Season 2, Episode 5: Behind every summer is a community that keeps Fire Island alive. This episode explores the history of the beloved Pines Pantry through the eyes of its iconic Pantry Girls, alongside the volunteer firefighters of The Pines and Cherry Grove who protect the island from fires, hurricanes, beach erosion, and an uncertain future.
THE ARENA to Make Bronx Debut as Documentary Radio Play
Written and directed by Ash Singer, the play reimagines a 1938 congressional hearing as vaudevillian sketches.
By: A.A. Cristi
Infinite Variety Productions (IVP) and The Bronx Music Hall present a live performance and recording of 'The Arena,' a new documentary radio play based on Hallie Flanagan's 1940 memoir Arena: The Story of the Federal Theatre.
Written by Ash Singer, the play will be performed and recorded in front of a live audience on Friday, November 13, at The Bronx Music Hall, marking IVP's third partnership with the venue and its parent organization, WHEDco. The recording will air at a later date.
In 1938, the Federal Theatre Project - a New Deal program, helmed by Hallie Flanagan, that put thousands of out-of-work theater artists back to work - was brought before a closed congressional committee hearing that led to its shutdown. 'The Arena' re-imagines that hearing as a series of vaudevillian sketches, giving the artists of America's only national theater their proverbial day in court.
The story unfolds inside the dream of an out-of-work composer who discovers Flanagan's memoir. As the hearing room transforms into an arena (part vaudeville stage, part gladiator pit) the artists of the Federal Theatre fight for their lives the only way they know how: by performing. Along the way, 'The Arena' asks what art is worth and what society owes the people who make it.
'The Arena' was developed through a workshop in Manhattan in June 2026. It continues IVP's work in audio: the company's documentary piece 'In Their Footsteps' earned a 2025 Gracie Award for Excellence in Radio Programming.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Venue The Bronx Music Hall, 438 E 163rd St, Bronx, NY 10451
When Friday, November 13, 2026, 7:30pm EST (running time 75 minutes)
Cast: Jacqueline Knapp, Ash Singer, Aaron David Kapner, Esther Ayomide Akinsanya & Ryan Pollock-Comer
Creative team: Written and Directed by Ash Singer; Music by Shira Bouskila; Choreography by Callie Mitchell; Produced by Kate Szekely
Audience members will be part of the live recording. A post-show talkback will immediately follow.
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