Ensemble Studio Theatre's REDWOOD Set to Begin Previews This Week

Ensemble Studio Theatre will begin performances for REDWOOD by Brittany K. Allen and directed by EST member artist Mikhaela Mahony on Wednesday, October 18. The new play will run through November 12. REDWOOD was originally slated for April of 2020, after being developed while Brittany K. Allen was a member of Youngblood and was delayed because of Covid. 

The complete cast, who is returning from the originally planned production in 2020, features playwright Brittany K. Allen, Denny Dale Bess, Bryn Carter, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson, Drew Lewis, Portia, Kate Siahaan-Riggand Eric R. Williams. 

REDWOOD will feature Sets by Ao Li; Lights by Betsy Chester and Stacey Derosier; Costumes by Mika Eubanks; Sound by Kathy Ruvuna; and Props by Caitlyn Murphy. Sasha Hutchings will be Choreographer and Assistant Director along with Fran Acuña-Almiron as Production Stage Manager and Ingrid Pierson as Assistant Stage Manager.

When Steve Durbin goes down the rabbit hole of charting his family's genealogy, he makes an unwelcome discovery that throws the entire Durbin clan into turmoil. Chiefly: his niece, Meg, who's forced to reconsider her relationship with Drew, a white physicist. With acid wit, love, and dance, REDWOOD ponders the project of interracial family-making in a haunted country.

Now in its 55th year, EST has developed thousands of new American plays and has grown into a company of over 600 actors, directors, playwrights, designers, and stage managers. The 2023-24 season will include an abundance of new play development through ongoing programs.  This season also marks the 30th Anniversary of Youngblood, EST’s award-winning emerging playwrights collective.  This fall, Youngblood will welcome new members and begin a new season of its popular Sunday Brunch Series, which offers a set of new short plays by the group’s writers served with brunch on select Sundays throughout the year. The EST/Sloan Project, a long-standing partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will continue to support the development of plays about science and technology with its annual First Light Festival, and will award a new round of Sloan Commissions, to be announced this fall.  In addition, EST supports its Member Artists through internal developmental programs, offering space for creative exploration. 

The Spring Mainstage Production will be the world premiere of LAS BORINQUEÑAS by Nelson Diaz-Marcano and directed by Rebecca Aparicio, running in April 2024. The world premiere is presented by the EST/Sloan Project in collaboration with the Latinx Playwrights Circle.

ARTISTIC BIOS:
 

Brittany K. Allen (Playwright) is a Brooklyn-based actor/writer. Recent acting credits include Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb, Summerworks), The Good John Proctor (Bedlam), and the world premiere of Redwood at Portland Center Stage. Her plays have been staged and developed at Manhattan Theater Club, Jungle Theater, Primary Stages, Clubbed Thumb, Studio Theatre, and KC Rep, among other places, and she currently holds commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Portland Center Stage, and Clubbed Thumb. She's an alumna of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public, and EST/Youngblood. Recognitions include the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, the Dramatists Guild Foundation Comedic Playwriting Prize, and a Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellowship. Her writing has been supported by a MacDowell residency, and scholarships to Bread Loaf and the Sewanee Writers Conference, where she now teaches on faculty. 

Mikhaela Mahony (Director) is a Brooklyn-based director of theatre, opera, and film. She has developed work with New York City Opera, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Syndicate, City Lyric Opera, The Lobbyists, The Juilliard School, the Chautauqua Institution, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Bard College, and Columbia University. She is a frequent collaborator with the Obie-Award winning EST/Youngblood, directing Abby Rosebrock’s Dido of Idaho and the upcoming production of Brittany Allen’s Redwood. Summer, Mikhaela’s debut as a film director, was an official selection at the Buffalo International Film Festival, Flathead Lake International Cinemafest, and FilmColumbia in Chatham, NY. Selected theatre and opera directing credits include: Anne Carson’s translation of Hippolytos by Euripides (Bard College), Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Mason Gross School of the Arts), Miss Mitchell by The Lobbyists (Little Island), Dear Erich by Ted Rosenthal (New York City Opera), Menotti’s The Medium (City Lyric Opera), Tiny Errors at the End of the Millennium by Alanna Coby (The Syndicate), Verdi’s Rigoletto (Chautauqua Institution), and a multilingual version of The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay (Manhattan School of Music). Recent Assistant/Associate Director credits include: Oklahoma! (dir. Daniel Fish, Off-Broadway, Broadway, West-End, US National Tour), Le Roi Arthus (dir. Louisa Proske, Bard Summerscape), Bluebeard’s Castle (dir. Anne Bogart, Boston Lyric Opera), Faust (dir. Lileana Blain-Cruz, Detroit Opera). Mikhaela is the newly appointed Director of Opera at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, and serves on the faculty of Mannes School of Music at The New School. Mikhaela is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and volunteer artist with The 52nd Street Project.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (Estefanía Fadul and Graeme Gillis, Co-Artistic Directors), is a Hell’s Kitchen-based, Off-Broadway theatre focused on the development of new work and voices since its founding by Curt Dempster in 1968.  In those 55 years, EST has developed thousands of new American plays and has grown into a company of over 600 actors, directors, playwrights, designers, and stage managers. EST's mission is to develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new work. A dynamic community committed to a collaborative process, EST is dedicated to inclusion across all aspects of identity and perspective, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexuality, physical or mental ability, physical or mental health, and recovery, while acknowledging and working to end systemic marginalization and oppression at all levels of its organization. EST discovers and nurtures new voices and supports artists throughout their creative lives. This extraordinary support and commitment to inclusivity are essential to yield extraordinary work. 

EST’s primary programs include Youngblood, a collective of emerging professional playwrights; the EST/Sloan Project, a partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that commissions, develops, and produces new works about science and technology; and the biennial Marathon of One-Act Plays, a landmark New York theatre festival since 1977. 

TICKET INFORMATION:

REDWOOD runs October 18 to November 12 with performances Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm; Saturdays at 2:00 pm (except for first weekend), and Sundays at 5:00 pm.

Tickets are $30 for General Admission, $40 for Reserved Seating, and $25 for Student & Senior tickets. There will be a special Benefit Performance on October 30 to celebrate and support EST's work and tickets are $100. Tickets can be purchased online at ensemblestudiotheatre.org/redwood.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is located at 545 West 52nd Street. For more information, visit www.estnyc.org.