Playwrights Horizons Announces Accessibility Super Nights For THE TREES and REGRETFULLY, SO THE BIRDS ARE

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director Adam Greenfield, Managing Director Leslie Marcus) has announced a schedule of performances of its next two productions-Agnes Borinsky's The Trees, directed by Tina Satter and co-produced with Page 73 Productions (Artistic Director Michael Walkup, Managing Director Amanda Feldman), and Julia Izumi's Regretfully, So the Birds Are, directed by Jenny Koons and co-produced with WP Theater (Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty, Managing Director Michael Sag)-for which it will provide various accessibility services. The offerings for each production include an Accessibility Super Night, when all of these services will be available within a single performance. Friends, family, and allies are welcome.

Adam Greenfield, Artistic Director of Playwrights Horizons, said, "The team at Playwrights Horizons champions mutual care, inclusivity and connection. As Artistic Director, it's imperative to me that our full community-audiences, artists, staff, and anyone who enters our doors-feels our commitment to making work that's accessible to and in service of all who make up our beloved city."

Katasha Nelson, Playwrights Horizons' Manager of Audience Services, added, "As the Manager of Audience Services, it is my goal to make sure everyone feels at home when they come to Playwrights Horizons. The experience of celebrating the work of our artists, production teams, and staff is something that must be accessible to all audience members. As our efforts continue to evolve, we are focused on the community as a whole, and not just those who possess the most privilege among us."

The Trees

In Agnes Borinsky's The Trees, which makes its world premiere February 12-March 19 (and opens March 5) on the Mainstage at Playwrights Horizons, siblings Sheila and David unwittingly establish a utopian community in a public park after waking up and realizing their feet have rooted into the ground. Borinsky's mischievously human play is quite literally grounded in relationships-with its protagonists stuck in, and to, nature and intimate coexistence. The production features a cast of 12 including Jess Barbagallo, Marcia DeBonis, Crystal Dickinson, Sean Donovan, Xander Fenyes, Nile Harris, Max Gordon Moore, Pauli Pontrelli, Ray Anthony Thomas, Danusia Trevino, Sam Breslin Wright, and Becky Yamamoto.

For The Trees, Playwrights will offer the following accessibility services:

• Thursday, March 2, at 8pm: audio description and touch tour
  Sunday, March 5, at 2:30pm matinee: relaxed performance
• Tuesday, March 7, at 7pm: ASL interpretation
• Sunday, March 5, at 2:30pm - Sunday, March 19, at 2:30pm: GalaPro
• Wednesday, March 15, at 7pm: Accessibility Super Night, including post-show reception with food and drinks
• Throughout the Run: Assisted listening devices, support animal and wheelchair/mobility accommodations

Regretfully, So the Birds Are

In Julia Izumi's farcical Regretfully, So the Birds Are, presented March 22 - April 30 (and opening April 11) in Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater, arson, affairs, incest, and murder are only the beginning of problems for the Whistler siblings. Mora's got to find her birth mother, Neel's got to find himself, and Illy's got to keep her piece of the sky-but the birds have other plans. Regretfully, So the Birds Are is a wild, farcical tragedy that gleefully flips the human quest for self-discovery on its head. The cast of comedic actors includes Sasha Diamond, Gibson Frazier, Kristine Nielsen, Sky Smith, Pearl Sun, and Shannon Tyo.

For Regretfully, So the Birds Are, Playwrights will offer the following accessibility services:

• Thursday, April 20, at 7:30pm: audio description and touch tour
• Sunday, April 16, at 2pm: relaxed performance
• Tuesday, April 25, at 7:30pm: ASL interpretation
• Tuesday, April 11, at 7:30pm - Sunday, April 30, at 2pm: GalaPro
• Friday, April 28, at 7:30pm: Accessibility Super Night, presented in partnership with Co/Lab, including post-show reception with food and drinks
• Throughout the Run: Assisted listening devices, support animal and wheelchair/mobility accommodations

Playwrights Horizons' Commitment to Health

To best protect artists, audiences and staff, wearing face masks is required at Playwrights Horizons except while actively eating or drinking. The company has outlined all current updates in their health and safety policy.

The theater's ventilation system complies with the CDC's standards (MERV-13 filters), high-touch surfaces are being cleaned regularly, and paperless ticketing is offered for all performances.

Accessibility Consultants

Playwrights Horizons' accessibility services are developed in collaboration with the following consultants:

Becca Yuré (Accessibility Consultant), PhD, BCBA, LBA, collaborates with Playwrights Horizons for Relaxed Performances. She also serves as the Lead Autism Consultant for TDF's Autism Friendly Performances, supports Roundabout Theatre's Relaxed Performance Series, and works closely with other cultural institutions to promote access in the arts. In addition, she has been an educator in the classroom, home, clinic, and community environments. She earned a doctorate in behavior analysis, masters degrees in education and marriage and family therapy, and is a Licensed, Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Dr. Yuré is the Clinical Director of By Your Side Services Licensed Applied Behavior Analyst Practice PLLC, supervising and training providers, teachers, paraprofessionals, caretakers, and parents, and offering one-on-one direct treatment and Buddy Club friendship groups. She is an adjunct professor at The Chicago School for Professional Psychology and conducts research on applying the science of behavior to accessibility, music, dance, and theater. She founded the non-profit organization BAMM Incluvision to support projects aimed at inclusion and accessibility in media from the inception of each creation.

