For the 25th year, a handful of stars and over 100 performing arts organizations, independent artists, poets, puppeteers and film makers will join forces May 22 to 24 in the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, available virtually on the website (www.theaterforthenewcity.net) of its presenting organization, Theater for the New City (TNC).
While West Side Story returns to Broadway, Theater for the New City is presenting seven-time Emmy Award winner William Electric Black's one-man show inspired by the famous musical.
La MaMa's 58th Season continues to celebrate the centennial of La MaMa's celebrated founder, the late Ellen Stewart with the announcement of its Winter/Spring lineup in its 58th season. The season features dozens of artists, playwrights, choreographers, directors, and award-winning theater companies and composers, including Elizabeth Swados, Anne Bogart, Noche Flamencia, Culture Hub, Hideki Noda/Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Nick Payne, En Garde Arts, Split Britches, and more.
As creatively ambitious as it is confounding, THE WHITES illuminates a race-inverted space where Black is white, the Whites are 'black' and...vice versa? Visually, narratively and dramatically, this play is far from subtle; familial archetypes and societal stereotypes collide, challenging us to recognize the Other while coming to grips with our self-awareness of implicit bias, privilege, and social injustice.
James Baldwin wrote in 1962, 'The brutality with which Negroes are treated in this country simply cannot be overstated, however unwilling white men may be to hear it. In the beginninga?'and neither can this be overstateda?'a Negro just cannot believe that white people are treating him as they do; he does not know what he has done to merit it.
La MaMa announces its 58th season, featuring more than twenty world and US premieres, and dozens of artists, playwrights, choreographers, directors, award-winning theater companies and composers, including Philip Glass, Andrei Serban, Estelle Parsons, Germaine Acogny, Evan Yionoulis, Theodora Skipitares, Anne Bogart, Charlotte Brathwaite and many more.
'Bring it On' meets 'Dreamgirls' in the girl-group musical, 'Betty and the Belrays' by William Electric Black aka Ian Ellis James, which will be presented by Theater for the New City January 31 to February 17. The piece tells the story of three white female singers from Detroit who struggle to change a racially divided society by singing for a black record label. Book and lyrics are by William Electric Black. Music is by Black, Valerie Ghent (arranger/keyboards for Ashford & Simpson) and Gary Schreiner. Choreography is by Jeremy Lardieri. Director is Mr. Black.
'Bring it On' meets 'Dreamgirls' in the girl-group musical, 'Betty and the Belrays' by William Electric Black aka Ian Ellis James, which will be presented by Theater for the New City January 31 to February 17. The piece tells the story of three white female singers from Detroit who struggle to change a racially divided society by singing for a black record label. Book and lyrics are by William Electric Black. Music is by Black, Valerie Ghent (arranger/keyboards for Ashford & Simpson) and Gary Schreiner. Choreography is by Jeremy Lardieri. Director is Mr. Black.
Talk-backs will be held at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., after each Sunday matinee performance of 'Subway Story (A Shooting),' written and directed by William Electric Black. The talk-backs were developed to help elucidate for the play's audiences the pressures that drive the epidemic of gun violence in young people.
Innumerable American children and teens are exposed to gun violence at home, in school, in their communities and in the media. In 'Subway Story (A Shooting),' playwright/director William Electric Black means to elucidate the pressures that drive the epidemic in young people. The piece is the final installment of his five-play GUNPLAYS Series, which has dramatized the epidemic of gun violence using differing approaches and theatrical styles. Theater for the New City, which has presented the entire series, will mount 'Subway Story (A Shooting),' its final installment, February 22 to March 18 in its Community Theater.
New York's most exciting theatre companies will be taking to the stage this February to celebrate Black History Month. See full listings below!
Baby Boomers had nuclear air raid drills in school that stamped their souls with the realization that death is always close by. Their children now have lockdown drills, rehearsing what to do when a shooter is on the loose in the school. A nuclear attack never materialized (at least, not yet), but the present generation has Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech and a host of other massacres to remind them of their own mortality. The hard lockdown--when an imminent danger is known--is an unforgettable rite of passage for many people, and it is the setting of 'The Faculty Room,' the newest play by William Electric Black that is the fourth in his GUNPLAYS series. Theater for the New City will present its world premiere run April 13 to 30, directed by the author.
One of the first and most time-honored FREE Summer Festivals in NYC each year, the LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL, begins today, May 27 and continues through May 29 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at 10th St.).
One of the first and most time-honored FREE Summer Festivals in NYC each year - the LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL -- will take place this year, the FEST's 21st annual event -- Memorial Day Weekend May 27 to 29 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at 10th St.), it has been announced by Crystal Field, co-founder and Artistic Director of Theater for the New City.
You can't understand a man, the proverb goes, until you've walked a mile in his shoes. But who, among us, has tasted the paranoia, dread and loss from gun violence that is, shockingly, common to urban high schoolers and their families? 'The Death of a Black Man (A Walk By)' by William Electric Black suggests the experience poetically, using using hip hop verse, chanting, songs and poetry. The audience walks through a variety of uniquely-designed theater spaces and environments suggesting the events before and after a shooting in an urban playground. It's like a day lived with urban gun violence, complete with a candle lit memorial service, police investigations, protests and the actual shootings. This is the third in a series of five plays by William Electric Black, collectively called 'GUNPLAYS,' that address inner city violence and guns. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave (East Village), will present the work June 2 to 19, 2016 directed by the author. The piece was scheduled for June to support Gun Awareness Month.
'When Black Boys Die,' written and directed by William Electric Black, is a new drama about a teenage girl's journey as she tries to understand the madness of gun violence that has killed her brother and consumed her mother (and so many other mothers who have also lost their sons to inner city violence). It is the second in a series of five plays by William Electric Black, to be collectively called 'GUNPLAYS,' that address inner city violence and guns. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave (East Village), will present the work tonight, March 5 to 22, directed by the author.
'When Black Boys Die,' written and directed by William Electric Black, is a new drama about a teenage girl's journey as she tries to understand the madness of gun violence that has killed her brother and consumed her mother (and so many other mothers who have also lost their sons to inner city violence). It is the second in a series of five plays by William Electric Black, to be collectively called 'GUNPLAYS,' that address inner city violence and guns. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave (East Village), will present the work March 5 to 22, directed by the author.
In a neighborhood torn by gun violence between black and Mexican youth, a prominent black minister, haunted by the ghosts of his struggles as a 60's radical, faces his own impotence to restore order in 'Welcome Home Sonny T,' a new play written and directed by William Electric Black. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., will present the work tonight, December 5 to 22, 2013.
In a neighborhood torn by gun violence between black and Mexican youth, a prominent black minister, haunted by the ghosts of his struggles as a 60's radical, faces his own impotence to restore order in 'Welcome Home Sonny T,' a new play written and directed by William Electric Black. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., will present the work December 5 to 22, 2013.
Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at East 10th St.) presents MY BOYFRIEND IS A ZOMBIE from June 3rd to the 27th. This piece sports thirteen original numbers written by the team of William Electric Black and Gary Schreiner, both Emmy-winners. There's an ensemble of ten actors and a three-piece live band. Book, lyrics and direction are by William Electric Black.
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