DIGNITY, ALWAYS DIGNITY, JELLY'S LAST JAM Concert & More Announced for Long Wharf Theatre 2022/2023 Season

Long Wharf Theatre yesterday announced the launch of its 2022/2023 season, "Everywhere for Everyone." Under its new model, audiences will see programming radiating out from the institution's storied home at 222 Sargent Drive and into communities across Greater New Haven. Long Wharf Theatre will center their core pillars of artistic innovation, radical inclusion, and kaleidoscopic partnerships by embracing bold stories, both old and new, and connecting with audiences in new ways.

The season will be presented in three acts, honoring the Theatre's history and legacy and celebrating the beginning of its next chapter. Programming will comprise a vibrant mix of readings and productions on the Claire Tow Stage, virtual programs, new plays in development, and collaborations with community partners. Long Wharf Theatre invites audiences to see the world differently with every shift and turn, reflecting a spirited and colorful world on its stages, in its audiences, and within its communities.

In September, the final programming to be held at 222 Sargent Drive will take the form of a lively community parade entitled Home(coming), conceived and directed by Jenny Koons, which will give audiences the space to commemorate this first chapter of Long Wharf Theatre's history.

Additional season highlights include a concert performance of Jelly's Last Jam (Patricia McGregor, Creative Consultant), Live From the Edge by Long Wharf's Mellon Foundation playwrights-in-residence UNIVERSES, a star-studded return of The Crucible, and much more to be announced in the coming months.

"The theatre is a space that can hold all of our stories, all of our experiences, and all of our journeys,'' said Jacob G. Padrón, Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre. "What we are working to manifest is a boundary-breaking theatre that builds on our history of innovation and creative imagination. This kaleidoscopic season in three acts will bring our vision to life by showing what is possible when we center bold artistic works, foster meaningful partnerships, and build a theatre in the image of our entire community."

"The arts are a part of the very fabric of who we are as New Haveners and Long Wharf Theatre has been a central part of that story for generations,'' said Justin Elicker, Mayor of the City of New Haven. "I'm thrilled to join Long Wharf Theatre in celebrating the launch of this visionary new season that will see it explore our city and reach audiences in new, more meaningful ways than ever before. This is exciting and important work that deeply aligns with the goals of the City's Cultural Equity Plan to broaden the people, the places and the stories within our artistic ecosystem, and I cannot wait to see the positive impact it will have on all of New Haven in the years to come."

"Long Wharf Theatre is building an artistic community that belongs to all, including the next generation of theatre-makers and lovers," said Kit Ingui, Managing Director of Long Wharf Theatre. "With this season, which will introduce our newly announced itinerant model for the first time, Long Wharf Theatre will remain an unparalleled hub for creative excellence as it works to build a theatre company that meets the possibilities of the 21st century."

"Working to undo New Haven's legacy of systemic racism in the arts has been a top priority of mine, which is why we launched our Cultural Equity Plan earlier this year,'' said Adriane Jefferson, Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of New Haven. "Long Wharf Theatre is bringing that plan to life by demonstrating how its new model can better reach all of Greater New Haven. By bringing a renowned cultural institution directly to corners of our city that have long suffered from cultural disinvestment, this new season will show us exactly what is possible for communities across our city when we take the tenets of this plan and put them into action."

"As an arts city, cultural institutions like Long Wharf Theatre are integral to New Haven's economic development,'' said Mike Piscitelli, Economic Development Administrator for the City of New Haven. "Long Wharf's new model will reinvigorate neighborhoods across the city, helping to meaningfully invest in communities that have been left out for too long."

"This season will offer a whole new vision of what Long Wharf Theatre, and regional theatres across the country, can be for their communities,'' said Nancy Alexander, Chair of Long Wharf Theatre's Board of Directors. "We are eager and proud to offer audiences the chance to bid farewell to our current location and embrace a new model that will present works in a fresh way across New Haven."

"I am so excited for the third year of Black Trans Women at the Center. This year, four new playwrights are creating dynamic new short plays that speak to the experience of trans women across generations and genres,'' said Dane Figueroa Edidi, director and co-producer of Black Trans Women at the Center. "From shows about finding love, to the presence of ancestors in our lives, to the possible imagined, to an artistic commentary on what it means to experience yourself beyond tropes, each show glows with beautiful storytelling and what it means for Black trans women to dictate the terms of engaging with us."

