Casts Announced for DOWNTOWN STORIES Presented by Downtown Alliance and En Garde Arts

The Alliance for Downtown New York in association with En Garde Arts announced today casting for Downtown Stories: Dreams from New York´s Oldest Streets, premiering Wednesday June 8 and running through Saturday June 25, 2022. Tickets are now available at engardearts.org/downtown-stories.

A little-known landmark, the smallest street in Manhattan, an historic graveyard...these are just some of the places you will discover through Downtown Stories.

Downtown Stories is a series of three theatrical adventures that bring to life the secrets and stories of Lower Manhattan, both real and imagined. It's art meets anthropological expedition as audiences traverse lower Manhattan to discover new or little-known facts about downtown that provide a fresh perspective on the places we pass by every day. This series renews En Garde Arts' collaboration with the Downtown Alliance, which began last May with Downtown Live, a festival that brought 36 live performances to three different sites across Lower Manhattan.

Downtown Stories is comprised of Sidewalk Echoes, a new play by Rogelio Martinez and directed by Johanna McKeon, and two fictional walking tours: Uncovering Downtown by Mona Mansour & Jessica Holt and We the People (Not the Bots) by Eric Lockley & Morgan Green.

SIDEWALK ECHOES

By Rogelio Martinez

Directed by Johanna McKeon

John Street Methodist Church (44 John Street)

Playwright Rogelio Martinez (Born In East Berlin) and director Johanna McKeon (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot) have created Sidewalk Echoes, a play with music that draws its characters from interviews conducted with small business owners and the Pastor who runs the oldest Methodist Congregation in North America built in 1776. Sidewalk Echoes is staged on the pulpit and in and around the John Street Methodist Church.

The cast of Sidewalk Echoes will feature Sheher Azaad, Lakpa T. Bhutia, Chris Crofton and Ashley Noel Jones.

The performance schedule is as follows: Wednesdays - Fridays at 8pm and Saturdays at 3pm. There will be an additional performance on Saturday June 25 performance 8pm. The Saturday 3pm performances will be ADA compliant performances and will take place outdoors. All other performances require access via stairs.

Tickets for Sidewalk Echoes are free of charge; reservations are required. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination and masks are required to attend.

UNCOVERING DOWNTOWN: A MAGICAL EXPEDITION OF UNRECORDED DREAMS

A fictional walking tour by Mona Mansour and Jessica Holt

Directed by Jessica Holt

Beginning at Bowling Green Park

Mona Mansour (The Vagrant Trilogy Public Theater) and Jessica Holt (Ironbound, Sense and Sensibility) have co-created a fictional walking tour with direction by Holt. In Uncovering Downtown: A Magical Expedition of Unrecorded Dreams an out-of-work downtown performance artist takes a job leading a Hamilton! Walking Tour even further downtown and is prepared to give the standard tour about the trendiest Founding Father. But when an unexpected fork in the road presents a path not taken, she can't help but follow it. Michelle J. Rodriguez, a multi-talented performer, composer and musician (Joe's Pub) takes on the role of the performance artist and will be leading audiences throughout lower Manhattan.

Uncovering Downtown departs from Bowling Green Park Wednesdays - Saturdays at 12:30pm and 5:30pm. Saturday performances will be ADA compliant with extra time built in for those with mobility issues.

WE THE PEOPLE (NOT THE BOTS)

A fictional walking tour written and performed by Eric Lockley (Co-Founder Movement Theatre Company)

Directed by Morgan Green (Co-Artistic Director Wilma Theatre)

Beginning at Zuccotti Park

In We the People (Not the Bots) Javel Washington, an accidental time-traveler, arrives in present day NYC with a warning from the future. In a race against the Bots of his time, Javel hopes the stories of New Yorkers will offer insight into the value of resilience. With the help of the audience through song, Javel may discover that what makes us human will always be our secret weapon.

We the People (Nots the Bots) departs from Zuccotti Park Wednesdays - Saturdays at 1:00pm and 6:00pm. Saturday performances will be ADA compliant with extra time built in for those with mobility issues.

Tickets for Uncovering Downtown and We the People are $20 each which will provide audience members with a food voucher that can be redeemed at a local area restaurant. To learn more about participating restaurants, click here. Extremely limited capacity - advance tickets required. Exact meeting locations will be communicated to ticket holders closer to event date. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination required and masks optional, as the tour will take place outdoors.

ABOUT DOWNTOWN ALLIANCE

The mission of the Alliance for Downtown New York is to provide service, advocacy, research and information to advance Lower Manhattan as a global model of a 21st century Central Business District for businesses, residents and visitors. The Downtown Alliance manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District (BID), serving an area roughly from City Hall to the Battery, from the East River to West Street. For more information visit downtownny.com.

ABOUT EN GARDE ARTS

En Garde Arts (Producer) is a not-for-profit theatrical production company that creates, produces and presents bold theatre experiences that reach across artistic, physical and social boundaries. Founded in 1985, En Garde Arts was the first exclusively site-specific theatre company in New York, re-envisioning the city as a stage using locations throughout the city; from Penn Yards to the Chelsea Hotel, the Meatpacking District and Wall Street. En Garde has been honored with six OBIEs, two Drama Desk Awards, and an Outer Critics Circle Special Award - with The New York Times proclaiming En Garde Arts to be "an invigorating urban presence."

When the pandemic shut down theaters across the country En Garde harkened back to its site-specific roots employing upwards of 200 artists and arts workers for two productions that premiered in May, 2021. A Dozen Dreams, New York Times Critic's Pick and was chosen Best of Theatre for 2021. It was a labyrinth of 12 beautifully designed dreamscapes; and Downtown Live, a new performing arts festival presented by The Downtown Alliance in association with The Tank, that featured Obie Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as emerging voices. As an independent producing organization, we will continue to produce risk-taking, socially important work with lasting impact.

Other En Garde Arts productions of note were BASETRACK Live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), that was a New York Times Top Ten Critic's Pick which went on to a 40-city national tour that culminated at the military base Fort Hood in Texas. Wilderness, a New York Times Critic's Pick was published and is now performed at highschools and colleges around the country and Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes), a New York Times Critic's Pick is premiering at La Jolla Playhouse on September 7th, 2022. In 2019, En Garde Arts launched a new developmental series Uncommon Voices that was featured by WNET's ALL ARTS, AllArts.org, and played to over 100,000 viewers.

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