NYTW Adds Lucas Hnath's RED SPEEDO, World Premiere of HADESTOWN to 2015-16 Season

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced the final two productions of its 2015/16 Season. The New York premiere of RED SPEEDO, written by Lucas Hnath (The Christians) and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (Hollow Roots), will begin performances in February. The 2015/16 Season will conclude with the world premiere of a new folk opera, HADESTOWN, by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. HADESTOWN was developed with and is directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), and will begin performances in May 2016.

Hailed as "one of the brightest new voices of his generation" by The New York Times, Lucas Hnath (The Christians, A Public Reading...) makes his NYTW debut with RED SPEEDO, a muscular new play directed by NYTW Usual Suspect Lileana Blain-Cruz. Set on the eve of the Olympic swim trials, pressure builds as front-runner Ray confronts the lure of endorsements, the perils of mixing the personal and professional, and the unforgiving weight of success. Through Hnath's signature dark wit and exacting language, RED SPEEDO is a captivating exploration of America's obsession with winning at all costs.

With HADESTOWN, celebrated singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and inventive two-time OBIE award-winning director Rachel Chavkin (Three Pianos, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812) transform Mitchell's "phenomenal concept album" (Rolling Stone) into a bold new work for the stage. This folk opera follows Orpheus' mythical quest to overcome Hades and regain the favor of his one true love, Eurydice. Together we travel from wide open plains where love and music are not enough nourishment to survive the winter, down to HADESTOWN, an industrialized world of mindless labor and full stomachs. Inspired by traditions of classic American folk music and vintage New Orleans jazz, Mitchell's beguiling melodies and poetic imagination pit nature against industry, faith against doubt, and love against death. HADESTOWN was originally developed with funding from the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center under the supervision of Dale Franzen and Mara Isaacs/Octopus Theatricals. The project was further developed in collaboration with The Broad Stage through NYTW's Artist Workshop programming, including the annual Usual Suspects Summer Residency at Dartmouth College and the Larson Lab Studio.

RED SPEEDO andHADESTOWN join the previously announced world premiere of FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND, a new play from NYTW's acclaimed Company-in-Residence Elevator Repair Service (The Sound and the Fury, The Select, Gatz) in September of 2015, and the world premiere of LAZARUS, by David Bowie and Enda Walsh (ONCE, Tony Award) inspired by the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, and directed by Ivo van Hove (Hedda Gabler, More Stately Mansions, Obie Awards) in November of 2015.

A variety of membership packages are now available for the 2015/16 season at NYTW.org or by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (12-8pm daily). Select packages include tickets to FOREVER, the fourth and final production of the 2014/15 season (April 22 - May 31, 2015), created and performed by Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith and directed by Neel Keller. FOREVER began previews on Wednesday, April 22nd and officially opened on Monday, May 4, 2015 at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E. 4th Street New York, NY 10003). FOREVER runs through Sunday, May 31, 2015.

New York Theatre Workshop, now in its 31st season of incubating important new works of theatre, continues to honor its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape all our lives. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village, NYTW presents four new productions, over 80 readings and numerous workshop productions for over 45,000 audience members. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs, including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies and artist fellowships. Over the last three decades, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus, Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath, Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher, and Enda Walsh's Once. Last season, the Workshop received critical acclaim for Caryl Churchill's newest play, Love and Information, as well as What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined, which garnered Drama Desk, Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, seventeen Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk, and Lucille Lortel Awards.