A Season in Three Acts

In Long Wharf Theatre's continued effort to reimagine the American regional theatre experiment, the 2022-23 season will be presented in three acts, reflecting the nimbleness of what the institution's new model will look like. Each act will represent a different phase in the Theatre's journey towards its new model, with additional programming to be announced along the way.

Act I will include continued programming and readings on the Claire Tow Stage. Act II will present the final production at 222 Sargent Drive and see Long Wharf begin a community engagement process as it leaves its current space and enters an emergent phase with artistic installations, community circles, and additional activations to be announced. Act III will see the first shows presented with partners on stages across New Haven.

Currently scheduled programming includes:

ACT I

Black Trans Women at the Center

New Play Readings // Virtual

Directed and Co-Produced by Dane Figueroa Edidi

August 3, 2022; available on-demand until August 6, 2022

In its third year, Dane Figueroa Edidi leads the annual Black Trans Women at the Center featuring new work by Andrea Jenkins, Bl3ssing Oshun Ra, Danielle Davis, and Davia Spain. A festival of short plays that will be streamed, the program will include a post-performance panel with the writers, directors, and dramaturg.

Jelly's Last Jam

Concert Performance // In-Person, 222 Sargent Drive

Book by George C. Wolfe

Music by Jelly Roll Morton

Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead
Musical Adaptation and Additional Music Composed by Luther Henderson

Patricia McGregor, Creative Consultant

August 26 - 28, 2022

At the birth of jazz in the early 20th century, one man led the band. The legendary Jelly Roll Morton revolutionized American music like no one before him. His life-the dizzying heights and inconceivable lows-becomes a thrilling theatrical ride in Jelly's Last Jam. With an electrifying cast and a red-hot band, and enough music and tap dancing to fill several lifetimes, this concert reading will celebrate New Haven's history of jazz in the iconic Dixwell neighborhood in partnership with New Haven Free Public Library (Stetson Library Branch).

Dignity, Always Dignity

Work-in-Process Sharing // In-Person, 222 Sargent Drive
Created by Zack Fine, Bryce Pinkham, Rona Siddiqui, and Kirya Traber
Music and Lyrics by Rona Siddiqui
Directed by Zack Fine
Performed by Bryce Pinkham

September 2022

Stranded alone on an island, a former Broadway star sets his sights on performing one last show before the waters swallow him up.

ACT II

Home(coming): A Community Parade

Community Event // In-Person, 222 Sargent Drive

Directed by Jenny Koons

September 2022

Together we will say goodbye to our home of nearly 60 years and build a collective dream for the future with a celebratory community parade. A series of festive communal rituals and micro-performances will close out our time at Sargent Drive and move us, as a community, into broader New Haven. With us, we take the best parts of our history: our stories, our relationships, and memories of our extraordinary body of work. This fall we begin writing the next chapters of our story with our communities.

New Haven Play Project - Community Event, Virtual

Community Event // Virtual

By Aaliyah Miller

Directed by Halima Flynn

Fall 2022

A community-based project that aims to share stories of Muslim Americans, showcase their experiences, and begin meaningful dialogue with Muslim and non-Muslim communities throughout Connecticut. This season's offering, I AM: American/Muslim, will be a multimedia production based on interviews with Muslim Americans, centering around a "Muslim mosaic" and painting the truth in contrast to the frequent demonization of Muslims in the media. New Haven Play Project is supported by Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

ACT III

Live From the Edge

Production // In-Person, New Haven

By UNIVERSES
Directed by Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp

Spring 2023

A production by Long Wharf Theatre's Mellon Foundation playwrights-in-residence, UNIVERSES, Live From the Edge will showcase the ensemble's special brand of fusion theatre in a "best of" evening that tracks the evolution of their poetic language from childhood rhymes and community rituals, to poetry and theater, hip-hop and gospel. Redefining what theatre is and who it speaks to, Live From the Edge is a unique performance event that turns the poem into a communal act. Steven and Mildred will have the opportunity to explore different neighborhoods in New Haven to find the right artistic container to present this work, demonstrating this new model's ability to give power back to creators in determining how and where their works will be presented.

Next Narrative Monologue Competition

Community Event // In-Person, New Haven

Spring 2023

In partnership with Yale Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre will produce the Greater New Haven's entry in the national Next Narrative Monologue Competition. High school students from around the state will select monologues from plays by 50 contemporary Black playwrights, working with professional teaching artists to refine their performances and compete in the regional event. Two students will represent Connecticut at the national event, performing in New York City with youth from around the country.

