World Premieres of FALL RIVER FISHING & THE GOOD JOHN PROCTOR to be Featured in BEDLAM 2023 Season

New York Theatre Company BEDLAM has announced that its 2023 season at the Connelly Theater in Manhattan (220 East 4th Street, New York NY 10007) will feature two world premieres, Zuzanna Szadkowski & Deborah Knox's FALL RIVER FISHING and Talene Monahon's THE GOOD John Proctor. Tickets for BEDLAM's 2023 season are now on sale at bedlam.org.

BEDLAM's world premiere of FALL RIVER FISHING, by Zuzanna Szadkowski & Deborah Knox, is directed by Eric Tucker and will run from February 17 to March 9. FALL RIVER FISHING is a riotous and kaleidoscopic tour through the story of Lizzie Borden, who "took an axe" and was acquitted of the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. Zuzanna Szadkowski & Deborah Knox's darkly absurd comedy about what happened that day Lizzie did or didn't murder her parents is a story about broken Hollywood dreams, unrequited love, self-loathing, generosity, vanity and the mean things that stepmoms say. The play's irreverent, anarchic humor ultimately grows to encompass Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE, contemporary Brooklyn, Sharon Tate, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing the people we're closest to, in a contemporary meditation on/war against a disappointing life.

BEDLAM's world premiere of THE GOOD John Proctor, by Talene Monahon, is directed by Caitlin Sullivan and will run from March 11 to April 1. THE GOOD John Proctor is a new look at the lead-up to the Salem Witch Trials, imagining the inner lives of the real girls at the center of the trials as they hurtle toward the events dramatized in Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE. Abigail Warren, age eleven, and Betty Parris, age nine and a half, are best friends. There's also Mercy Lewis, the child alcoholic, and Mary Warren, who shakes for no reason. The girls churn butter, play with poppets, and listen to The Woods at night. But their world is turned upside-down when Abigail starts to work for a farmer named John Proctor. Playwright Talene Monahon brings these familiar names to new life as the young women of Salem navigate the nature of Satan and the bloody trials of adolescence. THE GOOD John Proctor marks the first BEDLAM production directed by someone other than Artistic Director Eric Tucker.

In producing two new plays by living writers, BEDLAM continues its commitment to the next generation of classics. Both plays were previously workshopped by the company under its DO MORE: NEW PLAYS developmental programming, which will return later in 2023. Casting will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for FALL RIVER FISHING and THE GOOD John Proctor range from $45 To $85. In addition to providing free and reduced-price tickets to underserved communities and educational programs, BEDLAM's ongoing Access Ticket Initiative will also include two designated "Pay What You Can" performances on February 19 and March 12. At these Sunday matinee performances, patrons may secure a ticket at any price they wish at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. This continues BEDLAM's existing ticket accessibility efforts, which also include $10 Rush Tickets available to all students, Veterans, and current service members starting thirty minutes prior to every performance. For tickets and the full schedule, visit bedlam.org.

BEDLAM was founded on a shoestring budget with four artists who gave everything they had to their inaugural production of Saint Joan. BEDLAM has come a long way in their ten years together, but what has remained consistent in all their work - be it Shakespeare, Shaw, or Austen; in a theatre, a classroom, or online - is the belief that the classics are for everyone, and that exploring these traditional forms yields unique insights into our humanity and inspires empathy in us all. BEDLAM looks forward to celebrating this belief in practice over the course of its eleventh season.

DEBORAH KNOX

is thrilled to be back in NYC and back at Bedlam. W/ Bedlam: Fall River Fishing virtual workshop over COVID; Peter Pan. Other theatre: Provok'd Wife (A.R.T) & 1:23 (Cincinnati Playhouse)-both dir. Mark Wing-Davey; Deathvariations (59E59/Aquila); Spill the Wine (TBG/NYC); Amerika (Jeune Lune/A.R.T.); Spring Awakening (Moscow); Slasher (Zephyr/LA); Crimes of the Heart (Deb Aquila/LA); Master Builder (Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory). TV/Film: Brothers & Sisters & In Plain Sight /The Rage:Carrie II; Marvel's The Consultant (w/ Clark Gregg). B.A. from Dartmouth College; M.F.A. from A.R.T. Institute at Harvard.

Talene Monahon

Plays: Jane Anger (New Ohio; 2022 Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Play Nominee; Shakespeare Theater of DC), How to Load a Musket (Less than Rent; TheaterMania's "The 10 Best Theater Productions of 2020"), Frankie & Will (MCC), and All in Good Fun (Peterborough Players). Talene's work has been developed by NYSAF, Bedlam Theater, Red Bull Theater, Cape Cod Theater Project, and Northern Stage. Her writing has been published by Stage Rights, The Cincinnati Review, and McSweeneys and she teaches playwriting at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. As an actor, Talene's credits include productions at Roundabout Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, the Atlantic, MCC, New Georges, Encores!, Red Bull, La Jolla Playhouse, and Partial Comfort, as well as selected film and television. B.A. Senior Fellow, Dartmouth College.

Caitlin Sullivan

is a director and theater maker based in New York City. Recent work includes Ohio (The Bengsons/Actors Theatre of Louisville), Sanctuary City (Martyna Majok/NYTW), Ole White Sugah Daddy (Obehi Janice/WP Theater), Panopticon (Gracie Gardner/Clubbed Thumb) and Cherie Dre (Sacha Yanow/Danspace). She is currently developing Nova with Obehi Janice and United State vs Gupta with Deepali Gupta, both set to premiere in 2023. Caitlin was previously the Artistic Director of Seattle's critically acclaimed Satori Group. Born and raised in Boston, MA, she is a graduate of Williams College, an alum of the Drama League Directors Project and Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, and a New Georges Affiliate Artist.

Zuzanna Szadkowski

is best known for playing Dorota in the CW's "Gossip Girl." Currently, she can be seen in HBO's "The Gilded Age." Other television credits include "Modern Love," "Bull," "Search Party," "The Knick," "The Good Wife," "Elementary," "Girls," "Guiding Light," "The Sopranos," and "Law and Order." Film credits include "Worth," "Minyan," and "Loserville." Theatre credits include Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet (WSJ Performance of the Year 2018), The Crucible and Peter Pan with Bedlam, queens at LCT3, The Comedy of Errors as part of The Public Theater's Mobile Shakespeare Unit, King Philip's Head... with Clubbed Thumb, Love, Loss and What I Wore on Off-Broadway, The 39 Steps at ATL, and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Two River Theater. Zuzanna is also a writer and has been published in The New York Times and Alien Nation.

Eric Tucker

Wall Street Journal BEST CLASSICAL DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2021; DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2014. Off Broadway: Hedda Gabler & The Winter's Tale in Repertory; Persuasion; The Crucible; Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet; Pygmalion; Peter Pan; Vanity Fair; Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility (Off Broadway Alliance Award, Lortel nom, Best Director, Drama League nom, Best Revival, 4 Helen Hayes awards including Best Director and Best Production); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Drama League nom Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015); Bedlam's Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine top 10; Off Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014); Bedlam's Hamlet (NY Times top 10); Tina Packer's Women of Will; New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and What You Will (NYTCritics Picks); The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014). Other: Caesar and Cleopatra (ASC); The Rivals (BRT); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River), Disney's Beauty & The Beast (OSF); Pericles (APT, WSJ Best Classical Production 2017); Copenhagen (Central Square Theatre), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), Mate (The Actors' Gang).