Vineyard Theatre Announces 2021-2022 Season, Featuring Work by David Cale, Lucas Hnath and More

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern have announced the company's upcoming 2021-2022 Season which includes Broadway, virtual and a return to Vineyard Theatre's home in Union Square at 108 East 15th Street with two world premiere productions and more.

Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern said: "We are overjoyed at the prospect of welcoming artists and audiences back to our theatre -- as well as to the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. Two beloved and acclaimed shows from our recent history, Lucas Hnath's Dana H. and Tina Satter's Is This A Room, will run in rep on Broadway in an innovative model, giving audiences a new chance to experience their originality and power. On 15th Street, we will launch daring new works by 2019 playwright-in-residence Charly Evon Simpson, award-winning playwright David Cale, and artist-in-residence Tyler Thomas, and share the five exciting works from our "mini-commission" program. We are also thrilled to see the original stars of The Vineyard's premiere production of Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive reunite with director Mark Brokaw for the show's Broadway premiere, 25 years later. It will be a truly robust season both back in our theatre and on Broadway, a celebration of gathering together and of the power of what live theatre can be and do."

Current artists for the season include Ngozi Anyanwu, David Cale, Kirsten Childs,
Emily Davis, Lucas Hnath, Alfonso Johnson, Matthew Dean Marsh, Jared Mezzocchi, Deirdre O'Connell, Polly Pen, Tina Satter, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Charly Evon Simpson, Awoye Timpo, Tyler Thomas, Les Waters, and Summer L. Williams.

This fall, the Vineyard Theatre production of Is This A Room, conceived and directed by Obie Award winner Tina Satter; and the Center Theatre Group, Goodman Theatre and Vineyard Theatre production of Dana H., by Obie Award winner Lucas Hnath and directed by Obie Award winner Les Waters, will come to Broadway's Lyceum Theatre (149 W 45th Street, New York, NY), playing on a rotating schedule. The two plays were presented in succession as part of Vineyard Theatre's 2019-2020 season. Is This A Room & Dana H. will be produced on Broadway by Dori Berinstein, Sally Horchow and Matt Ross.

In the winter of 2022, The Vineyard returns to its home in Union Square with the world premiere of Charly Evon Simpson's sandblasted, directed by Summer L. Williams who is making her New York directorial debut. sandblasted is a co-production with WP Theater, the first in a two-show collaboration between the companies.

Obie Award-winning playwright David Cale returns to Vineyard Theatre in the spring of 2022 with the world premiere of Sandra, directed by Obie Award winner Leigh Silverman. This one-woman thriller reunites the Harry Clarke playwright and director and also features an original piano score by Matthew Dean Marsh.

Additional offerings this season include part two of the critically acclaimed Lessons In Survival, in front of a live audience, created with and performed by The Commissary and directed by Tyler Thomas; and commissioned works from Vineyard favorites Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen, and Madeline Sayet.

The Vineyard's Original Cast Benefit Reading Series will continue this season with a special virtual benefit reading of Nicky Silver's The Lyons, ten years after it premiered at The Vineyard. The reading will reunite director Mark Brokaw with original cast members Linda Lavin, who received a Tony Award nomination for her performance, Michael Esper, Katherine Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley, Gregory Wooddell and will feature Richard Schiff in the role originated by the late Dick Latessa.

Membership info:

Vineyard Theatre 2021-2022 Season Memberships are currently on sale. Members have access to the best seats at the best prices to all Vineyard Theatre productions, including on Broadway, plus special access to The Vineyard's mini commission projects, Lessons in Survival, Part 2, in-person readings, special events, and more.

2021-2022 Vineyard Members will also have early access to purchase tickets to Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive on Broadway this spring. Having premiered at The Vineyard 25 years ago, the Broadway production this spring reunites original cast members Mary-Louise Parker, David Morse and Johanna Day with director Mark Brokaw.

To purchase a Vineyard Membership and for additional information regarding packages please visit HERE (https://www.vineyardtheatre.org/tickets/become-a-member/overview/) or the box office can be reached by phone Monday - Friday 1:00-6:00pm at 212-353-0303.

Vineyard Theatre 2020-21 Season

Is This A Room and Dana H. will play in repertory this fall at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre.

Previews for Is This A Room begin September 24, 2021, with an opening night scheduled for October 11, 2021. Previews for Dana H. begin October 1, 2021, with an opening night scheduled for October 17, 2021. The two productions will play alternating performances for a 17-week engagement through January 16, 2022.

