Rattlestick Announces June Lineup, Including ALUMNI JAM Hosted By Kyra Sedgwick

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER announces upcoming programming for June 2019 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place New York, NY 10014).

ALUMNI JAM

June 3, 2019 at 7:00pm

Rattlestick's Alumni Jam is an evening where some of the most beloved all-star and up-and-coming playwrights are invited to share excerpts of their new work. The evening is an opportunity to gather in an intimate setting to experience new work, meet the creators, and raise funds to support Rattlestick's mission and programming. The 2019 Alumni Jam will be hosted by Emmy Award winner and Rattlestick Advisory Board member Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer).

The line-up for this year's Alumni Jam will include excerpts from the plays Greater Clements by Samuel D. Hunter (Lewiston/Clarkston), The Ziegfeld Files by Jesse Eisenberg (Revisionist), and The Agonist by Halley Feiffer (How to Make Friends and then Kill Them), and an excerpt from Clairvoyance, a concert by Diana Oh ({mylingerieplay}). The evening will also feature an excerpt from the upcoming 2019/20 Mainstage production The Siblings Play by Ren Dara Santiago.

In Hunter's Greater Clements, in rural Idaho near an abandoned mine with a history of fatal accidents sits Maggie's small mining museum in its final days of being open to the public. When a man and his granddaughter arrive at the museum for a tour, long-buried hope and shame from both Maggie's personal past and the history of this recently--and controversially--unincorporated town are resurrected. The cast will include Edmund Donovan (Lewiston/Clarkston) and more.

Eisenberg will perform The Ziegfeld Files, about a new father, struggling to connect to his child, who is sent to a therapist who tasks him with keeping a diary to better understand his emotions.

Feiffer's The Agonist follows Marian, the glamorous (and much younger) wife of celebrated novelist Pete Lubevitch: an identity she was more or less at peace with... until her husband gets diagnosed with ALS. As Pete gets sicker, Marian decides to hire a home health aide -- a decision that unexpectedly turns all three of their lives upside down. The cast will include Maria Dizzia (In the Next Room), Dan Oreskes (Oslo, Happy Talk).

Diana Oh is a witch. She knows it. So do her closest friends. Clairvoyance runs in her family. She went to a spiritual counselor in the jungle in Thailand, and the spiritual counselor told her to sing and go wild in Boston. Everything else the spiritual counselor said came true, so Diana is doing it. Clairvoyance features Oh and Matt Park ({my lingerie play}).

Santiago's The Siblings Play delves deep into the psyche of a teenage girl and her two brothers, who have been left to raise one another in their parents' absence. The play looks at the ways these three teenagers protect, love, fight, and diminish in the wake of their family history, as well as explores the complexity of growing up with parents who are too young to be parents in the first place. The cast will include Edison Ventura Mata and Kara Young.

Tickets are $100 and are available at and can be purchased at www.rattlestick.org and by phone at 212-627-2556. Standard ticketing fees apply to all orders.

NEW SONGS NOW

June 4, 5, 6, 10, & 12 at 8:00pm

Presented as part of the New Voices/New Works program, in partnership with Rosalind Productions, Inc.

NEW SONGS NOW is an unplugged concert series that gives songwriters the opportunity to test out new material in a low-key, fun environment. Each night, two different songwriters share selections of their work, followed by a conversation with the two artists. This "Inside the Songwriter's Studio" series demystifies the songwriting process and pulls the audience inside of the composer's work.

The 2019 NEW SONGS NOW songwriters include Preston Max Allen (We Are the Tigers), Troy Anthony (The River Is Me), Masi Asare (The Family Resemblance), The Bengsons (The Lucky Ones), Lila Blue (Have a Look), Andrew R. Butler (Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future), Michelle Rodriguez (East o', West o'!), Angela Sclafani (Your Ghost), Rona Siddiqui (Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan), and Jillian Walker (SKiNFoLK: An American Show). Post-show conversation facilitators include Anne Kauffman (Our Lady of 121st Street), Leigh Silverman (The Lifespan of a Fact), Natasha Sinha (Disgraced), Rachel Sussman (What the Constitution Means to Me, Producer), and Mei Ann Teo (Lyrics From Lockdown). The lineup is subject to change.

Tickets for NEW SONGS NOW are $15, general admission, and can be purchased at www.rattlestick.org and by phone at 212-627-2556. Standard ticketing fees apply to all orders.

NEW SONGS NOW LINE-UP

JUNE 4

Andrew R. Butler / Angela Sclafani

Post-show conversation with Rachel Sussman

JUNE 5

Masi Asare / The Bengsons

Post-show conversation with Mei Ann Teo

JUNE 6

Preston Max Allen / Troy Anthony

Post-show conversation with Anne Kauffman

JUNE 10

Rona Siddiqui / Jillian Walker

Post-show conversation with Natasha Sinha

JUNE 12

Michelle Rodriguez / Lila Blue

Post-show conversation with Leigh Silverman

THEATERJAM

June 15, 2019 at 3:00pm-9:00pm

Presented as part of the New Voices/New Works program, in partnership with Rosalind Productions, Inc.

