Laurence Holder News

Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre (NFT) will hold a Gala Benefit on Sunday, June 26 from 2:00 to 5:30 PM at Trump Place, 220 Riverside Boulevard (enter West 70th Street) honoring Novella Nelson and Melvin Van Peebles, two of many actors and directors who have worked at NFT over the theatre's 46 year history.

Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre (NFT) will hold a Gala Benefit on Sunday, June 26 from 2:00 to 5:30 PM at Trump Place, 220 Riverside Boulevard (enter West 70th Street) honoring Novella Nelson and Melvin Van Peebles, two of many actors and directors who have worked at NFT over the theatre's 46 year history.  Mr. Van Peebles will be introduced by Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons.  Ms. Nelson will be introduced by former Mayor David Dinkins.

SUGAR RAY by Laurence Holder, directed by Woodie King Jr. and performed by Reginald L. Wilson, had been extended through April 26 at New Harlem Besame Restaurant in Harlem but will now close April 12, 2016. Upon closing, the show will have played 22 performances.

VOTES by Jacqueline S. Salit and Fred Newman, composed by leading pop/country tunesmith Annie Roboff, is an 'outsider' musical with a canny view of the Clintons as a political couple. Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street, will present the work's world premiere tonight, April 1, to May 8, directed by Gabrielle L. Kurlander.

?'Sugar Ray,' the new bioplay by Laurence Holder about Sugar Ray Robinson, was visited Sunday, March 27 by the son of the famed boxing champion, Ray Robinson II.  The younger Robinson, who was enthusiastic about the play on his father, is co-author, with Herb Boyd, of the book 'Pound for Pound,' a biography of Sugar Ray Robinson, which was published by Harper Collins in 2006.

VOTES by Jacqueline S. Salit and Fred Newman, composed by leading pop/country tunesmith Annie Roboff, is an 'outsider' musical with a canny view of the Clintons as a political couple. Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street, will present the work's world premiere April 1 to May 8, directed by Gabrielle L. Kurlander.

Sugar Ray Robinson was, pound for pound, the greatest boxer of all time. In his 25-year professional career, from 1940 to 1965, he was boxing history's first winner of five divisional championships (in the middle weight and welterweight divisions).

In 2013, the year Theater for the New City burned its mortgage, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer declared January 26 to be Theater for the New City Appreciation Day. This year, the theater is celebrating with festivities on that day beginning at 7:00 PM. There will be a benefit bake sale, performances by Kitty Lunn and the dance/percussion troupe COBU and a special presentation by playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie.

In 2013, the year Theater for the New City burned its mortgage, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer declared January 26 to be Theater for the New City Appreciation Day. This year, the theater is celebrating with festivities on that day beginning at 7:00 PM. There will be a benefit bake sale, performances by Kitty Lunn and the dance/percussion troupe COBU and a special presentation by playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie.

Theater for the New City presents Speakeasy: John and Jane's Adventures in the Wonderland, a fantastical musical of Prohibition-era NYC queer life written and composed by Danny Ashkenasi.

Theater for the New City presents SCRATCH NIGHT at TNC (Michael Scott-Price, Curator) on Tuesday, December 22nd at 7pm ($5 Suggested Donation), featuring Dare to be Black by Tommie J. Moore. This work-in-progress presentation is directed by Rome Neal.

The creative team of Speakeasy: John and Jane Allison in the Wonderland, a fantastical musical of Prohibition-era NYC queer life written and composed by Danny Ashkenasi, has announced a free public reading to be held on Monday, December 7th at 7pm as part of Theater for the New City's 'New City, New Blood' Reading Series. Lissa Moira directs a cast of 14, including Camille Atkinson, Torian Brackett, Anne Bragg, Tim Connell*, Chris D'Amico, Darcy Dunn, Rosalie Graziano*, Bevin Bell Hall, Brian Michael Henry*, Brian C. Jones, Rebecca Marquardt, Bri Molloy, Allie Radice*, and Zach Wachter. Music direction by Jonathan Fox Powers. The reading will be held at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets) in New York City's East Village. For reservations and more information on the free reading, visit TNC. *Member, AEA.

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Director presents DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, an explosive study of alienation and the redemptive power of love by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck). Lissa Moira directs John Talerico and Susan Mitchell*. Twelve performances will be staged at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (bet. 9th and 10th Streets), New York, NY 10003 from tonight, September 24 - October 11, 2015.

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Director presents DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, an explosive study of alienation and the redemptive power of love by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck). Lissa Moira directs John Talerico and Susan Mitchell*. Twelve performances will be staged at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (bet. 9th and 10th Streets), New York, NY 10003 from September 24 - October 11, 2015.

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Director, and The After Dinner Opera Company present two new American operatic musical adaptations from classical works, Seymour Barab's operatic parody Out the Window based upon Georges Feydeux's farce 'Par La Fenetre;' and Rappaccini's Daughter, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's gothic short story, with libretto by Linsey Abrams and music by Michael Cohen. Lissa Moira directs. Performances will be staged at the Cino Theatre at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (bet. 9th and 10th Streets), New York, NY 10003 from tonight, September 11-28, 2014.

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Director, and The After Dinner Opera Company present two new American operatic musical adaptations from classical works, Seymour Barab's operatic parody Out the Window based upon Georges Feydeux's farce 'Par La Fenetre;' and Rappaccini's Daughter, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's gothic short story, with libretto by Linsey Abrams and music by Michael Cohen. Lissa Moira directs.

To celebrate Theater for the New City's 44 years of innovative theater on the Lower East Side, Michael Luggio and New York Theatre Academy will present '44 Years Benefit,' an evening of food, drink and performances to benefit Crystal Field's formative, historic theater organization on June 16, 2014 at 6:00 at TNC, 155 First Ave.

On the new THEATER TALK, Denzel Washington, star of the hit Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, gets together with an old friend, Woodie King, Jr., the Founder and Artistic Director of the New Federal Theatre. They look back at their first experiences seeing Hansberry's ground-breaking play, as well as their work together when Washington first appeared at the New Federal Theatre in 1981, in Laurence Holder's When Chickens Come Home to Roost.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre continues its 44th season with Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington starring Kathleen Chalfant and Timothy Simonson. Gabrielle L. Kurlander directs. Performances begin January 16h, with opening night scheduled for January 30th.