the week of may 3 - 9, 2024
lehman brothers and kim loo sisters
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ICYMI: This month’s money diary — from an ensemble theatre leader juggling multiple workshops with school pick-ups — dropped on Wednesday:
world premieres
R. Eric Thomas’ An Army of Lovers runs May 2 - 19 in a co-production between Azuka Theatre and Simpatico Theatre in Philadelphia. Kash Goins directs the new work about “an aging queer activist invited to the sleek, enclosed campus of a global communications company to give a speech for their first Pride celebration. She does not come in peace. Think Audre Lorde crash-landing in the Succession universe.” (Side Note: If you haven’t read R. Eric Thomas’ hilarious essay collections Here For It and Congratulations, The Best Is Over!, why are you denying yourself joy?)
Kirsten Greenidge’s Morning Noon and Night is now playing at Company One in Boston. The “eccentric reflection of post-pandemic life navigating familial reckoning, digital surveillance, and the ways we can love each other after four long and traumatic years” is directed by Summer L. Williams and dramaturged by Ilana M. Brownstein.
Jessica Huang and Jacinth Greywoode’s Blended 和 (Harmony): The Kim Loo Sisters runs May 4 - 26 in a co-production between Theater Mu and The History Theatre in Minneapolis. Lily Tung Crystal directs the new musical about the titular quartet of Minneapolis natives who “gained popularity during the swing era and performed across the country, on the silver screen of Hollywood, and overseas at USO shows.”
Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez’s Stir starts previews May 4th at The Old Globe in San Diego. The commissioned play following “two siblings, separated by distance and circumstance, meeting to share their mother’s favorite recipe” is directed by Marcela Lorca.
Zoe Sarnak, Michael Weiner, and Danny Strong’s new rock musical Galileo runs May 5 - June 16 at Berkeley Rep. Michael Mayer directs the “explosive collision of science and faith, truth and power.”
Mara Vélez Mélendez’s Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members starts previews May 5th in a co-production between San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre and Moxie Theatre. The “drag fantasmagoria questioning who decides what’s best for Puerto Rico” is directed by Andréa Agosto.
Raja Feather Kelly’s The Fires runs May 8 - June 16 at Soho Rep. Kelly also directs the surreal new work set in “1974, 1998, and 2021, as three different men in a South Brooklyn railroad apartment write, read, fuck, flirt, eat, and fight at the same time.”
Julia May Jonas’ Problems Between Sisters starts previews May 8th at Studio Theatre in DC. A response to Sam Shepard’s True West, the “funny and savage take on domestication, creativity, and the elusive demands of the Primal Female” is directed by Sivan Battat.
EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn’s musical tl;dr: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix runs May 9 - June 2 in a co-production from San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre and Moxie Theatre. Sherri Eden Barber directs the “queer odyssey — aided by a kick-ass Riot Grrrl band — that defies conventions and dares to ask: ‘Why do strong female characters always gotta die?’”
productions
Luke Casserly’s Distillation is now playing at Eaton DC in a co-production between DC’s Solas Nua and The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The “performance journey to the Irish bog landscape through scent” is offering $10 cost-accessible tickets this weekend.
Ben Power’s adaptation of The Lehman Trilogy starts performances May 3rd at The Denver Center. Margot Bordelon directs the generations-spanning storytelling feat following “three German-Jewish immigrant brothers, and their descendants, as they navigate fire, flood, war, and panic to build a financial behemoth that changed America.”
Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew runs May 4 - June 9 at The Guthrie in Minneapolis. The Detroit-set drama “wrestling with questions of grief, loyalty and self-preservation while exploring the monumental impact of the Recession-era economy on middle-class life” is directed by Austene Van.
Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses starts previews May 7th at The Folger Theatre in DC. Psalmayene 24 directs “Ovid’s classic stories of the loves, losses, and transformations of gods and mortals reimagined for the 21st century.”
Winnie Holzman’s Choice runs May 8 - June 2 at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ. The new comedy “exploring a woman’s right to choose in decidedly unexpected, often hilarious, and ultimately thought-provoking ways” is directed by Sarah Rasmussen.
Robin Frohardt’s The Plastic Bag Store runs May 9 - September 2 at MASS MoCA in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival. The public art installation and immersive film experience uses “humor, craft, and a critical lens to question our culture of consumption and convenience — specifically, the enduring effects of single-use plastics.”
Roger Q. Mason’s Lavender Men starts performances May 9th at About Face Theatre in Chicago. Lucky Stiff directs the energetic and surreal play about “a fat, multi-racial femme with a unique form of queer magic: she can conjure dead historical figures.”
Jenny Koons’ adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest runs May 9 -26 at Baltimore Center Stage. The reimagined version of the Oscar Wilde classic is also directed by Koons.
Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song starts performances May 9th at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA. Evren Odcikin directs the revised, two-act version of Torch Song Trilogy, following Arnold Beckoff, “a lovelorn Jewish drag queen” who has grown weary of casual flings and longs for real, lasting relationship.
