Monica Bill Barnes & Company: Happy Hour

April 20-May 25, 2016

Co-Presented by Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Gibney Dance in partnership with WP Theater and The Joyce Theater.

“Like all good happy hours, this one has plentiful munchies and libations. And like the best ones, it offers abundant laughter.” – The New York Times

“Happy Hour breaks all the rules of theater… it offers not merely terrific entertainment, but more than a measure of poignancy, a sense of loss even amid the fun-and-games.” – DC Metro

Returning to Gibney Dance Center this spring after a sold-out run in 2015. Every Wednesday. After Work. Starting April 20th.

Host Robbie Saenz de Viteri turns a downtown dance studio into an after-work office party complete with wall-to-wall carpeting, karaoke and dollar store decorations. Dressed in a pair of everyday men’s suits, performers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass crash the party playing two totally familiar guys who go to great lengths to win over the crowd. Every desperate attempt reveals how hilariously unsuited they are for these roles that they insist on playing. Come for the free drink, stay for the hope of a life-changing experience.

Photography by Mallory Lynn


Happy Hour is made possible through the generous support of The Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Happy Hour is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, by the NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Governer Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Monica Bill Barnes

(Performer) Monica Bill Barnes is a choreographer, performer, and the Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company, a NYC based contemporary dance company. Barnes founded MBB&CO in 1997 with the mission to celebrate individuality, humor, and the innate theatricality of everyday life. The company creates full-length shows that tour the country’s biggest stages and tiniest rooms, bringing dance where it doesn’t belong. Her work has been performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The BAM Opera House, and has been presented in more than 75 cities throughout the US. Current projects include a collaborative show with radio host Ira Glass that combines radio stories and dance, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a collaboration with author/visual artist Maira Kalman creating a guided Museum Workout, and Happy Hour, the world’s first-ever karaoke office party dance show featuring Barnes and her dancing partner, Anna Bass.

Anna Bass

(Performer) Anna Bass, Associate Artistic Director/Performer, has worked with MBB&CO since 2003, performing all over the country on stages ranging from public fountains and city parks to comedy clubs and Carnegie Hall. Anna wears the grey suit in Happy Hour, tours the country with Monica and Ira Glass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host and juggles many of MBB&CO’s day-to-day operations. She also served as company Rehearsal Director, Assistant Choreographer for productions at The Atlantic Theater, The Public Theater and Yale Repertory Theater and a roller-skating mouse alongside comedian Mike Birbiglia in This American Life’s The Radio Drama Episode at the BAM Opera House. Anna hails from Forest, Virginia, where she studied almost every dance style from classical ballet to country line dancing. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Jane Cox

(Lighting Designer) Jane Cox  has designed with MBB&CO for more than a decade, and her collaboration with the company is central to her creative life. In 2014 Jane was nominated for both the TONY and the Drama Desk awards for her work on Machinal, and she also designed All The Way on Broadway. In 2013 Jane was awarded the Henry Hewes Design Award for her work on The Flick. Other recent designs in NYC include Picnic and Dinner with Friends for the Roundabout, Passion at CSC and The Whale at Playwrights Horizons. Opera designs include Sydney Opera House, Houston Grand Opera and New York City Opera. Jane has a long-standing relationship with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has been teaching about light and design at Princeton University since 2007.

Kelly Hanson

(Set/Costume Designer) Kelly Hanson  is an original company member of MBB&CO, and has been collaborating with Monica since 2001. She is also an Emmy-nominated Art Director for television. Kelly currently spends most days directing art for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Kelly was born in Bryan, TX, earned her MFA in Set Design at University of California, San Diego and joined the New York community in 2001. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, two children and a big black dog.

Robert Saenz de Viteri

(Host) Robert Saenz de Viteri has been working with MBB&CO and Ira Glass since 2013. He began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deavere Smith while she developed Let Me Down Easy. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. As a director in New York he has worked at the Ensemble Studio Theater, The Flea, The Atlantic Theater, Office Ops, and Access Theater where he directed the NYTimes Critic’s Pick production of Michael & Edie. In 2014 he joined Ira Glass and This American Life producing Episode 528, “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM. He recently created The Spiritual Life of Modern America, based on Knut Hamsun’s mostly unread book of the same title and the experiences of many people moving to America. The show premiered at the Brageteater in Norway.

Monica Bill Barnes & Company

Monica Bill Barnes & Company is a contemporary American dance company that brings dance where it does not belong. We create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook—dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum. Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, we constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures. The company consists of a team of collaborators – Artistic Director/Choreographer, Monica Bill Barnes; Associate Artistic Director/Performer, Anna Bass; designers Kelly Hanson (Set/Costume) and Jane Cox (Lighting); and the newest company member, Robbie Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director). Together, this team creates the most unlikely experiences for every kind of audience. MonicaBillBarnes.com

Gibney Dance

Gibney Dance, founded in 1991, is a trailblazing organization whose mission is to bring the possibility of movement where it otherwise would not exist. Through three interrelated fields of action—Center, Company, and Community Action—Gibney Dance is “Making Space for Dance” in studios, on stages, and in underserved shelters and schools. GibneyDance.org

The Joyce Theater

The Joyce Theater. founded in 1982,  was created by dancers for dance. Today, The Joyce is considered one of the premiere performance venues for dance and attracts an annual audience of more than 140,000. Since its inception, The Joyce has welcomed over 270 New York City-based, national and international dance companies to its stage. It would be difficult to imagine the dance world today without The Joyce Theater. In addition, The Joyce now oversees DANY (Dance Art New York) Studios, eleven affordable studios, located at 38th Street and Eighth Avenue, that are appropriate for rehearsals, auditions, classes and workshops. Joyce.org

WATCH THE 2016 GALA HIGHLIGHTS!

WP Theater’s 2016 Annual Women of Achievement Awards Gala

Women’s Project Theater’s 31st Annual Women of Achievement Awards Gala took place June 13, 2016 at the Edison Ballroom. The evening, which was hosted by comedian and playwright Lisa Lampanelli (#StuffedPlay), honored Emmy Award winning actress and activist Martha Plimpton; film, television, and Broadway producer Jenna Segal; and actress, producer, environmentalist, and UNICEF ambassador Trudie Styler.

On hand to perform and present were Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order), Heidi Thomas (creator of Call the Midwife), Celine Rattray (The Kids Are All Right), Beth Malone (Fun Home), Dee Hoty (Bright Star), and Monica Bill Barnes and Company, who performed a dance routine to James Brown’s “Sex Machine.”

For more information: WP Special Events

#WPTheater #WPAwards

Video by Bajan Brownstone LLC

VIEW 2016 GALA PIXS!

2016 Gala Video Snapshot

The 31st ANNUAL WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS GALA honored Emmy Award winning actress MARTHA PLIMPTON; celebrated film, television and Broadway producer JENNA SEGAL; and actress, producer, environmentalist and UNICEF ambassador TRUDIE STYLER.

Hosted by Grammy nominated comedienne LISA LAMPANELLI, with special performances by Fun Home’s Tony Award Nominee BETH MALONE accompanied by composer RICK HIP-FLORES; three-time Tony Award nominated actress, currently starring in the award-winning musical Bright Star DEE HOTY accompanied by Orchestrator & Arranger MATTHEW AUMENT; acclaimed dance company MONICA BILL BARNES & COMPANY; and special presentations by Emmy Award nominee and creator of “Call the Midwife” HEIDI THOMAS; celebrated stage, screen, and TV actress, star of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and “The Father” KATHRYN ERBE and Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award-winning producer, The Kids Are All Right, and co-founder, Maven Pictures CELINE RATTRAY

The 2016 Gala was held on Monday, June 13, 2016 at 6:30pm at The Edison Ballroom, 240 W 47th Street, NYC

For more information: WP Special Events

Photographs by Talya Chalef and Caitlin McNaney

JOIN US! The day after the Tony Awards at #WPAwards

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JOIN US! JUNE 13 at the 2016 WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS GALA honoring MARTHA PLIMPTON, JENNA SEGAL & TRUDIE STYLER!

Hosted by LISA LAMPANELLI with special performances and appearances by Fun Home on Broadway’s BETH MALONE; Bright Star: A New Musical’s DEE HOTY, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, “The Father” and Law & Order: Criminal Intent star KATHRYN ERBE, co-founder of Maven Pictures, CELINE RATTRAY & the creator of “Call the Midwife” PBS HEIDI THOMAS!

GET TIXS➠http://bit.ly/2016GalaTix. ‪#‎WPAwards‬ The day after the Tony Awards ‪#‎TheOnlyPlaceToBe‬

2016 WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS GALA

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JOIN US! 2016 WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS GALA honoring MARTHA PLIMPTON, JENNA SEGAL & TRUDIE STYLER. MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2016, 6:30pm.

#‎WPAwards‬ The day after the Tony Awards ‪#‎TheOnlyPlaceToBe‬

FUN HOME’s Beth Malone and Jeanine Tesori join #WPAwards!

The 2016 WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS is the only place to be with a special performance by FUN HOME’s Beth Malone and Jeanine Tesori. Don’t miss it!

MONDAY, JUNE 13! GET TIXS ➠http://bit.ly/2016GalaTix. ‪#‎WPAwards‬The day after the Tony Awards ‪#‎TheOnlyPlaceToBe‬

HAPPY HOUR IS HERE!

Hurrah for HAPPY HOUR! Attend Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s HAPPY HOUR! Every Wednesday thru May 25 at 6:30pm. Presented by Gibney Dance in partnership with WP Theater and The Joyce Theater. FOR $25 TICKETS USE DISCOUNT CODE WP25➠http://bit.ly/1TmtRLi

Are you joining us on Monday, June 13?

Are you joining us on Monday, June 13?

JOIN US at the 2016 WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS GALA honoring MARTHA PLIMPTON, TRUDIE STYLER and more! Hosted by LISA LAMPANELLI!

‪#‎WPAwards‬ The day after the Tony Awards ‪#‎TheOnlyPlaceToBe‬

WATCH last year’s Gala video and secure your seat today! http://bit.ly/1pyLa4Q

Get to Know the Cast of QUEENS

SOFIYA AKILOVA (Stage Direction) is a tv, film, and theatre actor, and a writer.  She emigrated from Uzbekistan to New York with her family in 1990. She attended LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts and completed her bachelor’s in English Literature at Queens College.  Sofiya is also an alumna of NYU Grad Acting. Recently, she has performed in productions at Yale Rep and The Old Globe Theatre. She has also appeared in the following television shows: Madam SecretaryTURN: Washington’s SpiesAllegiance, and Alpha House. Sofiya is a recent and proud member of the 52nd Street Project.

PAOLA LÁZARO (Isabela/Glenys) is an actress and playwright born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from SUNY Purchase College, M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University.  In 2015 she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in To the Bone at Cherry Lane Theatre. Lázaro was also in Martyna Majok’s John Who’s Here From Cambridge at EST. She received the Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence grant at the Atlantic Theater for 2016-2017 for her play Tell Hector I Miss Him, premiering next season at Atlantic. Her most recent play There’s Always the Hudson will have a reading at Labyrinth Theater in May as part of their Up Next Series. Paola was awarded the Arts Entertainment Scholarship Award from NHFA, a member of the Public Theater’s 2015 Emerging Writers Group and was selected Playwright-in-Residence for the Sundance Theater Lab in Morocco 2016.

