Allison Benko

It was a big day at the Public Theater yesterday, where Itamar Moses' The Ally celebrated its opening night off-Broadway. Check out photos from inside the special night!

Fairfield Center Stage, a community theater group, will produce the Tenth annual 'Playathon', a presentation of new 10-minute plays to be written, cast, rehearsed and performed in the course of a 26-hour timespan.

Weston Playhouse Theatre Company announces its 2021 Young Company production: SEUSSICAL, running July 22 – August 7 and touring venues throughout central and southern Vermont.

Luna Stage will present a free short play festival, The Shortest of Plays for the Shortest of Days on Sunday, December 20 from 12pm through 7:30pm.

Corkscrew Theater Festival, which runs July 10-August 3, inaugurates its Corkscrew Downstairs series of workshop productions this summer in the lower level theater at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). The four projects all take classic texts as a starting point, including A Doll's House, Twelfth Night, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and Leslie Feinberg's 1993 novel Stone Butch Blues. The Downstairs series shares one team of designers -Dan Daly (sets), Christina Tang (lights), and Cinthia Chen (props)-and one flexible repertory set, deepening the festival's focus on exploring collaboration in different forms.

Corkscrew Theater Festival is pleased to announce the mainstage casts for its third annual festival, which runs July 10-August 3 at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). The festival features four world premieres, four workshop productions, and four readings performed in repertory over four weeks, with 80 performances in all. As in past years, special attention has been given to theater makers who are developing work through tight-knit collaborations. Tickets are now on sale.

When Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House premiered in 1879, the character of Nora Helmer became an instantaneous lighting rod for controversy. Some applauded Nora's decision to leave her family: one notable reviewer commented that 'there were thousands of such doll-homes' in Norway alone. Others were outraged and targeted the play for censorship. In this fiercely taut adaptation of Ibsen's play, composer Grace Oberhofer uses opera as a radical act to highlight the caustic gender norms that still pervade our society. A Doll's House: A New Opera will perform in concert for one night only at Jamesport Meeting House in Long Island on May 11th at 7pm.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents The Empress Arias: songs from the ICONS/IDOLS plays, on February 8. ICONS/IDOLS is a tetralogy of choral plays for over a dozen women+ singers. Mixing music, movement and text, the four plays recover the secret history of Byzantine Purple Empresses as they ascend in a society with deep animosity towards female rule. Deeply committed to religious icons, these powerful empresses sacrifice personal relationships in an attempt to gain enough power to re-introduce them into an empire that fiercely and violently opposes iconography. The Empress Arias pair powerful multi-part harmonies with glittering ballads, commanding chants and soaring operatic solos to form a unique and beautiful evening of song. The development of ICONS/IDOLS received funding from OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and has been developed in The Jam, New Georges' performance lab for early career female artists, as well as The Tank, a home for emerging artists. The project is currently supported by the IRT/New Ohio Archive Residency for its 2018-2020 cycle.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents The Empress Arias: songs from the ICONS/IDOLS plays, on February 8. ICONS/IDOLS is a tetralogy of choral plays for over a dozen women+ singers. Mixing music, movement and text, the four plays recover the secret history of Byzantine Purple Empresses as they ascend in a society with deep animosity towards female rule. Deeply committed to religious icons, these powerful empresses sacrifice personal relationships in an attempt to gain enough power to re-introduce them into an empire that fiercely and violently opposes iconography. The Empress Arias pair powerful multi-part harmonies with glittering ballads, commanding chants and soaring operatic solos to form a unique and beautiful evening of song. The development of ICONS/IDOLS received funding from OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and has been developed in The Jam, New Georges' performance lab for early career female artists, as well as The Tank, a home for emerging artists. The project is currently supported by the IRT/New Ohio Archive Residency for its 2018-2020 cycle.

No Name Collective Presents TWELFTH NIGHT December 6th - 9th at Alchemical Studios in Lower Manhattan.

No Name Collective Presents TWELFTH NIGHT December 6th - 9th at Alchemical Studios in Lower Manhattan.

Corkscrew Theater Festival presents the world premiere of The End of Mermaids, written by Anya Richkind and directed by Allison Benko. Running July 12-22, The End of Mermaids is a sinister comedy about a group of women striving to achieve true beauty through their performances at a failing mermaid theme park, while under siege from an impatient, hungry alligator. The play includes several 'underwater performance' sequences, brought to life by inventive set, costume, lighting, and sound design. Performed by Isabella Dawis, Elizabeth Evans, Lindsey Spohler, and Maggie Thompson*, The End of Mermaids kicks off the second annual season of Corkscrew Theater Festival, a new summer theater festival that provides early-career artists with a high level of production support.

Project Y Theatre Company presents World Premiere of WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT, a #MeToo play by Lia Romeo. Directed by Allison Benko, performances run through June 25 at IRT Theatre in the West Village.

Project Y Theatre Company presents World Premiere of WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT, a #MeToo Play by Lia Romeo. Directed by Allison Benko, previews begin June 6 at IRT Theatre in the West Village, with opening slated for Sunday, June 10.

"Packed with young talent…in the risk-taking venture that is summer festival-going, encountering talent you want to see more of is a worthy payoff." - Laura Collins-Hughes,The New York Times

Project Y Theatre Company presents the 3rd Annual WOMEN IN THEATRE FESTIVAL from May 30 - June 24 at IRT Theatre (154 Christopher Street, between Washington & Greenwich Streets in the West Village). The Festival seeks to broaden the opportunities for women in the entertainment industry by producing new work by women with more than 50% female representation of all artists involved.

Project Y Theatre Company presents World Premiere of WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT, a #MeToo Play by Lia Romeo. Directed by Allison Benko, previews begin June 6 at IRT Theatre in the West Village, with opening slated for Sunday, June 10.

Single Rider, a new musical by Amanda D'Archangelis and Sami Horneff, premiers Off-Broadway at The Players Theatre this May!

It's the hottest day of the year at Lucky Land Amusement Park in Lancaster County, PA. Abigail, Sarah, and Moira - three Amish girls from a nearby community - arrive at the park for their very first day of Rumspringa, the year in an Amish teenager's life when they are given the opportunity to explore the 'English' world. In their one day at Lucky Land, each girl has a life-changing adventure that will alter the way she thinks about her upbringing - and herself - forever. And when Abigail falls for Shane, a troubled but kind-hearted teen from Florida, she must make the ultimate decision: return to the safety of the Amish world or leave her family behind in favor of a life she's never known and a feeling she never expected.

Single Rider, a new musical by Amanda D'Archangelis and Sami Horneff, premiers Off-Broadway at The Players Theatre this May!