Theater for the New City Dream Up Festival

A festival of adventurous new works for the stage
August 30 to September 20, 2015

19 productions at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. and
7 productions at Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th St.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRODUCTIONS
Information as of August 3, 2015
Box office: SMARTTIX (212) 868-4444 - Other info: TNC (212) 254-1109
Online ticketing available at Festival website:
www.dreamupfestival.org
Photos for Download: http://picasaweb.google.com/jslaff/Dream_Up_Festival
Overview: Background on the Festival
Day-By-Day Calendar of Events

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
"4 WARS" (PLAY) BY MARK FARNEN
"THE ACCIDENTAL KISS" (PLAY) BY CHIMA CHIKAZUNGA
"ARTAUD ARTAUD" BY MATTHEW MINNICINO
"BABY'S BREATH" (PLAY) BY JEANA SCOTTI
"THE BOOM" (DRAMA) BY VINNIE NARDIELLO
"BUBBLEHEADS" (PLAY) BY DARCY HELLER STERNBERG
"A CASUAL GATHERING" (MUSICAL) BY DANIEL SCHWARTZMAN
"DADDY'S BOY" (PLAY) BY CRISTIAN AVILA
"EMISSION" (PLAY) BY TOM BLOCK
"ENNUI: AN ENGLISH COMEDY WITH A FRENCH TITLE FOR AN AMERICAN AUDIENCE" (COMEDY) BY HENRIETTA STEVENTON
"ESCAPING QUEENS" (MUSICAL) BY JOE ORTIZ
"FLOAT" (MUSICAL) BY PETER DIZOZZA
"hOMAge" (MOVEMENT THEATER), DIRECTED BY NATANYA RUTH SILVERMAN, PERFORMED BY CLEARING COLLABORATIVE ENSEMBLE
"INCH BY INCH" (DRAMA) BY RACHEL GRAF EVANS
"THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY BLONDES" (COMEDY) BY ROBERT BAUMGARDNER
"INVASION!" BY JONAS HASSEN KHEMIRI
"LET IT COME DOWN" (DRAMA) BY EVE LEDERMAN
"MEDUSA" AND "THE ODDITY" (TWO ONE-ACTS) BY WILLIAM HUGEL
"THE NEW TRIAL" BY PETER WEISS, ADAPTED BY DENNIS YUEH-YEH LI
"NOMA" (MOVEMENT THEATER) BY CIRCUS SOLARIS COLLECTIVE
"ROOF-TOP JOY" (COMEDIC DRAMA) BY ANDREA FULTON
"SHOUT! THE DRAMA OF AN INVISIBLE BLACK MAN OF A CERTAIN AGE IN THE LAST DAYS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" (PLAY) BY HENRY MILLER
"SISTER'S KEEPER" (PLAY) BY CORDELIA DONOVAN AND TERRI JONES SALTER
"SONGS OF THE HARLEM RIVER" (COLLECTION OF ONE-ACTS) BY MARITA BONNER, RAFE M. COLEMAN, GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON, WILLIS RICHARDSON AND EULALIE SPENCE
"A SPECTACULAR NIGHT WITH THE STARS: THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD IN RETROGRADE AT THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE OF TELEVISION" (PLAY) BY BRAIN MELT CONSORTIUM
"WAITIN FOR THE G" (DRAMA) BY MAX COHEN
"YOUR NAME ON MY LIPS" (MUSICAL) BY ERIC SIROTA

 

"4 WARS" (PLAY) BY MARK FARNEN
September 13 to 20, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

Concrete Timbre, a composer-driven performance collective, provides an interdisciplinary journey back to four scenes in the year 1968, revealing the unrest that exploded across the world. In Poland, a young woman tries to convince her parents to let her take part in the student protests. In Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubček defends Brezhnev and enacts social changes. We then experience the life of a young protester in the midst of the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico. Finally, a group of Yippies in the East Village try to determine their next move the day after Nixon wins the Presidency. Their stories cover themes of hope, occupation, violence and finding a way to rise from the ashes. The work features contemporary classical music with electronics and world music elements. Directed by Ann Warren.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/4warsxxt.htm

 

"THE ACCIDENTAL KISS" (PLAY) BY CHIMA CHIKAZUNGA
August 30 to September 7, Theater for the New City (Cabaret Theater), 155 First Ave.