MARJAN NESHAT (Aamani/Nasima) Recent theater credits include Irina in Three Sisters, Fallaci directed by Oskar Eustis, Scorched, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aiesha Ghazali in The Near East, Masha in The Seagull with Dianne Wiest. She just finished work on the film The Book of Henry with Naomi Watts and a recurring role on the ABC drama “Quantico.” Other film and TV credits include a starring role in the independent film Almost in Love with Alan Cumming, RoboCop, Sex in the City 2, Funny in Farsi (directed by Barry Sonnenfeld), “Person of Interest,” “Royal Pains,” “Blue Bloods,” “Black Box,” “Unforgettable,” “Fringe,” multiple Law and Orders. She is a member of The Actors Center in NYC.

AMANDA QUAID (Inna) New York: The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons, world premiere by Madeleine George), Luck of the Irish (LCT3, Lortel nom), Cock (The Duke), A Public Reading…Walt Disney (Soho Rep, world premiere by Lucas Hnath), Pericles (Public, AEA St. Clair Bayfield Award), Equus (Broadway), The Illusion (Signature), Galileo (CSC), Happy Hour (Atlantic), The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull), The Seagull (dir. Max Stafford-Clark), three plays at Irish Rep, most recently The Weir. Regional: Old Globe, Shakespeare Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Folger, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. TV/film: “Blue Bloods,” “Law & Order: SVU,” Non-Stop. Faculty: HB Studio, The Freeman Studio. Quaid directed her first short film, English, in 2014, which premiered at Cannes Short Film Corner and will screen in May as part of the New York Women in Film and Television’s Immigrant Experiences Series. For more info, visit amandaquaid.com.

ANA REEDER (Renia) Broadway: Big Knife, Hedda Gabler, Top Girls, Sight Unseen; Off-Broadway: Radiance, The Maids, Happy Hour, Living Room in Africa, The Wooden Breeks, Small Tragedy (Obie), Humble Boy, An Experiment with an Air Pump,Time of the Cuckoo, Some Voices, Killers and Other Family, Maid, Macbeth, Henry VIII, Hedda Gabler (NYTW); London: The Distance from Here (Almeida Theatre) Williamstown: A Streetcar Named Desire. Film: No Country for Old Men, The Locksmith (original title: Homewrecker/ Best of Next/Sundance), Acts of Worship (Independent Spirit Award Nomination/Best Actress, Best Actress/Santa Barbara Film Festival), Marie and Bruce, One for the Money. TV: HBO’s You Don’t Know Jack, Damages, Law & Order, Blue Bloods. BA: Middlebury College, MFA: NYU.

ANDREA SYGLOWSKI (Pelagiya/Lera) recently appeared in the world premiere productions of The Nest by Theresa Rebeck (The Denver Center) and Of Good Stock by Melissa Ross (South Coast Rep). Her 2014 production of Venus in Fur at the Huntington Theatre garnered her the 2014 Elliott Norton Award for Best Actress in a Large Theatre, and an IRNE Award for Best Actress. She has participated in new play development workshops at The Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, Labyrinth Theatre Company, Bay Street Theatre, The Lark, Ars Nova, Jewish Plays Project, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, The New York Society Library, and BAM.  Other credits include: Asking for Trouble (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Walk Through (Slate Theatre Company), A Flea in her Ear, Bully to You, Schmoozy Togetherness, White Trash Anthem (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Three Sisters, Loves Labours Lost, Elijah, Carve (Chautauqua Theatre Company) Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare at the Manor) TV: ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘How to Get Away with Murder,’ ‘Elementary.’ Film: Every New York City Party Happens in a Bathroom. Training: USC and The Juilliard School, class of 2013, where she was the proud recipient of the Robin Williams Scholarship.


FINAL WEEK OF THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL

WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

QUEENS

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf Reidy

Starring Sofiya AkilovaPaola Lázaro, Marjan NeshatAmanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Andrea Syglowski

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #QueensPlay


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: Rachel Karpf

Karpf-Reidy,-Rachel-Headshot-200px(Producer) Rachel Karpf works with artists and cultural institutions to produce theater and live performance pieces that inspire, delight, and move audiences. Recent works include Todd Almond and Courtney Love’s Kansas City Choir Boy (ART/Beth Morrison Projects) and Jay Scheib and Keeril Makan’s Persona (M.I.T & National Sawdust/Beth Morrison Projects). As Associate Director of Page 73: Clare Barron’s You Got Older, directed by Anne Kauffman (2 OBIE Awards, 4 Drama Desk Award noms., Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); George Brant’s Grounded, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll (Drama Desk Award nom.); Cori Thomas’ When January Feels Like Summer, directed by Daniella Topol (co-produced with EST). With the Institute for Psychogeographic Adventure, she has produced large-scale site-specific performance adventures including in the Brooklyn Museum (BEAT Festival), PRELUDE, Stony Brook University, and throughout the DUMBO neighborhood. For 13P: Lucy Thurber’s Monstrosity, Julia Jarcho’s American Treasure, and Madeline George’s The Zero Hour. Other projects at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, and the Commonweal Theatre. Creator of the lecture series Saloon; grant review panelist for NSYCA and others. BA: Dartmouth College. rachelkarpf.com


WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

QUEENS

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf

Starring Sofiya AkilovaPaola Lázaro, Marjan NeshatAmanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Andrea Syglowski

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #QueensPlay


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: Tamilla Woodard

Woodard,-Tamilla-Headshot-200px(Director) Tamilla Woodard is a theatre director working nationally and internationally. Currently, she is serving as the Artistic Director of The Five Boroughs/One City Project, a multi-year initiative of The Working Theater. The project supports the commissioning and development of 5 Playwright/Director teams working in collaborations and creating theatrical works in response to and inside of working class communities in all 5 boroughs. She is co-founder of PopUp Theatrics, a partnership creating site specific and immersive productions around the world. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, alumnus of The Lincoln Center Directors Lab and former Audrey Fellow at New Georges. She graduated from The Yale School of Drama’s Acting program and is the recipient of The Josephine Abady Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women and The Charles Bowden Award from New Dramatists. Her work has been presented and developed at the Working Theater, NYTW, New Georges, HERE, The Lark, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, PS122, DR 2, The Culture Project, Urban Stages, Dance Theatre Workshop, The Kitchen Theatre and for festivals and theater’s Internationally. Most recent work includes: A Midsummer Nights Dream, NY Times Critics Pick, Cherry Smoke by James McManus, and La Ruta by Ed Cardona Jr, for Working Theater, NYC (NY Times End of Year List of Notable productions). For PopUP: Broken City: Harlem, a site specific commission by The Harlem Arts Festival. Long Distance Affair, a Skype immersive performance with editions in Romania, Argentina, Mexico, Scotland and the US; INSIDE, a site specific production with editions in Bucharest and Madrid. Upcoming: The Block by Dan Hoyle, Working Theater and Broken City: Wall Street, PopUP Theatrics.


WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

QUEENS

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf Reidy

Starring Sofiya AkilovaPaola Lázaro, Marjan NeshatAmanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Andrea Syglowski

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #QueensPlay


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

WATCH: Behind the Scenes with the QUEENS Creative Team

WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

QUEENS

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf Reidy

Starring Sofiya AkilovaPaola Lázaro, Marjan NeshatAmanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Andrea Syglowski

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #QueensPlay


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: RACHEL SUSSMAN

Rachel-Sussman---#RugDealerPlay-350px

(Producer) Rachel Sussman is a New York-based producer committed to nurturing diverse work through creative collaboration. She serves as the Director of Programming for The New York Musical Theatre Festival and is a co-founder of The Indigo Theatre Project as well as The MITTEN Lab, a new emerging artist residency in her native state of Michigan. Rachel has worked with such companies as Second Stage Theatre, 321 Theatrical Management, RKO Stage, Goodspeed Musicals’ Mercer Colony, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, The Tony Awards, and CREATE-Ireland in Dublin, Ireland. Producing credits include: Talk to me about Shame (FringeNYC, Overall Excellence Award), Lemon Cake (133rd St. Arts Center), The Imaginary Menagerie (Joe’s Pub), and, most recently, The Woodsman (59E59 & New World Stages). She is currently developing a new musical with composer/lyricist Shaina Taub. Rachel is a trustee for The Awesome Foundation NYC and sits on Advisory Boards for The Musical Theatre Factory and Strangemen & Co. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and a University Scholar alumna of NYU Tisch.


 

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When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the prominent Persian rug shop he built in New Haven after leaving Iran in 1979. After diving into a love affair with a dangerously beautiful customer and discovering her mother’s secret longing to return to her homeland after years in exile, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and desire. #RugDealerPlay

 


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: THE CAST OF THE RUG DEALER

Farah Bala (Shiraz) Originally from Bombay, India, Farah is an actor, producer & leadership coach based in NY. Barrymore Award Nomination for Outstanding Leading Actress (alongside theatre veteran Anna Deavere Smith). MFA Theater: Sarah Lawrence College; 2-year recipient of the Fezana Performing Arts Award. Select Theatre: Tales from the Tunnel; Honor Killing; In the Book Of; One-woman show To The Death of My Own Family, Macbeth, Two Gentlemen of Verona. Select Film & TV: Entre Nos; The War Within; Karma, Confessions and Holi; Broad City. New play development at The Actors Studio, Labyrinth, Women’s Project, Red Bull, Rising Circle, The Lark, Ma Yi, among others. Profiled in Umbrage Edition’s national award winning book, GREEN CARD STORIES – one of 50 profiles of recent immigrant stories from around the world. farahbala.com

Soraya Broukhim (Azar) NYC Theatre Credits: Petrol Station (NYU/BAM), No Place to Hide (The Living Theatre, Bread & Puppet Theatre), I am Gordafarid (NYTW & Rising Circle), Soundwaves: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan (Fringe), Blackbird (One woman show, Schmucks Theatre), Here We Are, History of the World, SMOPS, Korach by Judith Malina (The Living Theatre), Red Tent Fabrik (JoyceSoho), Antigone, Betrothed (Ripe Time), Gut Girls (Chocolate Factory), Woyzeck (CultureProject), Innocent Erendira (Here), Logic of the Birds (Lincoln Center). Regional Theatre: Scorched (Syracuse Stage), In the Heart of America (Interact Co. PA), Wintertime (San Jose Rep), Afghan Women (Passage Theatre, NJ), Sodom & Gomorrah (O’Neill  Playwrights Conference), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (CT), & Blue Demon (WTF) dir. Darko Tresnjak. Europe: Antigone (Romania, UNESCO/ITI). TV/Film: “Madam Secretary,” Xenophilia, Flat Tire, Headshot, Rosewater, America 1979, Eugenia & John, An Encounter with Simone Weil, The Push. Graduate of Fordham University LC, BAADA, NTI, & St. Petersburg Arts Theatre Academy. Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Fordham University and Artistic Associate of the Living Theatre. sorayabroukhim.com

Edward A. Hajj (Raba) is delighted to be a part of the first ever “Pipeline Festival.” New York credits include: Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre, New Georges, NAATCO, The Cherry Lane, Lark, New Dramatists, Naked Angels, Lincoln Center & EST.  Regional: Actors Theatre, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Alliance, InterAct. Many thanks to Rachel, Lee, Riti, Lisa and the WP staff, my acting partners and the “rug-dealing” production team. The best is yet to come. edwardhajj.com

Rita Wolf (Mariam) started her career with the Royal Court Youth Theatre in London. Her first professional job was Joint Stock Theatre Co’s Borderline by Hanif Kureishi. She has gone on to a career in theatre, TV and film which in the US includes Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul at NYTW, BAM and Mark Taper Forum, David Grieg’s The American Pilot at MTC (Drama Desk nomination) and A.R. Gurney’s O, Jerusalem at The Flea. In 1991 she co-founded Kali Theatre Co in London to produce exclusively the work of female South Asian Theatre practitioners. Their latest show The Dishonoured by Aamina Ahmad opened in London this March.


