A young American soldier in the Middle East encounters an ever-shifting landscape, forcing him to confront powers foreign and domestic, secular and divine, real and imagined.
“STUNNING” – New York Times, Caryn James
“Taut” “Powerful” “Unnerving!” – Time Out NY, David Cote
“Nuanced, honest, and engaging.” – Associated Press, Jennifer Farrar
“Sand is a powerful piece; it has guts.” – Ivanna Cullinan of NYTheatre.com
Sure, we all need to be loved. But some of us also need a green card.
Internationally-acclaimed Romanian playwright, poet, and journalist Saviana Stanescu brings us a dark comedy about a clown from the unhappiest country in the world, Moldova, who pins her hopes on a US work visa by creating balloon animals. Chased by Homeland Security, a deportation letter deflates her enthusiasm, and a pair of spike heels might be all it takes to burst her American Dream. This world premiere production will be directed by award-winning theater artist and Bosnian emigre Tea Alagic.
Saviana Stanescu’s play is “An enchanting piece of theater! Aliens radiates tons of energy. Directed with GREAT ZEAL by Tea Alagic, the cast couldn’t be sharper!”– The New York Times
“Endlessly inventive – creative and fun!” –Variety
“A triumph! A delightfully cracked fairy tale! There’s an understated silliness, a set of adorable strugglers and just the right thread of romance and a charming cast!” – Time Out New York
“A whimsical romantic comedy! Touching and playful, worthwhile and engaging.” – Theatermania
“Excellent -highly entertaining!” – CurtainUp
“Poignant and wry.”– Associated Press
Transfigures, a new play conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet, created from sources as varied as the writings of Bathsheba Doran and Joan of Arc, scientific journals, and post-it notes from the desks of New York corporate secretaries, Transfigures maps the intersection of religious revelation and insanity as it follows pilgrims to the Holy Land who succumb to the Jerusalem Syndrome, a well-documented psychosis that affects ordinary tourists who find themselves channeling Biblical figures, stealing hotel bed sheets to wear as togas, and parading through Jerusalem as Moses, Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and other religious icons.
When uber-popular Vickie Martin joins the all-male math team, chaos theory becomes the rule at Longwood High School. Can this goddess of Pi possibly make the mathletes victorious? Totally.
With the mighty Mississippi serving as a powerful backdrop, Lisa D’Amour’s stark and poetic play fuses the natural elements of wind, water, wood and stone to the interiors of its four characters. At the dawn of the new age, Cyrus (Barnaby Carpenter) and Lottie (Kelly McAndrew) take in a transient Southern couple, Dan(Tug Coker) and Dinah (Vanessa Aspillaga). Dreams converge with sexual tension, suppressed emotions with desire, flooding the carefully laid landscape Cyrus and Lottie have designed.
From the OBIE-Award winning team that brought you Nita and Zita and Anna Bella Eema, The Cataract has been called “Pure Magic”.
In what the Washington Post calls “the most absorbing new play of the season,” playwright Neena Beber tackles the ultimate reality film in JUMP/CUT. Aspiring director Paul (Thomas Sadoski, Reckless), his girlfriend Karen (Michi Barall), and his lifelong buddy Dave (Luke Kirby, “Slings & Arrows”, Mambo Italiano) embark on a filmmaking adventure that captures the complications of the human heart and the ethics of ambition. JUMP/CUT is a darkly humorous drama that puts obsessions, betrayals, and Steely Dan into the line of focus.
JUMP/CUT was originally produced by the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company and Theater J at the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater in Washington D.C., and was developed at Gloucester Stage and New Dramatists’ Play Time. Women’s Project extends is sincere appreciation to both Howard Shalwitz (Woolley Mammoth) and Ari Roth (Theater J). Playwright Neena Beber extends special thanks to Mary Coleman, Israel Horovitz, Simon Hammerstein, Jo Bonney, Jessica Hecht, Rob Campbell, Josh Hamilton, Maria Mileaf, Michael Chernus, Eric Sutton, Colleen DeLaney, Todd London, Mary Resing, Ari Roth and Howard Shalwitz.
Virginia Woolf wrote only one play in her lifetime: Freshwater. Initially composed in 1923 and revised in 1935, the play has never enjoyed a professional production in the United States. Now, in a landmark collaboration between the Women’s Project and SITI Company the play is finally having its day. This delightful comedy creates a deliberately witty and charming universe peopled by a tribe of artists, friends, and lovers in a lighthearted mood. Legendary director Anne Bogart is at the helm of this theatrical escapade set in a Victorian garden on a summer evening–-the perfect diversion for audiences during the winter of 2009.
