Vineyard Theatre Announces 2020-21 Season Featuring Lessons In Survival, World Premieres From Tori Sampson and David Cale, and More

Vineyard Theatre has announced the company's upcoming 2020-2021 Season which includes digital and outdoor productions, as well as the reopening when safe to do so of Vineyard Theatre's home at 108 East 15th Street with the return of the award-winning Dana H. by Lucas Hnath and two world premieres from Tori Sampson and David Cale.

Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern said: "We are thrilled to announce our 2020-2021 Season, which will take place digitally, in person outside, and eventually, back in our theatre. With daring imagination and reinvention, the artists creating in our season are bringing new work to life in and for our moment. It is a season that looks at the stories we tell about who we are -- as individuals and as a country -- and asks how we change when our stories do. We are inspired by the power and artistry of these works, and invite audiences across our city, country and world to join us for an adventure in what theatre can be and do."

Current artists for the season include Ngozi Anyanwu, David Cale, Kirsten Childs, Lucas Hnath, Marin Ireland, Bill Irwin, Peter Mark Kendall, Jared Mezzocchi, Deirdre O'Connell, Polly Pen, Tori Sampson, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Tyler Thomas, Les Waters, Reggie D. White and Whitney White, among others. The Vineyard's 2020-2021 Artists-in-Residence include The Commissary, Michael R. Jackson, Charly Evon Simpson, York Walker and Whitney White. Recipients of The Vineyard's 2020-2021 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Susan Stroman Directing Award residencies will be announced later this fall.

Membership info:

Memberships ensure great access to all Vineyard Theatre productions for a fraction of the full ticket price. Memberships are now on sale for The Vineyard's 2020-2021 season. To purchase and additional information regarding packages please visit WEBSITE HERE (https://www.vineyardtheatre.org/tickets/become-a-member/overview/) or by calling the box office at 212-353-0303.

Vineyard Theatre 2020-21 Season:

Lessons In Survival

October 6 - November 1 (Part 1)
Digital

Conceived by Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall,
Tyler Thomas, Reggie D. White
Directed by Tyler Thomas
Video Design and Editing by Josiah Davis
Sound Design by Daniel Kluger
Production Design by You-Shin Chen
Production Coordinator Clarissa Marie Ligon
Performed by The Commissary
With Kyle Beltran, Dan Butler, Helen Cespedes, Kalyne Coleman, Crystal Dickinson, Brandon Dirden, Ricardy Fabre, Yonatan Gebeyehu, Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall, Nicole Lewis, Nana Mensah, Joe Morton, Deirdre O'Connell, Keith Randolph Smith, Ryan Spahn, Chris Stack, Myra Lucretia Taylor, TL Thompson, Nicole Villamil, Victoria Villier, Reggie D. White.

"How do you talk about 300 years in four minutes?
Was it ever so apparent we need this dialogue?"
-- Lorraine Hansberry, 1964

"This country's my problem and your problem."
-- James Baldwin, 1968

Fueled by the urgency of our present moment, The Commissary, a multigenerational collective of more than 40 theatre artists, have come together to reinvestigate the words of trailblazing artists and activists who survived and created in times of revolution in our country. Baldwin. Giovanni. Davis. Lorde. Hansberry. Rustin. Hamer. In Lessons In Survival, a cohort of actors channel historic conversations, interviews and speeches, listening to original broadcasts on an in-ear feed and speaking exactly what they hear. In bringing these words to new life in the present, they ask what these voices can teach us about our country now and the opportunity for true change that stands before us. How might they propel us to look courageously at the effects of systemic racism, to imagine ourselves outside of its prescriptions, and to create, together, a shared future of collective liberation

Lessons In Survival will continue to develop throughout the season, with The Commissary as an artistic-collective-in-residence at The Vineyard, and will be shared with audiences at different stages over the coming months. Join us in October for the first round of eight performances and four open rehearsals. Each Sunday, free weekly community conversations with current leaders will build on the legacy of daring conversations that reflect the times and inspire the future.

The Busking Project

Created and performed by Bill Irwin
September 23, 25, 26
October 1, 2, 3

Tony Award-winning actor and legendary clown Bill Irwin returns to his roots: busking on the street. In an eight-minute foray into rhythm and language, Bill taps into the energy of the Union Square/Flatiron neighborhood as an evolving site of storytelling, spinning rhymes for our changing times.

Limited reserved spots are available for Vineyard Members only for this in-person, outdoor, socially-distanced live performance.

Vineyard Theatre 2020-2021 Mini-Commissions
Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi,
Polly Pen, Madeline Sayet
 

In a new program created for this season, The Vineyard has commissioned five artists to create new digital or alternative theatre works. From short plays to musicals to adventurous digital theatre design, these wildly original artists will create works that will premiere over the course of the season. 

Dana H.

By Lucas Hnath
Adapted from interviews with
Dana Higginbotham conducted by Steve Cosson
Featuring Deirdre O'Connell
Directed By Les Waters
A co-production with Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group
Dates TBD

DANA H. RETURNS! Don't miss "one of the richest, most complete works of theatre to come along in many seasons"(The New York Times). A harrowing true story, Dana was held captive - trapped in a series of Florida motels, disoriented and terrified - for five months. Told in Dana's own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son Lucas Hnath (A Doll's House Part 2, The Christians), this innovative work shatters the boundaries of the art form and our understanding of good and evil. Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show and Lortel and Obie Awards for Deirdre O'Connell's "simply astonishing" performance (Time Out NY).

This Land Was Made

by Tori Sampson
Directed by Whitney White
World Premiere
Dates TBD

Liberation. Peace. Love. Self-Defense. Oakland in 1967 is a powder keg of social activism ready to boil over into radical action. For the patrons of Miss Trish's bar, it's all just talking points - until the full, seductive and explosive force of the revolution walks through the door. History and imagination collide with vibrant humor and echo into our present moment in this stirring new play from Tori Sampson, playwright of the New York Times Critic's Pick If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be A Muhfucka, directed by Obie Award-winner and Vineyard artist-in-residence Whitney White (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord).

Sandra

By David Cale
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Original compositions by Matthew Dean Marsh
World Premiere
Dates TBD

In this new one-woman thriller from David Cale (Harry Clarke, 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show), Sandra seeks to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of her closest friend, a young pianist and composer, who went on a trip to Mexico and never returned. Her search for clues leads her into both a highly charged love affair, and increasingly dangerous territory. Featuring an original piano score by Matthew Dean Marsh (We're Only Alive For A Short Amount Of Time) and direction by Obie Award-winning director Leigh Silverman (Harry Clarke), Sandra asks how far would you go for love?