BENEVOLENT to Make World Premiere With Good Apples Collective at IATI Theater

Good Apples Collective (Sophie McIntosh and Nina Goodheart, Artistic Directors), an orchard for new theater, will present the World Premiere of benevolent by Sophie McIntosh (Road Kills; cunnicularii, macbitches), directed by Nina Goodheart (Road Kills; cunnicularii) at IATI Theater (64 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003), August 14-September 5.

Set in 1917, benevolent follows four inmates consigned to Inwood Benevolent Home, a draconian reformatory for fallen and friendless girls. They forge unlikely connections as they pass their days on laundry duty, and, when one of their group finds herself in trouble, the others must decide how much they're willing to risk to help her.

Tickets ($25 Starving Artist; $40 General; $60 Supporter of the Arts) are available for advance purchase at www.goodapplescollective.com. The performance will run approximately 100 minutes, with no intermission.

Sophie McIntosh (Playwright) (she/her) is a New York-based playwright and theatermaker. Her writing gives voice to women and queer folks, examines life in the small-town Midwest, and explores how our interactions with the natural world reflect back our own humanity. Sophie is the co-founder of Good Apples Collective, a developmental orchard for new theatrical works that she co-leads with her frequent collaborator Nina Goodheart. Recent productions of Sophie's work include the world premiere of macbitches (New York Times Critic's Pick), the premieres of Road Kills (recommended by the New York Times and New Yorker), cunnicularii, and cityscrape with Good Apples Collective, and Eleven Weeks of Nuclear Summer at Notre Dame University and the University of Michigan. Sophie's plays have also been developed at Pioneer Theatre Company, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, the Bechdel Group, the Unicorn Theatre, Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, The Tank, The Brick, and the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals. Her play macbitches has been produced more than 30 times across the country, alongside international productions in Canada and Australia. She is a proud recipient of a BA in drama from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and recently graduated with an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University.

Nina Goodheart (Director) (she/her) is a director and producer based in New York. She is passionate about creating theater that builds community, centers people of marginalized genders, and demands an emotional response. Her theater company Good Apples Collective, which she co-founded with playwright Sophie McIntosh, was recently hailed in HowlRound as part of "the next great leap in theatre." Selected directing: the sold-out and critically acclaimed runs of Sophie McIntosh's Road Kills, cunnicularii, and cityscrape; Harriet Steinke's miniature opera Monna Innominata (finalist for Beth Morrison Projects' NEXTGEN:3 competition); and Emily Bice's eco-dramedy before the flood (Chain Theatre). Selected resident/associate directing: Gabriel Byrne's Walking with Ghosts on Broadway, Fiddler on the Roof starring Jason Alexander, The Seasons at Opera Philadelphia, Mindplay at Arena Stage. She has had the pleasure of working with directors such as Diane Paulus, Whitney White, Lonny Price, Lila Neugebauer, Andrew Neisler, Zack Winokur, Mary Birnbaum, and Stephen Wadsworth, as well as organizations including the American Repertory Theater, Roundabout, Lincoln Center, Second Stage, NYSAF, and Climan Producing. BA Yale, private study in opera directing at Juilliard.

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