 

Instagram square Rug Dealer

When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the prominent Persian rug shop he built in New Haven after leaving Iran in 1979. After diving into a love affair with a dangerously beautiful customer and discovering her mother’s secret longing to return to her homeland after years in exile, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and desire. #RugDealerPlay


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

VIEW PRODUCTION PHOTOS: VEIL’D

VIEW PHOTOS: FALL IN LOVE WITH VEIL’D by Monet Hurst-Mendoza, directed Sarah Krohn, and produced by Kristen Luciani for THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL!
THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL: VEIL'D


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@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: Kristen Luciani

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(Producer) Kristen Luciani currently works in general management at DR Theatrical Management. She is also an independent producer and formerly served as Associate Producer to Elizabeth I. McCann. Kristen has previously worked with The Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Independent credits include: Judith (Kraine Theater) and We Declare You a Terrorist (Summer Play Festival). As Management Associate to Liz McCann and Joey Parnes, Broadway credits include: Hair, The Merchant of Venice, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Kristen is also the co-founder and Executive Producer of Paradox Productions, a boutique Executive Producing and General Management firm (www.paradoxprods.com). She holds a BFA in Theater/Producing from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts.


 

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@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

PHOTOS: The Pipeline Festival ‘Kick Off’

View a slideshow of photographs from the ‘Kick Off’ toast and party for WP’s inaugural Pipeline Festival:

The Pipeline Festival Kick Off


@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: CYGNUS Begins March 24!

WEEK 1: March 24 – 26

CYGNUS

An inexplicable and life-altering event sends Cydney on a search for a divine solution to her earthly problems.

By Susan Soon He Stanton
Directed by Danya Taymor
Produced by Liz Olson

Starring Damon DaunnoTeresa Avia Lim, Kate Rigg

Cydney believes an angel rescued her from an ineffable trauma, and the truth may prove stranger than she imagines. In this mythic, hilarious, and poetic new play, Susan Soon He Stanton spins a dark fairy tale where a burnt feather may illuminate the possibility of a divine intervention. #CygnusPlay


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@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab

The Pipeline Festival: CYGNUS’ Kate Rigg

Kate Rigg 1 (Cygnus)Kate Rigg (Mama Hansen) Off Broadway: The JammerThree Kinds of Exile (Atlantic), BFE (LongWharf/Playwrights Horizons), Dogeaters (The Public) Vagina Monologues (Westside Theater) Most Fabulous Story (NYTW) Regional: Playmakers Rep, ATL, Brava, CTGLA, New World Theater, Out North, Conworks. TV: The PathLaw and Order SVU, Law and Order, Law and Order CI, Fox’s Family Guy, One Night Stand-Up, Dr. Phil,  Comedy Central Women in Comedy, Showtime’s Hot Tamales, Film: Race Is the Place, That’s What She Said, The Naughty Show. Artist Residencies: Smithsonian Institute, NYFA, Comedy Central Theater. Lead Singer of the spoken word/rock outfit Slanty Eyed Mama. Stand Up Comic and solo artist in stadiums and dive bars around the world.  Graduate: Julliard. www.katerigg.com


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The Pipeline Festival: CYGNUS’ Teresa Avia Lim

Teresa-Avia-Lim-(Cygnus)Teresa Avia Lim (Cydney Hansen) Theatre: NAATCO’S Awake and Sing and Macbeth Mobile Shakespeare Unit at the Public Theater, Peerless at Yale Rep, 4000 Miles at Long Wharf Theatre, Seminar at Philadelphia Theatre Co. Originated her roles in Water by the Spoonful at Hartford Stage, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them at Humana Festival/ Actors theatre of Louisville and Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West at Berkeley Rep. Also appeared in productions of Lorenzaccio, Pericles, Macbeth, and the Tempest at The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington DC. Television: “Blue Bloods”, “Limitless”, “Unforgettable”, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”. Film: Dispatched. Training: Yale School of Drama: An Inaugural Recipient of Jerome L. Greene Scholarship.


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The Pipeline Festival: CYGNUS’ Damon Daunno

Damon Daunno (Cygnus)

Damon Daunno (Jason) is an Actor and Musician from New Jersey. He received a B.F.A. in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Some acting credits include: Broadway: Kneehigh Theater Co.’s Brief Encounter. Off Broadway: Kneehigh Theater Co.’s Wild Bride (St.Ann’s Warehouse), Tristan and Yseult (St.Ann’s Warehouse). Regional: Oklahoma! (Bard), These Paper Bullets! (Geffen Playhouse), The Last Goodbye (Williamstown), Fly By Night (Dallas Theater Center), Jesus in India (Magic). Film & TV: “The Following” (Fox). He is also a composer and multi-intsrumentalist and has produced scores for short and feature length films. He is represented by Abrams Artist Agency and Authentic Management.


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The Pipeline Festival: Susan Soon He Stanton

Soon-He-Stanton,-Susan---Headshot-200px(Playwright) Susan Soon He Stanton’s plays include Takarazuka!!!, Today Is My Birthday, SEEK, The Things Are Against Us, Cygnus, The Underneath, and more. Her plays have been produced or developed at Clubbed Thumb, East West Players, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theater Workshop, Kennedy Center, The Flea, Washington Ensemble Theater, Joe’s Pub, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and others.

She is a two-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient. Writing groups and residencies include Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, Playwrights Center Corewriter, SoHo Rep Writer-Director Lab, Lark Van Lier Fellowship, Hedgebrook, and MaYi Playwrights Lab. Other awards include Southern Rep’s Ruby Prize Runner-up, Susan Glaspell Prize Finalist, Kilroy’s List, a Susan Smith Blackburn nomination, and a NET Partnership Grant with Satori Group. She is a writing consultant for Disney Creative Entertainment. She received a Feature Film Development Grant from the Sloan Foundation. Films include Dress, Dispatched, Good House, and Same Will. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: Yale School of Drama.


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The Pipeline Festival: Liz Olson

Olson,-Liz---headshot-200px(Producer) Liz Olson is a freelance producer and the General Manager/Line Producer of Tectonic Theater Project (Carmen, The Tallest Tree in the Forest, Uncommon Sense). Previously, she was the Managing Director of Studio 42, where she produced Ken Urban’s Wasps and worked on productions of Bekkah Brunstetter’s Miss Lilly Gets Boned and Gregory S. Moss’s Billy Witch. In the past, she has worked at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NYTW, Playwrights Realm, and Two River Theater Company. She is the producer for Reentry, which tours US Naval bases as part of their soldier reintegration training. This brings her full circle in life as she is a third generation Navy brat who now produces theater for the Navy. Freelance includes Couriers and Contrabands and Be A Good Little Widow.  She holds an MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and a bachelor’s from The College of William and Mary.


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PHOTOS: IRONBOUND OPENING NIGHT!


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The Pipeline Festival: Pearl Hodiwala

Hodiwala,Pearl-Headshot-200px(Producer) Pearl Hodiwala is from Sydney, Australia and has a background in development, fundraising and producing and theatre management.  Pearl has worked as Philanthropy Coordinator at Belvoir Street Theatre, and Producing Fellow at The Public Theater. Currently, Pearl is Strategy and Business Development Coordinator with Disney Theatrical Productions and Managing Director of Kaimera Productions (www.kaimeraproductions.com).  Selected works: Jupiter (a play about power) (La Mama), The Fall (Flamboyan Theatre) and Underland (59E59). Member of the Women’s Project Producers Lab 2014-2016. Bachelor Arts and Science from Sydney University and Masters of Arts Administration from Columbia University.


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The Pipeline Festival: LEE SUNDAY EVANS

Lee-Sunday-Evans-#rugdealerplay(Director) Lee Sunday Evans is a director and choreographer. Credits Include: Wellesley Girl by Brendan Pelsue at Humana/Actors Theater of Louisville, a workshop production of Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew at Alley All New, D Deb Debbie Deborah by Jerry Lieblich at Clubbed Thumb; A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks… by Kate Benson at New Georges/Women’s Project Theater (OBIE Award), The Play About My Dad by Boo Killebrew at 59E59 Theatres; God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz at Juilliard; Family Play (1979 to Present) by CollaborationTown; and The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht with original music by Nicholas C. Williams. Additionally, her work has been presented/developed at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Institute Theater Program, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, CATCH, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. She is currently developing new projects with Andy Bragen, Kate Benson and Matthew Paul Olmos among others. As the resident director for CollaborationTown, she is currently developing a new musical as part of New Victory’s LabWorks, and working on a commission from LCT3. Upcoming: Macbeth at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.


 

Instagram square Rug Dealer

When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the prominent Persian rug shop he built in New Haven after leaving Iran in 1979. After diving into a love affair with a dangerously beautiful customer and discovering her mother’s secret longing to return to her homeland after years in exile, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and desire. #RugDealerPlay

 


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The Pipeline Festival: Adrienne Campbell-Holt

Campbell-Holt,-Adrienne-Headshot-200px(Director) Adrienne Campbell-Holt is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur, a Brooklyn-based theatre company. Upcoming: world premiere of Cal in Camo (co-pro Rattlestick & Colt Coeur), Dear Elizabeth (Dorset Theater Festival). Recent world premieres: Theresa Rebeck’s The Nest (Denver Theatre Company), One Child Born (Oberon at American Repertory Theater), How to Live on Earth by MJ Kaufman (Colt Coeur @ HERE, September 2015), Chiara Atik’s 52nd to Bowery (EST Marathon), Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (Colt Coeur @ HERE, NYC), Greg Moss’ REUNION (South Coast Rep), Everything is Ours by Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur @ HERE), Recall by Eliza Clark (Colt Coeur @ Wild Project), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur @ HERE). Other productions: Red starring Tim Daly (Dorset Theater Festival, VT), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Yale), world premiere of Seven Minutes in Heaven by Steven Levenson (Emerging America Festival, Huntington Theatre Company and Colt Coeur @ HERE). Adrienne is a Time Warner/Women’s Project Lab 2014-2016 Fellow. She has developed work with La Jolla Playhouse, Roundabout Underground, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Playwrights’ Center and EST. She is also the director of #makeitfair. BA Barnard College, Columbia University.


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GO BEHIND THE SCENES: UNTITLED

WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

UNTITLED

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf Reidy

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #UntitledPipeline

 


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GO BEHIND THE SCENES: THE RUG DEALER

WEEK 4: April 14 – April 16

THE RUG DEALER

THE RUG DEALER

“I’m mad to be a woman running this rug business…but sometimes the right person comes along for the right rug and the match is magic.”

By Riti Sachdeva
Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Produced by Rachel Sussman

Starring Farah Bala, Soraya Broukhim, Edward HajjRita Wolf

When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the prominent Persian rug shop he built in New Haven after leaving Iran in 1979. After diving into a love affair with a dangerously beautiful customer and discovering her mother’s secret longing to return to her homeland after years in exile, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and desire. #RugDealerPlay

 


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GO BEHIND THE SCENES: KINGS

WEEK 3: April 7 – April 9

KINGS

By Sarah Burgess
Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Produced by Pearl Hodiwala

Starring Quincy Tyler BernstineJess Love, Larry Pine, Charles Socarides

A first term congresswoman worries for the state of our republic when she experiences Washington’s political fundraising apparatus up close. When she doesn’t play along with lobbyists, her numbers suffer, and her party tries to push her aside. Tries. #KingsPlay

 


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GO BEHIND THE SCENES: VEIL’D

WEEK 2: March 31 – April 2

VEIL’D 

Not every fairy tale has sunshine.