Is This A Room

Conceived & Directed by Tina Satter
Starring Emily Davis
Broadway Premiere of The Vineyard production
Previews begin on Broadway at Lyceum Theatre September 24, 2021
Opening October 1, 2021

Is This A Room is the astonishingly true story of Reality Winner, the 25-year-old former Air Force linguist who was surprised at her home by the FBI on June 3, 2017. The play's text is taken from the FBI transcript of her interrogation - and from these pages, Tina Satter has wrought an extraordinary human drama between Reality (Emily Davis) and the agents who question her. In this theatrical thriller, Reality's life is upended before our eyes, and we're left questioning American values and the very nature of the truth.

Emily Davis will make her Broadway debut, reprising her award-winning role of Reality Winner, in a performance that Time Out New York described as one "of heart-wrenching rawness and lucidity."

Additional casting and the full design team for Is This A Room will be announced shortly.

Dana H.

By Lucas Hnath
Adapted from interviews with
Dana Higginbotham Conducted By Steve Cosson
Starring Deirdre O'Connell
Directed By Les Waters
Broadway Premiere of The Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group and Vineyard Theatre Production
Previews begin on Broadway at Lyceum Theatre October 1, 2021
Opening October 17, 2021

Dana H. tells the harrowing true story of a woman held captive in a series of Florida motels for five months. Told in Dana's own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son, playwright Lucas Hnath, this groundbreaking work shatters the boundaries of the art form and challenges our understanding of good and evil.

Deirdre O'Connell will return to Broadway in Dana H., reprising her Obie award-winning performance that was hailed as "astounding" (The Wrap), "astonishing" (Time Out New York) and "truly mesmerizing" (The Daily Beast).

Dana H. is by Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Lucas Hnath (A Doll's House, Part 2; The Christians), adapted from interviews with Dana Higginbotham, conducted by Steve Cosson, and directed by Les Waters (In the Next Room, or the vibrator play). The full design team for DANA H. will be announced shortly.

sandblasted

By Charly Evon Simpson
Directed by Summer L. Williams
World Premiere
A co-production with WP Theatre
February 3 - March 13 2022 - at Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street)

Angela and Odessa are on a sandy search for something that might not be real but they are determined to make a way out of no way. When they stumble upon ADAH, that's right THE Celebrity-turned-Wellness-Maven Adah, they decide to follow her lead not knowing that the journey could very well be the cure. sandblasted is a deeply stirring, funny, theatrically daring story of waiting and hoping, time and healing, from the recipient of The Vineyard's 2019 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Charly Evon Simpson (Behind the Sheet), directed by Elliot Norton Award-winning director Summer L. Williams in her New York Debut.

Sandra

By David Cale
Music by Matthew Dean Marsh
Directed by Leigh Silverman
World Premiere
Spring 2022 at Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street)

In this new one-woman thriller, Sandra seeks to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of her closest friend, a young pianist and composer, who went on a trip to Mexico and never returned. Her search for clues leads her into both a highly charged love affair, and increasingly dangerous territory. Sandra reunites playwright David Cale and director Leigh Silverman after their award-winning collaboration on Harry Clarke (2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show), and features an original piano score by Matthew Dean Marsh.

Lessons In Survival, Part 2

Created with and Performed by The Commissary
Directed by Tyler Thomas
Special event -- Spring 2022
Live in person

Part retrospective, part reenvisioning, Lessons in Survival, Part 2 explores and elevates the layers of relationship, ideas, and provocations set within James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni's seminal 1971 conversation. Marking the 50-year anniversary of the historic interview, the work seeks to reintroduce this crucial dialogue on the history and legacies of race to our present moment. Building off the digital exploration of Part 1 (Best Theatre of 2020, NYT), Lessons in Survival, Part 2 reinvestigates the intimate and incisive questions at the heart of Baldwin and Giovanni's conversation, getting at the root of American mythologies, racial category, and our shared responsibility to liberate one another and ourselves.

Details and collaborators for Lessons in Survival, Part 2 will be announced at a later date.

Mini-Commissions

Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi,
Polly Pen, Madeline Sayet

During the pandemic shutdown, the Vineyard commissioned five daring artists to create new works of alternative theatre: a mix of live in person, live virtual, filmed, and audio performances, which will be shared over the course of the 2021-22 season. These include Kirsten Childs' Aunt Lillian, a wickedly funny audio musical about a battle of wills between two young girls and their no-nonsense aunt, directed by Awoye Timpo (audio musical); Ngozi Anywanu's Maybe Dorothy Was Right, a short film love letter to New York and the theatre, directed by Alfonso Johnson (short film); Jared Mezzocchi 's On the Beauty of Loss (live/virtual), an introspective multimedia performance exploring the emergence of social technology and its impact on memory and grief; Polly Pen's 56 Flowers, a chamber musical about a receptionist who finds herself drawn to the story of the 19th century composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond (live reading in person); and Madeline Sayet's The Fish, a new full-length play following two Mohegan-Jewish siblings on a search to find out what their ancestors never meant for them to know (live reading in person).