Photo Flash: First Look At THE CONVENT At A.R.T./New York Theatres

The Convent, a new play by critically acclaimed playwright Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project, Charles Ives Take Me Home), directed by Daniel Talbott. Presented by Weathervane Productions (Wendy Vanden Heuvel, Producer), Rising Phoenix Repertory (Daniel Talbott, Artistic Director; Addie Johnson Talbott, Artistic Associate), in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the production opens January 24, 2019 and will run through February 17, 2019 at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street). Tickets are on sale at weathervanetheater.org.

The all-female cast features Amy Berryman (Lunchtime, I Will Be Gone), Annabel Capper (Pygmalion, Passion Play), Margaret Odette (Sensucht, She Kills Monsters), Brittany Anikka Liu (Period Sisters, Rapture Blister Burn), Lisa Ramirez (Good Grief, Angels in America), Samantha Soule (The Philanthropist, Dinner at Eight), and Wendy Vanden Heuvel (I Am A Seagull, Burn Country).

In Dickey's new play, a group of women go on a retreat to live like nuns in the Middle Ages and are baptized with 80s pop, female mysticism, hallucinogens and sex. The Convent is a toothy dark comedy about desire, devotion and the mystery of intrinsic divinity.

Jessica Dickey has been hailed as "a playwright to watch" by The New York Times. Her one-woman show, The Amish Project, went from the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival to a critically heralded production at Rattlestick in 2009, and has since been produced all across the US and all over the world. She was also acclaimed for Charles Ives Take Me Home, produced in 2013 by Rattlestick.

The production features scenic design by Raul Abrego, costume design by Tristan Raines, lighting design by Joel Moritz, sound design by Erin Bednarz, projection design by Katherine Freer, and fight direction by Unkle Dave's Fight-House.

Photo Credit: Ahron R. Foster