Philly Grit: A Pirate, A School Girl, & A Good Person runs May 8 - 19 at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia. The limited run of three solo shows by Jenna Kuerzi, Val Dunn, Kelly McCaughan, and Brett Ashley Robinson “takes a wild voyage through Johnny Depp’s career catalog, the naughty thoughts of Catholic school girls, and a hyperbolic treatment of the ‘do-gooder.’”
workshops & readings
Sam Hamashima’s Supposed Home will have a reading on May 6th as part of Bedlam’s Do More: New Plays Series. The poetic impression traces a grandmother navigating “questions from a curious grandson about her time in the Japanese American concentration camps, as her world splits into dueling realities of truth, fiction, anime, and realism.”
festivals
Keen Company's DirectorFest, presented in collaboration with The Drama League, runs May 3 - 11 at Theatre Row in NYC. Nadia Guevara directs Cassandra Medley's Cell and Ibi Owolabi directs Lynn Nottage's Poof!.
digital, audio, & streaming
Katie Hileman’s I Will Eat You Alive will have an encore virtual screening co-hosted by Interrobang Productions and Embody Lib on May 8th at 8 PM EST. The play in the form of a dinner party “confronting diet culture, fatphobia, and what it’s really like to be a fat woman in the age of Ozempic” originally premiered in January at Baltimore’s The Voxel.
award season
The 2024 Drama Desk nominations were announced. The Off-Broadway musical Dead Outlaw led with eleven nominations, followed by The Outsiders (9), Stereophonic (8), Suffs (8), and The Connector (8). The cast of Stereophonic will receive the Ensemble Award and Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! (which I’m seeing tonight) won the Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award.
The 2024 Tony Award nominations were announced. Hell’s Kitchen and Stereophonic each received 13 nominations, followed by The Outsiders (12), Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (9), Appropriate (8), and Merrily We Roll Along (7). Per usual, there’s already a slew of analysis and speculation:
The NYT’s Jesse Green, Alexis Soloski and Scott Heller on the snubs and surprises (gift link)
The Vulture staff’s “Tony Noms Debrief: Niche Rules and the Fall of Boomersicals” in its Stage Whisperer newsletter, which I consistently enjoy
Two anonymous Tony voters dissecting this year’s ballot and how they’re planning to vote in Vulture
2024-25 season updates
Center Theatre Group announced its 2024-25 season. The Los Angeles company’s line-up includes Green Day’s American Idiot (directed by Snehal Desai, in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre), Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (directed by Matthew Bourne), Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi (directed by Max Webster), Robert O’Hara’s new adaptation of Hamlet, Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s Parade (directed by Michael Arden), and the world premiere of Larissa FastHorse’s Fake It Until You Make It (directed by Michael John Garcés, co-pro with Arena Stage).
Studio Theatre announced its 2024-25 season. The DC theatre will produce Dave Harris’ Exception to the Rule (directed by Miranda Haymon); David Auburn’s Summer, 1976; Bruce Norris’ Downstate (directed by David Muse); Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue (directed by Raymond O. Caldwell), Aurora Real de Asua’s Wipeout (directed by Danilo Gambini), and the world premiere of Matthew Capodicasa’s The Scenarios.
Westport Country Playhouse announced its 2024-25 season. The Connecticut theatre will produce Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of The 39 Steps, Karen Zacarías’ Native Gardens, Paul Slade Smith’s Theatre People, and Mark Shanahan’s A Sherlock Carol.
Diversionary Theatre announced its 2024-25 season. The San Diego company’s line-up includes Sam Bolen, Max Friedman, and Mark Sonnenblick’s musical Midnight at The Never Get (directed by Stephen Brotebeck); Harrison David Rivers’ we are continuous (directed by Kian Kline-Chilton); and Hansol Jung’s Merry Me.
the regional theatre game of thrones
John Langs is stepping down as artistic director of ACT Contemporary Theatre. Langs has led the Seattle-based company for a decade; he is leaving to become the Drama Dean at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
what i read/watched this week when i wasn’t thinking about challengers (and i was constantly thinking about challengers)
Lynn Nottage, Hansol Jung, and Jen Silverman in conversation about Paula Vogel’s Mother Play at 3Views on Theater.
The Recovery Project’s latest video on how arts organizations can break the stigma around addiction and create recovery-friendly workplaces.
Jen Silverman’s NYT op-ed “Art Isn’t Supposed to Make You Comfortable” (gift link) on the American compulsion to confuse art with moral instruction (and vice versa):
“But what art offers us is crucial precisely because it is not a bland backdrop or a platform for simple directives. Our books, plays, films and TV shows can do the most for us when they don’t serve as moral instruction manuals but allow us to glimpse our own hidden capacities, the slippery social contracts inside which we function, and the contradictions we all contain.
We need more narratives that tell us the truth about how complex our world is. We need stories that help us name and accept paradoxes, not ones that erase or ignore them. After all, our experience of living in communities with one another is often much more fluid and changeable than it is rigidly black and white. We have the audiences that we cultivate, and the more we cultivate audiences who believe that the job of art is to instruct instead of investigate, to judge instead of question, to seek easy clarity instead of holding multiple uncertainties, the more we will find ourselves inside a culture defined by rigidity, knee-jerk judgments and incuriosity.”