“A laugh riot” – The New York Times
“Inarguably Fascinating” – Time Out New York
“Woolf-hounds are bound to be tickled” – NY Daily News
Aphra Behn is getting out of the spy trade and into show biz, if she can only write her play without interruptions from her love life-celebrity Nell Gwynne, King Charles II, and double-agent William Scott, among others. While war rages and Aphra and her friends celebrate free love, cross-dressing and pastoral lyricism, the 1660s start to look likie the 1960s. Verse or prose, now or then, love or death… and a lot of kissing.
“A playful, funny and inventive comedy. Frisky historical romp.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
“In her real-life poetry, Behn vowed to ‘laugh at love and fate.’ Adams and this wonderful cast have certainly done the same with this delightful comedy.” – Associated Press
“Positively ripples!” – Time Out, New York
“Rollickin’ bodice-ripping farce… suitably smart and sexy.” – New York Post
“Nothing short of brilliant ” – WCBS Newsradio 880
“A fetching Maggie Siff, a “Mad Men” alum, brings humor and sexiness as the pioneering Behn. Andy Paris and Kelly Hutchinson are delights in all the other roles.” – NY Daily News
The world premiere of a dark comedy about the changing face of the American family and the limits of love and cheesecake, as a hopeful young couple gives birth to a smudge.
“For signs of intelligent life in the theatrical universe, I hereby refer you to Smudge, Rachel Axler’s pitch-black comedy.” Kudos to the Women’s Project for its dazzling work on a daring piece.” – Variety
“Creepy and funny. Precise and imaginative. Parenthood never looked weirder or more terrifying than it does in Smudge, a new play by Rachel Axler. Stylishly directed by Pam MacKinnon.” – The New York Times
“Axler’s dark comedy—alertly directed by Pam MacKinnon for the momentum building Women’s Project—is a horror story: a parent’s nightmare rendered with sometimes lyrical surrealism….Smudge also illustrates ambition: a parent’s, thwarted, and a playwright’s, achieved.” – Time Out New York
“It’s a testament to Rachel Axler’s excellent writing and a marvellous cast that this dark sci-fi comedy, directed by Pam MacKinnon, actually works.” – The New Yorker
“Smudge is filled with laughs, due to Rachel Axler’s tart way with quips, director Pam MacKinnon’s brisk, unsentimental touch, and the ability of both Greg Keller and Cassie Beck to make their characters real and complex.” – Associated Press
An American and his young Greek bride escape to an island and plant a small vineyard. Their harvest ripens, and a fractious American woman arrives uninvited to stir up passions at their first tasting.
“Definitely worth spending an undeniably tense evening with, right through an unexpected twist at the end.” – Associated Press
“Blown Away…Honest, captivating from beginning to end. I can’t recommend it enough” – WCBS Radio 880
“It’s a rich, complicated, thought-provoking piece of writing given a strong production by the Women’s Project, one that I’m still thinking about.” – NYTheatre.com
When newlyweds Edie and Alan King move into the gated community of Apple Cove, they trust they have found a safe haven from the chaotic world outside. But when lush and forbidden roses start popping up in their garden, they quickly learn that nothing, not even electric gates, can keep nature out. Especially one’s own nature.
“The sun-splashed cast–including Smallville’s Allison Mack… and maestro of beta-male awkwardness Erin Gann…–makes Rosen’s zippy, pointy dialogue sing.” – New York Magazine
“A sweetly cracked parable—Rosen has a real gift for cockeyed humor.” – Time Out New York
“Whether you think the creation of mankind was divine or amoebic, Rosen’s absurdist vision of a world gone security-mad in a vain effort to regulate human nature – and Mother Nature – is an hour and a half of witty fun.” – Associated Press
“Decidedly worth every off-Broadway dollar spent. The acting is superb. The storytelling is timely. It is the kind of theater that leaves you talking about it.” – WCBS Radio
Harvested from a lifetime of Virginia Woolf’s writing, Room traces the movement of a creative spirit in exquisite crisis, an artist in a pressure cooker of articulation who seeks room to move, room to breathe, and room to imagine.
