Primary Stages Announces Additional Events For Remaining 2017 Season

Primary Stages (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) announced today additional programming and events for the Fall 2017 season.

On Sunday, November 26, Primary Stages will present a staged reading of Kate Hamill's adaption of LITTLE WOMEN, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott. Directed by Sarna Lapine, the cast will feature Megan Byrne, Juliana Canfield, Kate Hamill, Jason O'Connell, Michael Stuart Allen, Elise Santorra, Erica Sweany, and Kuhoo Verma. The reading will be held at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St) on Sunday, November 26 at 6:30pm. The reading is free and open to the public. Tickets can be reserved at eventbrite.com.

Jo March doesn't want to be like other girls; in fact, she's not even sure that she wants to be a girl. Jo is ambitious; she's rough around the edges; she's headstrong... and she yearns for a future she can't yet articulate. As a nation is torn apart by civil war, Jo and her sisters struggle with what it means to grow up. Gender roles, political beliefs, poverty, and even love itself threaten to break family ties, as the sisters try to reconcile their identities with society's demands. Because how do you stay true to yourself... when the world wants you to become a perfect little woman?

Primary Stages ESPA Detention is a monthly performance series that fosters collaboration and new play development within the Primary Stages ESPA community of artists. The December installment pays particular attention to artistic partnerships and the idea of home as we showcase our artists at the Cherry Lane Theatre, the home of Primary Stages. Writers and actors will be paired, and writers will then create a monologue specifically for the actors based on these conversations and collaborations. Actors will then be paired with ESPA directors, and this night of monologues will be performed at the Cherry Lane. This is a challenging opportunity for writers to create material for a specific person and for actors to receive and perform a monologue written especially for them. The December ESPA Detention will be held Sunday, December 3 at 7pm at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St).

The six students in Directing from Page to Stage Showcase - ANTIGONE, a Primary Stages ESPA directing class, have been delving into the text of Antigone to define and articulate their individual visions for the piece under the guidance of instructor Suzanne Agins. They have each taken their specific vision and applied it to staging one scene from this work. Antigone will be shared as a whole in chronological order, but with varying visions, expressions, and casts for each scene. This is a great chance to see insightful directors at work, and get six different perspectives on the same play within one showing, which will take place on Sunday, December 10 at 7pm at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St).

Primary Stages will also present a staged reading of A PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO HISTORY IN THE TIME OF HERE AND NOW, written by Rehana Lew Mirza and directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt. The reading will be held at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St) on Thursday, December 14 at 3pm. The reading is free and open to the public. Tickets can be reserved at eventbrite.com.

Loner and grungy Muslim-American student Jennah has just transferred to a small Michigan high school, and during the weeks immediately following the 2016 election, she struggles to find her place as she embarks on a battle of wills against a popular History and Civics teacher. A People's Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now asks how can we teach history when people have two versions of the present.

Currently in performances as part of Primary Stages 2017/18 season is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, adapted by and featuring Kate Hamill (Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility) in a co-production with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE began previews on November 7, 2017, opened on November 19, and will run through January 6, 2018.

The season began with THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens AND COUNT Leo Tolstoy: DISCORD, written by Scott Carter ("Real Time with Bill Maher") and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced), and will continue with the World Premiere of A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ, written by James Inverne (Wrestling with Elephants). Directed by Benjamin Kamine (Washer/Dryer), A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ is set to run January-February 2018. The season will conclude with FEEDING THE DRAGON, written and performed by Sharon Washington (While I Yet Live) and directed by Maria Mileaf (A Body of Water). Presented in a co-production with Hartford Stage, FEEDING THE DRAGON will run March-April 2018.

Single tickets for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE are priced starting at $80 with additional premium seating options offered. All tickets are available at PrimaryStages.org or by calling OvationTix at 212-352-3101. Group tickets are available for $45 per ticket ($35 for student groups) by contacting 212-840-9705. Subscriptions for the Primary Stages 2017/18 Season are on sale now for $135 and include tickets to all three remaining mainstage productions. All subscription packages can also be purchased by visiting PrimaryStages.org or by calling OvationTix at 212-352-3101.

The Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA)'s multidisciplinary classes have trained playwrights, actors, and directors in all stages of their development and from all corners of the globe. Our focus is on nurturing, honoring, and advocating for emerging artists by providing them countless developmental opportunities, space to write and rehearse, and a family of collaborators. Students benefit from a kaleidoscope of perspectives and methods from our award-winning family of instructors-all working theater artists in NYC and around the country. Through building these connections and a body of work at ESPA, our playwrights have received workshops and productions, won awards, and garnered professional attention among artistic leaders across the country. Our actors and directors have built relationships that now extend far beyond our walls. Having provided a home for over 3,000 artists, ESPA has become a trailblazer in performing arts education, new play development, and collaboration within the Primary Stages and greater New York Theater community. ESPA is open to all artists, in all stages of their careers.

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 130 new plays, including In Transit by James Allen-Ford, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth (which debuted on Broadway last season); Horton Foote's The Roads to Home, The Day Emily Married, Harrison, TX, and Dividing the Estate (two 2009 Tony Award nominations); David Ives' All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival) and Lives of the Saints; Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); Billy Porter's While I Yet Live; Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent; Charles Busch's The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter Herbs; Ike Holter's Exit Strategy; Tanya Saracho's Fade; Michael McKeever's Daniel's Husband, A.R. Gurney's Black Tie; Daisy Foote's When They Speak of Rita and Him; Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior; Tanya Barfield's The Call; Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome; Dan O'Brien's The Body of an American; Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S .debut). Our productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including numerous Tony, Obie, Lortel, Off-Broadway Alliance, AUDELCO, Outer Critics' Circle, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards and nominations. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education, access, and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting, Teenwrights, the Free Student Matinee Program, the Internship Program, TixTeen, PS35, and the newly launched Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative-connections within the theater community.

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