BROKE Workshop to Premiere at Theatre Row from Animal Stone Productions

Animal Stone Productions will present a limited workshop presentation of BROKE, a new musical inspired by paramedic and poet Maggie Dubris's book BrokeDown Palace, at Theatre 4 on Theatre Row.

The production will preview September 18, with performances September 19-20. BROKE features a libretto and lyrics by Dubris, music by Andy Teirstein, and direction and choreography by Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Seán Curran.

The musical tells the story of St. Clare's, the Hell's Kitchen hospital known for serving New York City's poor and underserved communities. Spanning more than a century, BROKE follows two women whose lives intersect with the hospital during different periods of New York history.

Katie Henry, an Irish farm girl, arrives in New York in 1896 and eventually helps found St. Clare's during the Great Depression. Decades later, Nikki Owen begins working as a paramedic in 1983 and spends 25 years driving the St. Clare's ambulance through the AIDS crisis, crack and homelessness epidemics, and September 11 attacks.

The musical traces the hospital's 20th-century history through its eventual closure and redevelopment, while exploring memory, survival and the ways actions from the past continue to reverberate in the present.

About the Creative Team

Composer Andy Teirstein's work has received recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP and New York Foundation for the Arts. He is a MacDowell Fellow and received an opera composer fellowship from the American Lyric Theater. Teirstein currently serves as a professor in NYU's Prison Education Program.

Director and choreographer Seán Curran's career spans more than 35 years. His credits include Broadway's James Joyce's The Dead, the Metropolitan Opera and Shakespeare in the Park. A Bessie Award winner, Curran was also an original New York City cast member of STOMP.

Librettist and lyricist Maggie Dubris is an award-winning writer, sound artist and NEA recipient who spent 25 years driving a 911 ambulance in Times Square and Hell's Kitchen. Her book BrokeDown Palace, which serves as the inspiration for BROKE, chronicles a New York City that has largely disappeared.

Performance Details