The Crucible

Benefit Reading // In-Person, John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts at SCSU

By Arthur Miller

Directed by David Mendizábal

Spring 2023

The Crucible was the first ever show produced at Long Wharf Theatre back in 1965, so we're thrilled to present its return for this unique season. This production will be held at the renowned John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts at Southern Connecticut State University and will include a star-studded cast to be announced at a later date.

Tickets for the 2022-23 season will go on sale in the coming weeks with Long Wharf Theatre members receiving early access to purchase admission. Information on membership may be found at longwharf.org/membership/.

Project 57

As a nod to our 57 years at the Food Terminal, Long Wharf Theatre will launch a historic endeavor called Project 57 placing us in partnership with organizations across New Haven to commission 57 local artists to create a communal quilt and tell the stories of our beloved city. Initial partners include Artspace, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and New Haven Pride Center.

Continued Programming Audiences Can Expect

Long Wharf Theatre's commitment to the creation of new work will continue to be a driving force, assessing the needs of each artistic project and working with partner organizations to find the best presenting venue. Programming Long Wharf Theatre will continue to invest in includes:

• Dynamic and fully staged productions of new and classic plays and musicals

• New play commissioning and development to seed a new canon of American plays and musicals for future production, including new work by Tea Alagić, Jo Lampert and Deb Barsha, Guadalís Del Carmen, Anyabwile Love, Raja Feather Kelly, Ricardoa??Peréza?? González, Terrence Riggins, Madeline Sayet, Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, Madeleine Hutchins, Candyce Testa, Ruth Tang, Rhiana Yazzie, Radical Evolution, and the artistic collective UNIVERSES (featuring Mellon Foundation playwrights-in-residence Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp), among others. Long Wharf Theatre is also embarking on co-commissioning partnerships with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company).

• The LAB@LWT, a collaboration between artists and Long Wharf Theatre, providing month-long residencies to artists while giving audiences a glimpse into the new play development process and an opportunity to explore and interrogate the New Haven arts scene

• Play Club, a series of events for Long Wharf Theatre Members that foster conversations about scripts with Long Wharf Theatre's artistic staff

• Artistic Ensemble, a collective of theatre-makers who support Long Wharf Theatre with their guidance and good counsel while receiving resources to develop their newest ideas for the stage

Throughout the season, Long Wharf Theatre will be grounded by ongoing community building and listening, so it can continue to understand how best to be in collaboration with the surrounding region it serves.

Community Embraces Long Wharf Theatre's New Model

Since announcing its path forward in February, Long Wharf Theatre has received an outpouring of support from community members as well as questions as to what this new model means for New Haven and its longtime audiences.

Long Wharf Theatre engaged in a robust community engagement process, staging four separate town hall events in March and April to present the model, answer questions, and receive input directly from the community to help inform its new direction.

In an effort to center as many voices as possible throughout this process, Long Wharf Theatre wanted to provide an opportunity for the community to share their support and enthusiasm through a public sign-on letter that was born out of the many conversations held during these public town hall sessions.

The letter's initial 20 signatories comprise prominent Connecticut arts, cultural, and civic leaders, including Michael Barker, Melia Bensussen, Noah Bloom, Joan Channick, Anne Coates, Lee Cruz, Steve Driffin, IfeMichelle Gardin, Tiffani Gavin, Calida Jones, Annie Lin, Winter Marshall, Kica Matos, Anthony McDonald, Michael Morand, Jenny Nelson, Cynthia Rider, Dexter J. Singleton, Aleta Staton, and nico wheadon.

Long Wharf Theatre is also wrapping up its successful 2021/2022 season at its current location. Its current production, Queen by Madhuri Shekar and directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar, has received widespread critical acclaim and will close its nearly three-week run on June 5 before transferring to an Off-Broadway run in late June.

On June 13, Long Wharf Theatre will host its annual benefit, The Big Tent Party, at 222 Sargent Drive, an evening that will serve as a celebration of community, theatre, and artistry.

