the week of september 20-26, 2024
the week of september 20-26, 2024
circus acts, choir boys, the home depot
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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim
world premieres
Christopher T. Hampton’s Cracking Zeus is now playing through October 13th at DC’s Spooky Action Theater. The “wildly inventive dark comedy and present-day myth about religion, dependency, and redemption” is directed by Reginald L. Douglas. (I’m seeing it tomorrow night!)
Rachel Bublitz’s Funny, Like an Abortion starts performances September 21st at The VORTEX in Austin. Bonnie Cullum directs the “surreal new comedy, set in the near future in a United States of America where abortion is illegal nation-wide, that finds truth and humor in a time of absurd chaos.”
Ron Bass, Jonathan Harvey, Burt Bacharach, and Hal David’s My Best Friend's Wedding runs September 26 - October 27 at Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. The musical adaptation of the 1997 rom-com is directed by Kathleen Marshall.
productions
Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s Our Class is now playing through November 3rd at Classic Stage Company in NYC. Igor Golyak directs the decades-spanning drama “inspired by real life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in a small Polish village.”
Martin Crimp’s adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac is now playing through September 29th at Pasadena Playhouse in California. The “collision of poetry and passion in a scorching love triangle” is directed by Mike Donahue.
Celine Song’s Family is now running through October 4th in a Clinton Hill, Brooklyn site-specific production from Hoi Polloi and Amanda + James. Alec Duffy directs the “disturbing kaleidoscope of co-dependency as three half-siblings lead the audience through the twisted roots of their family tree.”
Ontroerend Goed’s Fight Night runs September 20 & 21 at ArtsEmerson in Boston. The Belgian theatre collective offers an interactive, provocative examination of free will and politics in which the actors’ fates hinge on the audience’s live votes.
Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive starts performances September 21st at City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh. Meredith McDonough directs the “uproariously funny feminist satire.”
Mathilde Dratwa’s Dirty Laundry runs September 21 - October 20 at WP Theater in NYC. The dark comedy about “three people grappling with love, loss, lust…and household chores after the women who unites them dies” is directed by Rebecca Martínez.
Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me starts performances September 24th at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ. Laiona Michelle directs the Pulitzer finalist that “delves into multiple facets of the historic document through several stories and perspectives from different Americans.”
Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy starts performances September 24th at Shotgun Players in Berkeley, CA. The drama about “the queer lead singer of an elite prep school’s renowned choir questioning long-held traditions” is directed by Darryl V. Jones.
Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust runs September 24 - October 20 at La Jolla Playhouse. Knud Adams directs the Pulitzer-winning drama about “a laid-off bookstore worker facing challenges he has long avoided — with transformative and heart-warming results.”
Gabriel Kahane’s Magnificent Bird / Book of Travelers starts performances September 24th at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. The “duo of intimate solo musical plays offering a relentless self-inquiry and searing portrait of a world in flux” are directed by Annie Tippe.
Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth runs September 26 - October 20 at Seattle Rep. Dámaso Rodríguez directs the “action-packed, comic love letter to human endurance, featuring an epic-sized cast and dozens of community guest stars.”
Michael Frayn’s Noises Off starts performances September 27th at The Alley Theatre in Houston. The “uproarious comedy about a struggling acting troupe battling misplaced props, forgotten lines, and an abundance of sardines” is directed by Brandon Weinbrenner.
Lindsay Joelle’s The Garbologists is now playing at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati through October 6th. D. Lynn Meyers directs the “off-beat buddy comedy about two essential workers from different worlds discovering there’s more that binds them than taking out the trash.”
Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya’s A Meal is now running at HERE in NYC through September 29th. The “multi-sensorial live performance — part-ritual, part-celebration, part-installation, and part-dinner — explores our deep connection with food: where it comes from, what we eat, and who we share it with.”
Savannah Hankinson’s The 2 Queers a Lesbian Meets at The Home Depot is now running through October 6th at A.R.T./NY. Daniel Irving Rattner directs the workplace comedy about “three queers' lives crashing into each other, wreaking havoc, but ultimately shaking them out of their not-so-happy daily routines.”
workshops & readings
L M Feldman’s hand foot hand will be shown September 26-28 as part of The Playwright Realm’s Beyond the Realm 2024. Jessi D. Hill directs the new work about a duo circus act navigating their break-up, middle age, and healing.
Zona Gale’s Miss Lulu Bett will have a Rediscovery Reading at Classic Stage Company on September 23rd. The 1921 Pulitzer-winning drama will be directed by Sheryl Kaller.