By Monet Hurst-Mendoza
Directed by Sarah Krohn
Produced by Kristen Luciani

Starring Dahlia AzamaPurva Bedi, Tommy Crawford, Dariush KashaniMatthew Van Oss

16-year old Dima has a rare skin allergy that compels her to hide behind her mother’s old burqa. Her parents worry she’s lonely and wish they could give her the perfect American upbringing they imagined when they left Afghanistan. But they don’t know about Dima’s secret friends: Elliot, a self-described beatnik who spends his days hawking poems on the street corner below her window, and a talking nurse shark named Speedo. With a little encouragement from her fairy god-shark, Dima and Elliot’s relationship begins to blossom–but can Dima really expect a happy ending? #VeildPlay

 

 


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GO BEHIND THE SCENES: CYGNUS

WEEK 1: March 24 – 26

CYGNUS

An inexplicable and life-altering event sends Cydney on a search for a divine solution to her earthly problems.

By Susan Soon He Stanton
Directed by Danya Taymor
Produced by Liz Olson

Starring Damon DaunnoTeresa Avia Lim, Kate Rigg

Cydney believes an angel rescued her from an ineffable trauma, and the truth may prove stranger than she imagines. In this mythic, hilarious, and poetic new play, Susan Soon He Stanton spins a dark fairy tale where a burnt feather may illuminate the possibility of a divine intervention. #CygnusPlay

 


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PHOTO FLASH: THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL

Go Behind the Scenes of the Pipeline Festival Photo Shoot with this slideshow:

The Pipeline Festival


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GO BEHIND THE SCENES: THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL


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WATCH THE IRONBOUND TRAILER

VIEW the trailer for the critically acclaimed IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok and directed by Daniella Topol.  Starring Josiah Bania (Ironbound at Round House Theatre, Sarah Ruhl’s Three Sisters at Yale Rep), Shiloh Fernandez (“Queen of Carthage,” “Red Riding Hood”), Marin Ireland (Kill Floor, Reasons to Be Pretty) and Drama Desk nominee Morgan Spector (A View From The Bridge, “Boardwalk Empire”). Film by Erik Pearson & Banjan Brownstone, LLC. Music by Josiah Bania.


 

The Pipeline Festival: Sarah Burgess

Burgess,-Sarah-Headshot-200px(Playwright) SARAH BURGESS‘s play Dry Powder premiered at the Public Theater this March. Dry Powder was a recipient of the 2016 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, and a finalist for the Blackburn prize.  Other plays include Camdenside (Ground Floor selection, Berkeley Rep; Kilroys List 2015) and FAIL: Failures (ANT Fest).  Writer for The Tenant (Woodshed Collective) and “Naked Radio,” Naked Angels’ podcast series.  Burgess has been a writer-in-residence at SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Cape Cod Theatre Project. Member of the WP Lab; Ars Nova Play Group alum.


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herMajesty hails The Pipeline Festival

“herMajesty’s NY-based dream pop revels in spacey, glam Briticisms and a blissful expansiveness that can only be described as, well, majestic.” – CMJ Music Report

The New York City indie rock/pop band, herMajesty answered a late night call for music for THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL‘s “Behind the Scenes” video. The band generously provided the use of their melodic song “Operator,” with the message “Shine so Bright” Pipeline Festival!

Listen to IRONBOUND’s Josiah Bania sing the Blues “Czerwony Jak Cegla.”

REVIA Magazine: Playwright Martyna Majok Taking Center Stage

 

PHOTO FLASH: IRONBOUND


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The Pipeline Festival: Sarah Krohn

Krohn,-Sarah-Headshot-cropped 400px

(Director) Sarah Krohn’s directing credits include Horse Girls by Jenny Rachel Weiner (the cell), The Pits by Joshua Harmon (Williamstown Theater Festival), You Remind Me of You by Matthew Capodicasa (Fordham/Primary Stages), The Next War by Kate Mulley (Columbia Playwriting); Parade (Yale Dramat), and Victor Frange Presents Gas, which she co-conceived with Dan O’Neil (Incubator Arts). Member of the 2014-16 Women’s Project Theater Lab, Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab and Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab; recipient of Williamstown Theater Festival’s Sagal Fellowship; co-facilitator of the New Georges Jam writer/director group. Graduate of Columbia University (BA) and Carnegie Mellon (MFA). www.sarahkrohn.com


 

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The Pipeline Festival: Lee Sunday Evans

Evans,-Lee-Sunday-Headshot-300px

(Director) Lee Sunday Evans is a director and choreographer. Credits Include: Wellesley Girl by Brendan Pelsue at Humana/Actors Theater of Louisville, a workshop production of Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew at Alley All New, D Deb Debbie Deborah by Jerry Lieblich at Clubbed Thumb; A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks… by Kate Benson at New Georges/Women’s Project Theater (OBIE Award), The Play About My Dad by Boo Killebrew at 59E59 Theatres; God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz at Juilliard; Family Play (1979 to Present) by CollaborationTown; and The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht with original music by Nicholas C. Williams. Additionally, her work has been presented/developed at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Institute Theater Program, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, CATCH, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. She is currently developing new projects with Andy Bragen, Kate Benson and Matthew Paul Olmos among others. As the resident director for CollaborationTown, she is currently developing a new musical as part of New Victory’s LabWorks, and working on a commission from LCT3. Upcoming: Macbeth at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

 


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The Pipeline Festival: Susan Soon He Stanton

Soon-He-Stanton,-Susan---Headshot-300px

(Playwright) Susan Soon He Stanton’s plays include Takarazuka!!!, Today Is My Birthday, SEEK, The Things Are Against Us, Cygnus, The Underneath, and more. Her plays have been produced or developed at Clubbed Thumb, East West Players, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theater Workshop, Kennedy Center, The Flea, Washington Ensemble Theater, Joe’s Pub, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and others.

She is a two-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient. Writing groups and residencies include Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, Playwrights Center Corewriter, SoHo Rep Writer-Director Lab, Lark Van Lier Fellowship, Hedgebrook, and MaYi Playwrights Lab. Other awards include Southern Rep’s Ruby Prize Runner-up, Susan Glaspell Prize Finalist, Kilroy’s List, a Susan Smith Blackburn nomination, and a NET Partnership Grant with Satori Group. She is a writing consultant for Disney Creative Entertainment. She received a Feature Film Development Grant from the Sloan Foundation. Films include Dress, Dispatched, Good House, and Same Will. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: Yale School of Drama.

 


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The Pipeline Festival: RITA SACHDEVA

RITI-SACHDEVA

(Playwright) Riti Sachdeva is a theatre maker, dancer, and cultural worker. She has developed work with the Public Theater, The Civilians R&D Group, PlayWrights Center, National New Play Network, University of Hawaii Asian Theatre Program, American Theater Company, Working Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Works, and Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Her play Parts of Parts & Stitches received The Kennedy Center’s Quest for Peace award. She is a recipient of a TCG On the Road grant and recently traveled to Kerala, India to start adapting elements of Kathakali to her stage play Other Farmers’ Fields. Acting highlights include work with DisneyChannel, HBO, various awesome indie films, National Hispanic Cultural Center, MTWorks, Honest Aaccomplice, EarSay, Hybrid, and performances of her original works with MidNites cHiLd Productions in LA, Toronto, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and NYC. Riti continues to write, act, and study her beloved flamenco.


 

Instagram square Rug Dealer

When Raba Zacharai suddenly passes away, his daughter Shiraz inherits the prominent Persian rug shop he built in New Haven after leaving Iran in 1979. After diving into a love affair with a dangerously beautiful customer and discovering her mother’s secret longing to return to her homeland after years in exile, Shiraz must negotiate the costly business of carpets, family, duty, and desire. #RugDealerPlay

 


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The Pipeline Festival: Martyna Majok

Majok, Martyna-Headshot-200px(Playwright) Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, LAByrinth Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Women’s Project Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, Yale Cabaret, The Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, Round House Theatre, Satori Group, Red Tape Theatre, and The LIDA Project, among others. Awards include the inaugural Women’s Invitational Prize at Ashland New Play Festival, The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Award, Marin Theatre’s David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, Aurora Theatre’s Global Age Project Prize, National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, and The Merage Fellowship for the American Dream. Commissions from Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Marin Theatre Company, “The New Yorker” website, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Foundry Theatre. Publications by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, TCG, and Smith & Kraus. Residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Fuller Road, Marble House Project, and Ragdale. BA: University of Chicago; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Martyna is currently part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Program at The Juilliard School. She has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase, and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale. Alumna of EST’s Youngblood. Member of Women’s Project Lab, The Dramatist Guild, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects. Martyna was the 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence. She is the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center.


WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

QUEENS

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf Reidy

Starring Sofiya AkilovaPaola Lázaro, Marjan NeshatAmanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Andrea Syglowski

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #QueensPlay


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The Pipeline Festival: Monet Hurst-Mendoza

Hurst-Mendoza,-Monet-Headshot-cropped 440px

“Variety excites me. I like seeing atypical stories told from various perspectives.” – Monet Hurst-Mendoza

(Playwright) Monet Hurst-Mendoza is a New York-based playwright from Los Angeles, CA. Her plays have been developed with Rising Circle Theater Collective, |the claque|, Lookingglass Theatre, The Oneness Project, The Other Mirror, The Kupferberg Center, #serials@The Flea, Amios (Shotz!), and Playwright’s Playground at Classical Theatre of Harlem. She is the current Playwright in Residence for The Other Mirror, and a member of the 2016 inaugural Mitten Lab in Detroit, |the claque|’s Octo-Group, the 2017 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, and the 2014-2016 Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow. Proud member: Rising Circle Theater Collective, and |the claque|. B.A.: Marymount Manhattan College.


 

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Get to Know IRONBOUND’s MARIN IRELAND

MARIN IRELAND

MARIN IRELAND is DARJA

“We are not having nice conversation.” – Darja

(Darja) Marin Ireland is a highly acclaimed actress of stage and screen. She stars opposite Corey Stoll in the independent feature GLASS CHIN, a performance for which she’s nominated for a 2016 Independent Spirit Award. She was recently seen in the indie film, THE FAMILY FANG, which debut at the Toronto Film Festival, and other recent film credits include THE PHENOM, BOTTLED UP, and 28 HOTEL ROOMS. This past year, she starred in the NBC miniseries THE SLAP, in addition to recurring roles on HBO’s GIRLS and Showtime’s MASTERS OF SEX. She will next star in the Amazon series, SNEAKY PETE. Tony Award nominated for her performance in Neil LaBute’s REASONS TO BE PRETTY, Marin recently received rave reviews for her performance in Lincoln Center Theater’s play KILL FLOOR and starred on Broadway in Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of THE BIG KNIFE, opposite Bobby Cannavale.

Follow Marin @MARINIRELAND #IronboundPlay #Immigrant


 

Get to Know IRONBOUND’s MORGAN SPECTOR

 

Morgan-Spector---#IronboundPlay

MORGAN SPECTOR is TOMMY

“I could…try to be more understanding-“ – Tommy

MORGAN SPECTOR’s credits include Broadway: Machinal, Harvey, A View From the Bridge. Off-Broadway: Russian Transport (New Group, Drama Desk Nomination). Regional: Dissonance (Bay Street Theatre), The Lion King national tour, Enemies: A Love Story (Wilma Theatre). Television: Series Regular: “The Money (pilot),””Allegiance”, “The Broad Squad” (pilot), “Paradise Pictures (pilot). Recurring: “Boardwalk Empire,” “Person of Interest,” “Zero Hour,” “Law & Order: CI,” “How to Make It in America.” Guest Star: “Orange is the New Black,” “Do No Harm,” Film: Permission, The Bleeder, Christine, Split, The Drop, All Is Bright, Grand Street, Musical Chairs, Burning Blue, The Last Airbender. BA, Reed College; MFA, American Conservatory Theatre.