"The Accidental Kiss," written and directed by Chima Chikazunga, tells the story of two people struggling to find themselves. One is doing this through sobriety, the other through substance abuse, but they soon discover they have much more in common than just their forbidden love of the empty bottle. When a woman wakes up in an abandoned theater with a complete stranger who claims he is in love with her, he is her only hope of figuring out what happened the night before and of saving herself. Performed by the author and Josette Dwyer.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/theaccit.htm

 

"ARTAUD ARTAUD" BY MATTHEW MINNICINO
September 1 to 15, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

When playwright Antonin Artaud's physical form is usurped by a double, he struggles to maintain control of his own individuality in this merciless parody of the sensibilities of his manifesto, "Theatre of Cruelty." The play contains a series of vignettes inspired by the life of famous theater artist and theoretician. It's a sympathetic, semi-obsessive portrait of its greatest proponent and his somewhat dual nature. During his time in the Sanitarium at Rodez, France in the 1940s, Artaud is beset by a problem: his id-like Double, something at the core of his most famous texts, has taken complete control of his body. Trapped inside the chaos of his mind, the playwright wrestles with the Double to regain primacy and control over the way others perceive him. Directed by Jake Beckhard and perfomed by Artilliers performing company.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/artaudat.htm

 

"BABY'S BREATH" (PLAY) BY JEANA SCOTTI
September 1 to 5, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

Beatrice is pregnant, but the baby is growing inside of her lung, sucking in air with each breath she takes. The unborn baby takes Beatrice, her roommate, the baby's unsupportive father and an obsessive shoe salesman on a journey of life, breath and selflessness. The baby becomes a catalyst that triggers self-reflection and causes each character to change in some way and reassess their lives. The title is a floral metaphor: the baby is in the background, much like the baby's breath plant that serves as a backdrop to a bouquet of flowers, but is nonetheless subtly guiding the actions of those surrounding it. Cast of five.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/baby'sbt.htm

 

"THE BOOM" (DRAMA) BY VINNIE NARDIELLO
September 9-20, Theater for the New City (Cabaret Theater), 155 First Ave.

The backstage world of stand-up comics isn't so funny. Three comics, booked in a dilapidated comedy condo in Pittsburgh, reveal the world of comedy as a business, the pressures of making people laugh every night and the search for approval and self-worth that drives both comedians and their audiences. Performed by three real-life comedians--Dan Stern, DJ Hazard and Richie Byrne--plus ensemble members Kara Jackson and Melissa Stokoski, directed by Mark Riccadonna.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/theboomt.htm

 

"BUBBLEHEADS" (PLAY) BY DARCY HELLER STERNBERG
September 8 to 12, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

In a surreal, dreamlike world we experience the impact of divorce through the eyes of a child who has been forced to witness her parents' remarriages. The story is told using childhood imagery, such as songs, games and puppets. The Child is invisible, struggling to be loved and heard by her family while caught between having to grow up fast and clinging to the childhood she never got to enjoy. Directed by Heather Chamberlain.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/bubbleht.htm

 

"A CASUAL GATHERING" (MUSICAL) BY DANIEL SCHWARTZMAN
September 12-20, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

An intimate reunion in a Manhattan bar forces six high school friends to confront being in their fifties, their failed relationships, unrequited loves and unfulfilling jobs. Music is "Broadway" style with songs that are playful and poignant, often accompanied by dance numbers. Directed by James Martinelli.

