World Premiere of NOT ABOUT ME Begins Performances Tomorrow at Theater for the New City

Theater for the New City will present the world premiere of Not About Me, written and directed by acclaimed playwright Eduardo Machado.

Not About Me will begin previews tomorrow, Friday January 13th with Opening Night set for Wednesday January 18th (8pm), at Theater for the New City (155 First Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets). This limited Off-Broadway engagement will continue through Sunday February 5th only.

The cast features Mateo d'Amato, Michael Domitrovich, Crystal Field, Ellis Charles Hoffmeister, Charles Manning, Drew Valins, and Heather Velazquez. The creative team for Not About Me includes Mark Marcante (scenic design), Sean Ryan (production design), Alex Bartenieff (lighting design), Kelsey Charter (costume design), Bird Rogers (projection design), Emily Irvine (puppet designer/maker), and David Margolin Lawson (sound design). Not About Me will feature original music by Michael Domitrovich.

Not About Me is a memory play that takes audiences on a haunting journey through the mind of a playwright during Covid-19 lockdowns. Long buried memories of friends lost to a mysterious "gay" disease come crashing into the present, and he is compelled to examine his artistic and political life in the theater. This play is a bittersweet reflection on how tragedy can unearth pain and laughter and bring back to life the treasures buried in the past.

"During the first summer of the lock down one of my best and dearest friends died of Covid. For the next three years all I could think about was all my friends that died of AIDS when I was in my twenties. Covid-19 brought the end of a certain way of life, as did AIDS in the 1980s. What had been a time of freedom and joy, a time when anything could happen, came crashing to a close, as our own sexuality became our illness. Queer people of a certain age know what this is like. Now, in 2022, the whole world has gotten a taste. We must speak out so the world can change to something better once again," said Machado.

Eduardo Machado

was born in Cuba and came to the United States when he was eight and grew up in Los Angeles. He is the author of over fifty plays, including The Floating Island Plays, Once Removed, Stevie Wants To Play The Blues, A Burning Beach, Havana Is Waiting, The Cook, Mariquitas, Worship, and Celia & Fidel. They have been produced at many major regional theaters, as well as in Europe, South America and Off-Broadway including, among others, The Actors Theater of Louisville, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Theatre for the New City, Long Wharf Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, Arena Stage in Washington D.C. Cherry Lane Theater, INTAR, Ensemble Studio Theatre, American Place Theater, and Hampstead Theatre in London. Mr. Machado's television credits include Executive Story Editor on Season 2 of the drama "Magic City" (Starz) and two seasons on the HBO's "Hung." He has written pilots for Starz, Amazon, and AMC. He wrote and directed the film Exiles in New York, which played at the A.F.I Film Festival, South by Southwest, Santa Barbara Film Festival and Latin American International Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. He has directed numerous plays, including his own works and those of emerging writers. As a director his work has appeared in numerous regional theaters including INTAR, Theater for a New City, EST, Mark Taper Forum, Culture Project, Playwrights Collective, The Company Theater, Cherry Lane Alternative, Flea Theater, Group Theater and the Inner City Cultural Center. Mr. Machado has taught playwriting at Columbia University (Head of Playwriting 1997 to 2007), NYU Tisch (Head of Playwriting 2007 to 2018), and HB studios since 2020. He also taught at The Public Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Sarah Lawrence College and the Playwrights Center. He has served as an Artistic Associate at The Public, the Flea Theatre/Bat Theatre Company, and The Cherry Lane Alternative. He was playwright-in-residence at The Mark Taper Forum. From 2004 to 2010 he was the Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's INTAR Theatre. He is the recipient of the Raúl Juliá HOLA Founders Award and the Berrilla Kerr Grant for contribution to American Theater. Other grants and awards include: AT&T: Onstage Grant; National Endowment for the Arts and Theater Communications Group Playwrights In Residence Fellowship at Theater For the New City; Bernice and Barry Stavis Playwright Award from The National Theatre Conference; two Dramalogue Awards, Best Play; three LA Weekly Awards; Theater Communications Group and Pew Charitable Trusts National Theater Artists Residency Playwright In Residence, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, CA; Viva Los Artistas Award from the city of Los Angeles; Ford Foundation Grant; Rockefeller Foundation Playwriting Award; three National Endowment For the Arts Playwriting Grants; and National Endowment for the Humanities Youth Grant. He is a member of The Actors Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, and an alumnus of New Dramatists. He has served on the boards of TCG, New Dramatists and Theatre for the New City. Two collections of Mr. Machado's work, The Floating Island Plays and Havana is Waiting and Other Plays, are published by the Theatre Communications Group. His plays are also published by Samuel French. Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home, a food memoir by Eduardo Machado and Michael Domitrovich, was released by Gotham Press.

Not About Me will be presented at Theater for the New City (155 First Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets) from January 13th through February 5th. Performances will be Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Sundays at 3pm. Opening night is set for January 18th. Tickets are $18, with student tickets only $10; they may be purchased by calling 212-254-1109 or online at www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

Mateo d'Amato

is an NYC based stage, screen and voice actor, who has appeared in dozens of Off and Off-Off-Broadway plays. Some recent credits include The Shakespeare Conspiracy (Theatre Row), The Judith of Shimoda (La Mama), Back (Poetic Theater Company), Village Orpheus (Wild Project), and Barabbas (Theater for the New City) - a play which he also produced. On screen Mateo has starred in three independent feature films, one of which, Green Brothers, was nominated for Best Ensemble at the London Eye International Film Festival. He's voiced commercials, video games, TV and film, and can be heard as a narrator on Audible and the meditation app Calm. Mateo has also appeared on screen in many commercials for companies like Smirnoff, Budweiser, Verizon, KFC, Amex and more including a featured spot on Snoop Dogg's international Just Eat Campaign. Tv credits include "Blue Bloods" (CBS) and "Jessica Jones" (Netflix). Mateo is a graduate of The New School University with a B.A. in Theatre and has coached with Deborah Hedwall and Anthony Abeson.

Michael Domitrovich

was last seen at Theater for the New city as Claude in Eduardo Machado's Rosario and the Gypsies (2015). As a playwright, Michael premiered Lotus Feet (2010) and Artfuckers (2007) at TNC, where he also directed the premiers of Machado's Worship (2014) and Marquitas (2013). Other plays have been produced at 59E59, EST, the Bowery Poetry Club, La Mama ETC. and The Avenue Theater in Denver, CO. Michael is currently developing performance based projects that explore the relationship between art, entertainment and spiritual healing including Mystic Butts, a live psychic comedy show, and Sacra, a techno-infused sound healing project. Michael founded the spiritual healing collective EdibleSpirit in 2012, and continues to offer spiritual healings, psychic readings, workshops and live events through ediblespirit.com.

Crystal Field

Award winning actress Crystal Field is co-founder and Artistic Director of Theater for the New City (TNC). Under her leadership TNC has produced over 800 new plays which have garnered a Pulitzer Prize and over 43 OBIE Awards for excellence in every theatrical discipline. TNC has also nurtured the talents of Sam Shepard, Maria Irene Fornes, Romulus Linney, Richard Foreman, Lee Breuer, Miguel Pinero, Charles Busch, Moises Kaufman and Tim Robbins. Ms. Field's staunch belief in the civic necessity of theater has manifest itself in the creation of several major New York City events such as the original Village Halloween Parade, the Annual Native American Pow-Wow and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts. Ms. Field is also the director, author and choreographer of TNC's award-winning 5-Borough Annual Free Summer Street Theater Program, which tours an original musical with an integrated company of 50 through underserved neighborhoods of New York City. The unique multi-disciplinary format of TNC's Arts-in-Education Program was created by Ms. Field. Ms. Field was an original member of the original Lincoln Center Company under the direction of Harold Clurman and Robert Whitehead. She was also a member of the Judson Poets Theater and Andre Gregory's Theater for the Living Arts. She won an OBIE Award for her performance as a man in Arthur Sainer's Day Old Bread. Other notable performances include her work in Birdy, Splendor In The Grass, Radio Days and most recently, "Law & Order."

Ellis Charles Hoffmeister

is an actor, comedian, director, and playwright. He performs regularly as a stand-up comedian in both New York and Los Angeles, and he's spent many years working in the film industry in various roles. He was the Art Director for the short film Seven Fishes. Last year, Ellis had a reading of his play, Family Games, and in October, he had a staged reading of his play, A Part of Our Lives. He was last seen in a reading of the musical BLOOD/SWEAT/TEARS in June, and as Jack in the one-act play Dead Man Walking in the Chain Theatre Festival in July in New York.

Heather Velazquez is an actress from Miami currently living in NY. Her theatre credits include: Celia and Fidel (Arena Stage), Pipeline (Lincoln Center), American Mariachi (Denver Center and Old Globe), Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre), So Go the Ghosts of Mexico (Sundance Theatre Lab); Rosario and the Gypsies (Theatre for the New City), Pinkolandia (Intar), Nobody Rides a Locomotive No Mo' (Rising Circle Theatre). Television credits include "Blue Bloods" and "Live from Lincoln Center" (Pipeline). She graduated from New World School of the Arts in Miami with a BFA in acting.

Charles Manning

Charles Manning's recent NY credits include Les Blancs - HB Studio; Mr. Marmalade, Bad Jews - Matthew Corozine Studio Theatre; Honey Fitz - St. John's in the Village. BA - Vassar.

Drew Valins

is a native of Tampa Florida, and a NYC based actor and playwright for the past 15+ years. Company member of the Drilling Company in NYC, the producer of the longstanding tradition "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot & Bryant Park," where he has performed in and directed many plays. With the Alliance for New Music Theatre in Washington DC Drew has played Vaclav Havel's alter ego, Vanek, in Protest, Unveiling and the original musical Vanek Unleashed. Drew has two solo shows based on the life and work of Franz Kafka: A Report to an Academy, and Franz/Drew which was nominated for best actor and playwright in the Midtown International Theater Festival in NYC. www.drewvalins.com.