MURDER BALLAD, FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, et al. Set for NY Stage and Film's Powerhouse Season

New York Stage and Film and Vassar College have announced the line-up of their 2012 Powerhouse Theater season. Season highlights will include:

Two fully-staged Mainstage works: award-winning playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Abigail/1702 (June 27 – July 8), directed by David Esbjornson, given a reading this past February at Powerhouse, and Emmy nominated writer Stephen Belber’s The Power of Duff, directed by Peter DuBois (July 18–29).

There will be two musical workshops: Itamar Moses & Michael Friedman’s The Fortress of Solitude, directed by Daniel Aukin, based on the novel by Jonathan Lethem (June 29 – July 1), and Julia Jordan & Juliana Nash’s Murder Ballad, directed by Trip Cullman (July 27–29).

Developmental play workshops will include: Eva Anderson, Will Berson & Zach Helm‘s Fires Are Confusing, created by Teatro de Facto (July 13 –15) and Marcus Gardley’s The House That Will Not Stand (July 20–22).

In addition, Powerhouse will offer 10 new works during the Readings Festivals (June 22–24 and July 27–29).

Johanna Pfaelzer, the artistic director for New York Stage and Film, noted that the works in development this season “will take us from Massachusetts in 1702 to a present-day newsroom in Rochester; from 1970’s Brooklyn to New Orleans in 1836; from a Soviet prison in 1952 to the Chicago World’s Fairs. These plays and musicals are ambitious in their scope, wildly varied in their style, and each one is a story that demands to be told in a theater.”

Edward Cheetham, producing director for Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College, noted that in addition to the three outdoor classic presentations and soundpainting performances, this year will feature a residency by noted theater artist Erik Ehn that will culminate in a performance of Ehn’s Burnt Umber, directed by Mia Rovegno (July 20).

Subscriptions to the 2012 Powerhouse Theater season are available online beginning Wednesday, May 16, with single tickets available online Friday, June 1: powerhouse.vassar.edu. The Powerhouse Theater box office on the Vassar College campus (124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY) opens Wednesday, June 6: (845) 437-5599 or PHTBoxOffice@vassar.edu.

Vassar & New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater
2012 Season Schedule:

Mainstage (fully staged and designed works-in-progress)
/ In the Powerhouse Theater
$35

Wednesday, June 27 – Sunday, July 8
ABIGAIL/1702
By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Directed by David Esbjornson
Ten years after the events of The Crucible, Abigail Williams is living under a new identity in Boston and haunted by her past. When a mysterious figure appears, she confronts Salem’s dark history head on and must atone for her role in it. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (The Mystery Plays, Good Boys and True, Glee and Big Love) makes his Powerhouse debut with this suspenseful tale of a young woman’s quest for forgiveness.

Wednesday, July 18 – Sunday, July 29
THE POWER OF DUFF
By Stephen Belber
Directed by Peter DuBois
Charles Duff, a news anchor in a mid-market backwater, has an unexpected spiritual awakening on live TV. His prayers, and their answers, change his audience, his family, and his own life forever. Stephen Belber (Tape, Match, Dusk Rings a Bell, Fault Lines) returns to the Powerhouse alongside Peter DuBois (Sons of the Prophet, Becky Shaw, Jack Goes Boating, All New People).

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