David Rosenberg's WHAT ELSE IS TRUE? to be Presented at A.R.T./New York's Gural Theatre in August

 Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective will present the world premiere of David Rosenberg’s What Else Is True?, a bittersweet comedy about the fuzzy line between youth and adulthood, set in the world of college improv. Directed by Jake Beckhard and Adam Coy, What Else Is True? is scheduled to run August 15, 2023–August 26, 2023 at A.R.T./New York Theatre’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre, located at 502 W 53rd St in Manhattan. The production is set to open on Friday, August 18. Tickets are currently on sale at www.eggandspoontheatre.org.

At a large university in New York City, six bright-eyed weirdos form an improv team. They sing parody songs, tell dumb jokes, plan group Halloween costumes, and become best friends. But time goes on and jokes get old. What Else Is True? is a comedy about the ecstasy—and impermanence— of friendship in college.

Egg & Spoon Artistic Director Liam Lonegan remarked, “What Else is True? captures the joys, complications, and inevitability of growing up in a unique way. It speaks directly to the mission of Egg & Spoon, which was founded by a group of young theater makers eager to capture the playfulness of a block party and put that on stage. David’s play straddles that moment in early adulthood where limitless dreams meet reality.”

The cast for What Else Is True? includes Olivia AbiAssi, Serena Berman, Dylan Guerra, Sam Gonzalez, Jawaun Hill, Adam Langdon, Ema Zivkovic and special guest Ed Herbstman, improviser and co-founder of the Magnet Theatre.

The creative team includes Lindsay Fuori (scenic & prop design), Olivia Vaugh Hern (costume design), Paige Seber (lighting design), Art Kopischke (sound & video design), Emily Bubeck (stage manager | she/her/hers), Sydney Prince (production manager), and Alix Livermore (assistant stage manager).

Thirteen performances of What Else Is True? will take place August 15, 2023–August 26, 2023 at A.R.T./New York Theatre’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre, which is located at 502 W 53rd St in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of August 15 for an opening on Friday, August 18. The performance schedule is Tuesday–Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets, which start at $25, can be purchased at www.eggandspoontheatre.org. Standard ticketing fees apply.

About The Creative Team

David Rosenberg (playwright) is a writer and actor based in New York City. In addition to What Else Is True?, his play Wicked Child will premiere at Zoetic Stage in Miami, FL in January 2024. His plays have been workshopped by Playwrights Horizons, Egg & Spoon, Zoetic Stage, and 29Salon. His play I Would Never Lie to You was commissioned by Juilliard’s Center for Innovation in the Arts, where it was meant to premiere in March 2020. The pandemic had other plans. His short film It’s a Dog is currently on the festival circuit, and his web series Tuck & Art was a Vimeo Staff Pick. As an actor he was most recently in Death of a Salesman on Broadway. He holds an MFA from Juilliard and a BFA from NYU. www.DavidSethRosenberg.com

Jake Beckhard (director). Broadway: The 24-Hour Plays, 2022. Off-Broadway: Good For Otto (Assistant Director | The New Group), Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow (Assistant Director, Dramaturg | MCC Theater). Regional: The Splitting (Westport Country Playhouse, Westport CT), Ajax(The Hangar Theatre Wedge Series, Ithaca NY), Intuitive Men (Odyssey Theatre, LA). Other: Peter Smith’s Diana (Ars Nova), Selina Fillinger’s The Armor Plays (LIU-Brooklyn), Matthew Minnicino’s Artaud Artaud (Theatre for the New City), Lily Houghton’s Coconut Oil Solves All My Problems (The Flea Theatre). Awards/Honors: 2022 Fled Leadership Council. 2019 Flea Resident Director. 2018 Drama League Fellow. 2017 Williamstown Theater Festival Directing Corps. 2016 Westport Country Playhouse Directing Fellow.  www.jake-beck.com.

Adam Coy (director) is a director, curator of vibes and actor from San Antonio. Directing, Holes in the Shape of my Father (Under the Radar), What Else is True? (Playwrights Horizons NWL), Crave, Zabelle (E&S). Coy is a member of Roundabout Directors Group, a TCG Rising Leader of Color, the ’21-22 Playwrights Horizons directing fellow and a member of TPOC. Off-Broadway assisting Tambo & Bones, Selling Kabul, Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons), The Coast Starlight (LCT), Mojada (The Public). He is the Associate Artistic Director of Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective and was a founder of The Fled. Education: Syracuse University, BFA Acting. www.adamcoy.com

