FOREIGN CULTURES AND FRACTURED FAIRY TALES Launches New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series

The eleventh season of New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series launches Monday, February 5, 2018 at The Cell with pre-premieres of two new musicals: Alice, Wendy, Dorothy and Crossing Over. Four more new musicals follow throughout the spring season. The eleventh season of the New Works Series will explore "Foreign Cultures and Fractured Fairy Tales".

Monday, February 5, 2018

Alice, Wendy, Dorothy

Story by Christina Brosman, Benny Gammerman, and Dylan Hartwell

Book by Christina Brosman

Lyrics by Dylan Hartwell

Music by Benny Gammerman

Directed by Shea Sullivan

London is on the brink of World War II. Wendy Darling and Dorothy Gale, now grown women, have been tasked with sending orphans to Neverland and Oz in an attempt to get them out of harm's way. When Queen Alice of Wonderland thinks that her kingdom has been threatened by some of these outsiders, she vows to stop at nothing to protect it. Alice, Wendy, Dorothy forces these three very different women to reckon with living in a time when the idea of female strength was often dismissed and diminished. They've all been made to believe that the most notable thing about their lives is already behind them, but their stories are far from over.

Crossing Over

Book and Lyrics by Deborah Brevoort

Music and Lyrics by Stephanie Salzman

Directed by Steve Broadnax

Rebecca, an Amish girl, loves to sing but she lives in a world where solos and self-expression are forbidden. When she meets Reverend Blue, an itinerant hip-hop preacher - and former gang member - she connects with his music and joins him in his street corner "Hymn Hop" only to draw media attention and the anger of her family and community. Rebecca and Reverend Blue land a recording deal in NYC; Rebecca is thrown headlong into the world of pop culture with its idolization of celebrity, narcissism and materialism - values that are in stark contrast with her Amish way of life. Crossing Over explores the conflicts and cross-cultural relationships at the heart of contemporary American life. Featured in Theatre Barn's 2017 Choreography Lab.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Anne of Green Gables: A New Musical

Book, Music, and Lyrics by Matte O'Brien and Matt Vinson

This new musical version of Anne of Green Gables is the classic story with a contemporary twist. Based on the famous novel by Lucy M. Montgomery, which has sold over 50 million copies and been translated into 36 languages, Anne of Green Gables tells the story of Anne Shirley, a young orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, unmarried siblings, on their family farm, Green Gables. She is an imaginative, excitable, fiercely independent, opinionated, stubborn, loving, dramatic, unintentionally hilarious girl - who's constantly getting herself into trouble. With a score that blends folk-rock, pop, gospel, and musical theater styles; and a script that grapples with the bitter sweet trials of adolescence, family, beauty, and what it means to truly belong.

A Story No One Knows

Book and Music by Hyeyoung Kim

Lyrics by Shoshana Greenberg

When you live alone and die alone in the city - what do you leave behind? A Story No One Knows is a dark romantic comedy that examines the humanity of people in their final moments on Earth, as seen through the eyes of those who come to clean up the mess of the living. Greenberg and Kim's Days of Rage was featured in Theatre Barn's New Works Series and Choreography Lab.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Chasing Fear

Book by Blake McCarty

Music and Lyrics by Trevor Bachman

Chasing Fear is an original musical based on a traditional Turkish folktale, peppered with language and music from cultures around the world. Shaped by the innate power of oral storytelling, this new work seeks to mirror the refugee experience - be it Romani or Rohingya - while spinning a tale that is at once topical and timeless. Featuring an unlikely, blended family of people cast out of their homelands, they tell the tale of "The Boy Who Went Looking for Fear" to the the only child in the group as a brief escape from the dangers and unknowns they must navigate in the real world. In the folktale, a boy runs away from home to search for fear and his missing father. Along his journey, he is aided by ogres, mermaids, witches, and otherworldly outsiders, and his encounters with the world's delightful horrors change him, bit by bit, from a boy into a man. Chasing Fear is a folkloric hymn to childhood exploring fear, empathy, and otherness seen through the eyes of a young, female refugee. The show will also be featured in Theatre Barn's Choreography Lab.

Pete(HER)Pan

Book by Melvin Tunstall III

Music by Michael Thurber and Douglas Lyons

Lyrics by Douglas Lyons

Pete(HER)Pan is the classic legend of 'Peter Pan and Wendy', but seen through the eyes of Wendy's precocious darling daughter Jane. Inspired by Wendy's stories of non-stop adventures in Neverland, Jane wants to find an adventure of her own. Imagination runs as wild as the Lost Boys in this retelling of a classic featuring a new Caribbean inspired score. Pete(HER)Pan reminds the kid in all of us that anyone can be the hero

Each installment includes presentations of 2 new musicals with 2 performances of each musical at 7PM and 9PM at The Cell, located at 338 West 23rd Street in New York City. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door, and can be purchased on New York Theatre Barn's website: www.nytheatrebarn.org.

Through an education initiative sponsored by Theatre Barn's board of directors, a limited amount of free tickets are available to high school students. To request a student ticket, email Associate Artistic Director Katharine Pettit: katie@nytheatrebarn.org.

Under the artistic direction of Joe Barros, New York Theatre Barn is a Manhattan-based non-profit theatre company, founded in 2007, dedicated to incubating and producing new musicals that tell untold stories. Our stories are inspired by the lives of real people and actual events that challenge our preconceived ideas, and promote inclusion and positive social change. Theatre Barn's core program is the New Works Series which presents bi-monthly "pre-premieres" of new musicals in the early stages of development. With each installment, 2 new musicals are showcased before a live audience and a worldwide virtual audience. Since the series' inception, we have presented more than 400 writers in 100 pre-premieres, and have amassed a catalogue of nearly 2,000 videos with a million views. For more information: www.nytheatrebarn.org.