FOLLIES and More Set for Astoria Performing Arts Center's 2017-18 Season

Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) returns with its 17th season, featuring two mainstage productions, Veil'd and Follies, that take theatergoers on a journey of self-awareness. APAC is excited to follow an amazing 16th season that included sold-out audiences, critical acclaim, press accolades, and numerous award nominations for its mainstage productions, Evensong and Raisin.

"We have a terrific 17th season lined up at Astoria Performing Arts Center, and all of the work shares themes of identity and self-discovery," says Dev Bondarin, Artistic Director. "Theater is a powerful force, and my hope is that these stories will resonate with and move audience members. As characters struggle and succeed, they look inward in order to chart a path forward."

Astoria Performing Arts Center's 2017-18 productions will take place at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St (at 30th Road,) Astoria, NY 11102.

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Fall 2017

Veil'd

A world premiere by Monet Hurst-Mendoza

Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh

November 2-18, 2017

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm | Saturdays at 2pm

Running time: 100 minutes

Not every fairy tale has sunshine. This world premiere play follows Dima, a 16-year old girl with a rare skin condition. Cloistered away in her bedroom, her parents worry that she'll never have the "normal" American teenage experience they sought for her when they came to New York from Afghanistan. Little do they know that Dima's getting by with some help from her secret friends - Elliot, a poet who hangs out under her window hawking rhymes, and Speedo, a talking nurse shark who saves the day in more ways than one. But will Dima get her happy ending? Rapunzel never had it this bad ... or this good.

Veil'd has been developed with support from Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Kupferberg Center for the Arts, |the claque|, WP Theater, and the Time Warner Foundation.

Winter 2018

Intersecting Identities

A series of readings of new work in collaboration with Beehive Dramaturgy Studio.

February 2018

Race, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, and country of origin offer different ways to define ourselves and affect our access to history, to power, and to community. In February 2018, APAC and Beehive Dramaturgy Studio will present a series of readings that explore how friction among overlapping cultural identities can complicate how we interact with the world and understand who we are.

APAC is proud to partner with Beehive as we continue our commitment to supporting writers. A core member of Beehive will work with each writer on the development of a new work, which will then be shared with audiences.

Spring 2018

Follies

Book by James Goldman

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Dev Bondarin

May 3-26, 2018

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm | Saturdays at 2pm

Running time: 130 minutes

The internationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning musical Follies will make an appearance in Astoria in Spring 2018! Before their former theater is demolished, the "Weismann Follies" showgirls reunite to reconnect and to sing and dance their old numbers. Featuring some of Sondheim's most well-known songs, including "Losing My Mind," "I'm Still Here," and "Broadway Baby," Follies juxtaposes innocence with sophistication, harsh reality with surrealism, and the dreams of what will be with the regrets of what was. Memory and time intermingle as two couples confront the truth about their past in order to face the future.

Follies opened on Broadway in April 1971 and marked the fourth creative collaboration between Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince. The production received seven Tony Awards, including Best Score, in 1972. Two regional productions followed a year later, both directed by Prince. The first Broadway revival, starring Blythe Danner and Judith Ivey, opened in 2001; New York City Center's Encores! featured Follies as its 40th production in 2007, starring Donna Murphy, Victoria Clark, and Victor Garber; and the Kennedy Center's production of Follies ran in the spring of 2011 and transferred to Broadway later that year with Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, and Danny Burstein among the cast.

Follies is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com

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The Astoria Performing Arts Center, Inc. (APAC), a not-for-profit organization, was founded in 2001; APAC's mission is to bring high-quality theater to Astoria and Western Queens, and to support local youth and senior citizens.

On its mainstage, APAC produces revivals and premieres of plays and musicals, and APAC also develops new works through readings and workshops. APAC offers free annual community programs, including a summer performance camp for children ages 8-13, an after-school playwriting program for middle school students, and a performance program for Queens residents 60 and over. These programs deepen ties with the community and develop new audiences for theater. Diverse programming and consistent quality attracts a loyal and growing audience that reflects the diversity of Western Queens and also draws from the other boroughs and beyond.

In addition to its theater space within the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, APAC's offices are located within the historic Kaufman Astoria Studios.

For more information, visit apacny.org.

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