Powerhouse Theater, a unique collaboration between Vassar College and New York Stage and Film, will enter its second quarter-century this summer, continuing its mission to offer a haven for world-class artists to gather and explore new material in an atmosphere that is both protected and challenging. The season - beginning June 25 through August 1, 2010 - will offer 20 new works, including world premieres by Oscar, Tony, and Pulitzer winner John Patrick Shanley, Tracy Thorne, Eve Ensler, Richard Nelson & Peter Golub, Steven Sater & Duncan Sheik, Patricia Wettig, and Jennifer Westfeldt, among many others.
One reason so many of these artists choose to return again and again to Powerhouse is its extraordinary audience, whose "intelligent, informed participation in the development of new work is unparalleled," according to New York Stage and Film artistic director, Johanna Pfaelzer. Each season Powerhouse offers its audience not only debuts by Pulitzer, Oscar, and Tony-winning writers, directors, and actors, but also affordable ticket prices, where the cost of a season subscription that includes 18 performances is equal to the cost of one Broadway ticket.
The Powerhouse Theater Mainstage performances present fully staged and designed works-in-progress each season.
The first work on the mainstage is an exquisite new play WE ARE HERE (June 29 - July 11) by actor and playwright Tracy Thorne, directed by Tony nominee Sheryl Kaller (Next Fall). Thorne's play offers a glimpse at three generations of a family, who possess wit, endurance, and compassion in the face of unimaginable loss - and they all sing.
Offering his 14th debut work at Powerhouse is Oscar, Pulitzer, and Tony Award-winning playwright and director John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck, Doubt), whose PIRATE (July 21 - August 1) will be the second offering on the mainstage. [Some of the Powerhouse audience may have seen this play last summer in its initial stage as a reading.] PIRATE is a funny, provocative, and wildly theatrical tale of a guy who keeps showing up. Shanley's protagonist appears a lot like Adolph Hitler, but Hitler is gone and Pirate is still with us.
The Martel Musicals, concert readings of works-in-progress, are offered each season in the acoustically superb, intimate 325-seat Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, designed by Cesar Pelli.
This season a dynamic team from the "most perceptive political theater of the season" (New York Times' review of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) will offer the scrappy, hilarious, and though-provoking new musical BONFIRE NIGHT (July 16 - 18). With book, music, and lyrics by Justin Levine (music director, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) and directed by Alex Timbers (writer and director, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) BONFIRE NIGHT will bring history alive through an eclectic blend of jazz, pop, rock, and gospel as a band of English Catholics revolt against the tyrannical King James. This musical was inspired by the true events of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and the legendary radical Guy Fawkes.
The second offering on the Martel stage will be the newest project from Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (Side Man, Spring Awakening, American Idiot)-a reincarnation of Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (July 29 - August 1), with a new book by Peter Parnell (QED, Trumpery, The Cider House Rules). Mayer and Parnell will provide a surprising new twist to this musical with a completely re-imagined book that will feature beloved songs, "Come Back to Me" and "What Did I Have That I Don't Have," among many others.
The Powerhouse Inside Look series offers semi-staged workshops in the intimate Susan Stein Shiva Theater. This season there will be four workshops, including:
SAM BENDRIX AT THE BON SOIR (July 1 - 3) by playwright Keith Bunin (Vera Laughed, The Busy World is Hushed), directed by Mark Rucker (Die, Mommie, Die!, The Lady in Question is Charles Busch) that offers a sharp and poignant look into the world of 1958 at a Greenwich Village nightclub; HANDBALL (July 9 - 11) by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld (Everything's Turning Into Beautiful, The Flatted Fifth) is a fresh and startling story of community, culture clash, and turbulence around change; MY LIFE WITH MEN - AND OTHER ANIMALS (July 16 - 18) by Italian performance artist Maria Cassi & Patrick Pacheco, directed by Peter Schneider (Sister Act: The Musical) and performed by Cassi, offers an exhilaratingly intensive course on love, seduction, death, and . . . olive oil, while exploding myths of Italian romance and womanhood; INTERVIEWING THE AUDIENCE (July 23 - 25) by Zach Helm (Good Canary, Stranger than Fiction, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium), inspired by Spalding Gray, Helm invites audience members on an intimate hilarious, and occasionally shocking journey in this improvised and interactive work.Each season, the ever popular (and free) Readings Festival open and close the season. This year there will be ten readings held in the intimate Susan Stein Shiva Theater during the 26th annual Powerhouse Theater season. While these are free to the public, reservations are strongly recommended.
