Frank Wood, Abubakr Ali & b Join TOROS at Second Stage Theater Uptown

Complete casting has been set for Second Stage Theater's TOROS by Danny Tejera and directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. Abubakr Ali (Anything’s Possible), b (American (Tele)Visions) and Tony Award-winner Frank Wood (Great Society) join the previously announced Juan Castano (2ST’s A Parallelogram).

This limited engagement will begin previews Tuesday, July 18 and will officially open Tuesday, August 1 at the McGinn/Cazale Theater on Broadway at 76th Street. Toros was presented as a part of the Judith Champion New Voices Reading Series in 2022.

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.

TOROS features scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Enver Chakartash, lighting design by Barbara Samuels, and sound design by Darron L West. Casting is by The Telsey Office.

TOROS is made possible in part by the New American Voices Fund, which was established in 2016 by a lead gift from David Stone. Second Stage Theater’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The Season is supported by a grant from the Howard Gilman Foundation. New Play Development at Second Stage is supported by a grant from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. 

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

Abubakr Ali

starred in Anything’s Possible (MGM/Orion) dir. Billy Porter and was the titular lead in the Netflix/Dark Horse series “Grendel.” Additional selected credits include “Walking Dead: World Beyond” (AMC), “Power Book II” (Starz), and “Katy Keene” (CW). Theater credits include We Live in Cairo (A.R.T), Kiss (Yale Rep), Twelfth Night (Yale Rep) and work with The 24 Hour Plays, Primary Stages, NYTW, Atlantic Theatre Company, The Public, and others. Abubakr is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

b

has made queer appearances in American (Tele)Visions (NYTW), Unprincess Non-Bride (MTC), Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic Theater Project), Addressless (Rattlestick Theater), and two seasons at Clubbed Thumb Summerworks.  Their television appearances include “WeCrashed” (Apple TV+), “Let The Right One In” (Showtime), and “Witch Mountain” (Disney+ Pilot). b can be heard playing Azera in the hit podcast Birds Of Empire(QCode), Vanessa Garcia in Zero Tolerance (Audible Originals), and as Janessa in Love In Gravity (Harley & Co).  b went to Juilliard. 

Frank Wood

Tony Award, Drama League Award for Sideman. Broadway: Great Society; Network; Iceman Cometh; Clybourne Park; August: Osage County; Born Yesterday; Hollywood Arms. Off-Broadway: MTC; Signature; Vineyard; LCT; Atlantic; Playwrights. Film: She Said; Joker; St. Vincent; Changeling; Dan in Real Life; Thirteen Days; In America; Down to You; Royal Tennenbaums. TV: (partial list) “Billions”; “Blacklist”; “The Night Of”; “Mozart in the Jungle”; “Newsroom”; “Girls”; “Flight of the Conchords”; “Sopranos”; “Law & Order: SVU” (recurring). Education: BA, Wesleyan; MFA, NYU Graduate Acting.  

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.

 Danny Tejera

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.

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.

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; Clyde’s and 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 the 2022 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for Take Me Out, as well as Best Featured Actor in a Play for Jesse Tyler Ferguson; 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/