Ars Nova Announces 'Name Your Price' Tickets for 20th Anniversary Season

Ars Nova has announced details for its 20th Anniversary Season, which introduces the What's Ars Is Yours: Name Your Price ticket initiative. Audiences will be able to name their price for tickets to every performance all season long, including Ars Nova's two Off-Broadway productions at Ars Nova @ Greenwich House. This unprecedented ticket initiative, celebrating the theater's 20-year milestone, is rooted in Ars Nova's mission of making smart, surprising new work from New York City's most promising emerging artists accessible to the next generation of theater-goers, and is an expansion of the company's long-standing ticket subsidy program.

"We're celebrating our 20th Anniversary in a time of immense change," said Producing Executive Director Renee Blinkwolt. "We've all gone through so much in the last few years, and for most of us the ins and outs of our daily lives, and our priorities, have radically transformed. I'm so excited to throw our doors wide open and meet our community where they are and as they are! I hope Whats Ars Is Yours makes it as easy as possible for all New Yorkers to head out for a night with their friends and enjoy a show by one of New York City's most promising new voices because I believe the community and catharsis that is unique to live entertainment is exactly the healing and celebration of humanity that we all need right now"

Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan added, "More than any one artist or show over the past 20 years, I'm most proud of Ars Nova's charge to innovation and unwavering commitment to unknown artists with potential. Our efforts along with the unending goodwill of alumni, audiences, and supporters, have created an essential vanguard for propelling early career talent on both sides of the stage into professional lives in the arts. This year we take a moment to celebrate and keep going! I'm humbled by the success of the people who have passed through our doors, and grateful for all that will be built on these first 20 years of Ars Nova."

Ars Nova's 20th Anniversary Season begins at Ars Nova @ Greenwich House with HOUND DOG by Melis Aker, which is set to run October 6-November 5, 2022. In this Ars Nova commissioned world premiere, a young musician returns from abroad to her hometown of Ankara, Turkey to look after her widowed father. Forced to reckon with the family and community she left behind, an investigation into her grieving parent's strange pilgrimage to Graceland unravels into a sonic mirage of memory packed with humor, nostalgia, and the love we cultivate across generations. Directed by Machel Ross with music by Aker and the Lazours, this cross-cultural jam-session-meets-play explores the winding path towards forgiveness and belonging. HOUND DOG is co-produced with PlayCo. Name Your Price tickets to HOUND DOG are on sale now at arsnovanyc.com/hounddog.

Ars Nova's Off-Broadway season also includes (pray), a new choreopoem by nicHi douglas, which is set to run March 9-April 16, 2023, at Ars Nova @ Greenwich House. A congregation for those past, present, and future comes to power in (pray), a commissioned world premiere by Ars Nova. A celebration and a reckoning, (pray) dives into the beautifully complex relationship between Black womxn and their spirituality. Following the form of a Sunday Baptist Church service while transporting us to an isolated ancestral forest, this sacred offering creates a communal space to heal and inspire the Black feminine divine. Alchemized in collaboration with S T A R R Busby, JJJJJerome Ellis, and Tariq Al-Saber, (pray) interrogates and uplifts the tremendous value and weight of spiritual inheritance. (pray) is co-produced with National Black Theatre.

Meanwhile at Ars Nova, new shows will premiere weekly on-stage and online beginning in January, including the 16th annual All New Talent Festival, ANT Fest (June 2023), which will once again shine a spotlight on NYC's wildest and wackiest live performances from fresh talent taking their first swings. Ars Nova will also continue programming on Ars Nova Supra, with a mix of live broadcasts of in-person performances and original digital content available on-demand. For only $15 a month, audiences get unlimited access to Ars Nova's digital Supra library, featuring dozens of shows from this past season, and can livestream new shows all year long. With a Supra subscription, Ars Nova's stage is wherever you are. Learn more about Ars Nova Supra at arsnovanyc.com/supra.

