Ars Nova Announces November and December Programming

Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Jeremy Blocker, Managing Director) announces a jam-packed end-of-year lineup featuring exciting new comedy, music and theater programming.

Coming up in November and December:

(All shows are at 8pm unless otherwise noted)

Thanksgiving! A Pageant! (Thursday, 11/29; $12)

By David McGee

Music by Stephanie Johnstone

Thanksgiving! A! Pageant! is, you guessed it, a pageant (about Thanksgiving). Join Lincoln, Roosevelt, Coolidge and Jesus as they tell the story of the first meeting between the godly Pilgrims and those wacky Natives. With the help of songs, Squanto, Dutch punk teenagers, King James I of England and a dream ballet, you'll experience the real story of how America became... America.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker I'm Willing to Settle!: In Concert (Friday, 11/30; $15)

Music & Lyrics by Brandon James Gwinn

Book by Kelvin Moon Loh & Nikki MacCallum

Join Nikki as she plunges into the world wide web and emerges as a guru of Internet Dating, in this concert presentation of a hot new musical. Just throw in some accidental pornography, impromptu 24-hour jaunts to Europe, and a video-chat romance and you’ve got an honest, heartbreaking, uplifting story to delight the single, the not, those who wish they were, and everyone in between!

Mercy Street: A Hip-Hop Concert (Tuesday, 12/4; $15)

By Joe Drymala

Directed by McKenna Dabbs

R&B, hip-hop and a whole lot of heart collide in this concert version of Mercy Street, the impassioned tale of the loyal tenants of 121 Murphy Street. Through a series of musical vignettes, the group battles to decide whether to sell their respective shares, or unite to effectively fight The Man. Faced with the age-old question of serving the individual versus uniting as one - which will they choose?

Naked Radio Live: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Thursday, 12/6; $10)

'Twas the night before Christmas / And up at Ars Nova / We made a recording / Of our holiday show...va.

Naked Angels is back to blow the roof off the Nova with another live recording of their variety-show podcast, featuring new short plays by Dylan Dawson, Josh Koenigsberg and Halley Feiffer, along with music, interviews, and all the egg nog you can drink*. So grab your kerchief, hang up your stockings, and get ready to welcome Santa to town - Naked Radio style!

*Egg nog not actually included.

Isaac Oliver's Lonely Christmas (Friday, 12/7; $15)

Written & Performed by Isaac Oliver

Directed by Jason Eagan

Hailed as “a monstrous new talent” by New York Magazine, gay playwright and pale neurotic Isaac Oliver returns to Ars Nova for an extra-special evening of new stories and awkward holiday cheer, with help from some special guests and Christmas Eve cheese.

Isaac Oliver’s plays include Electra in a One-Piece, Eddie Goshen is Dead, Long Dirty Jokes, Slim, Dancing Joy, and “Come Here” (2011 New York Innovative Theatre Award, Outstanding Original Short Script). His poetry has been published in The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities, a Knopf anthology. His blog, He Who Laughs, or The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Intimacy, can be read at www.hewholaughs.com