2023 Second Stage Theater Uptown Series to Present TOROS By Danny Tejera This Summer

Second Stage Theater will present TOROS, written by Danny Tejera and directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, this summer at Second Stage Theater Uptown.

TOROS will begin previews Tuesday, July 18 and will officially open Tuesday, August 1 at the McGinn/Cazale Theater on Broadway at 76th Street. The production will feature Juan Castano, who returns to Second Stage Theater where he appeared in Bruce Norris' A Parallelogram in 2017. Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

In TOROS, three international late-20-somethings (and one dying golden retriever) hang out in a garage in Madrid. They smoke pitis, get drunk, argue about the music, and figure out what version of reality to believe in.

"Championing the next generation of playwrights is central to Second Stage Theater's mission, and TOROS is a perfect example of that mission at work," said Second Stage President and Artistic Director Carole Rothman. "This new American play was part of the Judith Champion New Voices series last year and we're thrilled to see it developed into this upcoming production at the McGinn/Cazale."

ABOUT Second Stage Theater UPTOWN

Created as a program to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theatre artists, Second Stage Theater UPTOWN seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and to create new plays for the American Theatre. Each show has a limited rehearsal period, as well as a streamlined budget.

The series was among the first established by a prominent Off-Broadway institution to help nurture and advance the careers of young up and coming playwrights. Since its founding in 2002 the Uptown Series has showcased the works of several established playwrights including Bess Wohl (Tony Award nominee for Grand Horizons), Rajiv Joseph (Gruesome Playground Injuries and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, "Nurse Jackie"), Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Good Boys and True, HBO's "Big Love" and "Looking," "Glee"), Adam Bock (A Small Fire, The Drunken City), and Brooke Berman (Hunting and Gathering); actors Timothée Chalamet, Ron Cephas Jones, Gavin Creel, Ari Graynor, Marin Hinkle, Halley Feiffer, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tracie Thoms and Tracee Chimo, among many others; and directors Whitney White, Davis McCallum, Trip Cullman, Carolyn Cantor, Evan Cabnet and Jackson Gay.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Playwright Danny Tejera is a member of EST/Youngblood and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Millay Arts, and Tofte Lake Center. He has received a commission from Second Stage Theater. Plays include Toros (Second Stage Judith Champion New Voices Series) and Scary Faces Happy Faces (Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, The Best 10 Minute Plays 2023). He teaches with The Bushwick Starr's Senior Storytelling program. He received a B.A. from Columbia University and a Playwriting M.F.A. at Hunter College/UT-Austin, where he was mentored by Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Gaye Taylor Upchurch is a freelance director with a background in dance. World premieres include: Sanaz Toossi's Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons); Anna Zeigler's The Last Match (Old Globe, Roundabout); Clare Lizzimore's Animal (Studio Theater, Atlantic Theater); Lauren Gunderson's The Half-Life of Marie Curie (Audible, Minetta Lane); Nick Gandiello's The Blameless (Old Globe) among others. Also, The Member of the Wedding (Williamstown); The Year of Magical Thinking (Arena); Simon Stephens' Bluebird and Harper Regan (Atlantic); the musical Songbird (Two River); Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and An Iliad (Hudson Valley Shakespeare). Proud member of SDC.

Juan Castano returns to Second Stage where he appeared in the 2017 production of Bruce Norris' A Parallelogram, directed by Michael Greif. Other theater credits include The Inheritance (Geffen Playhouse), Romeo y Julieta (The Public), Transfers (MCC, Lucille Lortel Award 'Best Lead Actor in a Play'), Oedipus El Rey (The Public, Drama League nomination). FILM: Red, White & Royal Blue (Amazon, upcoming), Rob Peace (Independent, upcoming), Encanto (Disney). TV: "The Great North" (Fox), "What/If" (Netflix), "Tales of the City" (Netflix), "The OA" (Netflix). Juan received the Drama Desk's Sam Norkin Award for Excellence in Off-Broadway Theatre.

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TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets can be purchased online at www.2ST.com. Standard tickets are $35, premium tickets are $50. For more information call the Second Stage Theater Box Office at (212) 541-4516 or visit at www.2ST.com.

Second Stage Theater 44th SEASON

Second Stage Theater's 44th Season kicked off last fall with Bess Wohl's new play, Camp Siegfried, directed by David Cromer, as well as Stephen Adly Guirgis' Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-nominated play, Between Riverside and Crazy, directed by Austin Pendleton and starring Tony Award nominee Stephen McKinley Henderson.

This spring, the season continued with the new musical, White Girl In Danger, written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Michael R. Jackson, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz and featuring choreography by Raja Feather Kelly. The musical, a co-production with Vineyard Theatre, opened on April 10th at the Kiser Theater. The season concluded with the Broadway premiere of Larissa FastHorse's The Thanksgiving Play, directed by Rachel Chavkin, which opened on April 20th at the Hayes Theater.

ABOUT Second Stage Theater

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theater operates three New York City venues, exclusively dedicated to producing living American Playwrights.

Second Stage's 2021-22 productions received several nominations and awards, including Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play (Take Me Out) and Best Featured Actor in a Play (Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Take Me Out); the Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Revival of a Play (Take Me Out), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Take Me Out) and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Uzo Aduba - Clyde's); the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Projection Design (Shawn Duan - Letters of Suresh); and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for a Play (Jennifer Moeller - Clyde's).

Among Second Stage's 180 productions are the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; Mary Page Marlowe by Tracy Letts; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I'm Not by Paul Weitz; Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture and Whorl Inside a Loop by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy and Notes From the Field by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Crowns by Regina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee.

The company's more than 170 citations include six 2017 Tony Awards for Dear Evan Hansen (Best Musical; Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Ben Platt; Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones; Best Book of a Musical; Best Original Score; Best Orchestrations); the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal), Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal), and Best Orchestrations (Tom Kitt and Michael Starobin, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, 11 Outer Critics Circle Awards, four Clarence Derwent Awards, 20 Drama Desk Awards, 11 Theatre World Awards, one Dorothy Louden Award, 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theater opened The Tony Kiser Theater, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theater, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theater Uptown" to showcase the work of up-and-coming artists at the 99-seat McGinn/Cazale Theater. The Theater supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs. In 2018, Second Stage began producing at its 581 seat Broadway home, The Hayes Theater. Originally named "The Little Theater" and built in 1912, the city landmark has been remodeled by David Rockwell of Rockwell Group.

For more information, please visit www.2ST.com or follow Second Stage on Twitter: @2STNYC, Instagram: @2stnyc and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2STNYC/

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