THE FERRYMAN to Play Conrad Prebys Theatre at the Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center

Jez Butterworth's masterful international Tony Award winning Best Play (2019) "The Ferryman" will run January 27-March 5, 2023 (opening February 4) - in the first United States production after Broadway - and the first in the newly renovated and renamed Conrad Prebys Theatre at the Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center.

"From the moment I finished reading Jez Butterworth's "The Ferryman" I knew it would be the highlight of my 20+ year career to be able to direct the show," said Kristianne Kurner, Founder and Executive Artistic Director. "I was immediately drawn in by the way it addresses the effect of violence in society through the lens of an epic family story. There is so much joy, laughter, romance and play amidst the stark realities of the North of Ireland in 1981.

I've spent my career focused on the work of the actor and I can't imagine a better play and a better cast to bring that work to fruition. I'm also proud that we are bringing a diverse group of actors and designers together to tell this universal story. All of us at New Village Arts are honored to bring this incredible show to our community."

The renaming comes as NVA's Carlsbad Village facility has its theatre modernized and public space redesigned to be a cultural gathering space and arts center named for San Diego arts philanthropist and playwright, Dea Hurston. The Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center will be the first arts center in the United States named for a Black woman in over 50 years and the only one on the West Coast. Opening events include a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Friday, January 27 and a community celebration and open house on Saturday, January 28. "The Ferryman" will be the first production to take place in the new arts center. The 21 member acting company of "The Ferryman" includes actors Tom Daugherty, Joy Yvonne Jones, Kym Pappas, Antonio TJ Johnson, Max Macke and Lena Palke. The full cast listing can be found at newvillagearts.org/the-ferryman.

The creative team includes Doug Cumming (scenery), Annelise Salazar (lighting), Jojo Siu (Costumes), Harper Justus (Sound), Alyssa Kane (Props), and Nathan Waits (Stage Manager).

"The Ferryman" takes place in Armagh, 1981 during the heart of The Troubles. The Carney farmhouse in Northern Ireland is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor. It is the winner of the 2019 Tony Award and universally acknowledged as one of the greatest plays of the modern era. The play won the Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play during its West End run and the New York Drama Critics' Circle, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for Best Play for its Broadway run.

Ben Brantley said in The New York Times, "An endlessly vibrant work, the real sustenance provided here comes from the sheer abundance within a work that picked up most of the awards on offer during its London run last year. This is theater as charged and cluttered and expansive as life itself. And the three and a quarter hours and 21 speaking parts required to tell its story - which is at once a shivery suspenser, a hearthside family portrait, a political tragedy and a journey across mythic seas - barely seem long enough to contain all it has to give us."'

"It revels in the addictive power of artfully unfolded narratives. And I mean all kinds of narratives: classical epics and homey fairy tales, barroom ballads and chronicles of hopeless love, multigenerational family sagas and ghost stories with a body count. Yet, like a James Joyce short story in which the everyday and the eternal live Cheek by Jowl, "The Ferryman" seems to sprawl over an entire, divided country ... the story embraces a multitude of exuberantly full individual scenes, of a number and richness rarely seen outside of Shakespeare. By the end of this magnificent drama, Mr. Butterworth has connected the contradictions with a skill that takes the breath away."

About New Village Arts

Founded in 2001, over the past 21 years New Village Arts has truly become the cultural hub of North County San Diego. Producing six theatrical productions each season, NVA has been awarded numerous San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, Broadway World, and KPBS awards. In addition to award-winning plays and musicals, NVA presents the Final Draft New Play Festival every other January to showcase the work of established local playwrights and budding authors.

The new arts center features a Second Stage that will host a variety of musical and artistic presentations and events along with the new Sahm Foundation Arts Education Center. NVA's widely acclaimed education and outreach programs include artistic programs for young adults with neurodiversity and seniors with Alzheimer's and dementia as well as theatre learning opportunities for all ages.

NVA strongly believes that theatre and arts experiences should be accessible to all people and has become a leader in equity, diversity, and inclusion in San Diego. NVA has been fortunate to receive support from the City of Carlsbad and other local businesses, who recognize the importance of a resident professional theatre company as a crucial component of an inclusive and creative community.

THE FERRYMAN

Regional Premiere

Written by Jez Butterworth

Directed by Kristianne Kurner

Theatre: New Village Arts, 2787 State St. Carlsbad CA 92008 - next to the Carlsbad Village Train Station

Website: newvillagearts.org

Phone: 760.433.3245

Performance Dates and Times

Dates: Friday, January 27 to Sunday, March 5, 2023

Opening Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 7:30pm

Wednesday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

Thursdays: 7:30 p.m.

Fridays: 8:00 p.m.

Saturdays: 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sundays: 2:00 p.m.

Tickets and Subscriptions

Single tickets for THE FERRYMAN are $50.

