New York Theatre Workshop to Present the 05Fest - in Conjunction with THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) (Artistic Director Patricia McGregor and Executive Director Jeremy Blocker) announced today programming for the 05Fest, presented in conjunction with The Half-God of Rainfall, a co-production with American Repertory Theater. The Half-God of Rainfall is by Hay Festival Medal for Poetry winner Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles), directed by Obie Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect Taibi Magar (Help), with movement direction by Orlando Pabotoy (Henry VI, Part 1, 2, 3). Previews begin tonight, July 14, 2023, at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E 4th Street), with opening night set for July 31, for a run through August 20, 2023.

 

Conceived by Inua Ellams, the 05Fest brings poetry center stage. It unites separate strands of Ellams’ work in different styles and locations, while inviting in local artistic communities and audiences. The 05Fest will feature four events: Redacted on July 22, Search Party on July 23 & July 30, and Anonymson July 29. Tickets to each event are free, are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and can be reserved at NYTW.org. More information on each event can be found below.

 

REDACTED

Saturday July 22 at 4:30pm

 

Blackout poetry is created when you take text from a book, newspaper, or magazine and by redacting words and entire sentences, reveal hidden poetry. Held before a live audience, 10 artists will debut redacted poetry created on the spot, as images of the redacted poems are projected behind the artists as they present their work. Audiences will be given the same text as the artists along with the chance to make and share their own redacted works. Hosted by Ellams, artists appearing at the event will include GB Gellamy (“WETDOG.”), Taibi Magar (The Half-God of Rainfall), NYTW Artistic Director Patricia McGregor, Samantha Morales (Medea), Cynthia King-Sumner (NYTW’s Mind the Gap), Alysia Reiner (“Orange is the New Black”), Sharrif Simmons (“The Journey”) and more.

 

 

SEARCH PARTY

Sunday July 23 & Sunday July 30 at 4:30pm

 

Pick a word, any word. Prompted by audience suggestions, Inua Ellams will search through his extensive archive of work and perform a reactive and spontaneous selection. Each show is unique and special. Inua is an award-winning performance poet, a charismatic host, a disarming orator and charming presence on stage. His literary works include poetry, editorials, monologue, speculative fiction, essays, screenplays, stage-play, radio-play, short fiction, epigraphs and more. Search Party is an interactive performance where, entirely led by audiences and their words, Inua dives through his expansive body of work to excavate everything from fragments of half-finished work to full essays; his searching mediations on identity, displacement and destiny—re-occurring themes in his work.

 

 

ANONYMS

Saturday July 29 at 5:30pm

 

Hosted by Ellams, a panel of guests will be invited to dig deep and explore the story and meaning behind their own names, with audience members invited to join in as well Artists participating in the event will include Flako Jimenez (Taxilandia), L Morgan Lee (A Strange Loop), Sade Williams (NYTW’s Youth Artistic Instigators), Ming Peiffer (Usual Girls), Michael Shannon (Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune) and more.

 

 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL

 

When Demi, the half Nigerian-mortal, half Greek-god, is angry, rain clouds gather. When he cries, rivers burst their banks. And the first time he takes a shot on a basketball court, the deities of the land wake up. 

 

From award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams comes a new myth that spans continents and millennia. The Half-God of Rainfall is a contemporary epic that weaves poetry and storytelling in a majestic journey that transports us from a tiny village in South West Nigeria to an NBA arena in the United States to the hallowed halls of Mount Olympus, where the mothers, daughters and goddesses take a stand against the fragile, furious and entitled gods. 

 

CONTENT TRANSPARENCY: The Half-God of Rainfall contains haze, fog, flashing lights, loud sounds and stages sexual and physical violence.