Complete Info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/acasualt.htm

 

"DADDY'S BOY" (PLAY) BY CRISTIAN AVILA
August 30 to September 6, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

The boxing ring becomes a battleground for issues of sexuality, family and identity as 17 year old national wrestling champion Milo facing off against his childhood best friend, J.T. Their match is not just a physical battle but a battle of values as well, since Milo identifies as queer and J.T. represents the homophobia of Milo's Texas hometown. Directed by the author.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/daddy'st.htm

 

"EMISSION" (PLAY) BY TOM BLOCK
September 1 to 13, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

An absurdist farce with deeply troubling undertones, this play explores why humans are unable to take control of their lives vis-a-vis the growing climate disaster. Using humor, a love triangle between three women and a struggle for control of an invention that makes carbon emissions visible, it shows how greed, desire, sex and selfishness overwhelm our ability to master our own fates. The play is narrative theater in style and features a live, original jazz/blues score played by cellist and singer/poet Serena E. Miller. Directed by Pitr Strait

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/emissiot.htm

 

"ENNUI: AN ENGLISH COMEDY WITH A FRENCH TITLE FOR AN AMERICAN AUDIENCE" (COMEDY) BY HENRIETTA STEVENTON
August 30 to September 6, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

This play-within-a-play is set in rehearsals for a newly discovered Noël Coward play. The actors are thrown together and must define new personae in the context of those around them. The boundaries that separate theater and real life blur and the play they are putting on becomes an arena through which to express truer desires. The dialogue is clever and the humor is sharp. Audiences find themselves pulled into a world of wordplay, deception and murder. The various storylines come to a head with a funny and dramatic ending, playfully assuming a whodunit form that allows all the characters to realize their personal goals.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/ennuiant.htm

 

"ESCAPING QUEENS" (MUSICAL) BY JOE ORTIZ
September 13 to 20, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

This musical memoir is the funny, edgy, ultimately hopeful story of an Italian/Puerto Rican immigrant family that struggles to stick together as they escape Queens for Califirnia. The music, all original songs by Joe Ortiz (music, lyrics, co-librettist), embodies a variety of styles: Latin beats, Sicilian ballads, bluesy riffs, jazz numbers, radio hits of the 1950s and doo wop numbers. The show was a hit at Cabrillo Stage in Aptos, California; this is its New York premiere. Cast of nine. Greg Fritsch is director and co-librettist.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/escapint.htm

 

"FLOAT" (MUSICAL) BY PETER DIZOZZA
September 7 to 19, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

This surrealistic musical is conceived, written and composed by Peter Dizozza, a noted abstractionist of musical theater. It is about the outrageous adventures of characters dedicated to creating harmony between humanity and the natural world. It uses music, poetry, comedy, drama and dance to symbolically picture the process of adjustment to a great loss. Two surviving members of the Floater Family go out of their element (water) to experience life on land, air and fire. In doing so, they unite with three other "elemental" families--the Farmers, the Flyers and the Flames--to make one extended family. Music is folk rock musical theater with oceanic melodies and harmonies. Francesse Maingrette directs.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/floatxxt.htm

 

"hOMAge" (MOVEMENT THEATER), DIRECTED BY NATANYA RUTH SILVERMAN, PERFORMED BY CLEARING COLLABORATIVE ENSEMBLE
September 17 to 20, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

"hOMAge" is an original, physical theater exploration devised by The Clearing Collaborative Ensemble and directed by Natanya Ruth Silverman, inspired by the letters and poetry of her grandmother, Hella Kurth ("Oma" in German), a WWII refugee, cancer survivor and yogini. It is part narrative, part movement piece and it incorporates song and dance. It is devised and performed by an all female ensemble of choreographers, musicians, and actors dressed in white, who create the physical and emotional world of the story and bring the words and wisdom of Kurth to life. Choreographed, written and designed by its five-member ensemble.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/homagext.htm

 

"INCH BY INCH" (DRAMA) BY RACHEL GRAF EVANS
September 13 to 19, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

When Bridget and Tom return to Bridget's hometown for her mother's funeral, Bridget learns that she has inherited the house and vegetable garden. However, only once she reconciles her deep-seated fears about family and identity will the garden let her escape. It is a fantastical and mystical element, and comes to represent the Mother, both biological and Earth. The piece explores the tensions between childhood home and adult home, and the question of where we fit in once we've grown up. The show also explores LGBTQ issues, with Bridget's struggle stemming from a discomfort in her own skin.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/inchbyit.htm

"INVASION!" BY JONAS HASSEN KHEMIRI
August 30 to September 10, Theater for the New City (Cabaret Theater), 155 First Ave.