Biographies

Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her) is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018), and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book. She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater's Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays. Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, was featured as Patra in King Ester and acted as a story consultant for the series, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater's web series Homebound. She also narrated the Netflix docuseries Visions of Us. ladydanefe.com

Jenny Koons (she/her) is a director and organizer. Recent projects include Head Over Heels (Pasadena Playhouse), Hurricane Diane (Huntington Theatre), Men on Boats (Baltimore Center Stage), Speechless (New Blue Man Group North American Tour), A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Public Theater Mobile Unit), Burn All Night (American Repertory Theatre), A Sucker Emcee (National Black Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company), Queen of the Night (Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub, Drama Desk Award), The Odyssey Project 2012 (a site-specific project in New York City). Jenny was the 2017 curator of New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center Lobby Project, co-curator of the 2016 Toronto ThisGen Conference, and co-founder of Artists 4 Change NYC (National Black Theatre). She has been a facilitator and educator in creating anti-racist spaces and engaging in conversations around race and equity for over a decade, in both non-profit and artistic spaces. She is a steering committee member of The Ghostlight Project, founded and leads Let's Talk About Hard Stuff, an AAPI anti-racist affinity space, and is co-author of the open letter to Biden/Harris demanding cabinet-level representation for Arts and Culture. jennykoons.com

Patricia McGregor (she/her) has twice been profiled by The New York Times for her direction of world premieres. Her recent credits include co-author and director of the world premiere of Lights Out, Nat King Cole (People's Light) and directing Skeleton Crew (Geffen Playhouse), Grief (Center Theatre Group), The Parchman Hour (Guthrie Theater), Hamlet (The Public Theater), Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company), brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Lincoln Center Theater), Stagger Lee (world premiere, Dallas Theater Center), and Hurt Village (world premiere, Signature Theatre Company). Her other credits include A Raisin in the Sun, Winter's Tale, Spunk, Adoration of the Old Woman, Blood Dazzler, Holding It Down, Four Electric Ghosts, Nothing Personal, and The House That Will Not Stand. She served as tour consultant on J. Cole's World Tour and co-created Place with composer Ted Hearne and poet Saul Williams (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Los Angeles Philharmonic, 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music finalist). For several years she has directed the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, a co-founder of Angela's Pulse with her sister choreographer and organizer Paloma McGregor, and was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow at Yale School of Drama, where she also served as Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret. patriciamcgregor.com

David Mendizábal (they/he) is a director, designer, one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of the OBIE Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company, and Associate Artistic Director of The Sol Project. Select directing credits include On The Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf Theatre); Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Board Members (Soho Rep/Sol Project); This Bitter Earth (TheatreWorks Hartford) Don't Eat the Mangos (Magic Theatre/Sundance); the bandaged place (New York Stage and Film), Then They Forgot About The Rest (INTAR Theatre); And She Would Stand Like This (with choreographer Kia LaBeija) and Look Upon Our Lowliness (The Movement Theatre Company); and Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic Theatre Company). David is a 2021 Princess Grace Award Honoraria Recipient in Theatre. They were part of the inaugural Soho Rep Project Number One Residency, where they created and directed the short film, eat me! Alumnus of Ars Nova Vision Residency and Maker's Lab, Drama League Directors Project, Labyrinth Intensive Ensemble, artEquity, NALAC, and LCT Directors Lab. David was a participant in the TCG Leadership U: One-on-One program, where they were the Artistic Associate at Atlantic Theater Company. BFA, New York University Tisch School of the Arts. davidmendizabal.com

Zack Fine (he/him) is an actor, playwright, director, and teacher. As an actor, Zach has worked on Broadway (China Doll with Al Pacino), as well as numerous Off-Broadway productions produced by The Acting Company, Mint Theater Company, Pearl Theatre Company, Red Bull Theater, Fiasco Theater, and Theatre for a New Audience. Regionally, he has held leading roles at Guthrie Theater, Folger Theatre (Love's Labors Lost and Two Gentlemen of Verona; two-time Helen Hayes nominee) Playmakers Rep, Asolo Repertory Theatre, and many more. Zack's television and film work includes roles in "Person of Interest," "BlackBox" (recurring), "One Life to Live," "New Amsterdam," and Edgar in "BEDLAM: The Series." As a director/devisor, his world premiere production of the first-ever Spanish translation of Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good (El Bien Del Pais) played for two years in Mexico City at Teatro Helenico and Foro Shakespeare and was nominated for Premios in Best Production and Best Direction. He has directed workshops and productions for AsylumNYC, Playmakers Rep, Key West Theatre, and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, including two original devised works, So Please You and Sea-Maid's Music, both commissioned by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. He is the original director and co-creator of Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham's cabaret Between the Moon and Me, which played at Birdland and around the country. Plays include Bewilderness and Walled In, two plays in a three-part trilogy about the 19th-century naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau; Manifest Destiny, a clown show with Lucas Caleb Rooney; Cooking With Kathryn, a clown show co-written with Kate Owens; and Dennis. As a teacher of Clown and Games, Zack regularly teaches at New York University, Fiasco Theater, Performing Arts Project, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. He has been a visiting professor at UNC Chapel Hill/Playmakers Rep, University of Tennessee Knoxville/Clarence Brown Theatre, and more. zackmfine.com

