Young Jean Lee News

 The Archive Residency is a vital incubator for New York City's most electrifying independent theater companies. This two-year residency offers companies an artistic home for the development and presentation of a new work. Each residency culminates with a world premiere production. Now in its fifth year, the Archive Residency is a collaboration between New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater (likeminded neighbors in the historic Archive Building in the West Village).

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to present the world premiere of SINGLET, a new play written and created by award-winning performance artist Erin Markey and directed by Jordan Fein. Markey's most recent work includes Boner Killer and the mythopoeic musical A Ride on the Irish Cream.

The Brick Theater, Inc. and Doghouse Ensemble Theatre present AS YOU LIKE IT, adapted and directed by Catherine Andre (originally by William Shakespeare). As part of The Festival of Lies, AS YOU LIKE IT will play at The Brick (579 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn) June 23 at 1pm, June 25 at 7pm, and July 1 at 1pm.

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced additional casting for the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE.

Amidst Performance Space New York's exhilarating first series of interdisciplinary works under the new leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, the organization's 2018 gala will celebrate game-changing and iconic figures from the arts sector (April 14).

Soho Rep.'s 2018 Spring Fete, emceed by Ghanaian-American writer and actor Jocelyn Bioh, and hosted by actress Jennifer Ehle (Pride & Prejudice) will honor philanthropists Janice Lee and Stuart Shapiro, Monday, April 16 at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers (Pier 61, Chelsea Piers) in Manhattan.

The event will feature a free performance by EK Theater of Niobe, a video game puppetry piece that uses the first-person shooter Halo: Reach to show how Niobe is punished by the gods for her arrogance in this story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, followed by a panel discussion about real world violence and its relationship to video games.

The Brick is located at 579 Metropolitan Avenue (between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the L & G subway lines (L: Lorimer stop; G: Metropolitan stop). For more detailed directions, & further information, visit www.bricktheater.com.

Following a well-attended and critically-acclaimed inaugural year, Corkscrew Theater Festival returns for a second annual season, running July 9 - August 5 at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). This summer theater festival provides early-career artists with a high level of production support and features five world premieres and four readings performed in repertory over four weeks. Special attention has been given to theater makers who are developing work through robust and innovative collaborative models.

In response to popular demand and critical acclaim, Ars Nova 'one of the most adventurous Off-Broadway companies' (New York Times), piece by piece productions and Z Space extends the world premiere of The Lucky Ones until April 28. This 5-time Lucille Lortel award nominated new musical by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher (Hundred Days) was commissioned and developed by Ars Nova.

Vietgone by Qui Nguyen is the Vietnamese-American playwright's own creation story-a telling of his parents' 1975 refugee camp romance in a "geek theater" spectacle that's at turns affecting, sage, raucous, and fantastical. A screenwriter for Marvel Studios and founder of Obie Award-winning company Vampire Cowboys, Nguyen's work champions representation and diversity on stage while dripping with pop culture nods, contemporary music, and action-adventure narrative. The production pairs this Studio-commissioned playwright with director and Studio Cabinet member Natsu Onoda Power. Drawing on Vietgone's comic book aesthetics, Studio's Stage 4 is transformed into a garage concert with a live band and original funk-rock-punk-n-roll score, giving audiences a front row seat to this anything-but-typical story of boy meets girl.

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that Golden Globe and two-time Emmy nominee Josh Charles, Kate Bornstein and Ty Defoe will join Armie Hammer and Tom Skerritt in the Broadway production of Young Jean Lee's dark comedy, STRAIGHT WHITE MEN, directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

The Bushwick Starr presents the world premiere of SINGLET, a new play written and created by award-winning performance artist Erin Markey and directed by Jordan Fein. Markey's most recent work includes Boner Killer and the mythopoeic musical A Ride on the Irish Cream.

The New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) will present the world premiere of Chloe Hung's Issei, He Say (Or the Myth of the First) from April 19 to May 20. The winner of of an Edgerton New Play Award, it is directed by Lisa James and stars Stan Egi, Kathleen Kwan, Fenton Li, and Christina Liang. Broadwayworld.com had the pleasure of interviewing playwright, Chloe Hung about her career and the upcoming show.

Faye Driscoll, hailed as “a postmillenium postmodern wild woman” (Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice) for her work that is a “tour de force of performance and direction” (Brian Seibert, The New York Times), receives the 12th Annual Jacob's Pillow Dance Award. The Bessie Award-winning choreographer, director, and alumnus of The School at Jacob's Pillow joins a group of honorees that includes Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar of Big Dance Theater, Kyle Abraham of Abraham.in.Motion, Michelle Dorrance of Dorrance Dance, Camille A. Brown of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and Liz Lerman of Dance Exchange. The Award will be formally presented as part of the Jacob's Pillow Season Opening Gala on June 16, 2018 followed by the presentation of Driscoll's work at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival for the second consecutive summer, August 1–5.

The best news coming out of 44th Street these days is that the refurbishing of the Helen Hayes Theater has been completed and that Second Stage, while retaining its longtime Off-Broadway home one block down, has set up residency, making the intimate playhouse Broadway's only venue exclusively dedicated to works by living American authors.

Company One Theatre (C1), in collaboration with American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) presents, Wig Out! by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Previews begin Thursday, April 26, with press opening on Saturday, April 28 at 7pm. Performances continue through May 13 at OBERON (2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA). Tickets $25 - $35 are now on sale at americanrepertorytheater.org, by phone at 617-547-8300, an in person at the Loeb Drama Center Ticket Services Office (64 Brattle Street, Cambridge). Group, student, and senior discounts are available.

As a centerpiece of its 25th anniversary season, HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to present the world premiere of Assembled Identity, a new theatrical work by Kristin Marting created in collaboration with Purva Bedi and Mariana Newhard. Running April 24 - May 19, Assembled Identity is set to open on May 1 and features performances by Newhard and Lipica Shah, who play multiple characters and speak several languages. Assembled Identity is the 29th hybrid work by Marting, who co-founded HERE in 1993. Her multi-disciplinary work has been noted for its "striking unity of sound and meaning" (New York Times) and for being a "a true treat for the adventurous." (Time Out New York).

 F*It Club, the New York Innovative Award-winning film and theatre company, continues its annual series of short, commissioned world-premiere plays at the IRT Theater as part of their 3B Development Series in Manhattan's West Village with The Spring Fling: Chemistry, seven new short plays by Mario Correa (Tail! Spin!), Jahna Ferron-Smith (Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood), Jon Kern (Modern Terrorism), Dan McCabe (Christina Martinez), Mara Nelson-Greenberg (Do You Feel Anger?), Erica Saleh (Channel Zero, Wisdom of the Crowd) and Amy Staats (Eddie and Dave).

Immersive and surreal LETTERS IN THE DIRT places its audience face-to-face with the insightful Aiyana Jones- a seven-year-old girl fatally shot by police in 2010 during a botched raid in Detroit, now a symbol within the Movement for Black Lives. Structured like a game and a ritual, the show lands it audience in a mysterious purgatory the night after Aiyana's killing, where they are greeted by a chorus of black children, invited to play a game, and provided objects that were once a part of Aiyana's life. To 'play,' the audience must use their objects to guide her through her memories to an understanding of her death. Participants learn her favorite playground games, and dream aloud with her about if 'we was all free.' All while celebrating black imagination and vulnerability, LETTERS IN THE DIRT creates a vibrant, intimate audience experience personal to all who participate.