Joseph-Vernon Banks News

On March 16 at 3:00 PM, Theater for the New City (TNC), 155 First Avenue (at East Tenth Street), will celebrate the life of Joseph Vernon Banks, the long-time composer of its Street Theater productions, who died of cancer at age 62 on November 11, 2023. 

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company will open its 2023 annual tour Saturday, August 5 with 'Life on the Third Rail, or A Subway Delay to the Future,' a rip-roaring original musical which tells a story in which a violent hurricane floods the subways, sending a heroic subway crew into a new world.

Theater for the New City's Street Theater Company will return to playing for live audiences, opening its 2021 annual tour July 31 with 'Critical Care, or Rehearsals for a Nurse,' a rip-roaring original musical which tells the story of a young person studying to be a nurse who, in order to pay for tuition and books, takes a job in a nursing home. 

Since outdoor performance permits are not being given at this time, Theater for the New City has adapted its 2020 Street Theater tour to the virtual space. 

Summer Street Theater is one of the delights of the season and has been central to Theater for the New City's mission since the organization's first such production in 1976.

Theater for the New City has currently scheduled over 150 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers for its 25th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.

With the roster still building, Theater for the New City has currently scheduled over 150 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers for its 25th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, which will be mounted virtually for the first time May 22 to 24, 2020.

Today we're checking in with Theater For the New City. We chatted with TNC Co-founder and Artistic Director Crystal Field.

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company will open its 43rd annual tour August 3 with 'No Brainer or the Solution to Parasites,' a rip-roaring musical which portrays our road to national madness as a bad trip to Hades. Free performances will tour parks, playgrounds and closed-off streets throughout the five boroughs through September 15. Book, lyrics and direction are by Crystal Field; the musical score is composed and arranged by Joseph Vernon Banks. (Schedule follows at bottom of this document.)

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company will open its 43rd annual tour August 3 with 'No Brainer or the Solution to Parasites,' a rip-roaring musical which portrays our road to national madness as a bad trip to Hades. Free performances will tour parks, playgrounds and closed-off streets throughout the five boroughs through September 15. Book, lyrics and direction are by Crystal Field; the musical score is composed and arranged by Joseph Vernon Banks. (Schedule follows at bottom of this document.)

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City's 42nd annual Village Halloween Costume Ball on Monday, October 31 at TNC, 155 First Avenue. This unique festival continues as a grand coming-together for real witches, everyday New Yorkers and artists alike. An explosive fall tradition, the event is held annually on the actual night of Halloween and celebrates artistic creation and fertilization.

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company will open its 42nd annual tour August 4 with 'SHAME! Or The Doomsday Machine,' a rip-roaring musical in which the Theory of Relativity explains modern politics. Free performances will tour closed-off streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs until September 16. Book, lyrics and direction are by Crystal Field; the musical score is composed and arranged by Joseph Vernon Banks. (Schedule follows at bottom of this document.)

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City's Village Halloween Costume Ball today, October 31 at TNC, 155 First Avenue.

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City's 41st annual Village Halloween Costume Ball on Monday, October 31 at TNC, 155 First Avenue.

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City's Village Halloween Costume Ball on Tuesday, October 31 at TNC, 155 First Avenue.

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City's 41st annual Village Halloween Costume Ball on Monday, October 31 at TNC, 155 First Avenue.

This year, the American theater has been responding to the change in national politics with infuriation, vexation, and distrust.  Satires abound. Classics are widely being reinterpreted into a modern context. There will likely be a wave of modernist plays on the 'new human condition' -- witnessing the downfall of the civil society but being powerless to do anything about it. 

This year, the American theater has been responding to the change in national politics with infuriation, vexation, and distrust.  Satires abound. Classics are widely being reinterpreted into a modern context. There will likely be a wave of modernist plays on the 'new human condition' -- witnessing the downfall of the civil society but being powerless to do anything about it. 

The 60s sci-fi immersive musical comedy Wild Women of Planet Wongo, a wacky B-movie inspired sci-fi comedy about two astronauts that land on a planet of beautiful warrior women who have never seen men, is extending its stay in New York through December 14, 2016 at Parkside Lounge (317 East Houston).

The 60s sci-fi immersive musical comedy Wild Women of Planet Wongo, a wacky B-movie inspired sci-fi comedy about two astronauts that land on a planet of beautiful warrior women who have never seen men, is returning to New York after its successful Brooklyn run last year.