Andrea Miskow (Audio Describer) has been audio-describing live theater since 2004. She trained at Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project. She describes on a regular basis for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and several other theaters in NYC, including Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theater, The Public Theater, Signature Theatre, The New Group, Theatre Breaking Through Barriers, and the first live audio-described performance of Hamilton. Miskow works with Sound Associates and GalaPro on providing pre-recorded audio description for Broadway theaters and touring productions. She studied at the National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Acting work includes regional theater on the East and West coasts, as well as dozens of commercials and voice-overs.

Angela Johnson (Accessibility Consultant) is the Founder of Invest In Access, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to advancing social equity for disabled Americans. To that end, she and her team strategically focus their efforts on establishing relationships with organizations that have the capacity to reshape their communications, event management, human resources and general operations in order to establish new best practices that will result in equitable access for all. She has worked with the ACLU's New York & Southern California chapters, Black Theatre United, Black Women on Broadway, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, March for Our Lives, MAESTRA, and The Broadway League. Johnson is a federal service member of the Biden-Harris Administration. In this role, Johnson prepares and executes ground logistics that support successful domestic and internal national trips of Vice President Kamala D. Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas C. Emoff. Before her entrepreneurial endeavors, she worked across the industries of education, development, finance, and national politics.

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' 51-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, POP Master Class series, Soundstage audio program, the Lighthouse Project, and Almanac, the organization's digital 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.

About Co/Lab

CO/LAB Theater Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing Creative Opportunities without Limits And Boundaries. CO/LAB offers individuals with developmental disabilities a creative and social outlet through theater arts.

About Page 73 Productions

Since its founding in 1997, Page 73 has unwaveringly focused on nurturing early-career playwrights and expanding the theatrical canon. The organization has consistently sought to open new pathways to recognition for fresh, urgent, and daring voices, in part by mounting works solely by writers who have not yet had a New York City premiere Off-Broadway. In 2020, the organization was honored with an institutional Obie Award "for providing extraordinary support for early career playwrights."

Page 73 has become renowned for introducing playwrights with a distinct approach to theatricality and language into the larger theatrical ecosystem. Page 73 offers writers career guidance, financial assistance, and development opportunities through programs including the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, the Interstate 73 Writers Group, and writing retreats and residencies. The organization helps playwrights move their work toward premiere, in Page 73's own presentations or co-presentations with partner institutions, or by connecting writers to available opportunities at colleague theaters. Playwrights leave Page 73's programs having meticulously honed their crafts, formed kinetic new collaborative relationships, and been equipped to flourish as empowered, self-assured artists.

Page 73 developed and, with Playwrights Horizons, produced the world premiere of Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop, which won dozens of prestigious awards including the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Among Page 73's many other celebrated world and New York premieres are Zora Howard's STEW, which was named a Finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can, Leah Nanako Winkler's Kentucky, Max Posner's Judy, Clare Barron's You Got Older, George Brant's Grounded, and John J. Caswell, Jr.'s Man Cave. Diversifying the American theater and making space for voices theater audiences have not yet heard is at the core of Page 73's ethos. Page 73 has co-produced with eminent new play theaters including Soho Rep., Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. The organization produced the professional New York City debuts of Samuel D. Hunter (2015 MacArthur Fellow), Quiara Alegría Hudes (2012 Pulitzer Prize winner), Dan LeFranc (2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award recipient), Heidi Schreck (2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee), and Clare Barron (2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist). Close to two-thirds of the over 140 playwrights supported by the organization have subsequently received New York or regional theater productions, and the number grows each season.

About WP Theater

WP Theater, now in its 45th Season, is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing, and promoting the work of Women+ at every stage of their careers. For over four decades, WP has served as leaders of a global movement towards gender parity - and the artists fostered have grown into a robust, thriving community in theater and beyond. WP empowers Women+ artists of all kinds to reach their full potential, challenging preconceptions about the kinds of plays they write and the stories they tell.

Founded in 1978 by Julia Miles, WP Theater has earned acclaim as a home for Women+ theatermakers, historically marginalized in the field, to hone their craft while becoming leaders, change-makers, and advocates in the industry. To date, the company has produced more than 700 Mainstage productions and developmental projects and published 11 anthologies of plays by Women+ artists, and continues to forge forward in making a difference in the artistic landscape of New York and beyond, by offering these artists a platform to develop and present their stories.

Today, WP accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs, including: the WP Lab, a celebrated two-year mentorship and new play development program for Women+ playwrights, directors, and producers; the Space Program, providing inexpensive performance space to mission aligned small theater companies and individual artists; the Developmental series of workshops and readings; the Commissioning program, and the Mainstage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary Women+ theater artists. Current artists under commission are: Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Emily Kaczmarek, MJ Kaufman, Sylvia Khoury, Zoe Sarnak, and Leah Nanako Winkler.

WP Theater received a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award and an 2019 Obie Award, both for Outstanding Body of Work; and a 2020 Special Drama Desk Award recognizing WP and its founder, Julia Miles. As the premier launching pad for some of the most influential artists in theater, television, and film, WP's work has a significant impact on the field. Nearly every notable female theater artist has been through its doors, including: 2019 Tony Winner Rachel Chavkin; two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner Martyna Majok; MacArthur "Genius" Grant Winner & Tony Award Nominee Dominique Morisseau; Tony Winner Pam MacKinnon; and Tony Winner Diane Paulus. At WP, these powerful women found an early artistic home and are a testament to the organization's role as a driving cultural force.

*When we say Women+, we mean people who are cis women, trans, non-binary, or gender nonconforming people, and all gender identities which have been systematically oppressed throughout history in the theater and beyond.