Invasion! is a meta-theatrical orientalist critique on ethnic stereotypes of people from South Asia and the Middle East. It is a tornado of words, images and ideas, all centered around a magical name: Abulkasem. At once hilarious, disturbing and poignant, this deeply subversive play deconstructs concepts of the "OTHER" and forces us to confront our own cultural identity.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/invasion.htm

 

"THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY BLONDES" (COMEDY) BY ROBERT BAUMGARDNER
September 16-20, Theater for the New City (Cabaret Theater), 155 First Ave.

The world is in disarray. Who can save us? The League of Extraordinary Blondes! Members of Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble (IRTE) appear in an action-packed comedy adventure that is devised on-the-spot from audience input. In a gripping adventure movie, the most famous blondes in the world lead different glamorous lives until a world crisis strikes. (The audience supplies the crisis and its location by silent ballot.) Like the Avengers, they are then called together to find and defeat the evil villain behind the crisis. The show is stylized and cartoon-ish, incorporating white foam board cut-outs, plastic sheets and streamers, as well as a musical intermezzo by David E. Johnston.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/theleagt.htm

 

"LET IT COME DOWN" (DRAMA) BY EVE LEDERMAN
Sepotember 8-16, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

Therapists need therapy just as much as we do. This unique hybrid story blends actual deposition transcripts from a malpractice case with fictionalized therapy scenes to make sense of the relationship between a therapist and her patient and therapy's relation to love, betrayal and the law. Cast of three, directed by Katherine M. Carter

http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/letitcot.htm

 

"MEDUSA" AND "THE ODDITY" (TWO ONE-ACTS) BY WILLIAM HUGEL
August 31 to September 10, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

Two one-acts employ creative storytelling, music and movement to examine addiction, mental illness and gender power. "Medusa" explores the title character, a woman, through the way man, represented by Perseus, has tried to repress and dominate her. "The Oddity" is filled with ambient sounds of a psychiatrist's office heard through the filter of an un-medicated, schizophrenic mind. Directed by Chad Chenail.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/medusaxt.htm

 

"THE NEW TRIAL" BY PETER WEISS, ADAPTED BY DENNIS YUEH-YEH LI
September 1 to 6, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

"The (New) Trial" is a radical version of "The New Trial" by Peter Weiss (1916-1982), author of "Marat/Sade," adapted and directed by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li. The play experiments with identity and power-relations, presenting a surreal look at the life of K, the chief attorney in an international corporation. The play explores K's obsessive idealism and his self-destructive methodology in helping others. Confined in his own docile body, K is manipulated as the public mask for the corporation to win the "war" over current global market expansion and eventually is abandoned by the corporation once the victory is obtained. The work is staged in a deconstructive way, interwoven and interrupted by excerpts from Kafka's "The Trial" and by performers' monologues. It experiments with creating layers of identity, using the presence of the audience as a tool to show the way people manipualte the power dynamic based on who's watching. Cast of seven.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/thenewtt.htm

 

"NOMA" (MOVEMENT THEATER) BY CIRCUS SOLARIS COLLECTIVE
September 9 to 19, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

"NOMA" is a wordless movement piece with aerial dance directed by Sara Zepezauer, choreographed and designed by the Circus Solaris Collective. In the work, individual artists collaborate to create something bigger than they are capable of alone, using painting as a metaphor for the darkness that can overtake us in our futile flight from death. Features dance and aerial movment that looks like a painting. The dancers' movements mirror the strokes of a brush, accompanied by projections and paint. There is also live music composed by collaborating artists, comprised mostly of strings. Director Sara Zepezauer became an aerialist when a tragic accident at age 18 forced her to have knee surgery. While she couldn't stand or dance on the ground, dancing in the air was a different story. Cast of 12.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/nomaxxxt.htm

 

"ROOF-TOP JOY" (COMEDIC DRAMA) BY ANDREA FULTON
September 13-20, Theater for the New City (Community Theater), 155 First Ave.

Witiswood and Jah-niece become the keepers of one another's true identities when they move into a new hoity-toity high rise in downtown Brooklyn, having no idea the demons of their pasts will come to haunt them. It's a building where nobody is what they seem and our job is to peel away the persona each has carefully constructed. The play looks at the way people construct a public image to achieve wealth and power and escape society's prophecy for who they should be. With five actors and six musicians; directed by Jared Reinmuth.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/roof-tot.htm

 

"SHOUT! THE DRAMA OF AN INVISIBLE BLACK MAN OF A CERTAIN AGE IN THE LAST DAYS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" (PLAY) BY HENRY MILLER
September 12-20, Theater for the New City (Cabaret Theater), 155 First Ave.

