Casting Announced for WHISPER HOUSE and THE COLLISION / THE MARTYRDOM

59E59 Theaters has announced the casts of Whisper House and The Collision / The Martyrdom. Whisper House, presented by The Civilians, will reopen Theater A and begin previews on January 11, 2022, with opening night set for January 20 for a limited run through February 6, 2022. Presented by Two Headed Rep, The Collision / The Martyrdom, two plays with the same cast, each presented as one act within the production, will reopen Theater C with previews beginning January 16, 2022, and opening night set for January 22 for a run through February 5, 2022.

The cast of Whisper House will include Samantha Mathis (Billions) as Lily, Alex Boniello (Spring Awakening) as Male Ghost, Jeb Brown (Beautiful) as The Sheriff, Wyatt Cirbus (Finding Neverland National Tour) as Christopher, Molly Hager (Waitress) as Female Ghost and James Yaegashi (Runaways) as Yasuhiro.

Whisper House features music and lyrics by Grammy and Tony Award winner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening, American Psycho), a book and lyrics by Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Kyle Jarrow (Spongebob Squarepants, The Broadway Musical; The Wildness), conception with Keith Powell ("30 Rock"), direction by Steve Cosson (Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play) and choreography by Billy Bustamante (The King and I).

Whisper House will feature wind orchestrations by Simon Hale (Spring Awakening, Tootsie), orchestrations by Sheik and Jason Hart (Spring Awakening), with additional musical arrangements and music direction by Wiley Deweese (Girl From The North Country). Scenic design is by Alexander Dodge (Anastasia), costume design is by Linda Cho (Anastasia), lighting design is by Jorge Arroyo (Professor of Lighting Design at Boston University) & Jeff Croiter (Freestyle Love Supreme), and sound design is by Ken Travis (Aladdin). Megan Dickert (Do You Feel Anger?) serves as Production Stage Manager, and Annie Wang (Today is My Birthday) is the Dramaturg.

A dark and thrilling musical ghost story, Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow's Whisper House combines a lush original score with a haunting story about fear of the other and the ways we can transcend it.

In an eerie lighthouse on the remote coast of Maine, two lonely people face the beginning of World War II. There's Yasuhiro-a Japanese immigrant threatened by the rising wartime xenophobia-and Lily, his employer, who's spent her whole life here. Their world is turned upside down when Lily's young nephew, Christopher, is sent to live with them. Soon, the boy begins to hear strange music seeping through the walls. Is his imagination getting the better of him? Or are there ghosts here and maybe dangerous ones at that? What happens next will change the lives of these three characters forever...

The original run of Whisper House at 59E59 was postponed by COVID-19 in March of 2020 and is finally making its New York premiere, having formerly performed in San Diego at The Old Globe and in London, England. The Civilians have previously presented work in tandem with 59E59 with The Undertaking in 2018 and (I am) Nobody's Lunch in 2005.

The performance schedule for Whisper House is as follows: Tuesday - Friday at 7:00pm, Saturday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00pm.

Tickets to Whisper House begin at $25 and are on sale now at 59e59.org/shows/show-detail/whisper-house-2022.

59E59 also announced today casting for The Collision / The Martyrdom, two plays with the same cast and each presented as one act within the production. The Collision / The Martyrdom are presented by Two Headed Rep.

The cast of The Collision / The Martyrdom will include Lizzie Fox (RETREAT), Halima Henderson (The Flea), Layla Khoshnoudi (TUMACHO) and Emma Ramos (House Plant).

The Collision / The Martyrdom will feature scenic design by Care McCrea (Bitter Greens), lighting design by Cheyenne Sykes (Agnes), costume design by Nicole Slaven (Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2), and original text by Hrotsvitha. Hanako Rodriguez (Don't Make Yourself Crazy) serves as Production Stage Manager.

The Collision / The Martyrdom are pieces performed in repertory while playing with key themes of old and new, rewritten narratives, the power of faith (both religious and secular), historical transformation of values and the corresponding alienation that process causes, individuals existing inside institutions, and the pitfalls and dangers of dogma. Hrotsvitha, the author of the original text, is widely regarded as the first known female playwright-her work rarely presented.

In The Collision, Sisters Anise, Gudrun, and Gunch spend their days praying, washing clothes, and copying the Bible. When a mysterious object falls from the sky-bringing death, destruction, and... unsettling changes in one of the sisters-they are forced to question: Was this God's work? Or the Devil's? And what happens when you can't tell the difference between a pervert and a prophet?

The Martyrdom asks: How do you solve a problem like Hrotsvitha? More specifically, how do we solve her 10th-century comedy about three Christian virgins who triumph over the Devil by accepting their violent, corporeal deaths as a shortcut to eternal happiness with their Celestial Bridegroom? This raucous adaptation is a road trip through the last millennium with the people (and puppets) who have asked themselves this same question in hopes that someone else might have the answer.

Together, these plays explore how we make meaning from the stories we inherit and how to make new meanings when old stories fail us.

The performance schedule for The Collision / The Martyrdom is as follows at 59E59's Theater C: Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm. Exceptions: there will be no performance on January 25 or February 1.

The Collision / The Martyrdom is recommended for audience members 12 years and older due to language and content.

Tickets to The Collision / The Martyrdom are $25 and are on sale now at 59e59.org/shows/show-detail/the-collision-the-martyrdom.