Cast & Creatives of HAMILTON, GREAT COMET, SWEAT, ANASTASIA and More Set for Drama League's 2017 UpClose Series

The Drama League has announced its 2017 UpClose and Rough Draft Series, to be held at The Drama League Theater Center (32 Avenue of the Americas) in Tribeca.

The UpClose Series will include intimate discussions with Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined, Intimate Apparel), Broadway director Kate Whoriskey (SWEAT, The Miracle Worker) and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Tony Gerber, Tony Award winner Terrence McNally (Anastasia, Master Class, Ragtime) and Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy (The Visit, After Midnight), Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (Indecent, How I Learned To Drive), new cast members of HAMILTON, including Javier Munoz, the cast of NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, and more!

To reserve seats for any of the events in the Spring 2017 series, visit dramaleague.org/events.

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2017 Spring UpClose Series:
All events held at the Drama League Theater Center, 32 Avenue of the Americas

Natasha, Pierre and Vodka, Neat!

A vodka tasting with the cast of "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812"

Monday, April 03, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

Premium Seating: $45

General Public: $30

League Members: $20

Join the cast of Broadway's hit success, Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet Of 1812, as they discuss theater, dancing, and vodka! Paired with a fun vodka tasting, members of the cast and artistic team will take you through the adventure of creating the newest Broadway sensation.

Finding Anastasia with Terrence McNally and Tom Kirdahy

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Premium Seating: $45

General Public: $30

League Members: $20

A conversation with the legendary playwright Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Visit, Ragtime) and producer Tom Kirdahy (It's Only A Play, Mothers and Sons) about their rapturous new Broadway musical, Anastasia.

Hamilton: The Next Generation with the cast of Hamilton

Monday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m.

Premium Seating: $45

General Public: $30

League Members: $20

Join cast members from Broadway's biggest hit Hamilton, as they discuss the continual growth of these iconic roles. With Javier Munoz (Alexander Hamilton), Seth Stewart (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson), and more!

SWEAT on Broadway: An evening with Lynn Nottage, Kate Whoriskey, and Tony Gerber

Moderated by Sharryn Kasmir

Monday, April 24, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.

Premium Seating: $35

General Public: $25

League Members: $15

Playwright Lynn Nottage, Director Kate Whoriskey, and noted filmmaker Tony Gerber talk about the creation of Broadway's powerful new play, SWEAT, as well as its sister event, The Reading Project. Go behind the scenes of this scorching new masterpiece, and discover how this team of artists have encountered the struggles of modern life in gripping and nuanced detail.

Dames Directing: Conversations with Broadway's Visionary Women

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Premium Seating: $45

General Public: $25

League Members: $20

Once exclusively the province of men, women have increasingly become many of Broadway's leading directors. The Drama League will unite many of the women visionaries who are the forces behind Broadway's stellar 2016-2017 season, including a few who've recently made their Broadway debuts. With Kathleen Marshall (Ever After, In Transit, Living on Love), Anne Kaufman (Marvin's Room, A Life, The Nether), Rebecca Taichmann (Indecent, Familiar, Marie Antoinette), and more.

Drama League 2017 Rough Draft Open Rehearsals:
All events held at the Drama League Theater Center, 32 Avenue of the Americas
All Rough Draft Tickets $5.00 | Rough Draft Season Pass $40.00

Artist in Residence: Adin Walker

Pin and the Blue Fairy

Written by noah kat baus

Directed by Adin Walker

March 24, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Pin* and the Blue Fairy is written by noah kat baus in collaboration with director/choreographer Adin Walker. The project was previously produced at Dixon Place with OUTLIERS Theatre Co. Pin* and the Blue Fairy is a new play based on Collodi's T"he Adventures of Pinocchio" that examines the wooden puppet's journey to become a proper boy through the eyes of a contemporary trans teenager named Blue. As Blue attempts to find their own path, they turn to Pin's tale, and their stories intertwine in a search for understanding, transformation, and personal truth.