With Senior or Military ID. $41

Students. $28

Preview Performances are $30

Biographies

Kristianne Kurner (Director, she/her) founded New Village Arts in 2001 and has produced over 100 shows for the company since that time. Over the years, she has served as the Managing Director, Artistic Director and for the past ten years the Executive Artistic Director. She has grown the company from a 25-seat theatre with a modest budget and staff of 2 to a thriving arts center with a $1.5 million budget and a full-time staff of 9. Kurner's work as a director has received numerous awards, including San Diego Theatre Critics Circle and KPBS Awards for Theatre Excellence, and includes regional premieres such as a new musical adaptation of Around The World in 80 Days, Conor McPherson's The Weir, John Patrick Shanley's Sailor's Song and Peter Brook and Marie-Helene Estienne's The Man Who. Favorite acting roles include John Wesley Powell in Men On Boats and Nurse Ratched In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. She is a recipient of the Clare Rose Sabbatical Award from the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego and the Woman to Woman Award from the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, where she serves on the Board of Directors. Kurner received her BA in Theatre from The College of William and Mary and her MFA in Acting from The Actors Studio Drama School at the New School University.

Tom Daugherty is thrilled to make his New Village Arts debut, especially with his son Nick, after a 20-year hiatus from the theatre. Theatre credits include: National Tours (Ragtime, Showboat); Kennedy Center (Bounce); Goodman Theatre (All's Well That Ends Well, Bounce); Chicago Shakespeare (As You Like It, Winter's Tale, Troilus & Cressida); Drury Lane Oakbrook (1776, The Foreigner, A Chorus Line, Big); Marriott Lincolnshire (Houdini, the Musical); Apple Tree Theatre (Old Wicked Songs, The Dying Gaul); Montana's Shakespeare in the Parks (Macbeth, The Country Wife). Tom's day-job is as an employment attorney at Klinedinst PC. Much love and many thanks to Jackie, Nick, Zach, and Caroline for helping to make this return to the theatre possible.

Joy Yvonne Jones. Originally from Houston, Texas Joy Yvonne Jones attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and went on to study at the University of Minnesota in the Guthrie Theatre BFA Actor Training Program in Minneapolis, Minnesota, graduating in the class of 2014. Joy is a recipient of the San Diego Critic Circle Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play for her performance of Saartjie Baartman in Voyeurs de Venus at Moxie Theatre. Her most recent credits include Frances in Mud Row at Cygnet Theatre, Cherise Howard in Flex at The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Isabelle in Ring Round the Moon at Lambs Players Theatre, Zuzu in Dance Nation, and Jane in Kate Hamil's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. In 2020 her play Ode to My Mothers was featured in The Old Globe Theatre's Juneteenth Celebration. Joy is a founding member and President of the San Diego Black Artist Collective as well as the Associate Artistic Director of New Village Arts Theatre. She a creative hurricane working on the revolution at the speed of inspiration with her babies by her side.

Kym Pappas is thrilled to be making her New Village Arts debut in The Ferryman. She is the Co-Artistic Director of InnerMission Productions. Favorite acting credits include Ordinary Days, The Taming of the Shrew, Swimming in the Shallows (InnerMission Productions); How I Learned to Drive, Persuasion, Godspell, Pride and Prejudice (OnStage Playhouse); The Car Plays (La Jolla Playhouse/Moving Arts); Marat Sade (ion Theatre); and The World Was Round (Sledgehammer Theatre). Directing credits include the San Diego Premieres of Church, Revolt. She said. Revolt again., Gideon's Knot, Seminar, Fat Pig, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, and the World Premiere of Disappearing Act (InnerMission Productions); Well and Plot Points in Our Sexual Development (Diversionary Theatre); Aftermath (Bodhi Tree Concerts); Sonnets for an Old Century (UCSD); The Kid Thing, and The Diary of Anne Frank (MOXIE Theatre). Kym is a member of The Pasadena Playhouse Directors Lab West.

Antonio TJ Johnson. TJ most recently worked with Utah Shakespeare Festival in Trouble in Mind. He has also appeared in Blueprints to Freedom at La Jolla Playhouse, Sweat at San Diego Repertory Theatre, Gem of the Ocean, Fences, Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars and King Headley at Cygnet Theatre. He was awarded the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for Fences. He is a member of Actors' Equity Association.

Max Mackeis thrilled to be back with NVA, where he appeared in A Servant Of Two Masters, Awake and Sing, The Weir, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wait Until Dark, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Comedy of Errors. The San Diego native was last seen in Was Last Seen In, The Outsider (Ncrt). Other Favorites Include; Of Mice And Men (Ncrt) Voyeurs De Venus, Enron, Eurydice (Moxie) & The Birthday Party (New Fortune). Max would like to thank his family for their love and support.

Lena Palke is a 9 year old theater lover. Her favorite role was Hei Hei in Moana Jr (Moonlight Youth Theatre), she also appeared in The Wizard of Oz (Moonlight Youth Theatre), Newsies (Scripps Theatre Arts) and Annie (Star Theatre Co). She plays piano and sings.