the week of september 29 - october 6, 2023
kevin mccarthy can't shut down me
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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Rebecca Adelsheim
productions
The rolling world premiere of Frank Henry Kaash Katasse’s Where the Summit Meets the Stars is now playing through October 15th at Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles. The new work is an “ethereal Alaska Native story driven by music, dance, and the culture of the Tlingit people.”
Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Mama is now playing through October 15th at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego. The “one-woman adventure filled with queer love in a barren land, Filipino family lore, and a dope ’90s R&B soundtrack” is directed by Andrew Russell.
Luis Alfaro’s The Travelers is now playing through October 15th at Latino Theater Co. in Los Angeles. Catherine Castellanos directs the poignant comedy set in a California monastery, “exploring the brothers’ struggles against poverty and the complexities of human connection.”
Christopher Llewyn Ramirez and Jeff Colangelo’s Lucha Teotl starts previews September 29th at The Goodman in Chicago. The “immersive, high-octane, 90-minte thrill ride features actors and luchadores in masks representative of Aztec gods playing out an exciting wrestling story about family, honor, tradition and redemption.”
Hamlet is now playing through November 18th at American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. Cameron Knight directs the tragedy about the Danish royal family’s unraveling, starring Meg Rodgers in the titular role and artistic director Brandon Carter as Ophelia.
Steven Cheslik-Demeyer, Tim Maner, and Alan Stevens Hewitt’s Lizzie runs September 29 - October 22 at TheaterWorks Hartford. Lainie Sakakura directs the rock musical exploring “the heated days leading up to the most famous double murder of all time.”
Samuel Baum’s The Engagement Party runs October 4 - November 5 at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. The drama about a young couple’s swank celebration derailed by a “spiraling sequence of events and revelations that will irrevocably change their lives” is directed by Darko Tresnjak.
Kelvin Roston Jr.’s Twisted Melodies starts performances October 4th at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. The one-man musical play based on the life of St. Louis soul icon Donny Hathaway is also performed by Roston, a St. Louis native.
DruidO’Casey: Seán O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy runs October 4 - 14 at NYU Skirball in partnership with the Public Theater. Garry Hynes directs the Irish theatre company Druid’s six-hour epic theatrical event presenting O’Casey’s three plays of working-class Dublin life — The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars — that grapple with conflict, national identity and the human toll of war.
Lucille Fletcher’s Night Watch starts previews October 5th at Raven Theatre in Chicago. The revival of the 1972 suspense thriller is directed by Georgette Verdin.
Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here runs October 5 - 28 at Yale Rep. Sivan Battat directs the decade-spanning story of five tight-knit Iranian women who “must choose whether to join a wave of emigration or to remain in their country, as the forces of revolution start to escalate in 1978.”
The world premiere of York Walker’s Covenant runs October 5 - December 3 at Roundabout. Tiffany Nichole Greene directs the “mythic and suspenseful new play” about the rumors that start to swirl after a struggling guitarist returns to his small Georgia town a blues star.
David Adjmi’s Stereophonic starts previews October 6th at Playwrights Horizons. Featuring original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler and directed by Daniel Aukin, the 1970s-set work “mining the agony and ecstasy of creation” follows “an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finding itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom.”
readings & workshops
Carolina Đỗ & Annie Jin Wang’s Untitled Seagull Project will have a presentation September 29-30 as part of Soho Rep’s Writer Director Lab. The piece is a “theatrical investigation/love letter to their families, ancestors, selves, and fellow Asian American community members who have had to sublimate their identities in the pursuit of being understood.”
Krista Knight’s Crybully will have a reading on September 29th as part of Nashville Repertory Theatre’s Ingram New Works Project. Alicia Haymer directs the story of a “clandestine summit between a failed writer guy and the newly minted author gal he recently cyberbullied.”
jose sebastian alberdi’s bogfriends will have a reading on October 2nd as part of South Coast Repertory’s NewSCRipts reading series in Costa Mesa, CA. Vanessa Stalling directs the new play about “six people coupled—and uncoupled—across place, time, and culture by a bog that has been around for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.”
Priya Dahiya’s You and Me and the End of the World will have a performance-in-progress presentation on October 6 & 7 as part of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Freshworks residency series in Pittsburgh. The “digitally sick, nauseatingly young, and fearfully queer play-adjacent performance project” explores “the disconnect between the bewildering psychological excess of living online and the frightening reality of living offline.”
commissions
Manhattan Theatre Club announced the newest Sloan Commission recipients. The commissions for new works surrounding the themes of science, math, and technology were awarded to Nkenna Akunna, Preston Max Allen, Amy Berryman, Liza Birkenmeier and Zack Zadek, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Alexa Derman, Alex Lin, Sam Grabiner, Keiko Green, Dylan Guerra, Yilong Liu, and Danielle Stagger.
dc theatre week
If you’re not doing anything on Monday night, a reminder that I am moderating this panel discussion, presented in partnership with Theatre Washington and Smithsonian Associates as a part of DC Theatre Week:
DC Theatre Season Preview 2023-24
October 2 from 6:45 - 8:15 PM
S. Dillon Ripley Center
Cost: $20 non-member ticket with promo code 269969
A robust conversation about the depth and range of the upcoming 2023-2024 theatre season in the DC area. Panelists include Nicole Hertvik from DC Theater Arts, Sarah Marloff from Washington City Paper, and André Hereford from Metro Weekly.
Here’s the most DC sentence I’ve ever written: the panel will still happen even if the federal government shuts down on Sunday, thanks to the Smithsonian’s operational contingency funds. (I’ve had post-show conversations canceled for myriad reasons — tropical storms, blizzards, COVID — but Republican inaction would’ve been a new one.)