Follow Morgan @MORGUEINSPECTOR #IronboundPlay #Immigrant

 

Get to Know IRONBOUND’s JOSIAH BANIA

Josiah Bania - Ironbound

JOSIAH BANIA is MAKS

“We are not just body. Lift. Pull. Push. We are more than this.” – Maks

“Josiah Bania is the embodiment of youthful, crazy charisma!” – DC Theatre Scene on the world premiere of IRONBOUND at Round House Theatre

Josiah Bania is making  his Rattlestick, WP Theater, and New York City theatre debut in Ironbound. Regional credits include the world premiere of Ironbound, at Round House Theatre, Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Three Sisters at Yale Repertory Theatre; Loves Labour’s Lost at Chautauqua Theatre Company; The Secret in the Wings, at Yale Summer Cabaret; The History Boys at Artists Repertory Theatre; The Uneasy Chair at CoHo Theater; A Christmas Carol, and JAW: A Playwright’s Festival at Portland Center Stage. Television credits include “The Good Wife”, “Leverage”, and “The Mysteries of Laura”. Josiah holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where he appeared as Iago in Othello, Bolingbroke in Richard II, Medvedenko in The Seagull, and Nolan in Petty Harbour.

Follow Josiah @JosiahBania #IronboundPlay #Immigrant

 

Get to Know IRONBOUND’s SHILOH FERNANDEZ

Shiloh Fernandez headshot
SHILOH FERNANDEZ is VIC

“…I’m just tryin to help.” – Vic

Shiloh Fernandez grew up in the small Northern California town of Ukiah. He moved to Los Angeles and has been in several major motion pictures and television productions including starring opposite Amanda Seyfried in “Red Riding Hood,” Shailene Woodley in “White Bird in a Blizzard,” and  alongside Zac Efron and Emily Ratajkowski in “We Are Your Friends.”  In 2015, Shiloh made his debut as a producer and screenwriter in the independent thriller “Queen of Carthage,” in which he also starred in opposite Oscar-nominated actress Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”). Shiloh’s latest movie “Long Nights Short Mornings” recently premiere at the 2016 SXSW festival. Shiloh is making his New York stage debut in Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s and WP Theater’s premiere of the award-winning and critically acclaimed IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok and directed by Daniella Topol.

Follow Shiloh @shilohfernandez #IronboundPlay #Immigrant

Watch the trailer for his latest movie here: LONG NIGHTS SHORT MORNINGS.

 

Martyna Majok’s favorite part of the playmaking process…

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Steppenwolf Article: GETTING TO KNOW PLAYWRIGHT MARTYNA MAJOK

What is your favorite part of the playmaking process, and why?

Martyna Majok: Workshops. Tom Stoppard likens outside perspectives on his plays to going through customs at the airport. The officer asks you to declare what you have in your luggage. you tell him. “A four character play about a lady at a bus stop in Jersey.” Then he goes rifling through your bags and finds all these things you didn’t realize you’d packed. Like capitalism and the contradictions of modern feminism in certain socioeconomic situations.

Read more at Steppenwolf.org

GET TO KNOW CELEBRATED DIRECTOR DANIELLA TOPOL

Daniella Topol

Director Daniella Topol’s previous WP Theater productions include: Cori Thomas’ When January Feels Like Summer, Jessica Dickey’s Row After Row, Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something, Trista Baldwin’s Sand. Recent productions include: Rachel Bonds’ Five Mile Lake (South Coast Rep),  Jessica Dickey’s Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick Theatre) Rajiv Joseph’s Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre), Lloyd Suh’s Jesus in India (Magic Theatre and MaYi Theatre), Carla Ching’s Sugarhouse at the Edge of the Wilderness (MaYi Theatre), Willy Holtzman’s The Morini Strad (City Theatre), Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City (New Georges) and Janet Allard and Niko Tsakalakos’ Pool Boy (Barrington Stage Company), Anna Ziegler’s PHOTOGRAPH 51 (Theatre J), Susan Bernfield’s STRETCH (People’s Light and Theatre Company). She has directed readings and workshops for a number of companies and is currently a member of the board of the Lark Play Development Center, has been a grants review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NY State Council on the Arts and TCG. She is an NYTW Usual Suspect, member of EST, a Women’s Project Lab alumnus, and a New Georges affiliated artist. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Learn more about Daniella Topol

Website: daniellatopol.com

Read Meet the Directors, The New York Times

Photograph of Daniella Topol by Chad Batka

 

GET TO KNOW AWARD-WINNING PLAYWRIGHT MARTYNA MAJOK

(Playwright) Martyna Majok (pronounced “my-oak”) was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, LAByrinth Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Women’s Project Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center, Dorset Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, Yale Cabaret, The Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, Round House Theatre, Satori Group, Red Tape Theatre, and The LIDA Project, among others. Awards include the inaugural Women’s Invitational Prize at Ashland New Play Festival, Marin Theatre’s David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, Aurora Theatre’s Global Age Project Prize, National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, and The Merage Fellowship for the American Dream. Commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The New Yorker website, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Foundry Theatre. Publications by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus. Residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Fuller Road, and Ragdale. BA: University of Chicago; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Martyna is currently part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Program at The Juilliard School. She has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase, and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale. Alumna of EST’s Youngblood. Member of Women’s Project Lab, Ars Nova’s Uncharted, The Dramatist Guild, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects. Martyna was the 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence at NJRep. She is the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center.

WebsiteMartynaMajok.com

Recent Articles:
Heavyweight Playwriting Fellowship Names 2015-16 Recipient, Variety
8 Playwrights Receive ‘Exit’ Grants as They Graduate From EST’s Youngblood, American Theatre
UpClose: Martyna Majok, Women’s Voices Theater Festival, DC Theatre Scene
Getting to Know Playwright Martyna MajokSteppenwolf Theatre Company

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

TAKE A LOOK AT WP’s YEAR IN REVIEW!

Thank you for your continued support of WP Theater! See you in 2016…

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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HOWEVER, WHENEVER & WHEREVER…
you celebrate this holiday season, your WP Theater family hopes that it is full of JOY & GREAT CHEER!

LISTEN! ENJOY! WP THEATER’S 2015 HOLIDAY MUSIC PLAYLIST

For your listening pleasure, Team WP Theater put together a sing along, snap your fingers, swaying playlist of classic holiday songs. Click above, listen, and enjoy the holiday season and new year with these tunes by your side.

“IRONBOUND is…The first KNOCKOUT of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival” – The Washington Post

IRONBOUND NEWS + MORE

IRONBOUND NEWS + MORE

Women's+Voices+Theater+FestivalThe premiere of IRONBOUND by Round House Theatre with the dynamic duo, Martyna Majok and Daniella Topol, at the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival was met with rave reviews! Here are just a few of the stellar reviews:

“The first KNOCKOUT of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival” -The Washington Post

“…a deceptively simple, thought-provoking, and an ELEGANT WORK OF ART.” -Broadway World

5-Stars“IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok…amounts to 90 MINUTES OF BLISTERING GOODNESS.” -DC Theatre Scene

#1 HIT OF THE WEEK” & “…a well written script; superb acting and a high-end production all helmed by the immensely talented director Daniella Topol.” -MD Theatre Guide

DON’T MISS THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF THIS “ELEGANT WORK OF ART!”

 

FREE EVENT SERIES: DEAR MISS BISHOP

FREE EVENT SERIES

WP Theater & Farrar, Straus and Giroux present
DEAR MISS BISHOP: POETS IN CONVERSATION WITH SARAH RUHL’S DEAR ELIZABETH

UP NEXT & FINAL PROGRAM
December 5, 4:30pm, WP Theater, 2162 Broadway & 76th Street, NYC

KRJ and AC

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Psychiatrist, Author, Educator, Touched With Fire, An Unquiet Mind

Interviewed by Dr. Anthony Charuvastra, Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Recognized by NPR as one of “their all-time favorite books,” read a review of Jamison’s bestselling classic, An Unquiet Mind, at NPR Books.

 

GET TO KNOW: Harris Yulin starring as Robert Lowell in DEAR ELIZABETH

Harris Yulin

Harris Yulin has appeared on Broadway in Hedda Gabler, The Price, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Visit, A Lesson From Aloes, and Watch On The Rhine. His off-Broadway credits include Raindance at Signature Theatre; Don Juan In Hell at Symphony Space; Steve Tesich’s Arts And Leisure at Playwrights Horizons; Tina Howe’s Approaching Zanzibar at Second Stage; Hamlet, King John, Richard III, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York Shakespeare Festival; and Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Hedda Gabler at Roundabout. Regional credits include Finishing the Picture at Goodman Theatre; a recent appearance in the title role of King Lear at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival; The Talking Cure at Mark Taper Forum; Tartuffe at the Guthrie and Arena Stage; Henry V at Hartford Stage; and The Tempest at Shakespeare & Co. Mr. Yulin’s directing credits include Horton Foote’s The Prisoner’s Song at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Conor McPherson’s This Lime Tree Bower at Primary Stages; Don Juan In Hell in London (Riverside Studios) and in New York (Symphony Space), Steve Tesich’s Baba Goya (Second Stage), Adele Shank’s Winter Play at Second Stage; Candida at the Shaw Festival; and The Front Page and The Guardsman at Long Wharf. His television credits include “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight,” “Mister Sterling,” “24,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Frasier” (Emmy Nomination), and “La Femme Nikita” (Emmy Nomination). His film credits include Fur, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Emperor’s Club, Training Day, The Million Dollar Hotel, The Hurricane, Looking for Richard, Murder at 1600, Multiplicity, Clear and Present Danger, and Scarface.


WP Theater presents

New York Premiere
DEAR ELIZABETH
Written by Sarah Ruhl & Directed by Kate Whoriskey
FINAL WEEK – MUST CLOSE DEC 5!

Full Casts Wall - Dear Elizabeth

Starring a rotating cast of LUMINARIES including: BECKY ANN BAKER, DAVID AARON BAKER, KATHLEEN CHALFANT, RINDE ECKERT, CHERRY JONES, MIA KATIGBAK, ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN, POLLY NOONAN, PETER SCOLARI, J. SMITH-CAMERON, JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON & HARRIS YULIN.

 

LISTEN to our DEAR ELIZABETH Soundcloud Playlist!


 

“It’s Captivating! Ravishing!” says WNYC! Listen to a review of WP’s DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl at WNYC.org

Read the full review here.

 

GET TO KNOW: Mia Katigbak starring as Elizabeth Bishop in DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

Mia Katigbak

NYC: Most recent: Awake & Sing! NAATCO (Obie Award); Washeteria (Soho Rep); A Beautiful Day in November…Great Lakes (New Georges/Women’s Project), Scenes from a  Marriage (New York Theater Workshop). Other NYC: Public Theater, Foundry Theater, Civilians, Ma-Yi, Target Margin, Clubbed Thumb, Intar, Pan Asian Rep. Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theater (CA), Swine Palace (LA), Guthrie (MN). International: Manila, Philippines; Abu Dhabi, UAE.  Film: I Smile Back, Clutter, Slow Jam King. TV: “Mysteries of Laura,” “Chicago PD,” “Conviction.” Artistic Producing Director and co-founder, NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company).  Founding director, CAATA (Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists). Other awards:  Lucille Lortel, Lee Reynolds Awards (League of Professional Theatre Women); Actors Equity’s Rosetta LeNoire Award, in recognition of her “artistic contribution to the universality of the human experience in the American theater”; New Dramatists’ Charles Bowden Actor Award. BA, Barnard College; MA, Columbia University.


