the week of may 2 - 8, 2025
vermont farmers, mai tais, 7x tony nominee john proctor is the villain
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world premieres
Jiehae Park’s the aves starts performances May 2nd at Berkeley Rep. Knud Adams direct the “play about memory, forgiveness, and the possibility of becoming at any age.”
Julia Izumi’s Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with live & active cultures!) runs May 4 - June 1 at Woolly Mammoth in Washington, DC. The “whimsical world premiere weaving through media and memory to examine cultural imperialism, ‘healthy’ consumption, and why we make art” is directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy.
Tommy Crawford and Jessica Kahkoska’s The Vermont Farm Project starts performances May 7th at Northern Stage in White River Junction, VT. Directed and developed by Sarah Elizabeth Wansley—and based on three years of interviews with farmers across Vermont—the “indie-folk musical follows eight farmers from sunrise to sunset.”
productions
Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust starts performances May 2nd at The Alley Theatre in Houston, TX. The “tender journey of old friends Kenneth and Bert as they sip on mai tais at the local tiki bar, and Kenneth is forced to push past his boundaries and reconcile with his past” is directed by Niegel Smith.
Jordan Harrison’s The Antiquities runs May 3 - June 1 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in a co-pro with the Vineyard Theatre and Playwrights Horizons. David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan co-direct the new work set in a post-human world “as the curators at the Museum of Late Human Antiquities are fiercely committed to bringing a lost civilization to life again.”
Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi runs May 6 - June 1 at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Max Webster directs the “epic tale of adventure about a sixteen-year-old shipwreck survivor on a lifeboat with four other companions—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.”
Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Emma starts performances May 6th at Kansas City Rep. The “classic romp through Regency-era England navigating the complexities of matchmaking, friendship, and love” is directed by Meredith McDonough.
William Inge’s Bus Stop starts performances May 8th Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company in a co-pro with NAATCO and Transport Group. Jack Cummings III directs the 1955 classic about “a mismatched group of dreamers and cowboys, waitresses and outcasts finding unexpected warmth in one another” after a snowstorm strands bus passengers at a Kansas diner.
Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust runs May 8 - 25 at The McCarter in Princeton, NJ in a co-pro with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. The “absorbing and open-hearted comedy about new beginnings” is directed by Timothy Douglas.
Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza starts performances May 8th at The Huntington in Boston. Loretta Greco directs “the lush and sweeping musical story of a mother, a daughter, and the many meanings of love.”
Harrison David Rivers and Ted Shen’s We Shall Someday is now running through May 4th at Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, AL. The new musical “following three generations of a southern Black family, as they each encounter and confront acts of racial injustice” is directed by Ryan Dobrin and Tyler Thomas.
Hannah Moscovitch’s Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Jen Silverman’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Creditors are now playing in rep Off-Broadwat at the Minetta Lane Theatre through June 18th. Ian Rickson directs both works, presented in partnership from Audible Theater and TOGETHER. (The plays will be also be recorded and released on Audible at a later date.)
workshops & readings
Karina Billini’s Apple Bottom and Amita Sharma’s Birth of a Mother will have readings on May 5 & 6 as part of the EWG Spotlight Series at The Public Theater. Birth of a Mother is “a bold, brutally honest, and divine journey through motherhood and ancestry; Billini’s work is an “intimate examination of female-to-female caregiving, body dysmorphia, and what it means when the brown/Black female body is both ostracized and commodified.”
Kara Hadden’s Target Practice and Masha Breeze’s MOTHER OF JUNK will have readings on May 4 & 5 as part of The Bushwick Starr’s Starr Reading Series. Hadden’s work is “a bildungsroman about the most violent thing I’ve ever done, featuring slasher movies, metaphors, Columbine copycats, and my real-life girlfriend”; MOTHER OF JUNK explores “What happens when you lock a trans woman and a gay guy in a rat-infested furniture store for a thousand years?”
festivals
The Pacific Playwrights Festival runs May 2-4 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA. Readings include jose sebastian alberdi’s Rachel, Nevada (directed by Laura Dupper, dramaturged by Charles Haugland); JuCoby Johnson’s The Red Man (directed by H. Adam Harris, dramaturged by Zeina Salame); Kate Cortesi’s Ten Grand (directed by Rebecca Wear, dramaturged by Cortland Nesley); Jake Brasch’s Trip Around the Sun (directed by Shelley Butler, dramaturged by Olivia O'Connor); and Talene Monahon’s Eat Me (directed by Josiah Davis, dramaturged by Eric Shethar).
award season
Longtime NFTG readers will recall that I don’t usually wade too deep into NYC awards season, as there’s already an entire cottage industry devoted to Broadway analysis. But because certain nominations made me cry yesterday (I’ll let you guess which ones), I’ll make an exception:
Tony Award nominations: John Proctor is the Villain and The Hills of California tied for most nominated play with seven (!!); Buena Vista Social Club, Maybe Happy Ending, and Death Becomes Her each received ten nominations in the musical categories.
Drama Desk nominations: BOOP! The Musical received eleven total nods; Cats: The Jellicle Ball was the most nominated Off-Broadway show. (John Proctor is the Villain received four, including Outstanding Play.)
Outer Critics Circle nominations: The most nominated musicals were Death Becomes Her (12), Maybe Happy Ending (9), BOOP! The Musical (8); Stranger Things: The First Shadow (7), The Hills of California (6), and Purpose (5) received the most play nominations.
