New York Premiere of Ikechukwu Ufomadu's AMUSEMENTS to be Presented at Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons will present the New York premiere of Amusements, written and performed by Emmy-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning actor, writer, and comedian Ikechukwu Ufomadu (Playwrights: Dance Nation; Inspector Ike, Words with Ike) and directed by Nemuna Ceesay (Reply All; Associate Director of A Strange Loop on Broadway). Amusements takes the “simultaneously deadpan and warmly funny” (Paste) singularity of Ufomadu’s old-timey entertainer persona to new heights. Performances take place November 8 - December 3 in Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The production opens on November 20.

Amusements is part of a repertory series of innovative solo works performed by their creators this season at Playwrights Horizons. The series also includes the Off-Broadway premiere of Alexandra Tatarsky’s Sad Boys in Harpy Land, directed by Iris McCloughan (November 2 – 26, opening November 13), and Milo Cramer’s School Pictures, directed by Morgan Green (November 8 – December 3, opening November 20). The 2023-24 season’s three writer-performed solo works all share the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Each of these events features the playwright as the performer, reminding us of the essential components of drama: the storyteller and the audience. This trio of plays is a new variation on the organization’s programming templates, and its performances are offered at a lower price point.

Ufomadu’s “droll, murmuring delivery…leaves audiences in a haze of laughter” (Time Out) and earned him a place on Vulture’s list of “Comedians You Should and Will Know in 2022”— where he was lauded as “that rarest of things in the world of alt-comedy: a true gentleman scholar.” In this work at Playwrights that plays on the theatricality of comedy and the comic oddities of theater, Ufomadu seeks to provide the audience with the finest Amusements he can muster. This actor, entertainer, and avant-garde soothsayer pursues this goal with unflappable diligence, defying genre while operating within the bounds of international law. His signature use of the time-tested tools of words, music, and light multimedia usher audiences oh-so-gently into a haze of mirthful absurdity. 

With Amusements, Ufomadu deepens his long-lived fascination with mid-century American variety show entertainer personas, toying with the bizarre formality applied to acts of silliness by figures like Andy Williams and Johnny Carson. As Ufomadu describes, “On those shows, people dress up in their finest in order to throw pies in each other’s faces.” He adds, “There’s often the warm, friendly feeling of being entertained in a friend’s living room. But at the same, the mere presence of a camera or microphone points to the intriguing line between oneself and one’s stage persona.”

Ufomadu elicits the unknown in the everyday as he offers trivial observations with professorial authority: “I enjoy finding very common experiences of being a human being that are taken for granted, and twisting those familiar experiences into something strange and new again.” 

Nemuna Ceesay lends her directorial vision to this production at Playwrights Horizons, where this work is offered the space and resources to expand its theatricality. She says her approach has been to preserve what Ufomadu has created and presented (most recently with a sold out, critically-acclaimed run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe) while asking, “How do we add layers on top of what already exists? We're very excited to be able to play with elements of surprise and theatricality in the piece on a different scale. We get to add elements that feel like they're bursting to get out and haven't had the space to before.” 

Says Adam Greenfield, “The three productions running in repertory share the commonality of ‘solo performance’ but are otherwise so spectacularly different: Ikechukwu Ufomadu unexpectedly collapses bone-dryness and whimsy into an evening of theatrical and hilarious anti-theatrics and anti-humor; in Alex’s Sad Boys, characters explode from the performer in ways as laugh-out-loud funny as they are disquieting; Milo Cramer’s work, like Tatarsky’s, explores questions of complicity and our role in the systems around us, with keen, trenchant observation rendered through the sweet simplicity of ditties we might learn in school. With these works, we’re seeking to expand the range of artists and works that audiences expect to see at Playwrights Horizons. It's our mission to support and advance playwrights, and to do so means considering fully what the word ‘playwright’ means.  In these works, we see the vast range of possibility that exists between a single performer onstage, the audience, and all the unpredictable things they can do with the space between them.”

About Ikechukwu Ufomadu 

Ikechukwu Ufomadu is an Emmy-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning actor, writer and comedian, named a “Comedian You Should and Will Know” by Vulture/New York Magazine and a “Comic to Look Out For” by Time Out New York.

He co-wrote and stars in the indie comedy feature Inspector Ike (BRIC/Factory 25), praised in the New York Times as an “often-inspired goof” and in Paste Magazine as a “cult classic in the making.” The film won the Jury Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival. He also co-wrote and stars in the short-form series Words with Ike (FX) which was recognized with an Emmy nomination for Best Actor in a Short Form Series.

He recently wrote for the late night series Ziwe (Showtime) and has also written for the Emmy-nominated Tooning Out The News (Paramount Plus) and Paid Off (TruTV).

As an actor, he can be seen in the Oscar-nominated Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros), Los Espookys (HBO), Three Busy Debras, Joe Pera Talks With You (Adult Swim), and more. He was in the world premiere production of Clare Barron’s Dance Nation at Playwrights Horizons. As a comedian, he’s performed at venues including The Kennedy Center, SXSW, The Public Theater, Joe’s Pub, Ars Nova, Bushwick Starr, JACK, Union Hall and San Francisco Sketchfest.

His work has received development support from Joe’s Pub Working Group, SPACE at Ryder Farm and Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep. He was an inaugural recipient of the Jerome Foundation Artist Fellowship.
 

About Nemuna Ceesay 

Nemuna Ceesay is a multi-hyphenate artist most often in the roles of director, actor, and educator. Select Directing Credits: Associate Director of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning A Strange Loop on Broadway, Reply All (Clubbed Thumb Winterworks), Metamorphoses and 12 Ophelias (Atlantic Acting School), the 66th Obie Awards, and the American Theatre Wing Gala (2022). She was also a 2022 Clubbed Thumb New Play Directing Fellow. Select Acting Credits: Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Shed, Second Stage, Two River, Joe’s Pub, PlayMakers Rep, Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T., The Public Theatre, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Select TV credits: Bull, Broad City, Instinct, Younger, FBI, Prodigal Son and Katy Keene. MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theater. Nemuna is also the founder and Creative Director of an all BIPOC training program called The Blueprint. 

Ticketing Information

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, October 10, and can be purchased here.  

About Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is a writer's theater dedicated to the development of contemporary American Playwrights, and to the production of innovative new work. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons' 52-year-old mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering and advancing the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country.

Playwrights Horizons believes that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, offering essential contributions to civic discourse and illuminating life’s greatest paradoxes. And they believe in the singularity of a writer’s voice, valuing the broad, eclectic spectrum and diversity of American writers. At Playwrights Horizons, writers are supported in every stage of their growth through commissions (engaging several of today’s most imaginative playwrights each year), New Works Lab, Soundstage audio program, and Almanac, the organization’s literary magazine.

Playwrights Horizons presents a season of productions annually on their two stages, each of which is a world, American, or New York premiere. Much like Playwrights Horizons’ work, their audience is risk-taking and adventurous; and the organization is committed to strengthening their engagement and feeding their curiosity through all of its programming, onsite and online.

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