Powerhouse Theater At Vassar College Announces Initial Casting For 38th Season

Vassar College has announced initial casting for the 38th Powerhouse Theater Season. Among the standouts include Disney star Jessica Darrow (Encanto) and Tony nominee Crystal Lucas-Perry (Ain't No Mo', 1776) joining the new musical Absolute Zero; from "One Life to Live," Florencia Lozano joins the company of A Simple Herstory; and Ngozi Anyanwu (The Homecoming Queen), Amandla Jahava (Exception to the Rule), and direct from Broadway's Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Michael Oloyede make up the cast of Possessed (or, "the Crazy African Girl" play). Past highlights from this celebrated program include 2024 Tony nominees The Notebook and Doubt: A Parable and the long-running Broadway smash Hamilton.

Newly added to the Powerhouse Season is a reading of 3 Graces (June 30) by Alexandra Neil ("One Life to Live"), directed by Valentina Fratti and featuring Drama Desk winner Purva Bedi (Dance Nation), Yvette Ganier, and Zoë Van Tieghem.

A play workshop presentation of Jocelyn Kuritsky's Webby Award-honored podcast A Simple Herstory (July 5-7) will feature the talents of Florencia Lozano ("One Life to Live"), David Shih (Life of Pi) and Colleen Werthmann ("The Daily Show with Trevor Noah").

The lesbian spy thriller musical Absolute Zero (July 12-14), from writing team Dorie Clark and Marie Incontrera, directed by Ellie Heyman and choreographed by Bo Park will feature Gabrielle Carrubba ("American Idol," Dear Evan Hansen), Jessica Darrow (Disney's Encanto), Kasper, Maya Lagerstam, Youran Lee, Tatum Marshall, Crystal Lucas-Perry (Ain't No Mo', 1776) and Brittany Zeinstra (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child).

Joining the casts of Powerhouse's free Readings include:

This Place is Definitely Haunted (June 21), written by Max Reuben, directed by Caley Chase, and featuring Fernando Gonzalez, Char Nakashima-Conway, and Carolyn Reuben.

Theatre East's Extinction (June 23), written by C.J. Baer, directed by Judson Jones, and featuring Emma Chart, Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy, Tom Green, Brianna Lucille, Oliver Palmer, and Gabriel Wassif.

The Tank's Holes in the Shape of My Father (June 27), written and performed by Savon Bartley, directed by Adam Coy.

Possessed (or, "the Crazy African Girl" play) (June 28), written by Gloria Majule, directed by Shariffa Ali, and featuring Ngozi Anyanwu (The Homecoming Queen), Amandla Jahava (Exception to the Rule), and Michael Oloyede (Jaja's African Hair Braiding).

The Leah Ryan Fund's Ping Pong Play (June 29), written by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, directed by Benita de Wit, and featuring ChiWen Chang and Maya Jeyam.

Casting for Messy White Gays (July 19-21) and Shanghai Sonatas (July 26-28) will be announced soon.

Members of the renowned Powerhouse Theater Training Company will present a slate of free theater throughout the season including Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, adapted and directed by Devin Kawaoka ("Chicago Med"), and The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Caley Chase. Both will be performed outside at the Preserve at Vassar. Max Reuben returns to direct the company in the innovative use of Soundpainting, a gestural language, in a completely devised project at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. And theater-making team Hal Cosentino and Ellenor Riley-Condit explore humanity's capacity to defy our assumed limits in Marathon.

For tickets and additional information about the Powerhouse Season, visit www.vassar.edu/powerhouse/season.

about the Powerhouse Season, visit www.vassar.edu/powerhouse/season.

THE 38th POWERHOUSE SEASON

MUSICAL WORKSHOPS

Absolute Zero (July 12-14)

Book and Lyrics by Dorie Clark

Music by Marie Incontrera

Directed by Ellie Heyman

Choreographed by Bo Park

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring Gabrielle Carrubba, Jessica Darrow, Kasper, Maya Lagerstam, Youran Lee, Tatum Marshall, Crystal Lucas Perry and Brittany Zeinstra

Absolute zero is the lowest temperature known to humanity. It's just a theoretical construct that's never actually been reached-until now. By terrorists. But when the CIA's top agent-sexy lesbian lothario Sam Knight- is called in to investigate, she never expected that in order to save humanity, she'd have to excavate her own past. Fueled by a contemporary pop-rock and jazz score, Absolute Zero is a taut, funny musical thriller written for a cast of female, trans, and gender nonconforming performers.