In the Spring of 2023, Ars Nova will celebrate its 20th Anniversary at NOVA BALL, the not-for-profit's annual blowout bash for its community of artists, alumni, and supporters Monday, May 8, 2023. Full of surprises, this night of revelry raises crucial funds for Ars Nova's Fair Pay Initiative, dedicated to a living-not-minimum wage for Ars Nova's artists and arts workers. Details to be announced at a later date.

Beyond its in-house line-up, Ars Nova celebrates the Broadway debut of KPOP; originally conceived by Woodshed Collective & Jason Kim; book by Jason Kim; music, lyrics, music production, and arrangements by Helen Park; and music & lyrics by Max Vernon. KPOP premiered at Ars Nova in 2017 and begins performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre on October 13. Additionally, Rags Parkland Sings the Songs for the Future, by Andrew R. Butler and directed by Jordan Fein will return this season. It premiered at Ars Nova in 2018. Furthermore, audiences can sign up at oratorioforlivingthings.com to be the first to know what's next for last Spring's "profoundly strange & overwhelmingly beautiful" production of Heather Christian's Oratorio for Living Things, directed by Lee Sunday Evans.

More information about the 20th anniversary season at arsnovanyc.com.

About the HOUND DOG artists

Melis Aker is a writer, actor, and musician from Turkey, based between London and New York, and recently named a "Women to Watch" by the Broadway Women's Fund. She currently has a series in development with Skybound Entertainment, and the upcoming London premiere of musical play Hundred Feet Tall with Benjamin Scheuer and Jemima Williams, adapted from their eponymous children's book. She will also be voicing a role in a new audio series from the creators of "Archive 81." Melis is the recipient of the Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant and the New York Community Trust/Van Lier Fellowship. She has had writing commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theatre Company (Middle East Mixfest), Ars Nova (Play Group member), New York Theatre Workshop (2050 fellow), Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow), The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Goodspeed, New Group, Roundabout Space Jam, LaMaMa, the Lark, Noor, Golden Thread Productions, 24 Hour Plays, Magic Theatre and BRICLab in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in the U.K. Melis' screenplay ARI (Bee) was at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as part of Maison des Scenaristes, and her series pilot for MANAR was selected for the Orchard Project's Episodic Lab, and IFP week. She has also worked on the development of a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman. Her plays include: Hound Dog, Scraps and Things, Field, Awakening, Dragonflies, AZUL, When My Mama was a Hittite, Fractio Panis, Manar, 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter, Indigo Dreams, OPET Diaries, and Gilded Isle. She has taught at NYU, The New School, and King's College London. Education: King's College London (PhD), Columbia University (MFA), Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Acting), Tufts University (BA). Representation: CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

The Lazours: Daniel and Patrick Lazour are brothers and music theater writers. Their musical We Live in Cairo premiered at the American Repertory Theater in May 2019 directed by Taibi Magar. Their album Flap My Wings (Songs from We Live in Cairo) was recorded in quarantine and features the Lazours as well as major activist-songwriters from across the Arab world. Their new musical community project, Night Side Songs, about cancer treatment, patients and caretakers was workshopped at the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Theatre, Yaddo and is being developed with the American Repertory Theater and Harvard University. They are working with Ritesh Batra to adapt his film The Lunchbox for the stage, commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater. Their movie musical Challenger: An American Dream is about Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe and the Reagan White House; and they are developing a 60-minute song titled Romulus & Remus, or How We Came to Live in the Festering Wound of the West. Patrick and Daniel were 2015-16 Dramatists Guild Fellows, MacDowell Fellows and are New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspects. They were artists-in-residence at the American University in Cairo and are teaching artists at Lincoln Center Theater. @frereslazour

Machel Ross (she/her) is a Dominican American director and creative collaborator based in NYC, who specializes in the development of new work and aesthetic world building. Regardless of medium, she's invested in generating rigorous images, in support of framing stories to their fullest potential. She's developed work with Aziza Barnes (NANA), Agnes Borinsky (A Song of Songs), Daniella De Jesús (Mambo Sauce), Deaf West (T), PigPen Theatre Company (Phantom Folktales), Ellen Winter (This House Is your Home), and directed the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris' Black Exhibition at The Bushwick Starr, where she is now the Associate Artistic Director. Machel is a 2022 Lily Award winner, a 2020-2022 WP Directing Fellow, a 2020 Sundance Theater Lab fellow, and a 2019 grant recipient of the Women's Fund for Film, TV and Theatre for her short film Signs He Made at Home. BFA-NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater School.