Lindsay Fuori (scenic & prop design | she/her) is a New York based scenic designer. Recent credits include: Mountain Octopus (Creede Repertory Theatre), Millennials are Killing Musicals (Out of the Box Theatrics), Waiting for Lefty (Quintessence Theatre), El Matrimonio Secreto (Florida Grand Opera), Candida(Gingold Theatrical), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), The Marriage of Figaro (Intermountain Opera) and Made by God(Irish Repertory Theatre). Fuori was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for her work on Parade (Moonbox Productions 2019). She received a Henry Award from the Colorado Theatre Guild for her work on Hazardous Materials (CRT 2019). Lindsay holds a BFA in Scenic Design from Boston University. www.lindsayfuori.com

Olivia Vaughn Hern (costume design) is a NYC-based artist, animator, and film/theatrical designer. Her work sits on the intersections of her broad range of media expertise, creating unique combinations of genres to create a dreamy and bold aesthetic world. Combining costume, makeup and production design for film and theater with tactile explorations in shadow puppetry, adapting full body sculptural puppets to a digital handmade animated world, and playing with light and color to create fine art, she is constantly seeking new ways to intersect and layer artistic expressions. Recent and notable works include The Trouble with Dead Boyfriends (Players Theater), God of Carnage (TBTB), A Pickle and a Coke (film), It's a Dog (film), Take it Away, Cheryl! (Edinburgh), Awesome(film), Mine (film) An Axemas Story (NYC), Space Play (Rockaway Film Festival), and Victory (puppetry, Prague Quadrennial). www.oliviavhern.com

Paige Seber (lighting design) is a New York City based lighting designer for Theatre, Dance, Opera, Music, and Immersive Events. Her work can be seen on the hit Off-Broadway musical Titanique which won the 2023 Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical. Other recent credits include Wolf Play (Rec Room Arts, regional premier), Is Anyone Alive Out There? (Minetta Lane), La liberazione di Ruggiero (Manhattan School of Music), Ready. Set. Play! (Virgin Voyages), The Consul (San Francisco Conservatory of Music), Powerline Road (Theatre NOW), Cityscrape (Good Apples Collective), Good Friday (The Flea), and Swann: A Digital Opera Short (Catapult Opera). Paige is a member of United Scenic Artists 829 and Song Sessions Collective, which consists of four improvisers using acoustic and electronic instruments, and an LED Light installation to perform an ever-changing work based on the structure of whale songs. For more about her work, visit www.seberlighting.com.

Art Kopischke (sound & video design) is a multimedia theater artist who works interdisciplinarily in drag, theater, sound and video art, comedy, and interactive installation. Their designs have been presented at The Public Theater, HERE Arts Center, the Flea Theater, Abrons Arts Center, Hotbed Art Gallery PA, Barn Arts ME, the Brick Theatre, Chaos Computer, and ApartmentPARTY. Art is an editor, producer, and guest on “AP Studio Files,'' a founding member of “MA’AM,” and a proud member of “Smear Campaign.” They are a graduate of Bard College and recently completed their MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College.

Emily Bubeck (stage manager | she/her/hers) is a director, creative producer and stage manager originally from Virginia. She’s been working out of Brooklyn for the past 5 years, collaborating on various productions at Dixon Place, LaMama, The Chain Theatre, The Fled Collective, New Dramatists, En Garde Arts, and Ars Nova, among others. She is the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective.

Sydney Prince (production manager) is thrilled to be working with Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective. She is a New York City based artist. Off-Broadway: Sesame Street the Musical (PSM, Rockefeller Productions), Shakespeare’s Stars (PSM, Spellbound Theater), My First Nutcracker (PSM, NYCCT) Other NY Credits: The Reunion (Director, NPTC), Ghostlight (SM, NYC Premiere), Grey (PSM, SheNYC Festival). Prince is also a resident stage manager at AMDA. Prince is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan. www.sydneyhprince.com

Alix Livermore (assistant stage manager) is a rising senior at Wesleyan University studying theater and biology. She hails from Marblehead, Massachusetts but has recently lived in California, Florida, and Connecticut. Alix aims to work in the entertainment industry after graduation and is very excited to be a part of the Egg and Spoon team this summer!

About The Cast

Olivia AbiAssi is a Lebanese American actor and writer based in Brooklyn. Recent theater credits include: Hound Dog (Ars Nova), First Down (59E59), Eh Dah? Questions For My Father (NYTW Next Door), and The Commons (59E59). Additionally, she is working on a new motion-capture video game project, performing stand-up, and completing the editing process of her co-written comedy pilot.

Serena Berman is a performer, writer, and producer. Favorite acting credits include Set it Up (Netflix), Diaspora (dir. Saheem Ali), Murder at the Gates(Steven Sater), and Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales (Voice of Lucy – ABC). As a writer, her work has been developed with Ars Nova, Westport Country Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Hearth, Less Than Rent, and more. She is currently Associate Producer of The 24 Hour Plays and was Co-Director of Performance at LES gallery Chinatown Soup from 2016-2020, where she produced theater and organized artist-led political activism. BFA NYU Tisch. She has been deeply and unironically in love with improv since she was 14 years old.

