ANNE OF A THOUSAND FACES To Premiere At Gene Frankel Theatre Festival This August

Anne of a Thousand Faces, a new one-act play written and directed by Edward Gibbons-Brown, will receive its world premiere this August as part of the 2025 Gene Frankel Theatre Festival. The production will run August 6-16 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, located at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood.

Set in the crucible of a high-stakes audition, Anne of a Thousand Faces takes a daring look at how women are remembered-and rewritten-by history. When an actor is asked to improvise the role of Anne Boleyn again and again, the familiar tropes quickly unravel. Witch, martyr, seductress, strategist-no version of Anne can escape her fate. As the scenes accumulate and the power dynamics sharpen, the line between performance and truth begins to blur-and the axe looms ever closer. Part satire, part psychological thriller, and wholly electric, this bold new work interrogates patriarchy, historical spin, and the price of being seen.

The three-person cast features Bonnie Lawrence as Anne, making a much-anticipated return to the stage following standout performances in The Shadow Box, Closer, and Dog Sees God. The playwright himself, Edward Gibbons-Brown, appears as Henry. Gibbons-Brown is a fixture of the downtown theater scene, known for his monthly variety show FRIGID Nightcap and recent festival productions including On the Radio (Chain), The Neighborhood Laundromat (NYTF), The Interview (Players SPF). Rounding out the cast is multi-hyphenate artist Bug Johnson (Hir, Pussy King), who plays the Chamberlain and brings a sharply contemporary edge to the play's core questions of power and control.

"This is a play about who gets to tell the story," says Gibbons-Brown. "Anne Boleyn has been weaponized by culture for centuries-object of desire, symbol of betrayal, sainted victim, power-hungry schemer. I wanted to explore how those narratives are shaped, and what it costs to inhabit them."

Anne of a Thousand Faces is presented as part of the Gene Frankel Theatre Festival's summer 2025 season, an annual showcase of innovative and urgent new work. The production assistant is Jasmine Jade Binder.

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