About the (pray) artists

Tariq Al-Sabir is a composer, vocalist, music director and producer that has been described as a "boundless talent" by Baltimore's City Hall and The Examiner deemed him "a rising musical mastermind." In 2017, he premiered commissioned works at The Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, and Joe's Pub at The Public Theater. He collaborated with Kambui Olujimi and the Lone Wolf Recital Corps at MoMA in short film and live performance for the exhibition Projects 107: Lone Wolf Recital Corps. He nationally and internationally premiered the roles of Richard Moss and Travis Douglass in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower, an opera by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon. In 2018, he was selected to be a member of the inaugural SUITE/Space Artist residency with the legendary Mabou Mines Theater Company, where he conceived and presented a workshop version of his theatrical-multimedia song cycle #UNWANTED in their new theater at Performance Space 122. Al-Sabir served as music director for the Off-Broadway run of Black Light at The Public Theater and Greenwich House Theater. #UNWANTED premiered to the world at The Shed in NYC among the inaugural Open Call commissions. In Summer of 2019 Al-Sabir made his LA Philharmonic debut in the cast of Meredith Monk's, ATLAS under the direction of Yuval Sharon. He is currently collaborating with Monk on her new evening-length performance, Indra's Net. Tariq's awards include the 2006 Center Stage Young Playwrights Award for his musical, Another Man's Treasure, 2008 NIYC Gospelfest Awards, 2009 BSO "Oh Say Can you Sing" prize, 2011 NFAA YoungArts Finalist prize in both Classical and Popular voice and he is a 2015 recipient of the George Castelle Memorial Award in Voice. He has been featured as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Resonant Bodies Festival, Hilary Hahn's Tsunami Relief Concert, D.C. Jazz Festival, Anacostia Jazz Festival, and the Kennedy Center's Conservatory Project. He has shared stages and worked with artists such as Meredith Monk, Billy Ocean, Toshi Reagon, Meshell Ndegeocello, Barry Eastmond, Carl Hancock Rux, Andy Williams, Gladys Knight, Hilary Hahn, Sandi Patti, Rance Allen, and Maurette Brown Clark. www.tariqalsabir.com

S T A R R Busby (receives all pronouns said with respect) is a Black experimental artist who sings, acts, composes, educates, and is committed to the liberation of all people. Raised in the southern Black church and a graduate of Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) and Northwestern University, S T A R R 's creative expression carries vastly varied influences from South African hymns to Appalachian folk. S T A R R is also the lead singer of Brooklyn-based dance band, People's Champs (peopleschamps.com). S T A R R has also supported and collaborated with artists such as The Gorillaz, Esperanza Spalding, X Ambassadors, Kimbra, Alice Smith, and Quelle Chris. They are an Ars Nova 2020 - 2021 Vision Resident. Her April 2021 residency programming culminated with the release of her latest EP and accompanying film 9 C u p s i n t h e M o o N "...her otherworldly voice beautifully blurring the lines of R&B, avant-garde and the experimental that soothes and stuns" - Earl Douglas for Interrobang. 9 C u p s... is available via Bandcamp and all streaming services. S T A R R has also performed extensively in the New York theatre scene where they were awarded a 2020 Special Drama Desk Ensemble Award for their work in Octet at Signature Theatre. They also co-composed the music for the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's On Sugarland at NYTW. Other selected appearances include Moby Dick (American Repertory Theatre; Starbuck); Where Love Lies Fallow (The Shed; Nia 1); Apollo Cafe Live: Soul Cypher; #BlackGirlMagic Show (Jack; composer/performer); Mikrokosmos (Steirischer Herbst, Graz and Nottingham Contemporary); The Girl with the Incredible Feeling (Spoleto Festival dei due di Mondi) as well as various concerts and solo shows. S T A R R also enjoys working as an arts educator through Carnegie Hall and Long Island University where she is a member of the musical theatre voice faculty. starrbusby.onuniverse.com