 

GET TO KNOW: Rinde Eckert starring as Robert Lowell in DEAR ELIZABETH

Rinde Eckert

Rinde Eckert is a writer, composer, librettist, musician, performer and director. His Opera / New Music Theatre productions have toured throughout America and to major theater festivals in Europe and Asia. Eckert began his career as a writer and performer in the 1980’s, writing librettos for Paul Dresher (Pioneer, Power Failure, Slow Fire, Ravenshead). He composed dance scores for choreographers Sarah Shelton Mann and Margaret Jenkins, including the evening-length Woman, Window, Square for The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Rinde began composing and performing his own music/theater works in 1992 with The Gardening of Thomas D, an homage to Dante which subsequently toured the United States and France. Staged works for solo performer include Becoming…Unusual: The Education of an Eclectic; three one-act plays: An Idiot Divine, Romeo Sierra Tango and Quit This House; and works for radio including Shoot the Moving Things and Four Songs Lost in a Wall. Writing credits for the theater include Highway Ulysses, Horizon, Orpheus X, And God Created Great Whales, which has been produced three times with the original cast and director, for a total of 227 performances. And God Created Great Whales, Horizon and Orpheus X have run off-Broadway, garnering Drama Desk Nominations and the Lucille Lortel Award. Rinde has received numerous honors and awards for his body of work. In 2012 he was named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist, was honored to receive the 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for Theatre, a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, and The American Academy of Arts and Letters 2005 Marc Blitzstein Award. In 2007 Rinde Eckert was the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Eckert wrote the text and performed in the multi-media production Slide with composer/guitarist Mackey and the new music ensemble 8th blackbird, which toured to major university campuses and the Ojai Festival. Renamed Lonely Motel by Cedille Records, the project won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Eckert and Mackey are members of BIG FARM, a ‘prog-rock’ super group with drummer Jason Treuting (So Percussion) and bassist Mark Haanstra. Rinde Eckert’s own uniquely eclectic music is released on Germany’s Intuition label and through Songline/Tonefield Productions.


 

GET TO KNOW: Ellen McLaughlin starring as Elizabeth Bishop in DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

Ellen McLaughlin

Ellen McLaughlin’s acting work includes originating the part of the Angel in Angels in America, playing the role in workshops and regional productions through its Broadway run in 1993-1994. Other favorite work includes the Homebody in Bart Sher’s production of Homebody/Kabul (Intiman, Seattle, WA), Pirate Jenny in A Threepenny Opera (Trinity Rep. Elliot Norton Award), Claire in Albee’s A Delicate Balance, (Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theater), Margie in Good People (George St. Playhouse. Seattle Rep.) and Rosemary in Outside Mullingar (George St. Playhouse.) New York credits include: String of Pearls (Primary Stages), Blue Window (Manhattan Theater Club), and A Bright Room Called Day (Public Theater). Television work includes several appearances on “Law and Order”. McLaughlin is also a playwright.


 

WP Theater honored by the KILROYS

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To celebrate just a few of the theaters achieving playwright parity on American stages this season, the Kilroys surprised 13 theaters around the country on Thursday, November 19, 2015 with cakes to honor the efforts they are making to produce women and trans* writers. Stealthy playwright allies delivered the cakes, which feature the names of playwrights the theater or festival is producing this season. Pizza and beer were delivered to industry leaders at yours truly, WP THEATER, for “feeding artistic ambitions for nearly four decades!” #CakeDrop

WATCH ‘Conversations with Cherry Jones’

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Broadway World have partnered for an inaugural filmed Conversations Q&A series to recognize and celebrate the vibrant theatre community in New York City and the union actors who aspire to have a career on the stage and screen. View a featured career Conversations with Cherry Jones moderated by Broadway World’s Richard Ridge of “Backstage with Richard Ridge!”


 

GET TO KNOW: Cherry Jones starring as Elizabeth Bishop in DEAR ELIZABETH

Cherry_Jones--Headshot

Recent News: 

November 10, 2015: Anjelica Huston & Cherry Jones Join ‘Transparent’ – Watch Season 2 Teaser, Deadline Hollywood

November 4, 2015: Bradley Whitford and Cherry Jones Join Hank Williams Biopic ‘I Saw the Light’, The Hollywood Reporter

Cherry Jones starred most recently in the triumphant Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie (Tony Nomination), which originated at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a founding member and where earlier in her career she appeared in more than 25 productions including Twelfth Night, Three Sisters and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Broadway and Off-Broadway: Doubt (Tony, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Awards), Lincoln Center Theater’s production of The Heiress (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); Pride’s Crossing (Drama Desk Award); When We Were Young and Unafraid; The Baltimore Waltz (Obie Award); Faith Healer; Flesh and Blood; Imaginary Friends; A Moon for the Misbegotten (Tony Award nomination); Angels in America; Our Country’s Good (Tony Award nomination); and Roundabout Theatre Company’s productions of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Major Barbara and The Night of the Iguana. Television: President Allison Taylor in “24” (Emmy Award), “What Makes a Family,” “Awake,” the next season of “Transparent” on Amazon, the upcoming series “Mercy Street,” and the upcoming mini-series “11/22/63” starring James Franco. Film: Ocean’s Twelve, Cradle Will Rock, The Horse Whisperer, The Perfect Storm, Erin Brockovich, Signs, The Village, Mother and Child, Swimmers, the upcoming films I Saw the Light, and Fun House opposite Tina Fey.

Photograph of Cherry Jones by Zachary Maxwell Stertz


 

GET TO KNOW: David Aaron Baker starring as Robert Lowell in DEAR ELIZABETH

David Aaron Baker

David Aaron Baker is thrilled to once more share the stage with Cherry Jones after playing her husband in Jon Robin Baitz’s play, The Film Society, directed by the late Roger Rees, at The Williamstown Theater Festival in 1997. David had the great fortune to work with Sarah Ruhl in 2008, when he performed in the Playwrights Horizons production of her play Dead Man’s Cell Phone. He is honored to work again with these extraordinary artists. David attended Illinois State University, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas – Austin and a diploma from The Julliard School.


 

DEAR ELIZABETH Ticket Holders + RedFarm

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“RedFarm is indeed groundbreaking” – Time Out New York

Need a reservation at RedFarm in the Upper West Side? Popular restaurant RedFarm doesn’t take reservations but your ticket confirmation for WP’s DEAR ELIZABETH is your ticket in! Email Nina (nina AT redfarmnyc Dot com) to book your after-show seats. You’ll enjoy walking in to your very own table at RedFarm as well as a tasty treat from the kitchen. Enjoy!

Be sure to mention DEAR ELIZABETH when booking and show your confirmation upon arrival. 24 Hour Notice is Required. Red Farm is conveniently located a few doors away from WP Theater at 2170 Broadway (between 76th and 77th Streets). Subject to availability after 9pm. Offer valid until December 5, 2015.

GET TO KNOW: Playwright Sarah Ruhl

View a video playlist with interviews with playwright Sarah Ruhl over the years:

 

GET TO KNOW: Kate Whoriskey, Director of the New York Premiere of DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

Director Kate Whoriskey most recently directed Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other productions include Ping Pong and Manahatta at the Public through Public Studio, Ruined and Tales from Red Vienna at Manhattan Theatre Club, How I Learned to Drive at Second Stage, The Piano Teacher at the Vineyard Theatre, Oroonoko at Theatre for A New Audience, the world premiere of Fabulation and Inked Baby at Playwrights Horizons, and Massacre by Jose Rivera at the Labyrinth Theatre Company (of which she is a member). Internationally, she directed Magdalena at the Chatelet theatre in Paris and Teatro Muicipal in Sao Paolo. Regionally, she directed Ruined, Vigils, Heartbreak House, The Rose Tattoo and Drowning Crow for The Goodman, The Tempest at Shakespeare Theatre, the world premiere of Intimate Apparel, The Piano Teacher, Life is a Dream, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Antigone, and The Clean House at South Coast Repertory, and Master Builder at the American Repertory Theatre. Nominated for a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel for her work on Ruined, she has also directed at the Huntington, The Geffen, Baltimore Center Stage, Perseverance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Fisher Center and The Eugene O’Neill Center.


 

DEAR ELIZABETH NEWS + MORE

DEAR ELIZABETH NEWS + MORE

Review: ‘Dear Elizabeth’: A Deep Friendship, Told in Letters, WNYC

Go Behind the Scenes: Poet Meets Poet: An Interview With the Artistic Team Behind ‘Dear Elizabeth’, The Huffington Post

Harris Yulin Joins Cast of WP Theater’s ‘Dear Elizabeth’, Broadway World

BWW Review: Sarah Ruhl’s Touching DEAR ELIZABETH; Friendship Through the Mail, Broadway World

Theater Review: ‘Dear Elizabeth’, The Epoch Times

“I Remember Dreaming About Them,” Says Sarah Ruhl Of the Supposed Soul Mates Who Inspired Her Newest Play,” Playbill

To Do: November 4–November 18, 2015: Twenty-five things to see, hear, watch, and read. – ‘Dear Elizabeth’, New York Magazine

FREE EVENT SERIES: Paul Muldoon and More Set for WP Theater’s ‘DEAR MISS BISHOP’ Poetry Series Alongside DEAR ELIZABETH, Broadway World

‘Dear Elizabeth’ Theater Review, The Hollywood Reporter

Review: In ‘Dear Elizabeth,’ Two Solitary Poets Commune, New York Times

Openings and Previews: ‘Dear Elizabeth’, The New Yorker

HBO’s GIRLS Stars Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari Join ‘Dear Elizabeth’ at Women’s Project Theater, Broadway World

Read more news here!

 

GET TO KNOW Peter Scolari starring as Robert Lowell in DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

Peter Scolari

Broadway/NY: Hairspray, Sly Fox, Magic Bird, Out of This World, Ziegfeld Follies of 1937 (City Center Encores!), World Premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Family Furniture, Lucky Guy. Regional: World Premieres of Daniel Sullivan’s Inspecting Carol, Ken Ludwig’s Fox on The Fairway at The George Street Playhouse. Winner Best Actor, Berkshire Theater Festival for The Foreigner. VQT Emmy Award Winner for “Newhart,” Three Time Emmy Nominee, Film Critic’s Award Nomination as Best Featured Actor for “Girls” (HBO), recurring on “Gotham,” also “Bosom Buddies,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “The West Wing,” “E.R.,” “Family Ties,” “White Collar,” “King of Queens,” “Reba,” “Ally McBeal,” “From the Earth to the Moon” (HBO), “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” (Showtime). Selected Film: That Thing You Do, Polar Express, Suburban Girl, Camp Nowhere, The Ryan White Story, and upcoming Madoff for ABC films.


 

GET TO KNOW: Becky Ann Baker starring as Elizabeth Bishop in DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

Becky Ann Baker

Becky Ann Baker is most recognized for her mothering skills, or lack thereof, on two Judd Apatow series, “Freaks and Geeks” and “Girls”, where she plays creator Lena Dunham’s mom, and for which she received a Critics Choice nomination.  But Becky has appeared on Broadway in both musicals and plays, including Good People, All My Sons, Assassins, Titanic, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  Her Off-Broadway credits include: Barbecue at the Public Theater, Suddenly Last Summer for The Roundabout; Comedy of Errors, Othello and Two Gentlemen of Verona for New York Shakespeare Festival; Wonderful Town for City Center Encores; The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told for New York Theatre Workshop; Shanghai Moon and June Moon for Drama Dept.; Durang, Durang for Manhattan Theatre Club; To Whom It May Concern and Laura Dennis at the Signature; The Vagina Monologues at Westside Arts; and more. Becky has performed regionally at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she is an artistic associate, the Old Globe, the South Coast Rep, Arena Stage, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey and the Goodman Theater in Chicago.  Film credits include “The End of the Tour,” “23 Blast,” “Hope Springs,” “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Spinning into Butter,” “Stay,” “The Night Listener,” “Gretchen,” “War of the Worlds,” “Two Weeks Notice,” “A Simple Plan,” “Celebrity,” “Men In Black,” “In and Out,” “Sabrina,” “Unstrung Heroes,” “White Squall,” “Lorenzo’s Oil,” and “Come See the Paradise.”  Other TV appearances include: “Gotham,” “Madam Secretary,” Person of Interest,” “Elementary,” “The Good Wife,” “Smash,” “Black Box,” “A Gifted Man,” “Kings,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Mercy,” “Storm of the Century,” “Soul Man,” “Ruby Ridge,” “Frasier,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “Sex and the City,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Oz,” and “Mind Games.” She is a member of the Actor’s Studio, Drama Dept. and Usual Suspects –NYTW.  Becky’s best and favorite production: Willa, co-produced with actor/director Dylan Baker.


