New York Stage and Film's Upcoming Season to Feature Works-In-Progress From Robert Aguirre-Sacasa, Itamar Moses and More

New York Stage and Film (Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director; Thomas Pearson, Executive Director, Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, Leslie Urdang, Producing Directors) and Vassar College (Ed Cheetham, Producing Director) have announced the line-up of their 2012 Powerhouse Theater season. The full season is as follows:

 

Mainstage (fully staged and designed works-in-progress)

In the Powerhouse Theater

 

Wednesday, June 27 – Sunday, July 8

ABIGAIL/1702

By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Directed by David Esbjornson

Ten years after the events of The Crucible, Abigail Williams is living under a new identity in Boston and haunted by her past.  When a mysterious figure appears, she confronts Salem’s dark history head on and must atone for her role in it.  Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (The Mystery Plays, Good Boys and True, Glee and Big Love) makes his Powerhouse debut with this suspenseful tale of a young woman’s quest for forgiveness.

 

Wednesday, July 18 – Sunday, July 29

THE POWER OF DUFF

By Stephen Belber

Directed by Peter DuBois

Charles Duff, a news anchor in a mid-market backwater, has an unexpected spiritual awakening on live TV.  His prayers, and their answers, change his audience, his family, and his own life forever. Stephen Belber (Tape, Match, Dusk Rings a Bell, Fault Lines) returns to the Powerhouse alongside Peter DuBois (Sons of the Prophet, Becky Shaw, Jack Goes Boating, All New People).

 

 

Martel Musical Workshops (concert readings of works-in-progress)

In the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film

Friday, June 29 – Sunday, July 1

THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

Book by Itamar Moses

Music & Lyrics by Michael Friedman

Based on the novel by Jonathan Lethem

Conceived and Directed by Daniel Aukin

Based on the best-selling novel, this is the story of black and white America in the 1970’s, of two boys, Dylan and Mingus, of impossibly joyful afternoons of games in the street and of living in a society that you don’t belong to. This is the story of prison and of college, of Brooklyn and Berkeley, of soul and rap, of murder and redemption. And this is the story of what would happen if two teens obsessed with comic book heroes actually ... maybe … had superpowers.

 

Friday, July 27 – Sunday, July 29

MURDER BALLAD 

By Julia Jordan & Juliana Nash

Directed by Trip Cullman

A love triangle gone wrong, Murder Ballad centers on Sara, an Upper West Side mom who seems to have it all, but whose downtown past lingers enticingly and dangerously in front of her. Created by composer Juliana Nash, front woman for the 90’s indie rock band Talking to Animals and award-winning playwright Julia Jordan (Tatjana in Color, Sarah, Plain and Tall), this sexy, explosive, new rock musical explores the complications of love, the compromises we make, and the small betrayals that can ultimately undo us.  

 

Inside Look Play Workshops (semi-staged workshops)

In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

 

Friday, July 13 – Sunday, July 15

FIRES ARE CONFUSING

By Eva Anderson, Will Berson & Zach Helm

Created by Teatro de Facto

From Los Angeles company Teatro de Facto, this highly theatrical piece combines dramatic invention and journalistic research to tell the real-life story of Cameron Todd Willingham. Scheduled for execution in the arson death of his children, Willingham awaits his fate while a scientist recreates his crime, casting shadows over Willingham’s conviction, and his community.

 

Friday, July 20 – Sunday, July 22

THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND

By Marcus Gardley

After the mysterious death of her lover, Beartrice Albans imposes a period of mourning on her household, keeping her three daughters locked in the house to embroider linens. But when the summer heat intensifies, a handsome bachelor comes calling, and a familial secret is revealed, the foundation of Beartrice’s house is rocked to its core. Set in New Orleans in 1836, this loose adaptation of Lorca’sThe House of Bernarda Alba examines the complex system of plaçage – common-law marriages of white men and black Creole women. These free women of color became wealthy and powerful activists who fought against racial oppression pre-Civil War.

 

 

Readings Festival: In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

 

Readings Festival 1: Friday, June 22 – Sunday, June 24

22 SECONDS by Michele Lowe

BIG SKY by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros

GOOD BREAD ALLEY by April Yvette Thompson

 

Readings Festival 2: Friday, July 27 – Sunday, July 29

A SEPARATE PEACE

by Warren Leight & Todd Almond

JEROME by Ron Lagomarsino

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAN by Nathan Englander

THE UNTITLED WORLD’S FAIR PLAY by The Debate Society

WHILE I YET LIVE by Billy Porter

 

Additional readings TBA

 

 

The Powerhouse Theater Apprentice Program Public Performances

 

Thursdays, July 5, 12, 19.

THE AFTER GALLERY

A “Soundpainted,” dance theater piece by Mark Lindberg, created for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center with members of the Apprentice Company

A seemingly random assortment of characters awake in an art gallery and begin a journey together that will take them beyond what can be known in this life.  The performance is created in part through the language of Soundpainting, the multidisciplinary sign language used for live composition, created by composer Walter Thompson.  Part of “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb”

 

Friday, July 6 – Monday, July 9

JULIUS CAESAR

By Julius Caesar

Directed by Drew Cortese

 

Friday, July 13 – Monday, July 16

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

by William Shakespeare

Directed by Brian McManamon

 

Friday, July 20 – Monday, July 23

MEDEA

By Euripides

Directed by Tomi Tsunoda

 

Special Presentation: Friday, July 20

BURNT UMBER

By Erik Ehn

Directed by Mia Rovegno

Burnt Umber bridges events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Rwanda and Bosnia and examines how moral carelessness and lack of empathy provide genocidal ideology with the requisite permissions. A part of Erik Ehn’s “Soulographie” play cycle, a durational performance event looking at 20th century America from the point of view of genocides in the United States (the Tulsa Race Riot), in East Africa (Rwanda and Uganda), and Central America (Guatemala and El Salvador).

 

 

Full casting for the season will be announced shortly.

 

Subscriptions to the 2012 Powerhouse Theater season are available online beginning Wednesday, May 16, with single tickets available online Friday, June 1: powerhouse.vassar.edu. The Powerhouse Theater box office on the Vassar College campus (124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY) opens Wednesday, June 6: (845) 437-5599 or PHTBoxOffice@vassar.edu.