Keen Company Unveils 25th Anniversary Season Featuring World Premiere Musical

The 25th Anniversary Season of Keen Company has been revealed. 
 
Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein says “I am thrilled to announce this special season which celebrates the joys of connection through intimate musicals. The season will begin this October with our 25th Anniversary Gala honoring industry legend Marcia Pendelton, who we have had the pleasure to work with for the past several seasons. In November we will revisit Stephen Sondheim’s Marry Me A Little, the first musical Keen ever produced in 2012. Keen’s original cast members Lauren Molina and Jason Tam will be joined by several guest stars, who will explore the joys and pains of love through Sondheim’s signature style. In March, Keen will debut its first ever commissioned full length world-premiere musical, All the World’s a Stage by Adam Gwon, a timely musical about the challenges of showing up as one’s authentic self. It has long been my dream to premiere a new, intimate musical at Keen—and specifically one by Adam, who I loved working with on our production of Ordinary Days in 2018—and so it is especially meaningful that this will be the last show I will direct as Artistic Director before I depart my tenure in June 2025.  Finally, in May we will return with the Keen Teens Festival of New Work, now in its 19th year, with three thrilling plays grounded in Keen’s mission of identity. This will be a momentous and exciting year, as we mark a quarter century of bringing keen work to the New York stage!”

25th Anniversary Gala Honoring Marcia Pendelton
 

Monday, October 7th, 2024
Manhattan Penthouse
80 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10011
Cocktails from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Diner and Entertainment from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
 
Audiences are invited to a keen celebration with backstage stories, show-stopping performances, a sit-down dinner, open bar, and thrilling auction wins.
 
Marcia Pendelton has collaborated with Keen Company since 2019 working on shows such as Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage, Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, and Fish by Kia Corthron. Marcia is the founder of Walk Tall Girl Productions, a boutique marketing, audience development, and group sales agency for the performing arts. WTGP has worked to bring new audiences to productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and beyond, ensuring the arts are available to the widest possible audience. You might also recognize Marcia’s voice as the host of the popular radio show and podcast “Backstage Stories”, heard weekly on WBAI New York.
 
Gala contributions underwrite Keen Company’s 25th Anniversary Season, including intimate Off-Broadway productions, resources for mid-career writers, a showcase for emerging directors, and a free theater mentorship program for students in all five boroughs of NYC.
 
Get tickets, celebrate Keen’s 25Th Anniversary with a special gift, make a contribution in Marcia Pendelton’s honor, browse the auction, and more at www.keencompany.org/gala25.
 

Benefit Concert of Marry Me a Little
 

Marry Me a Little
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Conceived and developed by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Starring Lauren Molina, Jason Tam, and more to be announced.
 
Monday, November 18th at 7:00 PM
 
Peter Norton Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
New York, NY 10025
 
Join Keen Company for a starry, one-night-only benefit concert of Stephen Sondheim’s Marry Me A Little about the bumpy road to finding love.
 
Keen’s reunion celebration will bring back the revised material from its 2012 Drama League nominated production and will feature its original stars Lauren Molina and Jason Tam. Joining the original cast will be additional stars breathing new life into the musical’s rarely performed Sondheim’s songs.
 
Two single strangers, left alone in their studio apartments on a Saturday night, pass their time with sweetly secret, shared fantasies, never knowing that they’re just a floor away from each other and the end of their lonely dreams. This charming and poignant musical features Sondheim trunk songs cut from productions of Company, A Little Night Music, Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, as well as rarely performed songs from the TV show “Evening Primrose” and a never completed film version of Into the Woods among others.
 
Standard tickets start at just $50.00 and are available now at www.keencompany.org/marrymealittle.
 

 World Premiere New Musical by Adam Gwon

 
All the World’s a Stage
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Adam Gwon
Directed by Jonathan Silverstein
Produced in association with Michelle Noh
 
Casting and creative team to be announced.
 
March 25th through May 10th, 2025
Theatre Five in Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
 
Keen Company is proud to announce the world-premiere of a new musical by Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, Scotland PA) about being true to yourself in a polarized world.
 
All the World’s a Stage is a funny and heart-wrenching new musical centered around a small-town math teacher who reluctantly agrees to coach a misfit student for the 1996 State Thespian Competition. Enter the teacher’s outspoken new boyfriend and the devout school secretary, and he soon has trouble navigating his carefully compartmentalized life.
 
The musical is the culmination of a three-year commission and development process between Keen Company Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein and composer Adam Gwon. The team previously collaborated on Keen Company’s first New York revival of Gwon’s Ordinary Days which was nominated for the 2019 Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical.
 
Show Schedule:
Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM
Added Wednesday matinee May 7th at 2:00 PM
 
Accessible Performances:
Tuesday April 22: Audio Described Performance
Tuesday April 29: ASL Interpreted Performance
 
In honor of the 25th Anniversary season, all tickets on March 25, 2025, and April 25th, 2025, are just $25.00 no code needed. Standard tickets start at $70.00 and are available now at www.keencompany.org/alltheworldsastage.
 

 Keen Teens Festival of New Work

Keen Teens Festival of New Work 2025
Keen Teens Education Director: Carrie Ellman-Larsen
Keen Teens Producing Director: Vernice Miller
 
Featuring world premiere one-acts by Kyle Bass, Alyssa Haddad-Chin, and Amy E. Witting.
Starring an all-star cast of New York City high schoolers!
 
Creative team to be announced.
 
May 16th through 18th, 2025
Theatre Five in Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
New York, New York 10036
 
The Keen Teens program will continue with the 19th Keen Teens Festival of New York taking place in May 2025. Keen Teens was created to address the need for high quality educational theater and to mentor NYC students in an Off-Broadway new play process. Each year Keen Teens commissions three one-act pieces written by professional playwrights. Keen Company is the only professional theater company actively creating new work for high school students. Once plays are commissioned, Keen Teens auditions a diverse group of students from all five boroughs and selects 30-40 to participate in a free new play development process, rehearsing outside of school for 12 weeks, and culminating in the Keen Teens Festival of New Work Off-Broadway at Theatre Row. Productions are directed, designed, and staged managed by theater professionals, providing students with a unique mentoring opportunity. Since its launch in 2017, Keen Teens has served over 600 NYC teens and commissioned over 55 new plays which are currently being performed around the world.
 
ASL Interpreted Performance on Saturday May 17th at 2pm.
 
All tickets are just $20.00 and available at www.keencompany.org/keenteens2025.
 

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