This play for one man is written by noted African-American playwright Henry Miller and performed by noted opera singer Arthur Woodley. The title character, anonymous in name and age, engages in a one-way conversation with the audience, revisiting crucial events of his life to avoid having to confront the impending funeral of his true love. His disjointed, somewhat frantic dialogue illustrates how people need to tell their stories as a way of making peace with them.

Complete info: www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/shout!xt.htm

 

"SISTER'S KEEPER" (PLAY) BY CORDELIA DONOVAN AND TERRI JONES SALTER
September 10 to 14, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

Three African American women grapple with friendship, sisterhood, love, life, faith and HIV in our modern world. The play is a rewrite of the 1999 play "Miracles" by Lynda J. Jones that chronicled the life of a young African American Christian woman who contracts AIDS at a time it was only thought of as a Gay man’s disease. Jones dreamed of presenting this play in New York but she took ill and quickly died. Cordelia Donovan, who worked on the original production as her assistant, was so impressed and touched by the play that she collaborated with her daughters, Terri Jones Salter and Sherri Jones, to re-imagine the work as a look at the modern day plight of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the African American community. Features live gospel music. Directed by Cordelia Donovan.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/sister't.htm

 

"SONGS OF THE HARLEM RIVER" (COLLECTION OF ONE-ACTS) BY MARITA BONNER, RAFE M. COLEMAN, GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON, WILLIS RICHARDSON AND EULALIE SPENCE
August 30 to September 6, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

The Xoregos Performing Company offers a program of five forgotten, fascinating Harlem Renaissance one acts written between 1920-1930 including works by Marita Bonner, Rafe M. Coleman, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Willis Richardson and Eulalie Spence as well as the poems of Sterling A. Brown, Langston Hughes and others. The evening takes us back in time to the 1920s, complete with authentic period costumes and props, accompanied by music of the jazz era by Jean Moreau Gottschalk, Ray Henderson and Shelton Brooks. The plays will be performed continuously without breaks, uniting what have long been distinct one-acts. Some of the poetry will be set to dance. Eight actors play all the characters in the five plays. Directed and choreographed by Shela Xoregos.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/songsoft.htm

 

"A SPECTACULAR NIGHT WITH THE STARS: THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD IN RETROGRADE AT THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE OF TELEVISION" (PLAY) BY BRAIN MELT CONSORTIUM
September 11 to 20, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

It's 1960 and the empire of cinema has fallen and a new medium is rising to take its place: television. Judy, a movie star as talented as she is troubled, invites America into her home for a televised variety show filled with her most famous friends. But things are not what they seem in this fabulous affair: Satanism, serial killers, madness and mayhem lurk around every corner. It all culminates in a terrifying occult ritual that may or may not end the entertainment industry as we know it. The play uses the imagery of classic Hollywood as a lens through which to explore our anxieties regarding technology and its impact on contemporary popular culture. Cast of eight, directed by Rachel Kerry.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/aspectat.htm

 

"WAITIN FOR THE G" (DRAMA) BY MAX COHEN
September 5 to 14, Producers' Club Theaters, 358 West 44th Street.

What if Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" were to take place in a subway station? This one-act brings Beckett's play into today's world, putting into perspective the existential dillemas facing the modern man, modern New Yorker and particularly the modern millenial. It is a fresh perspective that hasn't been done before.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/waitinft.htm

 

"YOUR NAME ON MY LIPS" (MUSICAL) BY ERIC SIROTA
August 30 to September 18, Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.

A young idealistic artist named Sam learned to love by loving Suzanna. Now he must fight to hold on to her, as the materialistic world tries to tug her away. A musical about how we crave love and how hard we work to sustain it, with a driving contemporary score with classical influences. Cast of seven, directed by Katharine Pettit.

Complete info: http://www.jsnyc.com/season/dreamup_2015/yournamt.htm