 

GET TO KNOW: John Douglas Thompson starring as Robert Lowell in DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

John Douglas Thompson -Headshot

(Robert Lowell in WP’s ‘Dear Elizabeth’) won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance for his portrayal of Louis Armstrong in Satchmo at the Waldorf.  Shakespeare & Company: Richard IIIOthelloThe Dreamer Examines His Pillow, All’s Well That Ends Well, King Lear. Joe Mott in The Iceman Cometh with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy at the Goodman Theatre, Kent in King Lear at the Public Theater with Sam Waterston, Macbeth at TFANA, Marc Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage with Kate Mulgrew, Gennady in The Forest at CSC with Dianne Wiest, Brutus Jones in The Emperor Jones at The Irish Rep (Lucille Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations), Othello at TFANA (OBIE, Lucille Lortel Award, Drama League nomination, AUDELCO nomination). Broadway: A Time to Kill, LeBret in Cyrano with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner, and Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington. International credits: Hotspur in Henry IV (Royal Shakespeare Company). Other off-Broadway credits: Women Beware Women (Red Bull), Enobarbus in Anthony and Cleopatra, Orombo in Oroonoko (TFANA, AUDELCO nomination), Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler (NYTW), Edgar in King Lear (Classical Theater of Harlem, AUDELCO nomination). Regional credits: Lucious Jenkins in Jesus Hopped the A Train (The Wilma Theater, Barrymore Award), Williamstown Theater, Trinity Rep, Shakespeare & Company, ART. TV/FILM: “Law and Order”, “Conviction”, “Michael Clayton”, “Midway”, “Malcolm X”.


 

GET TO KNOW: J. SMITH-CAMERON starring as Elizabeth Bishop in DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

J Smith-Cameron Headshot

(Elizabeth Bishop in WP’s ‘Dear Elizabeth’) has appeared in numerous theatre productions off and on Broadway.  Highlights include Our Country’s Good (Tony® nomination), Sarah, Sarah (Drama Desk nomination), Fuddy Meers (Outer Critics and Drama Desk nominations), and As Bees In Honey Drown (Obie award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics nominations).  Recent credits include a critically acclaimed run as the title character in Juno And The Paycock at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC, as well as Richard Nelson’s Sorry and Sweet and Sad (Drama Desk and Obie awards) at the Public and That Hopey Changey Thing by the same author.  Also Midsummer Night’s Dream at La Jolla Playhouse and The Starry Messenger by Kenneth Lonergan at the New Group.  TV work includes a Series Regular role on SUNDANCE’S “Rectify” and a Recurring Role on HBO’s “True Blood.”  Recent film work includes Frank Whaley’s “Like Sunday, Like Rain” and J. also stars opposite Anna Paquin in Kenneth Lonergan’s film “Margaret”, which won her the Best Supporting Actress award for the International Cinephile Society.


 

New York Times Review: In ‘Dear Elizabeth,’ Two Solitary Poets Commune

Dear-Elizabeth-NYTimes-Review-10-31-15

As both poets and personalities, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell could hardly have been more different.  She: intensely shy and self-doubting, producing gemlike, allusive poems so infrequently that…read more here.


 

Go Behind the Scenes of DEAR ELIZABETH at WP Theater

Take a peek behind the scenes and watch interviews with Sarah Ruhl and the celebrated actors that play ‘Elizabeth Bishop’ in the New York Premiere of DEAR ELIZABETH.


 

OPENING NIGHT: The Cast of Week One of DEAR ELIZABETH

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See Sarah Ruhl, Kate Whoriskey, Kathleen Chalfant, Polly Noonan, and Harris Yulin Celebrate Opening Night of Dear Elizabeth: View Pictures at Playbill.com


 

DEAR ELIZABETH Production Photos: Cast of Week One

Go behind the scenes and view pictures of a videotaping with all of stellar actors playing “Elizabeth Bishop” in the New York Premiere of DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Kate Whoriskey. Featured Actors: Kathleen Chalfant (Week One), J. Smith-Cameron (Week Two), Becky Ann Baker (Week Three), Cherry Jones (Week Four), Ellen McLaughlin (Week Five), and Mia Katigbak (Week Six).

Behind the Scenes: DEAR ELIZABETH


 

John Krasinski to Lead Sarah Burgess’ DRY POWDER at The Public in 2016

Sarah Burgess headshotThe Public Theater announced today that John Krasinski has been cast in the role of “Seth” in the world premiere play DRY POWDER by Sarah Burgess (WP Lab Member, PIPELINE FESTIVAL). Directed by Thomas Kail, this gripping, razor-sharp new play about the people molding and messing with the American economy begins previews on Tuesday, March 1 and runs through Sunday, April 10. Read more here at Broadway World.

Learn more about THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL by the WP Lab, including Playwright Sarah Burgess: http://bit.ly/pipelinefestival.

#PipelineFestival

WP Theater at Theatermania’s BLOCK PARTY!

 

WP Theater at Theatermania's BLOCK PARTY

Check out pictures from yesterday’s fun-filled TheaterMania BLOCK PARTY on 3rd Avenue. WP Theater, Lincoln Center, Signature Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout Theatre Company, and many more joined the festivities!

Take a Look Inside! WP’s New Season Brochure!


WP’s New Season Brochures! Subscribe Today!

Theatermania Features WP’s New Season!

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Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth to Make New York Premiere at Women’s Project. The two-character drama is on tap for the organization’s 2015-16 season.

The two-character drama is on tap for the organization’s 2015-16 season.

David Gordon • Off-Broadway • Aug 24, 2015

Off-Broadway’s Women’s Project Theater has announced its 2015-16 season, set to take place at the organization’s new home, theMcGinn/Cazale Theatre.

The season will kick off with the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth, under the direction of Kate Whoriskey. Performed with a rotating cast (still to be announced), the drama follows the friendship between poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, whose relationship spanned 30 years and included more than 400 letters. The play will run from October 26-December 5.

Next is Martyna Majok’s Ironbound, directed by Daniella Topol. A coproduction with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the work follows Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, over the course of 20 years as she negotiates for her future with three different men who can offer her love or security, but never both. The work runs March 2-April 10.

Closing out the first season at the McGinn/Cazale is the first-ever WP Pipeline Festival, in which WP Lab playwrights, directors, and producers present five brand-new plays from March 24-April 23. The writers are Sarah Burgess, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Martyna Majok, Riti Sachdeva, and Susan Soon-He Stanton. Directors are Adrienne Campbell-Holt, Lee Sunday Evans, Sarah Krohn, Danya Taymor, and Tamilla Woodard. Producers are Rachel Karpf Reidy, Pearl Kermani, Kristen Luciani, Liz Olson, and Rachel Sussman.

Women’s Project Theater is currently under the leadership of producing artistic director Lisa McNulty and managing director Maureen Moynihan.

For more information on WP’s New Season click here.

BroadwayWorld.com Features WP’s New Season!

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Sarah Ruhl’s DEAR ELIZABETH to Launch Women’s Project Theater’s 2015-16 Season at New Home

Women’s Project Theater, under the leadership ofProducing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Maureen Moynihan, just announced the 2015-2016 Season and the beginning of its three-year residency at the McGinn/Cazale Theater (2162 Broadway, at 76th Street), creating an artistic home for women in theater.

“I’m thrilled for WP Theater to set down roots in this wonderful space with such a storied theatrical history, and to bring all of these brilliant women together in one season,” said McNulty. “Our upcoming season features such an exciting range of talent: from Sarah Ruhl, one of our most treasured and accomplished writers; to Martyna Majok, who is making her Off-Broadway debut; to a festival fully dedicated to new work from the emerging artists of the WP Lab. This is the essence of what WP Theater does-creating a theatrical home where female-identified artists are welcome at every point in their careers, a place where women’s voices are central. I’m also really excited to partner with The Kilroys and The Lilly Awards this year on a series of events that will celebrate all of these invaluable organizations under WP Theater’s new roof. With the generous support of The Royal Little Family Foundation, WP has been given the opportunity to make 76th & Broadway the destination for some of the most exciting new theater in town.”

WP Theater’s inaugural season at the McGinn/Cazale Theater will commence with the New York premiere of DEAR ELIZABETH, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl (The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play), directed by Kate Whoriskey (Ruined, Sweat) from October 26 to December 5, 2015. Drawn from the famed correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell – two of the twentieth century’s most brilliant poets – DEAR ELIZABETH tells a tale of unconventional friendship and intimacy that spanned thirty years and more than 400 letters, with postmarks from Maine to Key West, from London to South America. Performed with a rotating cast of the theater community’s most brilliant and beloved performers – to be announced shortly – DEAR ELIZABETH is an insightful and impassioned examination of Bishop and Lowell’s lives, their work, and the true nature of friendship.

In a co-production with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok (Petty Harbor), directed byDaniella Topol (When January Feels Like Summer, Row After Row) will make its New York Premiere March 2 – April 10, 2016 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. IRONBOUND is a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a woman for whom love is a luxury – and a liability – as she fights to survive in America from award-winning playwright Martyna Majok. At a bus in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of 20 years, three relationships, and three presidents, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both.

To cap off the first year at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, WP Theater will present the first-ever WP PIPELINE FESTIVAL in which WP Lab playwrights, directors and producers’ two-year residency culminates in the presentation of five brand new plays – written, directed and produced by the fifteen women of the WP Lab – from March 24 to April 23, 2016. As the artistic heart of WP Theater, the Lab provides rising stars in the industry with a vital professional network, entrepreneurial and leadership training, rehearsal space, and most significantly, tangible opportunities for the development and production of bold new work for the stage. The Lab artists featured in the inaugural WP PIPELINE FESTIVAL are:

Writers: Sarah Burgess, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Martyna Majok, Riti Sachdeva, Susan Soon-He Stanton

Directors: Adrienne Campbell-Holt, Lee Sunday Evans, Sarah Krohn, Danya Taymor, Tamilla Woodard

Producers: Rachel Karpf Reidy, Pearl Kermani, Kristen Luciani, Liz Olson, Rachel Sussman

Some recent successes by WP Lab artists include: Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt’s theater company Colt Coeur’s production of Dry Land, by Ruby Rae Spiegel, earned rave reviews from New York’s top critics and was listed as one of New York Post’s Top 10 theater experiences of 2014. Playwright Majok’s IRONBOUND is a part of the 2015-2016 WP season, Lee Sunday Evans earned a 2015 Obie Award for her direction of A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes (New Georges, in association with WP Theater) and Sarah Burgess’s play, Dry Powder, is slated for the 2015-2016 season at the Public Theater, directed by Thomas Kail.

