Jessica Dickey News

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE (EST) (William Carden, Artistic Director) and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Doron Weber, Vice-President, Programs) have announced details for the 2020 First Light Festival, part of the EST/Sloan Project to develop plays exploring science and technology.

Studio Theatre and Artistic Director David Muse have announced that Reginald L. Douglas will join the organization as its new Associate Artistic Director later this month. Douglas comes to Studio from City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh, where he has served as Artistic Producer since 2015.

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater will host a 25th Anniversary AlumniJam every Monday night in January. These four events will showcase 15 alumni playwrights who will revisit past productions and share new never-before-seen work. Participating writers include Bill Bowers, Jessica Dickey, William Francis Hoffman, Xavier Galva, Basil Kreimendahl, Michael Laurence, Jessica Litwak, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Matt Pepper, Tim Pickney, Diana Oh, Dael Orlandersmith, Jose Rivera, Cori Thomas, and Jonathan Tolins. These writers represent some of New York's greatest voices-Pulitzer finalists, Obie winners, and Academy Award nominees-who have shaped Off-Broadway theater over the last quarter century.

Hummingbird Theater Company's slogan reads, 'hover in the moment.' That thoughtful pause describes perfectly the theatrical experience director/producer Donald Brian Bartalo creates with his latest venture, THE AMISH PROJECT, at MUCCC. This extraordinary one-person show written by Jessica Dickey fictionally explores the Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting that fragmented the lives of families in and around an Amish community near Lancaster Pennsylvania in 2006. At lights up, the audience enters an unfamiliar world. There are no introductions or explanations. We meet a young Amish girl sitting at a school desk who is fascinated with hats. The actor then morphs into her older sister thrilled by the beauty of the world, then a non-Amish woman feverishly smoking. These transformations continue for seven disparate characters. Each is a fragment laid out and unexplained like the patches of a quilt waiting to be sewn together, to be made whole. And that is the dramatic structure Dickey deftly stitches over the next 90 riveting minutes. She lovingly and sympathetically presents each character's terror, goodness and beauty. Slowly, these characters, torn to pieces, are inextricably knotted together by chance or fate or God. Jessica Dickey quilts an absolute masterwork that warms with compassion and unflinching fellowship.

Kylie Arseneau and Cody Farkas are extraordinary in this powerful piece of theatre.

Schoolhouse Theater is very proud to present The Amish Project, directed by Todd Olson and starring Katherine M. Tanner. Good American citizens who are trying to make sense of the mass shootings that have taken place over the last several years, will be uplifted by Jessica Dickey's play. It focuses on a shooting that occurred in 2006 at the West Nickel Mines School in the Amish Community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The emphasis of the play is on forgiveness and reconciliation in the Amish community's response to the horror of that day. 

Lovers of new theatre will gather this August for an advance look at tomorrow's hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2019 New Works Festival at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre. This unique festival offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new plays and musicals in their early stages of development, and hear about the creative process in a "Meet the Artists" panel discussion. With multiple performances of each work, playwrights and composers are able to revise and refine their shows during the festival, allowing audiences to view the exciting evolution of brand new pieces of theatre. The popular festival runs August 9 - 18, 2019 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. Festival passes ($65 general$49 season subscribers) and single event tickets ($20) can be purchased online at theatreworks.org or by calling (650) 463-1960.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces three winning plays for the The 2019 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series: Passing Parades by Fengar Gael, The New Galileos by Amy Berryman, and Three Months with Pook by Jack Feldstein on Mondays, June 17- July 22, 2019 at 7pm at The Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, NYC

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce the complete casting for the world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812). The production will feature Max Baker (1984, The Explorers Club), Jasmine Batchelor (The River), Rosal Colon ('Orange is the New Black,' Between Riverside and Crazy), Curran Connor (Pidgeon, A Picture of Autumn), Garcia ('Tales of the City'), Darren Goldstein (Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, The Madrid), Alex Hurt (Cardinal, The Whirligig) and Megan Ketch (The Big Wedding, 'American Gothic').

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce Title Wave at Bay Street: The 6th Annual New Works Festival, May 3 - 5. All readings are free, but tickets are required, as these events typically sell out. Tickets are available now at baystreet.org or by calling the Bay Street Theater Box Office at 631-725-9500, open Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5 pm, or until show time.

Rising Phoenix Repertory hosted a reception in honor of Ren Dara Santiago as the first recipient of The Cornelia Street American Playwriting Award. The honor will be presented annually to an emerging playwright of exceptional work ethic, character, and talent.

Rising Phoenix Repertory is pleased to announce the publication of the second issue of its theater literary magazine Caffe Cino, edited by Steve McMahon and Daniel Talbott. Inspired by Joe Cino and his original Caffe Cino in New York City's Greenwich Village, Talbott and McMahon invited a group of theater artists to contribute essays, interviews, and previously unpublished plays.

The world premiere production of The Convent, a new play by critically acclaimed playwright Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project, Charles Ives Take Me Home), directed by Daniel Talbott, opened just last night! 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 will run through February 17, 2019 at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street).

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.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! First, we'd like to wish a happy opening night to the company of True West!

At long last, Hedwig comes to Diversionary! This iconic musical is an integral part of the LGBT theater canon and truly rocked the musical form when it debuted Off Broadway 20 years ago. It has since been made into a movie, enjoyed productions all over the world, and had its Broadway debut starring Neil Patrick Harris, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Our 20th anniversary production will find a thrilling new aesthetic and a renewed authenticity as we conclude a nationwide casting search for the right gender non-binary performer to fill Hedwig's boots! Get ready to rock!

Previews begin tonight for the world premiere production of The Convent, a new play by critically acclaimed playwright Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project, Charles Ives Take Me Home), directed by Daniel Talbott.

Weathervane Productions, Rising Phoenix Repertory, in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theaterwill soon present the world premiere production of The Convent, a new play by critically acclaimed playwright Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project, Charles Ives Take Me Home). The production, directed by Daniel Talbott, will begin performances today, January 16, 2019 with an opening night scheduled for January 24, 2019. The Convent will run through February 17, 2019 at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street). 

Weathervane Productions, Rising Phoenix Repertory, in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater announce casting for the world premiere production of The Convent

Join Keen Company for the first public reading of three new plays, developed through the Keen Playwrights Lab. The 2018 Playwrights Lab features playwrights Kia Corthron, Rinne Groff, and Edwin Sanchez. Tickets are FREE and open to the pubic! Space is limited, so reservations are a must.