“A theatrical representation of the writer’s mind, an abstraction painted with theater’s animated tools.” – The New York Times
“Watching Lauren climb the walls of Neil Patel’s terrifyingly empty set leaves one images, both haunting and heroic, of a great mind abandoned to itself — free and unmoored, equally.” – Critic’s Pick, New York Magazine
“Fans of Woolf and adventurous dance/theater shouldn’t hesitate to head to this production by Women’s Project and SITI Company!” – Huffington Post
“The production is so imaginatively directed by Anne Bogart as to seem almost like a modern dance performance at times.” – Associated Press
The copier coughs. The air conditioner stutters. Your Post-It supply is running low. Don’t dismiss the notion that you may be reckoning with forces divine. In the world premiere production of WE PLAY FOR THE GODS, four women go to work on a seemingly ordinary day only to find that a trickster god has slid through the cracks and cubicles of their office to take them on a journey to the other side of ordinary. Who knows? Today, the same could happen to you.
“Full of laughs…wry comedy. Annie Golden is delightful!” – Associated Press
“Blows the house down…a work you should not miss!” – nytheater.com
Following the stellar success of her play CROOKED at WP in 2008, Catherine Trieschmann returns with a new play about Susan, a high school biology teacher who leaves Manhattan for a job in Plainview, Kansas. Susan is ready for more than a little culture shock, but she’s not prepared for the firestorm that engulfs the town when she makes an off-handed comment about the origins of the universe.
“Three fine performances in contrasting hues. Directed with a keen focus on the specificity of character by Daniella Topol.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
“Catherine Trieschmann’s delicately balanced and stirring new play, directed with grace by Daniella Topol. Captivating performances by the cast. Rare and refreshing intelligence.” – The New Yorker
“An insightful and compassionate drama. The playwright is unafraid of portraying difficult women who make mistakes.” – Adam Feldman, Time Out
“Trieschmann amps up the intensity with a steady and pitiless hand. She’s a playwright, and a damned good one. Taking those duties seriously, she funnels us toward a real neck-snap of a conclusion — the earth shakes a little.” – New York Magazine
With potential for more but nowhere to put it, sixteen-year-old Annie’s got a choice: honor the pregnancy pact she made with her friends, or find the path to a brighter future. In this searing, sharply observant new play, Kirsten Greenidge finds savage humor and gritty poetry in one inner-city girl’s struggle to carve out a life beyond the only one she knows.
“REMARKABLE … Milk Like Sugar is one of the works of art for which 2011 will be remembered.” – Variety
“A TERRIFIC CAST. With their tart backchat and slangy humor, the high school girls played with beaming verve by Cherise Boothe, Angela Lewis, and Nikiya Mathis are a delight to watch. THE GREAT TONYA PINKINS gives a sensational, frame busting performance, biting into the humor with ferocious intensity.” – The New York Times
“Smart and unsettling and remarkably acted drama that makes a noteworthy New York debut for the author. Rebecca Taichman directs a fine-tuned production and topflight cast.” – NY Daily News
LORTEL AWARD NOMINATIONS:
OUTSTANDING PLAY
OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS AMERICA FERRERA
BETHANY is a darkly comic exploration of the limits of morality in desperate times. Set in an American exurb wiped out by foreclosures, the play follows Crystal, a financially-strapped woman who discovers just how far she’ll go to regain what she’s lost.
“Laura Marks’s trenchant, economical drama is surprisingly (dismayingly) rare among new American plays. In this expertly turned Women’s Project Theater production…America Ferrera’s performance is beautifully modulated.”- Charles Isherwood, Critic’s Pick, The New York Times
“Laura Marks’ black comedy is a sharp social commentary brought to vivid life under Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s evocative direction. The performances are all splendid.” – Roma Torre, NY1
“Playwright Laura Marks announces herself here as a real voice to watch…America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”) gives an endearing performance as Crystal…finely wrought world première, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch” – The New Yorker
“America Ferrera (late of Ugly Betty) displays a chilling naturalness in Laura Marks’s Bethany, a brisk Hobbesian thriller set in recession-wracked 2009…Ferrera, Segal, and a superb supporting cast make Marks’s bold grotesques feel dangerously alive.” – Critics’ Pick, New York Magazine
LORTEL AWARD NOMINATIONS:
OUTSTANDING SOLO SHOW
OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN JANE SHAW
From the controversial pen of Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature, flows the solo play JACKIE, an intensely theatrical dissection of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and the myths surrounding her well-coiffed veneer. Like Jelinek’s acclaimed novel The Piano Teacher, the film of which won the 2001 Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival, JACKIE is a disturbing exploration of submission, power, and the hypocrisy of everyday life.
