Lana Gordon, Angel Reda and More to Star in DirectorFest's HELLO AGAIN

 

The Drama League presents DirectorFest, the only festival in the United States dedicated to the art of Contemporary Stage directing. Launching the 2020 series is the musical Hello Again, with Book, Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa, Music Direction by Jesse Kissel, and

Directed by 2019 Drama League Leo Shull Musical Directing Fellow Ben Randle. The four-member cast features Broadway veterans Lana Gordon (Chicago, The Lion King), Angel Reda (The Cher Show), Matthew Christian and Pablo Torres, with musicians Jesse Kissel (conductor/piano), Michael Hess (cello), Mike Lunoe (percussion), and Justin Vance (reeds). The Production Stage Manager is Karen Schleifer. Casting by Stephen DeAngelis. Performances begin Friday, January 10, 2020 at 7:00pm through January 12 at The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street). Tickets are priced at $45 Premium Seating | $25 General Seating | $20 Drama League/SDC/AEA/DG Members.

Ben Randle recently relocated to NYC, after 15 years working in San Francisco, including four seasons as Artistic Associate at New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC). World Premieres include Plover (2018 Samuel French OOB Play Festival); Salome, Dance for Me, Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman; warplay and Into the Clear Blue Sky by JC Lee. Regional premieres include Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet and The Submission by Jeff Talbott; other credits include Sweeney Todd (Ray of Light Theatre) and Hank Williams: Lost Highway (Douglas Morrison Theatre). Ben has worked at Cal Shakes, Aurora Theatre, ZSpace, and West Edge Opera, among others. B.A., San Francisco State University; Manhattan Theatre Club Directing Fellow 2017-2018; Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab.

Michael John LaChiusa's acclaimed musical retelling of Schnitzler's La Ronde -- in which a circle of intimate encounters weave together across time and space, spanning a century of human experience -- receives a groundbreaking new revival in the hands of director Ben Randle. Just four actors tackle twenty characters in ten decades, exploring new possibilities in the intersections of gender, class, race, sexuality, and history. As the connections multiply and fracture before our eyes, Hello Again maps the chasm between power and intimacy, set to one of the most captivating scores of the modern era.

Hello Again and the Leo Shull Musical Directing Fellowship are supported, in part, with funds from The Leo Shull Foundation for the Arts.

DirectorFest will take place January 10 - February 4, 2020 at various locations around NYC: The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street), The Drama League Theater Center (32 Avenue of the Americas), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thomson Avenue), and Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street). For festival details and tickets, visit directorfest.org or call (212) 244-9494 x102. .

For its 36th year, the festival will include 27 actors in six fully-staged productions and a concert of a new docu-play with music. Taking place over five weeks in venues across Manhattan, highlights of the festival include all-new stagings of works by Michael John LaChiusa (Hello Again) and Harold Pinter (The Lover), revivals of rarely-seen works by Tina Howe (Appearances) and Marcus Gardley (The Sporting Life of Icarus Jones), and Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic (The Drowning Girls), a concert of songs from the new docu-play with music by Matthew Dean Marsh and Oscar Lopez (Riot Song), and the North American premiere of a new theatrical immersive experience created by Belgian director Christian Bakalov (Pure).

Chosen last spring from over 400 applicants, the directors leading the festival's new productions this year -- NJ Agwuna, Chika Ike, Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly, Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Ben Randle, Hannah Ryan, and Mr. Bakalov -- recently completed their development programs as part of The Drama League Directors Project.

The festival also includes conversations with 2017 Tony Award Winner Rebecca Taichman (Indecent), 2014 Tony Award Winner and 2010 Drama League Founders Award for Excellence in Directing Kenny Leon (A Soldier's Play), and Intimacy Director Claire Warden (HBO's "Mrs. Fletcher").

 

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