Dylan Guerra is a Brooklyn-based writer and actor. Favorite acting credits include Find Him (Ars Nova), Meltdown (HERE) & For a Brief Moment I was Something Else (HERE). As a writer, he recently wrote on Max’s The Other Two. Guerra has been a member of Ars Nova's Playgroup, P73's Interstate 73, and is a current member of EST’s Youngblood. He has been commissioned at Playwrights Horizons and MTC and is currently developing a television series with A24 and Temple Hill as well as a feature film with Picturestart & Get Lftd.

Sam Gonzalez is an actor and dancer based in his hometown of New York City. He is an alum of the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School through NYU Tisch where he also served on the faculty for 6 years. He is a member of the resident acting company at Mercury Store in Gowanus. Recent acting credits include Invasive Species (The Tank), Cuck, Cuck, Bull, Twenty-Six Seconds (Columbia) Big Green Theater (The Bushwick Starr), Salt Kid Watches Brooklyn Burn (Joe’s Pub), Little Match Girl Passion (Met Breuer), Lulu is Hungry, Blue Plate Special (Ars Nova), and The Velveteen Rabbit (Atlantic Theater Company). www.thesamgonzalez.com

Ed Herbstman is an actor and writer originally from Chicago. Film: Imaginary Friends, Hustlers, The Big Sick, Ode To Joy, Arthur - TV: White House Plumbers, Manifest, Search Party, Alpha House, Pinkalicious, 2Some, Little Hope Theater: Kindness Committee, Six Feet, Laurie Stanton’s Sound Diet, Mantzoukas Brothers, Armando Diaz Experience, Second City – Podcasts: The Cinnamon Bear, The Truth. Writing credits include work for Pixar and Da Ali G Show. Ed is a co-founder of Magnet Theater, an improv and sketch comedy theater and school in Manhattan. He has been teaching improv for three decades and is a volunteer firefighter in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, where he lives with his family.

Jawaun Hill is a rising Junior BFA Acting Major at The Juilliard School. Hill began performing in plays and musicals through the Creative and Performing Arts Center when he was just 8 years old. In addition to attending Duke Ellington School for the Arts (Theater) from 2017 to 2018, Hill graduated from Charles J. Colgan Senior High School in the Theater Performing Arts Program in 2021. The summer of 2019, Hill auditioned and completed his theater studies at the British American Drama Academy in London, England.

Adam Langdon: Christopher in the Broadway tour of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Helen Hayes nomination). Off-Bway: The New Englanders (MTC), Timon of Athens (TFANA, Shakespeare Theatre Company) Regional: Trouble in Mind (Hartford Stage), Kimberly Akimbo (Barrington), I Saw My Neighbor on the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile (BTG), Hapgood, Robin Hood (Williamstown). Film/TV: “Prodigal Son”, “Midnight, Texas”, “Masters of Doom”, “The Good Wife”, “Red Oaks”, “The Path”, “Difficult People”, “Peter Has to Go to the Doctor”, “Three Dates”. Langdon co-wrote and co-starred in the web series “Moe and Jerryweather”. Training: Juilliard.

Ema Zivkovic (they/them) is an immigrant actor, choreographer, writer, and bartender. They have worked on productions at the Drama League, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The TEAM, The 24 Hour Plays, The Hangar Theatre, Target Margin Theatre, Colt Coeur, National Theatre Institute, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Public Theatre, and many more. They are a proud alum of the British American Drama Academy & Sarah Lawrence College.

About Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective

Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective is an organization of artists who are generating innovative and theatrical work, which expands the minds, imagination, and sense of citizenship of our artistic community. By programming mainstage productions, new play readings, and other events, we hope to generate a space of exploration for artists and audiences alike.

Our mission is perfectly captured in the image of an egg and spoon race. We're cradling something delicate, focused on walking forward. And if the egg falls or breaks, we pick it up or get another. The joy that is present at block parties and field days is community-centric. It brings us together, for the sake of bringing us together. We hope that we can nurture artists and stories in a similar fashion, with care, and always with a playful spirit. www.eggandspoontheatre.org

About A.R.T./NEW YORK

The A.R.T./New York Theatres are a project of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York) which provide state-of-the-art, accessible venues and top-line technical equipment at subsidized rates, so that the city’s small and emerging theatre companies can continue to experiment, grow, and produce new works. Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York assists over 400 member theatres in realizing their rich artistic visions and serving their diverse audiences well. A.R.T./New York accomplishes this through providing progressive services to our members – from shared office and rehearsal spaces to technical assistance programs for emerging theatres. Because of this dedication to serving the needs of the nonprofit theatre community, A.R.T./New York has received numerous honors, including an Obie Award, an Innovative Theatre Award, a New York City Mayor’s Award for Arts & Culture, and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. www.art-newyork.org.