In addition to the two New York play premieres and WP PIPELINE FESTIVAL, WP Theater will also produce a series of events with other gender-focused theater and advocacy organizations, including The Kilroys (thekilroys.org) and The Lilly Awards (www.thelillyawards.org). WP Theater is invested in making its new artistic home a place where the theater community can come together to celebrate women’s talents and voices onstage. Details on these events to follow.

For details on WP subscriptions, visit WWW.WPTHEATER.ORG or call (212) 765-1706. WP Theater makes its home at the McGinn/Cazale Theater thanks to the generous support of The Royal Little Family Foundation.

WOMEN’S PROJECT THEATER (WP) is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female theater artists at every stage in their careers. WP Theater supports female-identified theater artists and the world-class, groundbreaking work they create, and provides a platform where their voices can be heard and celebrated on the American stage.

Founded in 1978 by visionary producer, Julia Miles, WP has been the launching pad for many of our nation’s most important theater artists. Eve Ensler, María Irene Fornés, Katori Hall, Pam MacKinnon, Lynn Nottage andLeigh Silverman, among many, many others, all found early artistic homes here. Throughout its 38 year history, WP has produced over 600 main stage productions and developmental projects, and published 11 anthologies of plays. No other producing institution in the country can claim this kind of ongoing history of advocacy and support for women in the theater, and we look ahead to the next generation of artists who will also begin their careers here.

WP Theater accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs: the WP Lab, a two-year mentorship and new play development program for women playwrights, directors, and producers; the Playwright In Residence commissioning program; the Developmental series; and the Main Stage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary theater artists.

Lisa McNulty (Producing Artistic Director). Lisa is about to enter her second season as Producing Artistic Director of Women’s Project Theater. Lisa comes to WP from Manhattan Theatre Club, where she served as Artistic Line Producer for eight seasons, working on more than 30 productions both on and off Broadway, including plays byLynn Nottage, Sarah Treem, Harvey Fierstein, and Tarell Alvin McCraney, among many, many others. Lisa has a long history with WP Theater. She was originally hired by the company’s founder, Julia Miles, as the Literary Manager from 1997-2000, where she dramaturged work by María Irene Fornés, Julie Hébert, and Karen Hartman, among others. In 2004, she returned to WP as its Associate Artistic Director where she served as the company’s casting director and literary manager and again ran WP’s Playwrights Lab. Her independent producing career includes projects with Sarah Ruhl, Todd Almond, and Lucy Thurber, all at 13P. Lisa has also served as the Producing Associate at the McCarter Theatre, acting as Line Producer on McCarter’s mainstage, as well as developing McCarter’s commissioned short series.

Maureen Moynihan (Managing Director) Maureen started her career in Chicago working for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and commercial producer Fox Theatricals. Prior to joining WP Theater, Maureen spent over a decade working for Blue Man Productions in several positions including serving as their Executive Director for five North American Productions. Since moving to New York, she has worked for several nonprofit and commercial organizations including Manhattan New Music Project, York Theatre Company and the immersive theatrical experience Queen of the Night.

Selected through a highly competitive process, the WP Lab is the only program in America putting playwrights, directors, AND producers together in the same room. Providing both professional development and leadership training, Lab participants obtain executive coaching, make professional contacts, and receive training that proves invaluable to their development. The benefits of the WP Lab extend well beyond the two-year residency. Having forged strong working relationships in the Lab, both with fellow Lab artists and outside professional contacts, Lab artists continue to work together and with other brilliant voices in the artistic collective long after their official residency ends. WP’s top priority is to achieve a standard of excellence for these artists, advocating for women by producing stellar work featuring extraordinary talent.

For more information on WP’s New Season click here.

Playbill Features WP’s New Season!

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Sarah Ruhl NY Premiere Part of Women’s Project Theater Season 

By Robert Viagas
and Michael Gioia
25 Aug 2015

Women’s Project Theater, founded in 1978 to develop, produce and promote the work of women theatre artists, has announced its upcoming season lineup at its new artistic home.
To begin a three year residency at the McGinn/Cazale Theater (2162 Broadway, at 76th Street in New York) artistic director Lisa McNulty announced that the season will include the New York premieres of Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth and Marytyna Majok’s Ironbound.

New this season will be the inaugural “Pipeline Festival,” which will include five new plays written, directed and produced by WP Lab Artists.

McNulty issued a statement calling the McGinn/Cazale Theater “an artistic home for women in theatre,” adding “I’m thrilled for WP Theater to set down roots in this wonderful space with such a storied theatrical history, and to bring all of these brilliant women together in one season. Our upcoming season features such an exciting range of talent: from Sarah Ruhl, one of our most treasured and accomplished writers; to Martyna Majok, who is making her Off-Broadway debut; to a festival fully dedicated to new work from the emerging artists of the WP Lab.”

She said, “This is the essence of what WP Theater does—creating a theatrical home where female-identified artists are welcome at every point in their careers, a place where women’s voices are central.”

Here’s a closer look at the season:

Dear Elizabeth (Oct. 26-Dec. 5) is written by two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl (The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play), directed by Kate Whoriskey. “Drawn from the famed correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell–two of the 20th century’s most brilliant poets–Dear Elizabeth tells a tale of unconventional friendship and intimacy that spanned 30 years and more than 400 letters, with postmarks from Maine to Key West, from London to South America.” It will be performed with a rotating cast of “the theater community’s most brilliant and beloved performers.”

Ironbound (Mar. 2-April 10, 2016) A co-production with (and performed at) Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Written by Martyna Majok (Petty Harbor) and directed by Daniella Topol. Described as “a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a woman for whom love is a luxury – and a liability – as she fights to survive in America. At a bus in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of 20 years, three relationships, and three presidents, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both.”

The WP Pipeline Festival (Mar. 24-April 23) Five brand new plays – written, directed and produced by the fifteen women of the WP Lab: Writers Sarah Burgess, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Martyna Majok, Riti Sachdeva and Susan Soon-He Stanton. Directors Adrienne Campbell-Holt, Lee Sunday Evans, Sarah Krohn, Danya Taymor and Tamilla Woodard. Producers  Rachel Karpf Reidy, Pearl Kermani, Kristen Luciani, Liz Olson and Rachel Sussman.

For more information on WP’s New Season click here.

American Theatre Magazine Features WP’s New Season!

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Women’s Project Theater Announces New Season in a New Home

Women’s Project Theater Announces New Season in a New Home
On the slate are Sarah Ruhl’s epistolary play about Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, and a co-production with Rattlestick of Martyna Majok’s ‘Ironbound.’
BY AMERICAN THEATRE EDITORS
NEW YORK CITY: Women’s Project Theater announced their 2015–16 season of plays, which will run in their new Upper West Side home at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. Producing artistic director Lisa McNulty and managing director Maureen Moynihan announced the beginning of a three-year residency at the theatre on Broadway at 76th Street.

“I’m thrilled for WP Theater to set down roots in this wonderful space with such a storied theatrical history, and to bring all of these brilliant women together in one season,” said McNulty in a statement. “This is the essence of what WP Theater does—create a theatrical home where female-identified artists are welcome at every point in their careers, a place where women’s voices are central.”

The season will begin with the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s play Dear Elizabeth(Oct. 26–Dec. 5). The play, which will feature a rotating cast, examines the relationship between the poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell through letters they wrote to each other.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and WP will then partner to present Ironbound by Martyna Majok (March 2–April 10), in its New York premiere. The play follows a woman for whom love is luxury.

Closing the season will be the first WP Pipeline Festival, running March 24–April 23. The festival will feature five new plays developed during the WP Lab’s two-year residency. The artists involved are Sarah Burgess, Money Hurst-Mendoza, Martyna Majok, Riti Sachdeva, Susan Soon-He Stanton, Adrienne Campbell-Holt, Lee Sunday Evans, Sarah Krohn, Danya Taymor, Tamilla Woodard, Rachel Karpf Reidy, Pearl Kermani, Kristen Luciani, Liz Olson, and Rachel Sussman.

WP Theater will also produce a series of events with other gender-focused theatre and advocacy groups, including the Kilroys and the Lilly Awards. Details of these events are yet to be announced.

For more information on WP’s New Season click here.

Video: Sarah Ruhl on DEAR ELIZABETH

WATCH an interview with Sarah Ruhl as she shares her inspiration for writing DEAR ELIZABETH.


Get to Know Kate Whoriskey


Director Kate Whoriskey most recently directed Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other productions include Ping Pong and Manahatta at the Public through Public Studio, Ruined and Tales from Red Vienna at Manhattan Theatre Club, How I Learned to Drive at Second Stage, The Piano Teacher at the Vineyard Theatre, Oroonoko at Theatre for A New Audience, the world premiere of Fabulation and Inked Baby at Playwrights Horizons, and Massacre by Jose Rivera at the Labyrinth Theatre Company (of which she is a member). Internationally, she directed Magdalena at the Chatelet theatre in Paris and Teatro Muicipal in Sao Paolo. Regionally, she directed Ruined, Vigils, Heartbreak House, The Rose Tattoo and Drowning Crow for The Goodman, The Tempest at Shakespeare Theatre, the world premiere of Intimate Apparel, The Piano Teacher, Life is a Dream, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Antigone, and The Clean House at South Coast Repertory, and Master Builder at the American Repertory Theatre. Nominated for a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel for her work on Ruined, she has also directed at the Huntington, The Geffen, Baltimore Center Stage, Perseverance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Fisher Center and The Eugene O’Neill Center.

Get to Know Sarah Ruhl

Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s plays include The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Passion Play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Dear Elizabeth  and Stage Kiss.  She has been a two-time Pulitzer prize finalist and a Tony award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights’ Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country, often with premiers at Yale Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater, and the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago. In 2014 she was the second most produced playwright in the country. Her plays have also been produced internationally and have been translated into over twelve languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur “genius” award. You can read more about her work on www.SarahRuhlplaywright.com. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber last fall. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and she lives in Brooklyn with her family.

 

Women’s Project Will Present 2015-16 Season in a New Home

The BIG + EXCITING NEWS is OUT! Women’s Project Theater will Present its 2015-16 Season in a New Home on Broadway & 76th Street

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By JONATHAN WOLFE AUGUST 24, 2015 5:04 PM

The Women’s Project Theater will begin its coming season in a new home, at the McGinn/Cazale Theater on Broadway, at 76th Street. This Off Broadway company dedicated to promoting female artists announced its three-year residency at the theater along with its 2015-16 season, which includes two New York premieres.

“Dear Elizabeth,” written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Kate Whoriskey, is based on the correspondence between the poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, and will be the Women’s Project Theater’s inaugural production at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. The play, a New York premiere, will be performed with a rotating cast and is scheduled to open Oct. 26.

“Ironbound,” another New York premiere, is a tragedy about a Polish maid living in the United States. Written by Martyna Majok and directed by Daniella Topol, the play, a co-production with the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, will open at Rattlestick on March 2.

The Women’s Project Theater also announced on Monday that its season will be capped by the new WP Pipeline Festival, which will feature five new plays by participants in the company’s artist residency program. It will run from March 24 to April 23.

The three-year residency at the McGinn/Cazale Theater will be the company’s longest stretch at one home since it sold the Julia Miles Theater in 2011, said Lisa McNulty, the company’s artistic director. “It’s so powerful that there is a marquee,” Ms. McNulty said, for a company that is dedicated to women. She added, “That feels very powerful and appropriate to the moment we’re in.”

The lack of diversity and women’s participation in New York City theater recently led to an outcry on the Internet after the Manhattan Theater Club’s roster for its 2015-16 season revealed that the majority of its plays were written by white men.

A version of this article appears in print on 08/25/2015, on page C3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Women’s Project’s New Season and Home.

For more information on WP’s New Season click here.