 

The cast of The Half-God of Rainfall will include Jason Bowen (The Play That Goes Wrong) as Sàngó, Kelley Curran (“The Gilded Age”) as Hera,Mister Fitzgerald (On Sugarland) as Demi, Patrice Johnson Chevannes (In Old Age) as Osún, Michael Laurence (Coal Country) as Zeus, Lizan Mitchell (On Sugarland) as Elegba, Jennifer Mogbock (Merry Wives) as Modúpé and Abigail C. Onwunali (Commedia) as Understudy.

 

The Half-God of Rainfall will feature scenic design by Riccardo Hernández (Light Shining in Buckinghamshire), costume design by Linda Cho(Endlings), lighting design by Stacey Derosier (How to Defend Yourself), sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman (On Sugarland), projection design by Tal Yarden (Lazarus) and Beatrice Capote (Citrus) as Orisha Movement Consultant / Choreography, with Casting by The Telsey Office / Destiny Lilly, CSA. Ann James (How to Defend Yourself) serves as Intimacy Director with Dawn-Elin Fraser (How to Defend Yourself) as Voice and Dialect Director, Tinc Productions (How to Defend Yourself) as Production Supervision and Caroline Englander (runboyrun/In Old Age) as Stage Manager.

 

The performance schedule for The Half-God of Rainfall is as follows: Tuesday-Thursday at 7pm; Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm & 7pm. Exceptions: there will be no performances Saturday July 15 at 2pm; Tuesday August 1; and Sunday August 20 at 7pm. There will be an added performance Wednesday August 16 at 2pm.

 

Single tickets for The Half-God of Rainfall start at $35 and vary by performance date and time. $25 tickets will be available for the first CHEAPTIXperformance on July 14th. Single tickets for The Half-God of Rainfall are on sale now at NYTW.org or by calling 212-460-5475.

 

The NYTW 2022/23 season began with american (tele)visions by Tow Playwright-in-Residence Victor I. Cazares (Pinching Pennies with Penny Marshall), directed by NYTW Usual Suspect Rubén Polendo (); followed by Merrily We Roll Along, featuring music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Directed by Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson, Merrily We Roll Along was presented by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, the Menier Chocolate Factory (Artistic Director, David Babani), and Patrick Catullo. The season continued in 2023 with the 2019 winner of the Yale Drama Prize, How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla (Born 1000 Times), co-directed by Tony Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect RachelChavkin (Hadestown), Liliana Padilla and Helen Hayes Award winner Steph Paul (The Last Match).

 

American Repertory Theater 

at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work that is driven by risk-taking and passionate inquiry to catalyze dialogue and transformation. Led by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., A.R.T.’s Tony Award-winning and nominated productions include Jagged Little Pill; Waitress; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; All the Way; The Glass Menagerie; Pippin; Once; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. West End: Waitress, Nice Fish, The Glass Menagerie. Other international: Waitress, Nice Fish, The Glass Menagerie, Once (West End); Waitress, Pippin (Japan); Jagged Little Pill, Pippin (Australia); Sleep No More (China). Currently: 1776 National Tour (following 2022/23 Broadway run); Jagged Little Pill North American Tour; Sleep No More in New York City. 

 

New York Theatre Workshop

empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and education and community engagement programs. We nurture pioneering new writers alongside powerhouse playwrights, engage inimitable genre-shaping directors, and support emerging artists in the earliest days of their careers. We’ve mounted over 150 productions from artists whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be, 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; Will Power’s The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s Aftermath; Rick Elice’s Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh’s Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith’s The Gimmick and Forever; Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me; Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play; Kristina Wong’s Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord; Aleshea Harris’s On Sugarland; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW’s productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards, 2 Grammy Awards and numerous Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin; and the upcoming Broadway engagement of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson.

 

Alongside its artistic and community engagement activities, NYTW is engaged in the essential, sustained commitment of becoming an anti-racist organization in support and affirmation of Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color in its community. In June of 2020, NYTW published its Core Values statement and initial action and accountability steps. In an effort to provide greater transparency, NYTW shares progress updates, further commitments and next steps at nytw.org/accountability.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NYTW:

www.nytw.org

 

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