nicHi douglas is a Brooklyn-based artist, educator, activist, and 2021 Princess Grace Award winner. you can refer to her/him/them/us using any pronoun said with Respect. we have developed original theater work at The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, New Victory, Lincoln Center, Long Wharf, Pig Iron, Denver Center, and Berkeley Rep, among others; our work is multigenerational, working with folx ages 2-82. they have created interactive dance exhibits for the National Museum of African-American Music and the New York Hall of Science. nicHi's mutual aid fund, nicHi's SuSu, launched in 2020 and has raised over $14K for Black artists. nicHi has been commissioned by Tony Award-winning scenic designer Mimi Lien & Itohan Edoloyi to develop an original piece of dance theater to be performed at Lincoln Center in Summer 2023. nicHi is a member of the Faculty Leadership Committee in the Playwrights Horizons studio at NYU Tisch Drama (Undergrad), where she teaches in the Movement Area and Advanced Training Project Track. nicHi also guest lectures at Yale School of Drama. stage credits: Girl From the North Country (Public Theater, Associate Choreographer), SKiNFoLK: An American Show (NYT Critic's Pick//The Bushwick Starr/National Black Theater, Choreographer), The Watering Hole (Signature Theatre, Choreographer) upcoming: Weightless (WP Theater, Choreographer), The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents ... (The Movement Theatre Company/New Georges, Choreographer) | www.mynameisnichi.com

JJJJJerome Ellis is an animal, stutterer, and artist. He was raised by Jamaican and Grenadian immigrants in Tidewater, VA, where he prays, gardens, and resides among the egrets and asters. Through music, literature, performance, and video he researches relationships among blackness, disabled speech, divinity, nature, sound, and time. He dreams of building a sonic bath house!

About Ars Nova

Ars Nova exists to discover, develop, and launch singular theater, music and comedy artists in the early stages of their professional careers. Our dynamic slate of programs supports outside-the-box thinking and encourages innovative, genre-bending new work. Dubbed by The New York Times as a "fertile incubator of offbeat theater," Ars Nova blurs genres and subverts the status quo. With our feverish bounty of programming, we are the stomping ground and launching pad for visionary, adventurous artists of all stripes. By providing a protective environment where risk-taking and collaboration are paramount, Ars Nova amplifies the voices of a new generation of diverse artists and audiences, pushing the boundaries of live entertainment by nurturing creative ideas into smart, surprising new work.

Ars Nova has been honored with an Obie Award and a Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics' Circle for sustained quality and commitment to the development and production of new work. Notable past productions include: three-time Lortel Award-winner Oratorio for Living Things by Heather Christian, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; "Outstanding Musical" Lortel Award-winner and The New York Times' "Best of 2018," Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future, created by Andrew R. Butler, directed by Jordan Fein; The Lucky Ones, created by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, directed by Anne Kauffman; "Outstanding Musical" Lortel Award-winner KPOP, created by Jason Kim, Max Vernon, Helen Park, and Woodshed Collective, directed by Teddy Bergman; "Best New American Theatre Work," Obie Award-winner, Underground Railroad Game by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard, directed by Taibi Magar ; The New York Times' and New York Post's "Best of 2015," Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl, directed by Rachel Chavkin; the Tony Award-winning smash-hit Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy, directed by Rachel Chavkin; the world premiere of the 2009 season's most-produced play boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, directed by Alex Timbers; the show that put Bridget Everett on the map, At Least It's Pink by Everett, Michael Patrick King, and Kenny Mellman, directed by King; and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail's first New York production, Freestyle Love Supreme by Anthony Veneziale and Miranda, directed by Thomas Kail (Broadway 2019). www.arsnovanyc.com