Luna Stage Features Plays That Explore What It Means To Be 'American'

Luna Stage's 2019-2020 Season features bold new plays that examine the power of independence, the value of freedom, and what it means to be 'American.' Season Passes are now on sale for six-play season, which features two World Premieres, the 2019 Lucille Lortel Award-winner for Best New Play, and the launch of Luna's new American Voices Series.

A World Premiere

October 17 - November 10, 2019

Jenny Lyn Bader's Mrs. Stern Wanders The Prussian State Library is a fantastical new drama about one of our deepest thinkers, inspired by real events: Johanna Stern will become one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. But at the moment, no one had heard of her, or even of the name she writes under, Hannah Arendt. She is merely a graduate student with one book under her belt. Karl Frick is a young officer, recently promoted from the criminal police force to the political police force, a new division in 1933 Berlin. His first interrogation in this new job promises to be his most challenging one.

"The story of (Arendt's) arrest and imprisonment and how she first became 'stateless,' not widely known even to readers and fans of Arendt, feels especially relevant to re-imagine today," says playwright Bader. "And the insight and courage she showed in those dark times made it possible to survive then and leave us a legacy of wisdom and inspiration now."

Winner of the 2019 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play

February 6 - March 1, 2020.

Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over exposes the unquestionable human spirit of young black men who dream about a promised land they've yet to find: Moses and Kitch stand around on the corner talking smack, passing the time, and hoping that today a miracle will come. They stand by a lamppost in a present-day ghetto, but it's also a plantation, and it's also Egypt, a city built by slaves. A provocative mashup of Waiting of Godot and the Exodus saga.

A World Premiere

April 16 - May 17, 2020.

J.Stephen Brantley's comedy Shruti Gupta Can Totally Deal is a Bollywood-tinged romance that explores what it means to be 'American' in the months following the 2016 election. Shruti is a Dreamer (i.e. a DACA recipient) in her senior year of medical school at CUNY. She lives very efficiently in the apartment above her uncle's jewelry store in Queens, and leaves the drama to her brother Raj, the soon-to-be-married prince of the family. Then an unexpected encounter with Irish actor-musician Liam threatens all of Shruti's practical plans. As their romance blossoms, they navigate cultural traditions, ICE raids, and newly unfettered racism.

Playwright Brantley says, "I'm so excited that Shruti will make her debut at Luna Stage, a place devoted to timely new plays that take on urgent issues with complexity and compassion. We live in complicated times and I can think of no place better to premiere a contemporary multi-cultural activist rom-com than Luna."

In conjunction with these MainStage productions, Luna will inaugurate the American Voices Series, featuring three solo pieces which will be presented in the newly-renovated Luna 2 theatre. These dynamic performances include Susan Hyon's Soo Jin Pretty Nail (opening Sept. 20) and Dipti Bramhandkar's American Rookie in January 2020. A third soon-to-be-announced production is slated for March..

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