Artist in Residence: John Hurley and Jennifer Jancuska

Johnny and the Devil's Box

Written by Douglas Waterbury-Tieman

Directed by John Hurley

Co-Directed and Choreographed by Jennifer Jancuska

April 10, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

There is powerful dramatic potential in the tangible excitement that folk music and dance awaken in an audience. Johnny and the Devil's Box focuses on a young fiddle player whose skill is so great he invokes the jealousy of Lucifer himself. Inspired by the myths of fiddlers' dealing with the Devil, the piece takes a hard look at the association between a virtuoso's egotism and hellish temptation. Told largely through American folk inspired music, the show is built to stir the audience's urge to get up and dance

Artist in Residence: Gregg Wiggans

Discouraging Stories for Lonely People

Book and Lyrics by Evan Enderle

Music by Avi Amon

Directed by Gregg Wiggans

April 21, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

By some magical means or fate, we are drawn to the middle of the woods on a dark fall night where a band of outcasts tells us of a gnat who falls in love with a beast, a boy's tongue that is lost in sap for a decade, of a milkmaid who learns to fly... These tales are warnings for the forlorn: Never tread in the deadly land of Love. These are Discouraging Stories for Lonely People.

Artist in Residence: Melinda Hall

Policarpa

Written by Diana Burbano

Directed by Melinda Hall

May 26, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

In a future Colombia controlled by the very wealthy, the brilliant, mad Ingrid Bolivar collects young women and turns them into weapons.

Artist in Residence: Lauren Z. Adleman

On Loss and Mice and Men

Writer Emily Zemba

Director Lauren Z. Adleman

July 17, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Relationships are hard. Mouse infestations are even harder.

Join Claire and Hugh as they balance both: expertly avoiding emotional baggage, navigating painful interactions with over-the-top exes, and concealing small furry corpses in strategic hiding places. But as the body count rises, Clare and Hugh struggle to ignore the secrets between them (that and the overpowering stench of rotting flesh). Is romance the greatest exterminator of them all? Or is this one infestation that won't be contained...

Artist in Residence: Sam Underwood

The Tragedy of Recognition

Written by Ben Holbrook

Directed by Sam Underwood

Fundamental Theater Project

July 31, 2017 at 7:0 p.m.

The Tragedy of Recognition is a modern-day Greek tragedy, which explores the politics of gender and sexuality within the context of the pursuit of Fame, and ultimately, the sacrifices that comes with. Adopting a Greek Theatre structure including Chorus "We The People", and incorporating a multitude of styles of verse, multimedia, movement and a fluid sense of time, Tragedy seeks to provide an intimate story with far reaching, universal implications. What is 'Celebrity' to us now?

Artist in Residence: Natalie Novacek

Margaret

Co-Created and Dramaturgy by Madilynn Garcia

Directed by Natalie Novacek

August 7, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Margaret is a creative editing of William Shakespeare's War of the Roses tetralogy (Henry VI, parts 1-3 and Richard III) that focuses on Margaret d'Anjou's journey from meek princess to fierce warrior, strategist, leader, and finally lone, mad women. This bold reframing of political history spanning three generations gives focus to the women who made great impact, but held little agency. Margaret provides thrilling opportunities for meaty female roles, new female narratives, and a strong feminist perspective using only Shakespeare's original text.

Artist in Residence: Alex Tobey

Baal

Co-Collaborators: Moss Madigan, Dan Giles and Alex Tobey

September 11, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Baal is a poet. Baal is a murderer. Baal has an insatiable appetite. Baal drinks too much. Baal likes a boy. Baal is afraid. Bertolt Brecht's first play, written when he was 20 years old, tells the story of a provocative and daring young artist trapped by his own ambitions, hungry for new experiences, and a never ending desire to conquer it all. And then he dies.

Resident Artist: Victoria Crutchfield

Pe(T)er

Scenic Design by Bryce Cutler

Lighting Design by Mary Ellen Stebbins

Sound Design by Eric Sluyter

Ensemble: Alison Cheeseman and Stewart Kramer

Directed by Victoria Crutchfield

October 13, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

Dreamer. Loser. Lover. Liar. Trader. Historian. Prophet. Troll.

Deep down, who is Peer Gynt? Is he somebody at all?

In this spare version of Ibsen's epic drama about a lost soul's fantastical quest to find himself, the ensemble works together to portray Peer (or is it Peter?) and the people he meets, invents, and becomes.

Resident Artist: Kareem Fahmy

The Triumphant

Co-Deviser, Composer David Dabbon

Co-Deviser, Performer Ahmad Maksoud

Co-Deviser, Director Kareem Fahmy

November 30, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.

The Triumphant is a new investigative theatre piece that tells the untold of gays and lesbians living in Egypt today. Devised by a collective of New York-based Egyptian-American theatre artists of various disciplines, the piece adapts an "interview theatre" model inspired by The Civilians to examine the lives, loves, challenges, and triumphs of being homosexual in one of the world's largest Muslim countries.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus