Perelman Performing Arts Center to Present World Premiere of THE FOLLOWING EVENING in February

Perelman Performing Arts Center will present the world premiere of The Following Evening, created by 600 Highwaymen for Talking Band. The Following Evening is written and directed by Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone and kicks off Talking Band’s 50th anniversary season. It runs February 1–18, 2024 at PAC NYC (251 Fulton Street), with an opening set for Tuesday, February 6. Tickets are now on sale at www.pacnyc.org.

The Following Evening is an intimate portrait of four artists set against the landscape of New York, a city of perpetual loss and renewal. A unique collaboration between two theater-making couples a generation apart – Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimet of Talking Band, and Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone of 600 Highwaymen – this affecting new work is a tribute to theater – an art form that vanishes – and the people who are devoted to it.

The New York Times hails Talking Band as “one of the boldest and most venerable politically minded companies in New York,” while The New Yorker writes, “just when you thought you might be getting a little cynical about the theater…think about 600 Highwaymen.”

 

The Following Evening features performances by Abigail Browde, Ellen Maddow, Michael Silverstone, and Paul Zimet.

 

The additional creative team for The Following Evening includes sound design by Avi Amon and Ryan Gamblin, original music by Avi Amon, scenic & costume design by Jian Jung, lighting design by Eric Southern, and assistant director Olivia Facini. The Following Evening is produced in partnership with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann & Sami Pyne.

 

Nineteen performances of The Following Evening will take place February 1–18, 2024, at PAC NYC, located at 251 Fulton Street in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of Saturday, February 3 at 2pm for an opening on Tuesday, February 6. Performances take place Tuesdays–Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. The anticipating running time is 80 minutes with no intermission. Tickets can be purchased at www.pacnyc.org.

 

Please visit www.pacnyc.org/whats-on/the-following-evening/ for more information.

About the Artists

 

Talking Band is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Founded in 1974 by Ellen Maddow, Tina Shepard and Paul Zimet - all former members of Joseph Chaikin’s iconic Open Theater - Talking Band’s interdisciplinary performance work has remained a cornerstone of New York City’s avant-garde theater community. The company has created over fifty new works which combine richly textured music-theater with striking visual imagery. Their work is marked by a commitment to radical collaboration and a fusion of diverse theatrical styles and perspectives. Collectively, the company and founders have earned 15 OBIE Awards and numerous other honors. Talking Band is a resident company at La MaMa and has performed at nearly all of New York City’s celebrated downtown venues. Its original productions have toured throughout the U.S. and internationally to 14 countries.

Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone (together as 600 Highwaymen) have been making theater together since 2009. Their early works were performed in church basements, vacant stores, and bingo halls. Since then, their award-winning performances have been seen in the U.S., at The Invisible Dog Arts Center, American Repertory Theater, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Kimmel Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Luminato Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, On The Boards, The Public Theater, Spoleto Festival, Walker Art Center, Wexner Center for the Arts, Woolly Mammoth; and internationally at Noorderzon (The Netherlands), Bristol Old Vic (UK), Centre Pompidou (France), Dublin Theater Festival (Ireland), Festival Theaterformen (Germany), Luminato Festival (Toronto), Onassis Cultural Centre (Greece), Parc de la Villette (France), Salzburg Festival (Austria), Volkstheater Wien (Austria), Theaterspektakel (Switzerland), Singapore International Festival of Arts, and The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. They are recipients of an Obie Award and Switzerland’s ZKB Patronize Prize, and their work has been nominated for two Bessie Awards, a Drama League Award, and Austria’s Nestroy Prize. In 2016, Abby and Michael were named artist fellows by the New York Foundation for the Arts. They are currently Associate Artists of IN SITU, the European platform for artistic creation in public space.

