Vineyard Theatre Announces Initial Productions for 2019/2020 Season

Vineyard Theatre announces two productions of the company's upcoming 2019-2020 season. The season will kick off this fall with IS THIS A ROOM, conceived and directed by Tina Satter. The final production of the season in spring 2020 will be the world premiere of TUVALU OR, THE SADDEST SONG by Antoinette Nwandu, and directed by Danya Taymor. Both shows will be presented at Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) with the winter 2020 production to be announced at a later date.

Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern said: "We are thrilled to announce two of our 2019-20 productions -- Tina Satter's IS THIS A ROOM, and Antoinette Nwandu's TUVALU OR, THE SADDEST SONG. These extraordinary new plays intertwine the deeply personal and political in revealing ways, reminding us how historical events shape, and are shaped by, individual lives. Tina and Antoinette are gifted artists who have created works inspired by recent events in our country, and fueled by theatrical imagination, which speak powerfully and exhilaratingly to our current moment. We truly look forward to sharing these new works and to the conversations that they inspire, and to announcing our winter show and developmental lab production soon."

Fall 2019

IS THIS A ROOM

Conceived and Directed By Tina Satter

A true story, still unfolding. June 3, 2017. A 25-year-old former Air Force linguist named Reality Winner is surprised at her home by the FBI, interrogated, and then charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in U.S elections. Reality remains in jail with a record-breaking sentence. The FBI transcript of her interrogation is the heart of IS THIS A ROOM, conceived as a play and directed by Obie Award-winner Tina Satter, in which an extraordinary human drama unfolds between the complex and witty Reality, and the agents who question her. As Reality's autonomy shrinks before her eyes, a simmering real-life thriller emerges, asking what it is to have honor in this American moment, and how the personal can reverberate globally.

IS THIS A ROOM originated with a limited run in January 2019 at The Kitchen.

Spring 2020

TUVALU OR, THE SADDEST SONG

By Antoinette Nwandu

Directed By Danya Taymor

Los Angeles in the mid-nineties and twelve-year old Jackie is at a crossroads. She's just been accepted to a private school in Brentwood, the affluent, white neighborhood that also happens to be ground zero for the O.J. Simpson murder trial. At home, the Lord is alive and well, the rent's past due, and Momma's boyfriend just came back to town. Sexuality and spirituality, race and class, love and violence collide as Jackie attempts to make sense of her life in relation to the women in her real and imaginary landscapes. With an astonishing mix of humor, tenderness and theatrical daring, this coming-of-age story explores the barriers that keep Jackie from finding her authentic self, and the cost of overcoming them.

In addition, the Winter 2020 production and a Developmental Lab will be announced at a later date.

Memberships are now on sale for The Vineyard's 2019-2020 season and can be purchased online at www.vineyardtheatre.org or by calling the box office at 212-353-0303. Becoming a member ensures great seats to all Vineyard productions for a fraction of the full ticket price. Other privileges include the ability to reserve seats before tickets go on sale to the general public, discounted guest tickets, invitations to new play readings and Developmental Labs, and other exclusive benefits.

Vineyard Theatre is an Off-Broadway theatre company dedicated to nurturing the voices of daring artists, and to developing and producing work that challenges all of us to see ourselves and our world from new perspectives. One of the country's preeminent centers for the creation and production of new plays and musicals, our work seeks to push the boundaries of what theatre can be and do.

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