New Season Announced for New Victory Theater

As New York City's premier theater for kids and families, The New Victory Theater announces its 2016-17 season. From September 30, 2016 through May 21, 2017, the New Victory 2016-17 season will feature two world premieres, six U.S. premieres and six NY premieres among its 15 productions from 11 different countries around the world.

Tony Award-winning The Acting Company will present the NY Premieres of Caesar/X (March 17-26, 2017): Shakespeare's Julius Caesar together in repertory with X, a new play by PEN/Laura Pels Award-winner Marcus Gardley (The House That Will Not Stand, The Gospel of Lovingkindness) about the assassination of Malcolm X. Through the lens of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, X will put a spotlight on one of America's most complex, compelling historical figures and explore the tumultuous landscape of ideology and activism in the 1960s. These productions are currently in development for their world premieres in January 2017.

Co-created by Julian Crouch (Shockheaded Peter, New Vic 1999; Wolves in the Walls, New Vic 2007), Rinde Eckert (Orpheus X, Horizon, And God Created Great Whales) and Paola Prestini (Gilgamesh, Labyrinth Installation Concertos, The Hubble Cantata), Aging Magician (March 3-12, 2017) combines live music, theater, puppetry, instrument making and scenic design to tell the story of Harold, an aging clockmaker on his last adventure. In this epic new opera-theater work, music by Prestini will feature Eckert in the lead role alongside the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus led by founder and artistic director Dianne Berkun-Menaker. Design and direction is by Crouch with instrument design by Mark Stewart (Bang on a Can and Theatre for a New Audience's Midsummer Night's Dream and King Lear). Aging Magician made its world premiere in March 2016 at the Walker Art Center and was presented in workshop at MASS MoCA, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the 2015 PROTOTYPE Festival.

The NY Premiere of Chotto Desh (November 4 - 13, 2016), Akram Khan Company's first piece of dance theater for family audiences, uses contemporary dance, humorous text and an evocative score to create a visually compelling, cross-cultural story about the struggle of being "other." Chotto Desh, directed by Sue Buckmaster of Theatre Rites (Mojo, New Vic 2012; Mischief, New Vic 2011) is adapted from Khan's DESH (2014 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production, 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production).

Elephant & Piggie's We Are in a Play! (January 28 - February 5, 2017) is a musical adaptation of Mo Willems's best-selling Elephant & Piggie children's books. Produced by Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences on Tour, Elephant & Piggie's We Are in a Play! is written by six-time Emmy Award winner and Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal recipient Mo Willems with music by Deborah Wicks La Puma, who has been honored with a Jane Chambers Playwriting Award and the Robert M. Golden Award, among others.

For the holidays, Drama Desk-nominated Circus Der Sinne returns to NYC with the NY Premiere of Mother Africa: My Home (December 2, 2016 - January 1, 2017), a circus spectacular celebrating the enduring spirit found in Cape Town's largest township, Khayelitsha. Twenty-six acrobats, jugglers, dancers, contortionists and musicians from seven African nations will fill the New Victory stage with electrifying live music and feats of extraordinary strength and dazzling skill. Since 2006, Circus Der Sinne has toured Mother Africa's unique mix of modern circus arts and traditional African dance and music to over a dozen countries on five continents.

The New Vic opens its season with the first of six U.S. Premieres when Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (September 30 - October 10, 2016) takes the stage. Directed by Dora and Gemini Award-winner Rick Miller (MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus) and Kidoons creative director Craig Francis, this inventive reimagining of Jules Verne's classic science-fiction novel is brought to life with a mix of multimedia magic, eye-popping projections and interactive technology.

Remaining U.S. Premieres in the New Victory 2016-17 Season include:

Kenny Wax Family Entertainment & TC Beech's Mr. Popper's Penguins (October 14 - 30, 2016)

Richard and Florence Atwater's beloved tale comes to life with plenty of penguin puppets in this brand new musical adaptation by Pins and Needles Productions.

Théâtre du Phare's Oh Boy! (January 6 - 15, 2017)

Honest and heartrending, Oh Boy!, based on the book by Marie Aude-Murail, is a one-man tour de force exploring what it means to be a family when faced with some of life's most devastating moments.

Teater Refleksion & Branar Teatar's The Way Back Home (March 10 - 26, 2017)

Using intimate puppetry and original music, The Way Back Home is a charming puppetry adaptation of Oliver Jeffers' picture book about a young adventurer's trip to outer space.

Liberi Di... Physical Theatre's Something (March 31 - April 16, 2017)

Fusing circus, dance, physical theater and clowning, this troupe of seven skilled acrobats creates a singular, captivating performance that appears comically effortless.

Cahoots NI's Nivelli's War (April 28 - May 7, 2017)

Inspired by a true story, Nivelli's War is a vivid and moving theatrical account of an incredible journey and an unlikely friendship at the end of WWII.

The new season also features two World Premieres: Mons Dansa's Paper Dreams (November 11 - 20, 2016), a dance piece for little ones featuring lyrical movement and object theater to tell the stories left behind on scrap pieces of paper, and Jason Bishop: Straight Up Magic, a virtuosic performance of stunning and original magic by one of the only illusionists in the U.S. to tour the rare Double Levitation, just one of the show's many exclusive, grand illusions.

In addition to Chotto Desh, Mother Africa: My Home and both productions of Caesar/X, NY Premieres in the season include Plastic Boom's Water on Mars (February 10 - 26, 2017), a riotous performance of hypnotic juggling tricks and Windmill Theater Co's Grug and the Rainbow (May 13 - 21, 2017), an all-new show for little ones based on Ted Prior's celebrated series of picture books.

Theatergoers who buy tickets to three or more New Victory shows qualify for free Membership benefits, including locked-in discount ticket prices, free unlimited exchanges (up to 48 hours in advance) and access to a first-look purchase period for newly added performances.

Tickets are available online (NewVictory.org) and by telephone (646.223.3010). For summer box office window hours, please visit http://www.newvictory.org/boxoffice. Beginning September 6, The New Victory Theater box office window (209 West 42nd Street) will be open Sunday and Monday from 11am-5pm and Tuesday through Saturday from 12pm-7pm.

For shows at The New Victory Theater (except Mr. Popper's Penguins, Mother Africa: My Home and Elephant & Piggie's We Are in a Play!), full price tickets are $16, $19, $28 and $38 based on seat locations.

For Mother Africa: My Home, which runs throughout the holiday season, full price tickets are $20, $24, $33 and $55 based on seat locations.

Full price tickets for Mr. Popper's Penguins and Elephant & Piggie's We Are in a Play! are $25.

Full price tickets for Oh Boy! at The Duke on 42nd Street are $25.

Full price tickets for Paper Dreams, The Way Back Home and Grug and the Rainbow at the New 42nd Street Studios are $20.

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