Eliana Theolodiges Rodriguez’s Indian Princesses will have a reading on September 26th at NYC’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center as part of Rattlestick Theater’s Terrence McNally Incubator Presentations. Arin Arbus directs. Rattlestick’s new initiative provides “early-career playwrights with financial resources, mentorship with a veteran playwright, and a 29-hour workshop with professional New York talent.” (Contact boxoffice@rattlestick.org for more details.)
the nyc theatre game of thrones
Emily Shooltz is the new artistic director of Signature Theatre in New York. Emily spent 14 years as the associate artistic director of Ars Nova. She succeeds Paige Evans, who has led the Off-Broadway company since 2016.
2024-25 season updates
The Old Globe announced its 2025 season. The San Diego theatre will produce The Comedy of Errors (directed by James Vásquez), All’s Well That Ends Well, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate (directed by Steve H. Broadnax III), Gloria Claderón Kellett's One of the Good Ones (directed by Kimberly Senior), Johanna Wright and Patty Jamieson's Deceived (directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg), Robert Montano's Small (directed by Jessi D. Hill), and five world premieres: Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe’s musical Huzzah! (directed by Annie Tippe); Jen Crittenden, Gabrielle Allan, Curtis Moore, and Amanda Green's musical Regency Girls (directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes); Keiko Green's Empty Ride (directed by Sivan Battat); Deepak Kumar's House of India (directed by Zi Alikhan); and Anna Ziegler's The Janeiad (directed by Tyne Rafaeli).
The Playwrights’ Center announced its 2024-25 public season. The Minneapolis organization will produce readings of Julián Mesri’s The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics; Aya Ogawa’s Meat Suit, or the Shitshow of Motherhood; matthew paul olmos’ Richie Never Slept, Was Always Up, Moving Around at Night; Chloé Hung’s Alien of Extraordinary Ability; Gina Femia’s The Violet Sisters; J.C. Pankratz’s Mortals; Christin Eve Cato’s Beneath the Land of Cockpit Country; and SEVAN’s How to Watch an Immigrant Have a Racial Nervous Breakdown.
Theatre Exile announced its upcoming season. The Philadelphia theatre’s line-up includes John Logan’s Red (directed by Matt Pfeiffer), R. Eric Thomas’ Glitter in the Glass (directed by Brett Ashley Robinson), and Philly GRIT, a two-show storytelling series that will include drag performer Cookie D’iorio’s cabaret Camp Cookie.
The Crisis™
Virginia Repertory Theatre launched an emergency fundraising campaign to avoid closure. The Richmond, VA theatre needs to raise $600,000 in the coming weeks. Leadership credited the financial predicament to “a $1.7 million legacy deficit, along with an additional projected deficit of $1.6 million for the upcoming year…coupled with the disruption from last year’s leadership change and loss of donor support, which led to a further $500,000 shortfall.”
award season
Jocelyn Bioh’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding is the winner of the 2024 Horton Foote Prize. The award comes with “a $50,000 prize and a limited edition of Keith Carter's iconic photograph of Foote, part of the permanent collection of Washington, D.C.'s National Portrait Gallery.” (In related news, I saw the Arena Stage/Berkeley Rep/Chicago Shakes touring co-pro of Jaja’s last week and I loved it.)
assorted
Nicole Hertvik is stepping as the editor-in-chief and publisher of DC Theater Arts on December 31st. Nicole took over the publication in 2017 after the death of founder Joel Markowitz. I think she’s been an incredible advocate for the community, especially with how she broadened coverage during the pandemic. Her co-investigation with Washington City Paper’s Sarah Marloff into Theater Alliance’s real estate drama with Anacostia Playhouse was the in-the-weeds reporting the DC theatre community rarely receives yet wholly deserves. DC Theater Arts is a crucial component of local arts journalism in town and I hope the publication lives on. (The staff is working to find a way for the site to continue past Nicole’s departure date.)
Art All Night and DowntownDC BID’s Come Down(town) and Dance will be hosted at Woolly Mammoth on September 27th from 10:30pm - 1am. The event features “special appearances by Miss Chief Rocka and Ambassadors of Joy, Black in Space, a hoop dancing demonstration, and the dynamic sounds of DJ Diyanna Monet.”
Playwrights Horizons is accepting submissions through October 8th for its new Unplugged production series. The “new production model de-emphasizes physical production costs, keeping artists’ pay a priority and focusing on a creative design rather than on material goods. It is neither a workshop production nor a stepping stone to a larger production.”
Patrick Flynn’s The Ferberizing of Coral will be adapted into a short film. The 10-minute play was featured at the 2016 & 2017 DC Source Festival and was one of six winners at the 2018 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival.
that’s not a living wage
Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area and the most recently available 990 data. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
General Management Assistant at Florida Studio Theatre: $34,000-$38,000
Living Wage for Sarasota County, FL: $47,669
Revenue (2023): $12.52 million / Net Income: $1.56 million
Executive Compensation: