AFTERWARDS to Premiere Off-Broadway at LaMaMa This Fall

Poetic Theater Productions will present the world premiere of Pamela Enz's AFTERWARDS, a new play exploring love, memory, forgiveness, and the enduring impact of grief, beginning September 11 at Shares at La MaMa in New York City. Directed by Danny Rocco, the limited engagement runs for nine performances through September 19.

A spiritual, theatrical novella, AFTERWARDS serves as a sequel to Enz's earlier work City Girls and Desperados. Through an elliptical and deeply poetic narrative, the play follows a community of artists connected to legendary photographer and film producer Sam Shaw, whose fractured relationship with his son becomes the emotional center of a story that spans generations.

Inspired in part by the real-life tragedy surrounding French film star Françoise Dorléac, the play explores how a single unresolved moment of love and loss reverberates across decades. As characters encounter younger versions of themselves and move through shifting dimensions of time, memory, and identity, AFTERWARDS examines the ways grief, forgiveness, and empathy shape the human experience.

Director Danny Rocco says the production arrives at a moment when audiences need stories that embrace compassion and the transformative power of language.

"Pamela Enz is one of our city's most unsung, eloquent, long-standing playwrights," said Rocco. "AFTERWARDS is a lyrical love-song to love and love-making; to art and artists. It has a spark of a former New York, and a forward-moving velocity that will never leave our city. Pam's language is transcendent—always on the asymptote of unreality. Never on the surface, the play dives deeply into human entanglements and cuts to a frighteningly real center."

Sarah T. Schwab, President of Cardinal Flix, believes the work resonates because of its universal emotional themes.

"Playing with space and time, AFTERWARDS explores the ephemeral turning of individual people's life experiences, culminating in a single community of narrators connected by shared emotions," Schwab said. "The essence of this story aligns with fundamental human emotions like love, hate, fear, and forgiveness, allowing audience members to come out feeling, 'I'm not alone.'"

The production stars Elizabeth Inghram as Dani Afterward, Kim Savarino as Dani Younger, Monique Vukovic as Susan, David Gueriera, and Patricia Marjorie in multiple roles including Lili the Therapist, Lili in Love, Memory Rita, and Broken Rita.

The creative team includes composer Elliot Randall, scenic design and movement by Éve Laroche-Joubert, and technical direction by  Chico Kramer. Ray Archie is the sound designer and audio engineer. Produced by Jeremy Karafin. Associate producer is Raquel Almazan. Additional associate producer is April Sandmeyer. Stage Management by Michele Correggio. Publicity is by Katie Rosin and Kampfire PR.

Enz's work has previously been praised for its distinctive theatrical voice. Thinking Theater NYC wrote of her earlier play Falling Sideways Off the Edge of the Earth, "Falling Sideways Off the Edge of the Earth creates a richly compelling space of play that exemplifies its own recommendations."

Performance Schedule

AFTERWARDS runs September 11–19, 2026, at Shares at La MaMa (74A East 4th Street, New York City).

Performances are scheduled for:

• Friday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, September 12 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, September 13 at 2 p.m.
• Monday, September 14 at 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, September 18 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, September 19 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.