“Tina Benko is HILARIOUS, INSPIRED & FABULOUS! The writing is BEAUTIFUL & PROFOUND.” – The New Yorker
“A MAGNIFICENT PERFORMANCE. Irreverent, sharp-eyed imagining of the former first lady. Witty and haunting.” – Associated Press
“Bold and arresting premiere! Jackie…seductively incarnated by a fearless Tina Benko” – Time Out, NY
“Dark delights in Camelot! MESMERIZING…Tina Benko is magnetic.” – New York Post
“Myth-mauling and jagged-edged Jackie, played with sly wit and laser focus by Tina Benko” – NY Daily News
Hannah has it all. Well, sort of: a caring husband in control of his panic attacks, a free-spirited sister with a penchant for accidental crime, an exciting career fraught with moral dilemmas, and a drunken house plant. COLLAPSE is a hilarious and transcendent odyssey that explores the real and imagined circumstances that push people to the edge.
“SENSITIVE, TOUCHING & VERY FUNNY…Jackson Gay directs an excellent cast, carefully balancing serious moments and exuberantly comedic scenes.” – Associated Press
“LIGHT-HEARTED…OUTRAGEOUS! A dramedy about recovering from real-life tragedy.” – Time Out, New York
“Insightful writing, SHARP COMEDIC DIRECTION by Jackson Gay.” Cabell and Villar are “MASTERFUL!” – Theatermania
“Allison Moore’s knack for wacky situations serves her well…Hannah Cabell is a whiz at physical comedy!” – NY Post
“Likable comedy-drama…FUNNY, TOUCHING…persuasively acted…well directed.” – The New York Times
“Jessica Dickey’s funny, sad, deep, and smart play is BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN and, under the direction of Daniella Topol, masterfully acted.” – The New Yorker
“A HANDSOMELY STAGED dark comedy with solid performances.” – Time Out NY
“A STYLISH PRODUCTION WITH A FINE CAST!” – NY Post
When two hard core Civil War re-enactors show up for their annual Gettysburg beer and find a pretty stranger at their table, old allegiances come into question. Straddling 1863 and today, ROW AFTER ROW is a dark comedy about choosing your cause and finding your courage.
“THRILLING” – Time Out, New York
“DYNAMIC WORK! Intriguing, mysterious and insightful!” – Stage Buddy
“STAND OUT PERFORMANCES. A beautifully intertwined series of stories.” – Entertainment Hour
“Forceful… Skillfully constructed, astonishingly cohesive, INCREDIBLE performances!” – Theater Pizzazz
“A LIVELY and sincere love letter to New York City” – New York Theatre Review
“A WONDERFUL, creative new show!” – The Drama League
The 15 hottest theater artists in NYC bring you this evocative theatrical tapestry.
A lost postcard, the ghost of an opera diva and the siren call of the City. Erupting from the shadows of New York City Center, expect history and mystery in this world premiere production.
written by Kara Lee Corthron, Sarah Gancher, Virginia Grise, Dipika Guha, Lauren Yee
directed by Elena Araoz, Lydia Fort, Lauren Keating
produced by Deadria Harrington, Jane Jung, Meropi Peponides, Aktina Stathaki, Lanie Zipoy
Conceived by Elena Araoz, Kara Lee Corthron, Lydia Fort, Sarah Gancher, Virginia Grise, Dipika Guha, Deadria Harrington, Jane Jung, Lauren Keating, Lila Neugebauer, Meropi Peponides, Aktina Stathaki, Lily Whitsitt, Lauren Yee, Lanie Zipoy
“Frisky new comedy! Veanne Cox is PRICELESSLY FUNNY!” – The New York Times
“A BIG ACCOMPLISHED WRITER’S VOICE” – The New York Times
“Smart, HILARIOUS, RIVETING!” – The New Yorker
“INSIGHTFUL!” – Time Out, New York
“A HILARIOUS RIDE! ” – The Village Voice
“Sharp, Funny, & Witty! BRILLIANT!” – Curtain Up
“A DELIGHT! Check out this kooky, joyful play.” – New York Theatre Review
“DELICIOUS & RAUCOUS! A brilliant script, inventive direction and impeccable performances! A HIT!” – Theatre Reviews Limited
“Quick and lively, the laughs keep coming. HILARIOUS AND FUN!” – Theater Pizzazz
A Tart, Sharp Skewing of Small Town Cultural Wars.
