by Karen Azenberg, co-pro with Pioneer Theatre Company), Hershey Felder’s George Gershwin Alone (directed by Joel Zwick), and the world premiere commission of Harrison David Rivers’ adaptation of A Christmas Carol (directed by Elizabeth Williamson).
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis announced its 2024-25 season. The line-up includes Dial M for Murder, Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s, Ken Ludwig’s Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood, and the musical Million Dollar Quartet Christmas (in partnership with STAGES St. Louis).
American Conservatory Theater announced its 2024-25 season. The San Francisco theatre will produce a reimagined version of Noël Coward's Private Lives (directed by KJ Sanchez), Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter’s musical Nobody Loves You (directed by Pam MacKinnon), August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (directed by Lili-Anne Brown), Christina Anderson’s modern verse translation of The Comedy of Errors (directed by Devin Brain), Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience, and the world premieres of Craig Lucas and Pam MacKinnon’s A Whynot Christmas Carol and Ryan Nicole Austin, Beau Lewis, and Adesha Adefela’s hip-hop musical Co-Founders (directed by Jamil Jude).
Seattle Rep announced its 2024-25 season. The line-up includes Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth (directed by Dámaso Rodríguez), Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust (directed by Kaytlin McIntyre), Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit (directed by Allison Narver), Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton), Alexis Scheer’s Laughs in Spanish, The 7 Fingers’ Duel Reality (directed and choreographed by Shana Carroll), and the world premiere of Lauren Yee’s Mother Russia (or Periods of Collapse).
Asolo Repertory Theatre announced its 2024-25 season. The Sarasota, FL company will produce Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (directed by Shelley Butler); Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics (directed by Marcela Lorca); Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (directed by Joe Dowling); Doug Wright’s Good Night, Oscar (directed by Peter Amster); Jesus Christ Superstar (directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes); and the world premiere of Ken Ludwig's Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (directed by Peter Rothstein).
Theater J announced its 2024-25 season. The DC theatre will produce Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic (directed by Hayley Finn), Ari’el Stachel’s Out of Character (directed by Tony Taccone, co-presented with Mosaic Theater Company), José Rivera’s Your Name Means Dream (also directed by Rivera), Andrea Stolowitz’s The Berlin Diaries, and an encore presentation of Sun Mee Chomet’s How to Be a Korean Woman (directed and dramaturged by Zaraawar Mistry).
things I read this week when i wasn’t listening to the new waxahatchee album on repeat
Helen Shaw’s profile of director Lila Neugebauer, who is currently represented on Broadway with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate and the soon-to-open Uncle Vanya at Lincoln Center (The New Yorker)
Jared Strange on Mosaic Theater Company’s multi-year H Street Oral History Project, which culminated earlier this month with a festival centered on readings of three new plays by DC playwrights, drawn from interviews with residents of the historic neighborhood (American Theatre)
Regina Victor and Sean Daniels in conversation about Sean’s play The White Chip and The Recovery Project, an initiative aiming to transform public narratives on addiction (Howlround)
DC artist Ezra Tozian on how industry resistance to maintaining robust COVID protections is an EDIA failure and the necessity of holding organizations accountable to their purported values — an essay that pairs nicely with Taylor Leigh Lamb’s “We Can’t Build an Equitable Theatre While Ignoring COVID”, which was published last week by Howlround.
that new Waxahatchee tho