Liba Vaynberg News

59E59 Theaters announces the lineup of shows for the 2019 Summer Season at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Ticket prices range from $15 - $70 ($12 - $49 for 59E59 Members).

The Sarasota Opera House, in conjunction with the Florida Holocaust Museum and the Tampa Jewish Community Centers & Federation presented a reading of The Soap Myth written by Jeff Cohen and directed by Pam Berlin. The story is set more than 50 years after the end of World War II, and dramatizes the warm friendship that develops between a young Jewish journalist and a cantankerous Holocaust Survivor on a crusade about the 'soap' displayed in Holocaust museums. In question is, did the Nazis make soap from the corpses of murdered Jews? The play grapples with the evil of anti-Semitism masquerading as Holocaust denial. The Soap Myth asks provocative questions like 'Who has the right to write history?' and 'How does a survivor survive surviving?' The reading commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day and dramatizes the powerful confrontation between a survivor's memory and contradicting historical evidence, or lack thereof.

Following its first week of performances, Jeff Cohen's The Soap Myth-led by seven-time Emmy Award and five-time Golden Globe Award winner Ed Asner-will continue its national tour of concert readings on Monday, April 22 with a special one-night-only engagement at The Center for Jewish History in New York City. The reading, directed by Pam Berlin, will be filmed for future broadcast on WNET's new 24/7 arts and culture broadcast channel and streaming platform, ALL ARTS.

On Monday, April 22, 2019 at 7 pm, ALL ARTS, a new 24/7 arts and culture broadcast channel and streaming platform from WNET, will film a special performance of Jeff Cohen's The Soap Myth.

Liba Vaynberg's award-winning solo play Scheiss Book: 6 Words for My Condition will return for three benefit nights at the Wild Project on 4/2, 4/7 and 4/9 in collaboration with Fault Line Theatre and Wheelhouse Theatre. Winner of the Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award and Best One-Woman Show at the United Solo Festival with a record-breaking number of encores and subsequent productions at Dixon Place and Stonewall Inn, Scheiss Book is a solo show for people who hate solo shows. Relatives who survived the Holocaust are mentioned only for comedic purposes. 

Beginning Monday, April 15, 2019 and continuing through Tuesday, May 7, seven-time Emmy Award and five-time Golden Globe Award winner Ed Asner will star as Holocaust survivor Milton Saltzman in a national tour of concert readings of Jeff Cohen's play The Soap Myth. The tour includes stops in Tampa, FL; Sarasota, FL; Wilmington, DE; Hartford, CT; Milwaukee, WI; Carmel, IN; St. Louis, MO; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; and Pittsburgh, PA. The readings are directed by Pam Berlin.

THERESA REBECK, best known as an award-winning playwright, will make her NYC directorial debut, when WORKING THEATER debuts DROPPING GUMBALLS ON LUKE WILSON, the world premiere play by ROB ACKERMAN (TABLETOP), Off Broadway at the A.R.T./ New York Theater's Mezzanine Theater (502 W. 53rd Street), this spring, June 11 - July 6 2019.

The Tank (Meghan Finn and Rosalind Grush, Artistic Directors) in association with Anna & Kitty, Inc. will present the World Premiere of The Russian & The Jew, a political fairy tale on New Year's about anti-semitism and female friendship in the Soviet Union in 1968, co-written by Liba Vaynberg and Emily Louise Perkins and directed by Ines Braun at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), December 4-20.

The Tank (Meghan Finn and Rosalind Grush, Artistic Directors) in association with Anna & Kitty, Inc. will present the World Premiere of The Russian & The Jew, a political fairy tale about anti-semitism and female friendship in the Soviet Union in 1968, co-written by Liba Vaynberg and Emily Louise Perkins and directed by Ines Braun at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), December 4-20.

Working Theater (Mark Plesent, Producing Artistic Director) will present the World Premiere of Adam Kraar's Alternating Currents, directed by Kareem Fahmy (James Scruggs's 3/Fifths at 3LD) as part of their Five Boroughs/One City Initiative with performances in Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, April 26-May 26.

Graham Techler's LIKE HENRY THE SIXTH, BUT COOL will be presented as a reading as part of the Bridge Residency today, October 14th, at 3:30 PM. The reading is directed by James Presson.

The Bridge Production Group has announced the first of its 'Saturday Sessions' - the developmental core of The Bridge Residency at the Robert Moss Theatre.

New Feet Productions presents ARDEN/EVERYWHERE, co-presented with Baruch Performing Arts Center (BPAC). This adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It is conceived and directed by Jessica Bauman. Previews began October 8 at Baruch Performing Arts Center with press opening slated for Sunday, October 15. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Graham Techler's LIKE HENRY THE SIXTH, BUT COOL will be presented as a reading as part of the Bridge Residency on October 14th at 3:30 PM. The reading is directed by James Presson.

Liba Vaynberg's award winning solo play "Scheiss Book: 6 Words for My Condition" will return for one night only on September 15th at Dixon Place. Winner of the Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award and Best One-Woman Show at the United Solo Festival with a record-breaking number of encores, Scheiss Book is a solo show for people who hate solo shows. Relatives who survived the Holocaust are mentioned only for comedic purposes.

Penguin Rep Theatre, the award-winning professional Equity theatre under the leadership of founding artistic director Joe Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, opens its 40th season with Trayf, a new play by Lindsay Joelle.

Penguin Rep Theatre, the award-winning professional Equity theatre under the leadership of founding artistic director Joe Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, opens its 40th season with Trayf, a new play by Lindsay Joelle.

Tony Award nominee Rob McClure (Chaplin, Something Rotten, Honeymoon in Vegas) will be featured in the original new web series (un)balanced. He is among other Broadway actors Daisy Hobbs (Aladdin) and Vishal Vaidya (Groundhog's Day) are featured in the new comedic web series about a young woman, Melissa attempting to find her center.

Tony Award nominee Rob McClure (Chaplin, Something Rotten, Honeymoon in Vegas) will be featured in the original new web series (un)balanced. He is among other Broadway actors Daisy Hobbs (Aladdin) and Vishal Vaidya (Groundhog's Day) to be featured in the new comedic web series about a young woman, Melissa attempting to find her center.

Fault Line Theatre presents THE OREGON TRAIL, a new play written by Bekah Brunstetter ('This Is Us,' Be A Good Little Widow) and directed by Geordie Broadwater (The Flies, And to the Republic). THE OREGON TRAIL began previews on January 13, 2017 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway at 76th Street, New York, NY 10024), with an opening night currently scheduled for January 22, 2017. THE OREGON TRAIL will run through February 12, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!