A few explanatory commas for the non-industry readers:
Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards honor both Broadway and Off Broadway productions, so it’s a larger pool of eligible nominees than the Tonys.
Many Broadway productions (Dead Outlaw; Oh, Mary!; Buena Vista Social Club; English) weren’t considered for Drama Desk or OCC nominations this year because they were eligible for their Off Broadway runs in past seasons.
2025-26 season updates
Baltimore Center Stage announced its upcoming season. The line-up includes Liza Jessie Peterson’s The Peculiar Patriot (directed by Talvin Wilks), the stage adaptation of Louis Sachar’s Holes (directed by Johanna Gruenhut), nicHi douglas' (pray), a workshop production of Karen Li's Canton Waterfront, and two world premieres: Nygel D. Robinson's Santa Claus Is Comin': A Motown Christmas Revue (directed and choreographed by Ken-Matt Martin and Victor Musoni) and Lena Waithe’s Trinity (directed by Stevie Walker-Webb).
Studio Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The Washington, DC theatre will produce Lloyd Suh’s The Heart Sellers (directed by Danilo Gambini), Paula Vogel’s Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions (directed by Margot Bordelon), Dave Malloy’s Octet (directed by David Muse), Rachel Bonds’ Jonah, Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious (directed by Psalmayene 24), and a special presentation of Harry Milas’ The Unfair Advantage.
NextStop Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The Herndon, VA theatre’s line-up includes Eliana Pipes’ Dream Hou$e (directed by Dylan Arredondo); Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years (directed by Aria Velz); Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj (directed by Mekala Sridhar); Enda Walsh, Glen Hansard, and Markéta Irglová’s musical Once (directed by Heather Lanza); and the world premiere of Nia Akilah Robinson’s ↓ D←R←O←W←N←E←R [Renword] (directed by Heather Lanza).
across the pond
The National Theatre in London announced its upcoming season. The inaugural 16-play line-up (stretching into 2027) from artistic director Indhu Rubasingham includes:
a repertory presentation of Tom Murphy's A Whistle in the Dark (directed by Caitríona McLaughlin) and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (directed by Rebecca Frecknall) with Paul Mescal leading both productions
Shakespeare's Hamlet (directed by Robert Hastie)
John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World (directed by McLaughlin and starring Nicola Couglan)
Tracey Scott Wilson's The Story (directed by Clint Dyer and starring Letitia Wright)
Christopher Hampton’s translation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (directed by Marianne Elliott and starring Monica Barbaro and Lesley Manville)
Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9 (directed by Dominic Cooke)
Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy (directed by Anthony Lau)
And eight world premieres:
Nima Taleghani's Bacchae (directed by Rubasingham)
Stephen Beresford, Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen, and DJ Walde’s musical Pride (directed by Matthew Warchus)
Kendall Feaver's adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's novel Ballet Shoes (directed by Katy Rudd)
Anupama Chandrasekhar’s adaptation of The Jungle Book (directed by Rubasingham and featuring puppetry by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes)
Carmen Nasr’s Samira
Winsome Pinnock's The Authenticator (directed by Miranda Cromwell)
a new commission from the immersive theatre company Punchdrunk
a theatrical collaboration with British-Ghanian artist-musician Stormzy
the regional theatre game of thrones
Arin Arbus is the new artistic director of Theatre for a New Audience. Arbus served TFANA for over a decade as the theatre’s first associate artistic director, a post she held until 2017. She succeeds founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz, who is stepping down after 45 years.
what i read this week (JPITV edition)
Costume designer Sarah Laux and director Danya Taymor on the costuming in John Proctor is the Villain for CR Fashion Book:
“I remember being a teenage girl and feeling that weird power, knowing that I had this thing in me that society was telling me was a danger to other people and a danger to myself,” Laux told CR. “When you’re a teenager, you have that weird thing of wanting to be perceived but also not wanting anyone to pay any attention to you.”
Precise contemporary costuming rarely gets award attention, but one of the characters in John Proctor in the Villain wears a polo shirt in three scenes that tells me everything I need to know about their emotional state and home life — and that’s all Sarah’s brilliance.
Rolling Stone’s CT Jones on the play’s musical lynchpin: Lorde’s “Green Light”:
“Even before I knew how the play was going to end, I knew there would be a dance to ‘Green Light,’” [Kimberly] Belflower, 37, tells Rolling Stone. “When I listened to it [for the first time], it punched me in the gut and ripped open my soul…‘Green Light’ captures what it’s like to move through trauma, a painful experience, and come out on the other side knowing that I’m gonna make something out of it. I’ve been through hell but that hell has given me access to something new. It’s the axis of defiance.”
“People are naming girlhood as this precious thing, and I hope that it makes us feel more protective of it. Politicians are feeling threatened by the collective power of it. They’re trying to strip us of the connection we have to each other by limiting who can be [a part],” Belflower says. “The play has always been concerned with how power perpetuates itself and how hierarchies are built to last and hard to disrupt. The systems are not going to take care of us. We have to take care of each other.”
Saw John Proctor Is the Villain on Wednesday because of reading about it in this newsletter these last few years. It was so impressive and gave me a shockingly good cry. Congrats on all the Tonys. The Tony for Dramaturgy goes to YOU.