 

Ellen Maddow is a founding member of Talking Band. Plays she has written and composed music for include Lemon Girls or Art for the Artless, Fusiform Gyrus - A Septet For Two Scientists and Five Horns, Fat Skirt Big Nozzle (with Louise Smith), Burnished by Brief, The Golden Toad (with Paul Zimet), The Peripherals, Panic! Euphoria! Blackout, Flip Side, Delicious Rivers, Painted Snake In A Painted Chair and five pieces about the avant-garde housewife, Betty Suffer. She also composed music for Talking Band’s production of The City of No Illusions, The Room Sings and Marcellus Shale, Taylor Mac’s Walk Across America For Mother Earth, and Liz Duffy Adam’s Buccaneers (Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis) among others. Maddow performed in Clare Barron’s Dance Nation at Playwrights Horizons, for which she received a Drama Desk Award, and at Steppenwolf in Chicago. She is a recipient of a 2020 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre award, an Obie Award for Playwriting, a NYFA Playwriting Fellowship, a McKnight Playwriting Fellowship, the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theatre, and the NEA/TCG Award for Playwrights. She was a member of the Open Theatre from 1971-1973 and is an alumnus of New Dramatists.

 

Paul Zimet is the Artistic Director of Talking Band. Music-theater works he has written and directed include City of No Illusions, The Room Sings, The Golden Toad (with Ellen Maddow) Marcellus Shale, New Islands Archipelago, Imminence, Belize, The Parrot, Star Messengers, Bitterroot, Party Time, Black Milk Quartet and New Cities. Paul has directed over 30 productions for Talking Band and received a Village Voice OBIE award for his direction of Painted Snake in a Painted Chair by Ellen Maddow. He directed Taylor Mac’s The Walk Across America for Mother Earth and The Deity, the first section of Taylor Mac’s OBIE award winning epic, The Lily’s Revenge. He received three OBIE awards for his work with the Open Theater and the Winter Project, both directed by Joseph Chaikin, the John C. Lippmann “New Frontier” Award and the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theater, a Playwrights’ Center National McKnight Fellowship, playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, a New Dramatists/Children’s Theatre Playground commission, a Rockefeller/Creative Capital MAP Fund grant, and a Fulbright Fellowship. He is Associate Professor Emeritus in Theatre at Smith College, and an alumnus of New Dramatists.

 

About PAC NYC

PAC NYC (251 Fulton Street) is a dynamic new home for the performing arts, serving audiences and the creative sector through flexible venues that embrace wide-ranging artistic programs. The inaugural season features work across theater, dance, music, opera, film and more.

 

The inaugural season showcases the unparalleled flexibility of three performing arts venues inside PAC NYC: the John E. Zuccotti Theater (seating up to 450 people), the Mike Nichols Theater (seating up to 250) and the Doris Duke Foundation Theater (seating up to 99). These venues can recombine in over 60 configurations with capacities ranging from 50 to 1080 seats.  Mechanical systems allow the floors to be raked or flat; staging options include proscenium and thrust; and seating, lighting grids and acoustical systems can accommodate each layout for artistic innovation that can engage and delight audiences in new ways at every visit.

 

Named for businessman, philanthropist and benefactor Ronald O. Perelman, the Perelman Performing Arts Center is 129,000 square feet, rising 138 feet from street level.  Its cube-shaped exterior is wrapped in glass-covered Portuguese marble tiles, arranged in a book-matched pattern that radiates from the center of each façade.  The tiles, less than half an inch thick, allow light to radiate in during the day, and glow out during the evening.  Designed by the architecture firm REX, led by founding principal Joshua Ramus, the building was created in collaboration with executive architect Davis Brody Bond, theater consultant Charcoalblue and acoustician Threshold Acoustics.  David Rockwell and his architecture and design firm Rockwell Group designed the interior of the lobby and restaurant with a dynamic ceiling visible from the street to create an inviting entry experience. The lobby's restaurant by chef Marcus Samuelsson, along with the bar and outdoor terrace, will offer a new gathering space for the Lower Manhattan community.

 

Tickets & PAC NYC Individual Memberships

PAC NYC Memberships starting at $10 for the inaugural season are available. Members are provided early access to purchase tickets and other perks. For more information or to learn how to support PAC NYC, visit PACNYC.org.

 

Tickets are available online at PACNYC.org or by calling 212.266.3000.  All performances are at 251 Fulton Street.

The public can sign up for important updates from PAC NYC at PACNYC.org/sign-up.

 

Citi is the official card and a proud sponsor of PAC NYC.

PAC NYC is grateful for the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies

 

Accessibility 

PAC NYC is committed to providing an enjoyable and inclusive experience for all patrons and ensuring that all audiences have access to our programs and performances. PAC NYC meets or exceeds the standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA Entrance at PAC NYC is sponsored by Citi. For more information on accessibility, please visit PACNYC.org/accessibility.

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