Nikki M. James, Arielle Jacobs, Mauricio Martínez and More Set for New York Theatre Barn's October Virtual Programming

New York Theatre Barn will continue to host weekly free live streams of its New Works Series each Wednesday evening at 7PM ET. Upcoming installments of the series include excerpts from the new musicals The King's Wife, Love and Southern D!scomfort, Shapeshifters: A Queer Comic Book Musical, Present Perfect and more. Available on New York Theatre Barn's YouTube channel and Broadway on Demand, the live 45-minute series includes excerpts from two new musicals and a conversation with the writers and creative team.

October 7, 2020 @ 7PM ET

Salem

Book, Music and Lyrics by Kira Stone

Directed by Sarna Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George)

Featuring live performances by Antonio Cipriano (Jagged Little Pill) and Kira Stone

In Salem, Susannah, Bridget, Miriam, Martha, Rebecca, & Mary are held hostage in a modern day courtroom for their collective trial by judge and jury. We marvel at the mass hysteria, we deliberate, and we ultimately are a part of deciding the fate of these six women. Follow the twists, switchbacks, and real-life discoveries that are made as we speculate: Why did this happen? How did this happen? And, heaven forbid, could it happen again now?

Shapeshifters: A Queer Comic Book Musical

Music and Words by Truth Bachman (Chasing Fear, Farmed)

Direction and Development by Zhailon Levingston (TINA: The Tina Turner Musical)

Featuring live performances by Truth Bachman and Basit Shittu (MTV's Are You The One?)

High school bully and comic book genius, Mel, discovers a hidden plane of existence called Queer Time, simply by drawing scenarios with pen and paper. In Queer Time, Mel joins the ranks of an underground network of Queer and Trans superheroes called The Shapeshifters. As Mel and the Shapeshifters sprint toward uncertain futures, this tribe of queer heroes must rely on community to persist, resist, and survive their living nightmares.

October 14, 2020 @ 7PM ET

Love and Southern D!scomfort

Music and Lyrics by Bobby Daye

Book and Lyrics by Monica L. Patton

Directed by Tamara Tunie (NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)

Featuring live performances by Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon, Les Misérables), Ramona Keller (Caroline, Or Change, Brooklyn) and Anthony Wayne (Tootsie, Once On This Island)

When dowager Mrs. Catheine Dejoie, of polite Louisiana society, dies, she leaves the entire estate to her estranged granddaughter, Milla, but only if Milla comes home from her self-imposed, decade-long exile to bury Catherine. Milla reluctantly leaves her life in France and returns to her ancestral home, a sprawling postbellum Southern mansion, and to her mother, a faded alcoholic debutante undone by the burden of bearing the family's legacy. With the help of the family's cherished maid, the women begin to repair their relationship until the reconciliation grinds to a sudden halt when a long-held secret is uncovered.

Present Perfect

Music and Additional Spanish Lyrics by Jaime Lozano

Book and Lyrics by Nancy Nachama Cheser

Featuring performances by Mauricio Martínez (On Your Feet!) and Stephanie Lynne Mason (Fiddler on the Roof)

A young woman steps outside the confines of her insular ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn and finds herself as much an immigrant in a new land as the recently arrived students she teaches in her New York Adult English class. Lives intertwine as each in their own way struggles to belong, find love, and succeed in a new country. Life changes in an instant when an earthquake rocks a village in Peru, sending aftershocks throughout the classroom, and each must decide how far they will go to protect those they love. Present Perfect is a uniquely American story told with a contemporary twist, infectious vitality and a Latin beat.

October 21, 2020 @ 7PM ET

The King's Wife

Music and Lyrics by Grammy-nominated songwriter Jamie Floyd

Book by Mêlisa Annis

Featuring performances by Jamie Floyd

The King's Wife is a new musical that uniquely re-tells the relationship between Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, the first two wives of King Henry VIII of England. While historical accounts paint these women as bitter enemies, The King's Wife (using historic clues) flips the script to tell their tale differently - the story begins with them as like-minded good friends - plotting and executing ideas for the people and the future before they are stripped of choice, options and each other in a devastating game of politics and power. It's an untraditional period piece with a dark, progressive vibe, and a moving, hopeful story about female friendship and the detriment to the world when great women aren't allowed to rise.

Metropolis

Book, Music and Lyrics by AriDy Nox and Brandon Webster

Featuring performances by Cory Barrow, Taylor Harris, Tyler McKenzie, Max Morter, Caleb Spainhour, Marthaluz Velez and Hannah-Kathryn Wall

Metropolis is an epic tale that follows the Harmonizer-android-unit turned space-time-continuum anarchist Fari as she is wrenched across space and time. With the Apocalypse hot on her heels in the past and the future, Fari keeps finding herself at the center of world-defining moments. But will she be able to withstand the upheaval? Or will she crack under the pressure?

October 28, 2020 @ 7PM ET

The Clearwaters

Lyrics by Sara Wordsworth (In Transit, The Elf on the Shelf)

Music by Russ Kaplan (In Transit, The Elf on the Shelf)

Book by Daniel John Kelley

Featuring performances by Arielle Jacobs (Aladdin, Wicked) and Zoe Manarel (Matilda, Amazon's The Dangerous Book for Boys)

Minnesota. March, 1999. Young mother Bethany Clearwater has just inherited a house in the dilapidated factory town of Oak Pines, where she moves with her troubled teenage daughter Belinda. Bethany plans to finally escape their nomadic past and make a fresh start. But when Belinda, just two months away from graduating high school, runs away on her first day of school, Bethany turns to desperate and ridiculous measures to ensure a bright future for her daughter...and maybe a second chance for herself. The Clearwaters is a hilarious and thoughtful exploration into the myth of the American Dream, stolen identity, and a mother and daughter finding their best selves in the unlikeliest of places.

Little Duende

Music and Lyrics by Robi Hager

Book and Lyrics by Georgina Escobar

Featuring performances by Daniele Hager and Brianna Lopez

In the land of Elflán, life and beauty flourishes. We meet Adelita, an adventurous and curious young elf eager to find what lies beyond the horizon. When the evil spirit of La Mancha kidnaps her mother and destroys her home, Adelita is forced to travel north to the land of the Hadaseñas in hopes of being reunited with her again. With fairy tales and mythological themes, Little Duende comments on real world matters as it explores the border crisis, dual citizenship and the consequences of a dark family secret.

The New Works Series is produced and hosted by Jen Sandler and Joe Barros. Since March, the company has presented 24 virtual installments of its New Works Series (among other programming), has presented 50 new musicals, and lifted up the work of 86 writers and over 200 artists. For more information, visit New York Theatre Barn's website: www.nytheatrebarn.org.