An American stage and screen actor, Bryce Pinkham (he/him) is most widely known for originating the role of Monty Navarro in the Tony Award-winning production of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, for which he was nominated for a Tony, Grammy, and Drama Desk Award. He also notably appeared opposite Elisabeth Moss in the Broadway revival of The Heidi Chronicles as Peter Patrone, for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance in 2015. Bryce's other Broadway credits include originating roles in The Great Society, Holiday Inn, Ghost, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. As a singer, Bryce has performed in concert venues across the country, most notably Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Chicago Lyric Opera, and The Library of Congress. On-camera appearances include as a series regular on the second season of the Civil War drama "Mercy Street," as well as guest appearances on "Julia," "The Blacklist," "Instinct," "Proven Innocent," "The Get Down," "The Good Wife," "Person of Interest," and "Blindspot," as well as Robert DeNiro's feature film The Comedian. In 2012, he helped found Zara Aina, an NGO that uses the power of theatrical storytelling to empower under-resourced youth in Madagascar. Bryce received his B.A. from Boston College and an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama, where he received the Leonore Annenberg Foundation Early Career Fellowship in 2012.

Rona Siddiqui (she/her) is a composer and lyricist based in New York City. She received the Jonathan Larson Grant and Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, and was named a Woman to Watch by Broadway Women's Fund. Rona's show Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan had a reading at Playwrights Horizons. Other musicals include One Good Day, Hip Hop Cinderella, and The Tin. She also received the ASCAP Harold Adamson Lyric Award, the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, and the ASCAP Foundation/Max Dreyfus Scholarship. She has written pieces for Wicked's 16th anniversary commemoration Flying Free, Arena Stage, 24 Hour Musicals, Prospect Theater Company, and The Civilians. Rona has performed concerts of her work at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Feinstein's/54 Below. She is currently part of Musical Theatre Factory's MTF Makers Residency and Ars Nova's Vision Residency. Rona is also the Music Director of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway show A Strange Loop, for which she received an Obie along with the cast and creative team during its Off-Broadway run, produced by Page 73 Productions and Playwrights Horizons. ronasiddiqui.com

Kirya Traber (she/her) is a writer, performer, and cultural worker. Originally from Northern California, she now resides in New York City. Kirya is Curator-in-Residence with Hi-ARTS and an Artistic Consultant with New Victory Theatre, both in New York City. Her collaborative work with Ping Chong + Company, Undesirable Elements: Generation NYZ, was a New York Times Critics Pick. She received the Founders Award from New York Stage and Film, where she workshopped her play Lucky. Kirya was Lincoln Center's lead Community Artist in Residence where her play Both My Grandfathers received a workshop production. She is the recipient of a New York Emmy nomination (First Person PBS), Robert Redford's Sundance Foundation Award for Activism in the Arts, a California Governor's Award for Excellence in the ARts, and an Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund Award for Poetry. Kirya has been a commissioned artist of notable New York arts institutions such as New York Philharmonic, Morgan Library and Museum, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, among others. Kiryatraber.com

UNIVERSES is a national Ensemble Theatre Company of multi-disciplined writers and performers of color, who fuse theatre, poetry, dance, jazz, hip hop, politics, down home blues, and Spanish boleros to create moving, challenging, and entertaining works for the stage. The group breaks the traditional theatrical bounds to create its own brand of theatre. Founded in The Bronx, New York in 1995, the members of UNIVERSES came together in the urban poetry and music scene of the late 1990s; quickly moving through the "down town" performance scene to build a home for themselves in American theatre. In their 24 years, UNIVERSES has performed at venues throughout the United States and toured extensively worldwide. universesonstage.com

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