Suzan-Lori Parks, Twyla Tharp, Michael Cerveris & More Set for Little Island 2024 Summer Season

Little Island's annual, four-month-long summer season of world premieres, kicking off June 1, will feature a total of nine newly commissioned pieces. Little Island’s new arts program moves towards the future with a commitment to a multi-year roster of original work, all commissioned by and developed at Little Island. Bookended by the premiere of legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp’s newest full-length piece, titled How Long Blues, and a 90-minute remix of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in which outré opera diva Anthony Roth Costanzo sings every leading role, the season will offer premieres of varying scales across all areas of performance – including music, dance, theater, opera, comedy, jazz, pop, and funk, all outdoors and directly sited on the Hudson River at 14th Street in New York City. The Amph, the park’s 700-seat amphitheater, will house larger scale performances at a $25 ticket price, while The Glade, the park’s 200-seat venue, will be home to more intimate works, all of which will be completely free to the public.

In addition to Ms. Tharp’s newest work, which marks her 60th year making dances and is a
collaboration with T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield, the season will include: Robeson, a new work created and performed by star bass baritone Davóne Tines, co-created and directed by Zack Winokur, about events in the life of Paul Robeson; Open Throat by Henry Hoke, a theatrical experience based on the novella of the same name about a queer mountain lion living beneath the Hollywood sign, directed by Caitlin Ryan O’Connell; Day For Night, a dance by choreographer Pam Tanowitz that takes place before and after sunset and uses the cityscape as its score; Mama, an evening of all-new music about, and performed on, the water, written by Britton Smith, who performs alongside his funk liberation band, Britton & The Sting, with direction and choreography by Ebony Williams; The Oyster Radio Hour, a live three-act radio show combining science, story and song with special guest appearances to tell the captivating story of oysters in the Hudson River – a collaboration between RR Sigel, podcast producer Ana González and composer Angélica Negrón and Mark Sonnenblick, in partnership with Yo-Yo Ma’s Our Common Nature project; The Summer Legacy Ball, led by the stage and film costume designer and activist Qween Jean, and directed by a consortium of emerging young producers from across New York City; and The Manhattan Variations, a musical memoir that revolves around the legendary Lower East Side cocktail bar Milk and Honey, performed by the virtuoso
mandolinist and acclaimed composer, Chris Thile, created by Thile and Claire Coffee. The
season concludes with a 90-minute radically re-imagined adaptation of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Dustin Wills, with new arrangements by Dan Schlosberg, and costumes by Emily Bode, in which star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo sings every leading role.

In addition to Ms. Tharp’s newest work, which marks her 60th year making dances and is a collaboration with T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield, the season will include: Robeson, a new work created and performed by star bass baritone Davóne Tines, co-created and directed by Zack Winokur, about events in the life of Paul Robeson; Open Throat by Henry Hoke, a theatrical experience based on the novella of the same name about a queer mountain lion living beneath the Hollywood sign, directed by Caitlin Ryan O’Connell; Day For Night, a dance by
choreographer Pam Tanowitz that takes place before and after sunset and uses the cityscape as its score; Mama, an evening of all-new music about, and performed on, the water, written
by Britton Smith, who performs alongside his funk liberation band, Britton & The Sting, with direction and choreography by Ebony Williams; The Oyster Radio Hour, a live three-act radio show combining science, story and song with special guest appearances to tell the captivating story of oysters in the Hudson River – a collaboration between RR Sigel, podcast producer Ana González and composer Angélica Negrón and Mark Sonnenblick, in partnership with Yo-Yo Ma’s Our Common Nature project; The Summer Legacy Ball, led by the stage and film costume designer and activist Qween Jean, and directed by a consortium of emerging young producers from across New York City; and The Manhattan Variations, a musical memoir that revolves around the legendary Lower East Side cocktail bar Milk and Honey, performed by the virtuoso mandolinist and acclaimed composer, Chris Thile, created by Thile and Claire Coffee. The season concludes with a 90-minute radically re-imagined adaptation of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Dustin Wills, with new arrangements by Dan Schlosberg, and costumes by Emily Bode, in which star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo sings every leading role.

In July and August, The Glade will be home to a completely free-to-the-public performance series, in which a committee of New York cultural vanguards will each program one week of public events (to be announced shortly). The curators include Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright, Suzan-Lori Parks, Grammy Award-winning artist Cécile McLorin Salvant, cabaret legend Justin Vivian Bond, comedy world sensation Morgan Jay, New Amsterdam Market founder and culinary world figure Robert LaValva, experimental musician, singer, and songwriter Gio Escobar and Standing on the Corner, and linguist Ross Perlin and the Endangered Language Alliance.

In a statement, Barry Diller, founder of Little Island said, “For the past three years, it’s been extraordinarily gratifying to see New Yorkers embrace Little Island – whether for a few moments, a few hours, an entire afternoon, or late into the evening. Now, with this inaugural slate of entirely original programming, we fulfill the initial intention and vision for the park. Little Island was incepted with the goal of becoming a permanent hub of cultural activity, excitement, and entertainment, constantly building and creating new work for the City to enjoy. There is going to be something great to see – all throughout the park – every night, all summer long.”

Mr. Diller also announced that Zack Winokur has been named Little Island’s Producing Artistic Director.

“We are planning, season by season, to offer the people of New York City a nightly party with great art, great food and drinks, great sunsets, and great views,” said Mr. Winokur. “By opening with a new dance, closing with a reimagined opera, and filling the intervening weeks with works of all different disciplines and scales, we are offering audiences an astonishingly broad array of work in a relatively condensed amount of time. We are embracing a world premiere and commissioning model, which we believe will create remarkable opportunities, not just for the artists involved, but for the audiences who will experience work being made expressly for New Yorkers in a space unlike any other. We are not only presenting these projects but also focusing on their development processes on a bespoke level, built around every show and every idea. Our commitment to commissioning and producing these new works will extend long past the final performances on Little Island and will continue throughout the long life of each project.”

About Mr. Winokur, Mr. Diller said, “Zack is a prodigiously talented leader with a shrewd and encompassing vision for the park and its programming. The way he’s been able to rally these participating artists has been a terrifically impressive demonstration of collaborative leadership. It’s a true fulfillment of the conception of our plan for Little Island and it creates, finally, the opportunity for the park to be a fully imagined destination – as both a park and performance space in equal measure.”

In June and September, The Glade will be New York’s newest outdoor cocktail lounge, complete with a bar designed by Green River Project and a menu of beer, wine, cocktails and mocktails that can be consumed in The Glade or enjoyed anywhere on Little Island. This will be just one of the multiple food and beverage venues in the park, throughout the summer.

To reinforce Little Island's ongoing commitment to artists and audiences, the 2025 season (which will be announced fully at a later date) will be replete with an entire month of dance, a new re- examination of the music theater canon and eight other world premieres. While the 2024 season is currently in motion, workshops and development are also well underway for next year. That season will include a world premiere collaboration between dance world sensation Bobbi Jene Smith and Ringdown; Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s new project with Danni Lee: a musical exploration of the life of disco superstar Sylvester written and conceived by Pulitzer Prize- winner Hilton Als; a new musical from Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominated Whitney White and director Taibi Magar; a new play from emerging writer Jacob Wasson; an adaptation of
Ben Shattuck’s Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Sam Amidon and Amy Berryman; a commission from MacArthur Fellow Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born of Sweat Variant; and a reimagining of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes conceived and arranged by Chris Thile.

Tickets to Little Island's summer season of performances are available for purchase on littleislandtickets.comhttp://littleislandtickets.com, TodayTix.com, or by downloading the TodayTix app.