Joe Iconis, Rob Rokicki, Sarah Beth Pfeifer and More Set for New York Theatre Barn's January 2021 Virtual Programming
Each installment of the live 1-hour series includes excerpts from two new musicals and a conversation with the writers and creative team.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 29, 2020
New York Theatre Barn will continue to host bi-monthly free live streams of its New Works Series on select Wednesday evenings at 7PM ET. Available on New York Theatre Barn's YouTube channel and Broadway on Demand, each installment of the live 1-hour series includes excerpts from two new musicals and a conversation with the writers and creative team.
January 6, 2021 @ 7PM ET
Our New Town
Book & Lyrics by Gabriel Jason Dean (Heartland) and Jessie Dean
Music and Additional Lyrics by David Dabbon (Beetlejuice)
Directed by Theresa McCarthy (Titanic, Queen of The Mist, First Daughters Suite)
Featuring Howard Sherman (Writer of Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century)
Developed with The Civilians R&D Group
Featuring performances by Gabriel Argate, Lila Cooper, Travis Harley, Madeline Kendall, Elise Killian, Julie Manning, Emily Moreno, Benjamin Sellers, Miles Wilke and William Wallace
In the aftermath of the deadliest shooting on a college campus in US history, surviving cast members of Thornton Wilder's Our Town put together an unauthorized show as a way to reclaim their theatre space and heal their broken community. But when the event is stopped mid-performance, the cast and audience must decide between compliance or defiance. Our New Town is an immersive musical that puts the audience at the center of an American crisis.
Elektric
Book by Emerson Mae Smith (Love In Hate Nation)
Music and Lyrics by Murphy Taylor Smith
Featuring performances by Murphy Taylor Smith
A pair of twins, one cisgender, one transgender, are reunited after a decade by a Gods-sent mission: murder their mother to avenge their father. They are dual heirs to the throne of Argos, a small militaristic city-state under the complete control of their mother, Klytemnestra. Elektra, who's dealt with her mother's violent transphobia for years, is ready to kill. Orestes, returning home in secret from his studies abroad, is not so sure. Argos is crumbling at the end of a years-long war and the streets hum with violence and talk of prophets. Brimming with revolutionary fervor, Elektric is a radical, trans woman-centered retelling of the Oresteia.
January 20, 2021 @ 7PM ET
Love In Hate Nation
Book, Music and Lyrics by Joe Iconis (Be More Chill, Broadway Bounty Hunter)
Featuring performances by Sydney Farley, Amina Faye, Jasmine Forsberg (Broadway Bounty Hunter), Lauren Marcus (Be More Chill), Kelly McIntyre (A Night with Janis Joplin), Lena Skeele, Emerson Mae Smith and Tatiana Wechsler (Benny & Joon, Oklahoma!)
Set in a 1960s Juvie Hall, Love in Hate Nation tells the story of young people caught between eras of a changing America. Sixteen-year old Susannah Son is carted off to the National Reformatory for Girls to get her head put on straight. There she meets the aggressively incorrigible Sheila Nail, and a relationship forms which leads to an all-out "revolution in the institution" as they attempt to break out of the boxes society has created around them. Girl Group Wall of Sound harmonies are filtered through a punk rock spirit in this rebellious and romantic new musical.
Experience Marianas
Book by Rob Rokicki (The Lightning Thief, Monstersongs) and Sarah Beth Pfeifer (The Lightning Thief)
Music and Lyrics by Rob Rokicki
Featuring performances by Rob Rokicki and Sarah Beth Pfeifer
Experience Marianas is a wild sapphic rock musical adventure about one woman's journey to escape an oceanic cult. The piece is a high-octane, darkly comedic examination of systems of control and how we struggle to define our identities within them. Set aboard a ship, the show immerses our audience into the Marianas Institute, an aquatic 'healing center' founded by Dr. Davis "Daddy" Johnson. We are indoctrinated into the group in real-time. "Informational sessions" start off completely plausible but get progressively wilder and more fantastical, complete with pyramid schemes, sex rituals, sea monsters, and eventually murder.
The New Works Series is produced and hosted by Jen Sandler and Joe Barros. Since March, the company has presented 33 virtual installments of its New Works Series (among other programming), has presented 70 new musicals, and lifted up the work of 114 writers and over 300 artists. For more information, visit New York Theatre Barn's website: www.nytheatrebarn.org.
Videos