Shanghai Sonatas (July 26-28)

Music and Concept by Sean Gao

Book by Alan Goodson

Lyrics by Joyce Hill Stoner

Directed by Chongren Fan

Musical Arrangement and Direction by Asher Denburg

Produced by Diane Fisher and LED Theatrical Productions

In the Martel Theater, Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film

During WWII, when throngs pushed to escape the horrors of the Nazi regime, cosmopolitan Shanghai was the only place in the world that would accept European refugees without a visa. Forced into a ghetto by Japanese occupiers, a refugee violinist takes on a troubled Chinese teenager as his student, a connection that helps both of them overcome their traumas and survive the war. With an eclectic musical score fusing East and West, a narration in the traditional Chinese style of Kuai-Ban, and a compelling storyline of forbidden love and the struggle for survival, Shanghai Sonatas illustrates how the seeds sown by these fateful events of the past resonate to this day.

All Musical Workshop tickets are $30 and are currently on sale.

PLAY WORKSHOPS

A Simple Herstory (July 5-7)

Created by Jocelyn Kuritsky

Written by Jonathan A. Goldberg and Jenny Turner Hall

Directed by Meghan Finn

Series Director and Co-Executive Producer Donya K. Washington

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring Florencia Lozano, David Shih, and Colleen Werthmann

A Simple Herstory is a groundbreaking-Telly Award-winning and Webby-honored-multi-platform audio fiction exploration of the 100+ women who have run for President of the United States. The initial season revolved around Victoria Woodhull, arguably the first woman to run in 1872, before women had the right to vote. Sections of Season 2 revolve around the life and times of Margaret Chase Smith who ran for President in 1964. She was a member of the Republican Party and the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. While it is an audio drama, Season 2 borrows from 20th century film styles to create a complex portrait of the Senator from Maine, challenging preconceived notions, historical facts, and our perceptions of American culture. As with Season 1, it takes a lesser-known story, presents it, and then works to deconstruct it.

Messy White Gays (July 19-21)

Written by Drew Droege

Directed by Mike Donahue

Developed and Produced by The Fabulous Invalid

In the Powerhouse Theater

Sunday morning. Hell's Kitchen. Brecken and Caden have just murdered their throuple-mate and stuffed him into a Jonathan Adler credenza. Unfortunately, they've invited friends over for brunch. Feel bad for them! They're MESSY WHITE GAYS!

All Play Workshop tickets are $30 and are currently on sale.

READINGS

This Place Is Definitely Haunted (June 21)

Written by Max Reuben

Directed by Caley Chase

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring Fernando Gonzalez, Char Nakashima-Conway, and Carolyn Reuben

Three teenagers gather in a spooky old house to go ghost hunting. A group of theater makers gathers in a spooky old theater to explore the sinister events of that night. A Russian nesting doll of scary stories, This Place is Definitely Haunted blurs the line between fact and fiction, reality and imagination, and explores the very human desire to scare the living daylights out of ourselves and each other.

Extinction (June 23)

Written by C.J. Baer

Directed by Judson Jones

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring Emma Chart, Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy, Tom Green, Brianna Lucille, Oliver Palmer, and Gabriel Wassif

Extinction follows Louis Ebbings (née Wilder), a brilliant and promising PhD student in the early 1980s, interested in the rising field of feminist biology, who discovers, as the singular female in her advisor's lab, androcentric bias in her very own backyard. Challenging the sexist narrative within Darwinian theory, Louis discovers just how powerful these forces she's working against are, and unwittingly becomes the subject matter of her own studies.

Holes in the Shape of My Father (June 27)

Written and Performed by Savon Bartley

Directed by Adam Coy

In the Powerhouse Theater

What spirals when an absent father reaches out to his son over Instagram with no apologies, no remorse, and 20 years' worth of unanswered questions? Savon Bartley unravels the nuances of boys who grew up without a father. Told by the son of a mother who tried, Holes in the Shape of My Father is the myth and miracle of boys becoming men.

Possessed (or, "the Crazy African Girl" play) (June 28)

Written by Gloria Majule

Directed by Shariffa Ali

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring Ngozi Anyanwu, Amandla Jahava, and Michael Oloyede

Furaha returns home to Tanzania on a medical leave and is reunited with her brother Angaza. Unfortunately for her, he believes her mental illness is in fact a demon possession. As the siblings road-trip from Dar Es Salaam to Singida, they encounter colorful characters and testing challenges along the way. Possessed is a dramedy that explores the toll it takes to leave home, and the toll it takes to be back.

Ping Pong Play (June 29)

Written by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin

Directed by Benita de Wit

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring ChiWen Chang and Maya Jeyam

Ping Pong Play is about keeping up with your best friend at the end of the world, non-chronologically following Yining and Anjali over nine decades playing competitive ping pong. This work imagines a speculative future informed by our present, with militarism and climate change shaping how Yining and Anjali can connect.

3 Graces (June 30)

Written by Alexandra Neil

Directed by Valentina Fratti

In the Powerhouse Theater

Featuring Purva Bedi, Yvette Ganier, and Zoë Van Tieghem

The original three Graces were Zeus's daughters, goddesses who represented beauty, elegance, mirth, and youth. They were also associated with creativity, fertility, charm, and joy. 3 Graces explores the cost of those attributes to women today. The play weaves the lives of three women of different ages, each named Grace, who came of age in the '70s. The piece spirals back and forth in time, as all three Graces examine their past, present, and future together.

All readings are free. Tickets can be reserved by contacting the box office.

THE TRAINING COMPANY

Twelfth Night (July 12-14)

Written by William Shakespeare

Adapted and Directed by Devin Kawaoka

At The Preserve

Twelfth Night begins as all good tales do...with a shipwreck. Viola finds herself having lost her dear twin brother and stranded on the coast of Illyria. With no family or means to protect her, she disguises herself as a servant to the ruler of Illyria, Duke Orsino. She soon loses herself in a Bermudian Triangle of love that steals the hearts and minds of those who dare to pass through it. Our question: Will Viola be able to find herself amongst the wreckage-not of her ship, but of her love?

The Taming of the Shrew (July 19-21)

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Caley Chase

At The Preserve

After falling asleep outside a bar, tinker Christopher Sly awakes inside a wild comedy-a play! Sly plays Katherine-sister to the fair Bianca, eldest daughter to Baptista, and betrothed to the fortune-seeking Petruchio. Full of ogling suitors, witty wordplay, and subversive performances of power, gender, and love, this faced-paced adaptation deconstructs The Taming of the Shrew to its bones, seeking-through great humor, absurdity, and role-play-a most intimate connection.

We Are Gathered Together (July 4, 11, 18, 25)

Conceived and Composed by Max Reuben

Developed and performed by members of the Training Company

In the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

INSERT SALUTATION HERE. It is with GREAT JOY/A HEAVY HEART/INCREDIBLE EXCITEMENT that we invite you to INSERT EVENT HERE to CELEBRATE/MOURN/COMMEMORATE our dear INSERT NAME HERE on the occasion of INSERT SPECIFICS HERE. As we gather together to share in this special moment, we kindly ask that you RSVP by INSERT DATE HERE. Your presence would mean a lot to us and to INSERT NAME HERE, and we look forward to sharing this DELIGHTFUL/SOLEMN/MOMENTOUS occasion with you. Thank you.

We Are Gathered Together utilizes the gestural composing language of Soundpainting to create a spontaneous, ensemble-based improvised performance.

Marathon (July 21-22)

Co-created by Hal Cosentino and Ellenor Riley-Condit

Devised by Members of the Training Company

In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

It is 490 BC. After days of fighting, Pip runs 26 miles without stopping from the Battle of Marathon to the city of Athens to warn his fellow citizens that the approaching Persian navy has no claim to Athenian land. He shouts: "We have won!" before collapsing. Marathon is a devised piece that uses this origin story as an inciting incident, an event that connects feats of human endurance across time to ask: What is that spark that makes us keep going beyond what we think is possible? Together, we'll run a marathon from 490 BC to today, trying, with our own bodies, to understand humanity's capacity to defy our assumed limits. When we push past the boundaries of our imaginations, what are we running towards?

New Works Play Festival (July 27)

Written and Directed by members of the Training Company

In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

This festival of new works is the culminating event for the directors and writers of the Training Company. Along with their coursework, directors and playwrights will have observed the process of bringing a new script to life in a professional rehearsal setting. Each pair of writers and directors will workshop a play that they have developed over the summer. Featuring performances by the actors of the Training Company, these short plays reflect the students' unique voice and vision for the future of American theater.

All Training Company performances are free, although reservations are required for Marathon and the New Works Play Festival. Reservations can be made by contacting the box office.

SPECIAL EVENT

Performing Art (July 14)

Conceived and Directed by Liz Dahmen

In the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Performing Art is a highly collaborative performance project that brings together an ensemble of local creators to explore the relationship between visual and performing art. This production takes inspiration from the works currently on display at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, and the final presentation is a site-specific one-of-a-kind performance inside the gallery.

Performing Art is free, although a reservation is required and can be made by contacting the box office.

BOX OFFICE INFORMATION

All Musical Workshop and Play Workshop tickets: $30.00

Readings and Training Program Performances: Free

Box Office hours: Thursday-Sunday, 2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Box Office: (845) 437-5599, phtboxoffice@vassar.edu

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