Dark Nights at New Group Hosts Ethan Hawke, Jonathan Marc Sherman 2/5

Next up in its continuing series Dark Nights, The New Group presents Re-imagining Baal on Sunday, February 5 at 4:00pm. Reservations required at seats@thenewgroup.org (space is limited). Suggested donation: $20.

Free for New Group subscribers.

In Re-imagining Baal, Ethan Hawke and playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman discuss their approach to creating a new version of Brecht’s famously controversial play Baal with Hunter College Professor of Theatre Jonathan Kalb. This one-night-only event examines the history of Brecht adaptations and what adapting meant to Brecht, as well as Brecht's relationship to music. Interwoven in the conversation will be readings from Baal and passages and songs featured in Clive, Sherman's new play inspired by Baal. The evening includes musical performances by Hawke and guests. Q&A follows the discussion.

Ethan Hawke appeared in last season’s Blood From A Stone at The New Group, for which he was honored with an OBIE Award for his performance. With the company, he also directed the acclaimed revival of Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind (Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Play) and Jonathan Marc Sherman’s Things We Want, and played Eddie in Hurlyburly. Hawke appeared in Lincoln Center’s Tony Award-winning productions of Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia (Tony® nomination) and Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Other Broadway: Chekhov’s The Seagull. Off-Broadway: The Winter’s Tale, Cherry Orchard, Sophistry, The Late Henry Moss, Casanova. Regional: Buried Child (Steppenwolf), Camino Real (Williamstown). He was Artistic Director of The Malaparte Theater Company. Films: Dead Poets Society, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Gattaca, Training Day, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Daybreakers, among others. Hawke has also directed two films and written two novels. He has been nominated for an Academy Award as both an actor and a writer.

Jonathan Marc Sherman’s plays include Things We Want (premiered at The New Group in 2007), Knickerbocker, Sophistry, Evolution, Sons & Fathers, Jesus on the Oil Tank, Serendipity & Serenity, Wonderful Time, Veins & Thumbtacks (the basis for the movie The Jimmy Show) and Women & Wallace (which he adapted for American Playhouse). He co-founded the Malaparte Theatre Company.

Jonathan Kalb is Professor of Theatre at Hunter College, CUNY, and Literary Advisor and Resident Artist at Theatre for a New Audience. He has published five books on theater, including studies of Samuel Beckett and Heiner Müller. His new book Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater was published in October by University of Michigan Press.

Dark Nights at The New Group is a series of cultural conversations and readings designed to create a dialogue between artists and audience. Dark Nights generally coincide with mainstage productions at The New Group, creating a forum for public conversation and enhancing the cultural landscape. These events have featured, most recently, Scott Elliott, Lisa Emery, Mamie Gummer, Josh Hamilton and Wallace Shawn in Hamlet at Home, and previously, Thomas Bradshaw and Todd Solondz, as well as luminaries such as F. Murray Abraham, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Eric Bogosian, Zoe Caldwell, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, Martha Plimpton and Hal Prince. Dark Nights at The New Group collaborated with the 92nd Street Y for an event featuring Matthew Broderick and Kenneth Lonergan (The Starry Messenger), moderated by Leonard Lopate. Topics have ranged from gay adoption (in an event hosted by Rosie O’Donnell timed to The Kid) to an evening highlighting Sam Shepard’s work (led by Ethan Hawke with music by the composers from A Lie of the Mind), to a panel on documentary theatre (featuring Marc Wolf performing Another American, his OBIE-winning play first produced at The New Group ten years ago).

The New Group is currently represented Off-Broadway by Erika Sheffer’s Russian Transport. Directed by Scott Elliott, this world premiere production features Janeane Garofalo, Daniel Oreskes, Morgan Spector, Sarah Steele and Raviv Ullman. Tickets for Russian Transport may be arranged at www.telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12–8 PM daily). Tickets are $60.00 plus $1.25 restoration fee.
For more, please visit www.thenewgroup.org.

The New Group, led by founding Artistic Director Scott Elliott and Executive Director Geoff Rich, is an award-winning company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. In 15 seasons, The New Group has been honored with 9 Obie Awards, 28 Drama Desk nominations, 6 Lucille Lortel Awards and 3 Tony® Awards. The New Group was founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Scott Elliott as a place for artists to experiment, take risks and collaborate in an artist-driven environment. Notable productions include Ecstasy, This is Our Youth, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Hurlyburly, Abigail's Party, Rafta, Rafta..., The Starry Messenger, A Lie of the Mind, The Kid, Blood From A Stone, Marie and Bruce and many more. The New Group's first musical, Avenue Q, won three Tony Awards. Most recently, The New Group and Scott Elliott were honored with a 2010-2011 Drama Desk Special Award “for presenting contemporary new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions.”

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski