59E59 Theaters Announces Winter 2022 Season and Return to In-Person Programming

59E59 Theaters has announced their return to in-person programming in January 2022, including their Winter 2022 Season and the launch of the VOLT Festival in Spring 2022.

The 2022 season will also mark Primary Stages's (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) inaugural season as 59E59 Theaters' Resident Theater Company with New Golden Age by Karen Hartman, part of the VOLT Festival.

59E59 has also announced that LAByrinth Theater Company (Aaron Roman Weiner, Artistic Director) will make 59E59 Theaters its new artistic home beginning with a developmental production of Victor Almanzar's new solo show Through the Fire.

In addition, 59E59 Theaters announced three new initiatives created in the past year, the Makers Series, Space Lab, and Covid Relief Grants to better support artists and non-profit theater companies during the Covid shutdown. The Makers Series will kick off in February 2022 with Noor Theatre Company's First Down by SEVAN.

"When I heard that the esteemed LAByrinth Theater Company had lost their theatrical home during the pandemic, I knew we needed to step up to make sure they would land on their feet," said 59E59 Theaters Artistic Director Val Day. "We are over the moon to be working with them starting with Victor Almanzar's new solo show Through the Fire, which will be followed a few months later by their annual weeklong Barn Series of new play readings."

"During the pandemic, we remained extremely productive and, beginning in late March of 2020, we offered the first of a total of 20 streaming productions and readings including Chicken & Biscuits, now running on Broadway. Primary Stages, whose residency was meant to begin in 2020, produced 4 virtual offerings during the '20-'21 season.

"Now that our physical doors will be opening, we are thrilled to have kept previous commitments with many companies whose projects were slated for 2020, including The Civilians, whose musical Whisper House was shuttered the day before its first performance. We are especially fortunate to have all the original companies that were set to take part in the first annual VOLT Festival, featuring 3 new plays by Karen Hartman, return for the inaugural event.

"During the closure we reimagined what our foundation could offer to theater companies and devised a Covid Relief Grant program to provide $25,000 to 5 struggling companies. One grantee will be sharing their work with our audiences for the first time (Noor Theatre), producing First Down by SEVAN as part of a new, highly subsidized Markers Series program."

The 59E59 Theaters Winter 2022 Season will include:

The Civilians presents

Whisper House

Music & Lyrics by Duncan Sheik

Book & Lyrics by Kyle Jarrow

Conceived with Keith Powell

Directed by Steve Cosson

Choreographed by Billy Bustamante

January 11 - February 6, 2022

A dark and thrilling musical ghost story.

In an eerie lighthouse on the remote coast of Maine, two lonely people face the beginning of World War II. There's Yasuhiro-a Japanese immigrant threatened by the rising wartime xenophobia-and Lily, his employer, who's spent her whole life here. Their world is turned upside down when Lily's young nephew, Christopher, is sent to live with them. Soon, the boy begins to hear strange music seeping through the walls. Is his imagination getting the better of him? Or are there ghosts here and maybe dangerous ones at that? What happens next will change the lives of these three characters forever...

Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow's Whisper House combines a lush original score with a haunting story about fear of the other and the ways we can transcend it.

LAByrinth Theater Company presents
a developmental production of

Through the Fire

Written and performed by Victor Almanzar

Directed by Elizabeth Canavan

January 15 - February 5, 2022

Victor Almanzar's autobiographical solo show Through the Fire begins with a near-death experience that lands him in a Queens, NY hospital during the peak of the Covid pandemic. His life flashes before his eyes: his childhood in the Dominican Republic, his move as a youngster to NYC, gang life, drug life, identity struggles, love, and joining the marines. A story of survival and self-forgiveness driven by Victor's original Hip-Hop music.

Two Headed Rep presents

two plays created in response to Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim's Dulcitius

The Collision and What Came After, or, GUNCH!

By Nadja Leonhard-Hooper

Directed by Lily Riopelle

AND

The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Agape, Chionia, and Irena, by Hrotsvitha the Nun of Gandersheim, as told throughout the last millennium by the men, women, scholars, monastics, puppets, and theater companies (like this one) who loved her, Or: DULCITIUS

New text by Amanda Keating

Translation by Lizzie Fox

Directed by Molly Clifford

January 16 - February 5, 2022

In THE COLLISION, Sisters Anise, Gudrun, and Gunch spend their days praying, washing clothes, and copying the Bible. When a mysterious object falls from the sky-bringing death, destruction, and...unsettling changes in one of the sisters-they are forced to question: Was this God's work? Or the Devil's? And what happens when you can't tell the difference between a pervert and a prophet?

THE MARTYRDOM asks: How do you solve a problem like Hrotsvitha? More specifically, how do we solve her 10th-century comedy about three Christian virgins who triumph over the Devil by accepting their violent, corporeal deaths as a shortcut to eternal happiness with their Celestial Bridegroom? This raucous adaptation is a road trip through the last millennium with the people (and puppets) who have asked themselves this same question in hopes that someone else might have the answer.

Together, these plays explore how we make meaning from the stories we inherit and how to make new meanings when old stories fail us.

Happenstance Theater presents

Barococo

Directed by Mark Jaster and Sabrina Selma Mandell
Devised by Happenstance Theater

February 9 - March 6, 2022

Barococo dives into the late Baroque and flaunts 18th-century finery, wigs, panniers, gestural styling, elaborate ornamentation, and the excesses of Rococo in this unique physical comedy.

A charming and charismatic six-person ensemble exposes an indulgent aristocratic lifestyle precariously perched on the edge of its extinction. Happenstance Theater invites you to experience the charade-from parlor games to pantomime, from the exquisite to the revolting-in this delightful comedy of manners.

Geva Theatre Center presents

Heartland

By Gabriel Jason Dean
Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh

March 14 - April 10, 2022

Dr. Harold Banks is a retired professor of Comparative Literature and Afghan Studies waiting for his adopted daughter to return from teaching in Afghanistan, her native country. When Nazrullah, an Afghan refugee, suddenly arrives on his Nebraska doorstep armed only with his daughter's copies of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Old Man and the Sea, the two men become unlikely roommates. Set in both Maidan Shar, Afghanistan and Omaha, Nebraska, Heartland is the story of a father, his determined daughter, and a journey toward mercy.

Full casting and creative teams for the productions will be announced at a later date. For more information on tickets and performance schedules, visit 59E59.org.

With their return to in-person programming, 59E59 Theaters is launching new initiatives and programs that expand the support they offer to non-profit theater companies, including the VOLT Festival, Makers Series, Space Lab & Covid Relief Grants.

VOLT FESTIVAL

Launching in Spring 2022, the VOLT Festival will present three New York premieres, all authored by one under-represented writer, in all three of 59E59's theater spaces simultaneously. Three non-profit theater companies will be invited to produce works during the VOLT Festival.

The first annual VOLT Festival will showcase the talent of local playwright Karen Hartman with the NYC Premieres of her plays The Lucky Star, New Golden Age and Goldie, Max and Milk.

Douglas Denoff presents The Directors Company's production of

The Lucky Star

Directed by Noah Himmelstein

April 26 - June 12, 2022

Like so many great mysteries, it all began in an attic with a dusty, old suitcase... The discovery of a stash of over two hundred letters in three languages opens clues to an untold history in The Lucky Star-a gripping true story of resilience and determination, a family torn apart by war, fighting to immigrate, escape, and survive. With scenes alternating between past and present, this mesmerizing drama brings Richard Hollander's book, Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family's Correspondence from Poland to the stage, restoring a family's uncharted legacy.

Primary Stages presents the World Premiere of

New Golden Age

April 28 - June 9, 2022

In an era just beyond our own, two sisters fight for human connection as they face down a big tech dystopia. A folk-hero professor defends our most intimate relationships while her sister attempts a perilous inside maneuver within the corporation that owns and sees all. New Golden Age is a thrilling, revolutionary tale for today that reclaims a bond beyond data.

Mary J. Davis and MBL Productions present

Goldie, Max and Milk

Directed by Jackson Gay
May 1 - June 4, 2022

Max, a single lesbian, just gave birth. She's unemployed with a house that's falling apart, an ex on the loose, and no clue how to nurse her newborn. Can Goldie, an Orthodox Jewish lactation consultant, guide Max into motherhood? Or will conflicting family values get the better of them both? A surprising and deeply human comedy about motherhood, family, and doing what comes naturally.

Full casting and creative teams for the productions will be announced at a later date. For more information on the VOLT Festival, visit www.59e59.org/programs/volt.

MAKERS SERIES

Each year beginning in 2022, 59E59 Theaters will grant two BIPOC theatre companies who have shown exceptional potential for growth 5 weeks to rehearse and premiere a new work in Theater C. Participants in this new initiative, called the Makers Series, will receive the following:

Up to five consecutive weeks in Theater C for rehearsal and performance, including:

2-3 weeks rehearsal space

2-3 weeks for public performances (minimum of 16 performances)

100% of the net box office

Technical consultation, use of house inventory of sound and lighting equipment, and use of rep lighting plot

A marketing and PR package valued at $10,000, including the services of a professional publicist, graphic designer, and marketing team to create a bespoke graphics package and promotions campaign for their show.

As part of 59E59's first-ever Makers Series, Noor Theatre Company has been granted 5 weeks in Theater C to rehearse and premiere their new play, First Down by SEVAN, which will debut in February 2022. Noor was also the recipient of a 59E59 Covid Relief Grant. Additional information about the Markers Series can be found at www.59e59.org/programs/makers-series.

SPACE LAB

Beginning in 2022, 59E59 Theaters will grant emerging companies free use of their Theater B or C spaces for 2 weeks to explore the creation and development of a new work. Space Lab residents for 2022 include The Hearth and The Sa?'ng Collective. More information can be found at www.59e59.org/programs/space-lab.

COVID RELIEF GRANTS

In February 2021, the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation awarded Covid Relief Grants to 5 non-profit theater companies. The grants ranged from $10,000-$25,000 and were bestowed with the intention of supporting new work from BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ artists. The recipients were Less Than Rent, New Light Theater Project, Noor Theatre Company, Hypokrit Theatre Company, and PlayCo. More information about the grant recipients and their work can be found here.

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