the week of november 3 - 9, 2023
the first 2024-25 season announcement and the last email you will get from me this week
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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim
icymi: bills, bills, bills & a guest essay
I try not to clog your inboxes, but that’s how content schedules aligned this week. First up: this month’s money diary from an NYC-based freelance designer in their 60s dropped on Wednesday:
I’m also so thrilled to partner with my two favorite independent, artist-led theatre criticism sites Rescripted and 3Views on Theater on a new monthly essay series. On the first Thursday of every month, the three of us will co-publish call-to-actions, meditations, and offerings from prominent thinkers and leaders in the field who are thinking beyond crisis and toward transformation. This week, we jointly shared a guest essay from Long Wharf artistic director Jacob Padrón:
productions
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot starts previews November 4th at Theatre for a New Audience. Arin Arbus directs Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks in “the modern theatre’s indispensable document of rootlessness, uncertainty, and perpetually postponed deliverance.”
The world premiere of Joe DiPetro’s Babbitt runs November 7 - December 10 at La Jolla Playhouse. The adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ 1922 satirical novel about a middle-aged real estate broker rebelling against the vacuity of his middle-class existence is directed by Christopher Ashley.
The world premiere of Jen Silverman’s Spain starts previews November 8th at Second Stage. Tyne Rafaeli directs “the seductive and funny new play about the art of propaganda and the dangerous ongoing Disinformation Age explores how art can change the world—for better and worse.”
Jill Sobule and Liza Birkenmeier’s musical F*ck7thGrade runs November 8-26 at wild project. The “queer musical memoir (about how we’ll never get out of middle school)” is directed by Lisa Peterson.
Ikechukwu Ufomadu’s Amusements & Milo Cramer’s School Pictures start previews November 8th at Playwrights Horizons. Morgan Green directs Cramer’s “charming musical journal of keen observations which builds to a sweeping meditation on inequality, learning, parenting, and the cruelty of puberty.” Nemuna Ceesay directs the English comedian Ufomadu’s genre-defying work “using his time-tested tools of words, music, and light multimedia to usher you oh-so-gently into a haze of mirthful absurdity.” The two solo works are performed in rotation with Alexandra Tatarsky's Sad Boys in Harpy Land.
The world premiere of Lameece Issaq’s A Good Day to Me Not to You runs November 8 - December 9 at the Connelly Theater from Waterwell. Lee Sunday Evans directs the “riotously funny and gut-wrenching new play about a 40-whatever dental lab tech who gets fired and moves into St. Agnes Residence, a woman's rooming house run by nuns.”
Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact is now playing at TimeLine Theatre Company in Chicago. The “comedic showdown between truth and fact set in the world of non-fiction publishing” is directed by Mechelle Moe.
Christopher Bond, Dale Boyer, and Trevor Martin’s adaptation of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is now playing through November 19th from DC’s Rorschach Theatre. Lilli Hokama directs the reimagining of George Romero’s 1968 cult classic film; the production “transforms a two-level 8,000 square foot former retail space into an unforgettable theatrical experience with thrills and surprises for both horror fans and those new to the genre.”
workshops & readings
Mat Smart’s A Black-billed Cuckoo will have readings November 6 & 7 at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. The comedy “explores the complexities of loss, the power of wonder, and how to move on after missing out.”
digital/streaming
Manhattan Theatre Club will livestream Jocelyn Bioh’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding from November 14 - 19. Whitney White directs the world premiere Broadway production about “a lively and eclectic group of West African immigrant hair braiders in Harlem confronting what it means to be an outsider on the edge of the place they call home.”
2024-2025 (!) season updates
La Jolla Playhouse announced its 2024-25 season. The theatre will produce Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust (directed by Knud Adams) and five world premieres: Sasha Velour: A Drag Spectacular (co-written by Velour and director Moisés Kaufman), the new Johnny Cash-June Carter musical The Ballad of Johnny and June (directed by Des McAnuff), Noelle Viñas' Derecho (directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg) Anna Ouyang Moench’s Your Local Theater Presents: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Again (directed by Les Waters); Joe DiPietro, Daniel J. Watts, and Crystal Monee Hall’s musical 3 Summers of Lincoln (directed by Christopher Ashley).
Shotgun Players in Berkeley, CA announced its 2024 season. The line-up includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream (directed by William Hodgson), Jonathan Spector’s Best Available (directed by Jon Tracy), Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties (directed by Becca Wolff), Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy (directed by Darryl V. Jones), and the world premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler’s Thirty-Six (directed by Michelle Talgarow).
assorted
The Immigrant Theatermakers Advocates announced its formation. The new coalition — comprised of producer Jody Doo (Singapore), director Danilo Gambini (Brazil), playwright Francisco Mendoza (Argentina), and dramaturg Salma Zohdi (Egypt) — “seeks to engage institutions to combat xenophobia in the theater industry, and to provide resources and community for immigrant artists.”
what i read this week when i wasn’t listening to 1989 (taylor’s version)
Helen Shaw’s remembrance of Robert Brustein, the critic, playwright, professor, and founder of Yale Rep and A.R.T., who died this week at age 96. (The New Yorker)