Originally created by Rattlestick Alumn Dael Orlandersmith, TheaterJam is a 6 hour-long theater marathon and potluck in which 20+ different lead artists share 15 minutes each of new material. This one-day festival is a chance for audience members to meet new artists and see bold experiments tested out on stage. This year's TheaterJam will include work by artists including Josiah Bania, Julissa Contreras, Sarah Cote, Emily Daly, John Darnton, Edison Mata Diaz, Gracie Gardner, Alexander Lambie, Kareem Lucas, Robbie McCauley, Genne Murphy, Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Lisa Purrone, James Scruggs, Kevin Christopher Snipes, Arturo Soria, Kate Tarker, Sanaz Toosi, TJ Weaver, Adrienne D. Williams, Emily Zemba and more.

TheaterJam is a free, open-door event.

PRIDE PLAYS

June 20-24, 2019

Produced in partnership with Michael Urie and Doug Nevin.

Festival Director is Nick Mayo.

The previously announced Pride Plays is an upcoming festival of play readings from celebrated LBTQIA voices to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, capturing the prideful spirit of the LGBTQIA community and celebrating 50 years of theatrical voices.

Set against the backdrop of World Pride and the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, Pride Plays hopes to be a reflection of the queer experience the community has braved in the years since its heroes took their stand. Playwrights include the Five Lesbian Brothers: Maureen Angelos, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey and Lisa Kron; Terrance McNally; William Hoffman; MJ Kaufman; Paula Vogel and more.

Tickets are now available. For a complete list of plays, and to reserve your tickets, please visit https://www.rattlestick.org/now-playing-up-next-1.

DIRECTORGY

June 26, 2019 at 7pm

Rattlestick will host an event to share some of the work currently in development by Directing Fellow Shadi Ghaheri. Shadi's Directorgy evening includes three excerpts of work. The first piece will be a new devised work, Shahr-e-Farang, a cruel clown show exercising the absurdity of our social and political state of being. The second work is Slow Sound of Snow, a piece that boldly illustrates a metaphoric world of oppression and censorship, written by Jaber Ramezani, a contemporary Iranian playwright based in Tehran, and translated and directed by Ghaheri. The night will end with a short, choreographed movement piece set to Handel's opera, Lucretia.

Rattlestick's Directing Fellowship is supported by Sonja Berggren and Patrick Seaver, and designed by Artistic Director Daniella Topol in consultation with Liz Diamond, Chair of the Yale School of Drama Directing department. The goal of the Fellowship is to provide an artistic home for a promising new director at a prominent off-Broadway theater.

The showing will be followed by a reception.

This event is free and open to the public. Reserve your spot here.

NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS INDIVIDUAL ARTIST COMMISSION

Kevin Hourigan has been awarded an Individual Artist Commission from the New York State Council for the Arts to develop the piece Narratives of Resettlement with long-time collaborator Maher Mahmoud at Rattlestick. This work centers on true narratives of refugees living in New York City. Mahmoud and Hourigan are currently in development on this project and expect to show this work in the late fall.

NEW PLAY COMMISSION WITH CONGREGATION BETH ELOHIM (CBE) AND BROOKLYN JEWS

Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE) and Brooklyn Jews, in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, have commissioned Liba Vaynberg to write a new play about the American Jewish experience. After accepting over one hundred submissions, a selection panel including producer Daryl Roth, Jewish Play Project Founder David Winitsky, Playwright Anna Ziegler, Rattlstick's Artistic Director Daniella Topol and CBE's Associate Rabbi Matt Green awarded this commission to a proposal that they felt addresses, illuminates and wrestles with some aspect of the American Jewish experience. Vaynberg's play focuses on gets: the rarely mentioned divorce document presented by a Jewish man to his wife returning her legal rights to her.

Rattlestick's recently announced 25th Anniversary season will begin in Fall 2019 with the World Premiere of Novenas for a Lost Hospital by Cusi Cram, directed by Daniella Topol, and starring Kathleen Chalfant. In Spring 2020, Rattlestick will present Ren Dara Santiago's The Siblings Play directed by Jenna Worsham. Dates and further casting will be announced at a later date.

Subscriptions for the 2019/20 Rattlestick season are $99 for returning members. For new members, subscriptions are $109 if purchased prior to September 1. After September 1, subscriptions are $125. Rattlestick memberships include a choice premium seat for Mainstage and Apprentice shows, discounted guest tickets, unlimited ticket exchanges (subject to availability), advance notice and discount offers to readings, special events, and more.

For more information, visit www.rattlestick.org

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