Talia Ryder to Lead HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF at New York Theatre Workshop; Full Cast & Creative Team Announced

New York Theatre Workshop has announced the full cast and creative team for How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla (TWITCH), co-directed by Tony Award-winning NYTW Usual Suspect Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), Susan Smith Blackburn finalist Liliana Padilla and Princess Grace Award winner Steph Paul (The Last Match). How to Defend Yourself will begin performances Wednesday February 22, 2023, with an opening night set for Monday March 13, for a limited run through Sunday April 2, 2023.

The cast of How to Defend Yourself will include Amaya Braganza (The King and I), Sebastian Delascasas ("Promise"), Jayson Lee (Hooded: or being black for dummies), Ariana Mahallati (The Sky's Forest), Teagan Meredith ("The Calling"), Gabriela Ortega ("Safe Haven"), Sarah Marie Rodriguez ("Manifest") and Talia Ryder (Do Revenge).

How to Defend Yourself will feature scenic design by You-Shin Chen (Walden), costume design by Izumi Inaba (Kill Move Paradise), lighting design by Stacey Derosier (Fat Ham), and sound design by Tony Award winner Mikhail Fiksel (Dana H.). Casting is by Cindy Tolan, Erica Hart and Nicholas Petrovich. Rocio Mendez (On Sugarland) will serve as fight director, with Ann James (Pass Over) as intimacy coordinator, Dawn-Elin Fraser (Slave Play) as vocal coach, and Katie Young (A Case for the Existence of God) as Stage Manager.

I wish girls fought more. Like beat the shit out of each other for fun. I wish that was like a socially acceptable thing to do. Fight club, you know? If it was me and you, I think I'd win.

In a DIY self-defense class, college students learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn "not to be a victim." Self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire-lots of desire.

-You asked how I like it, that's how I like it.

-Maybe you can interrogate why you like that.

-Maybe you can interrogate why it scares you.

With sharp humor and brutal honesty, Liliana Padilla's How to Defend Yourself explores what we want, how to ask for it, and the violator and violated inside us all. Tony Award-winning NYTW Usual Suspect Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), Susan Smith Blackburn finalist Liliana Padilla (TWITCH) and Princess Grace Award winner Steph Paul (The Last Match) will co-direct the production.

How to Defend Yourself discusses but does not depict sex and sexual violence.

The performance schedule for How to Defend Yourself is as follows: Tuesday-Thursday at 7pm; Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm & 7pm. Exceptions: there will be no performances Saturday February 25 at 2pm; Tuesday March 14; and Sunday March 26 at 7pm.

Single tickets for How to Defend Yourself start at $35 and vary by performance date and time. $25 tickets will be available for the first two CHEAPTIX performances on February 22nd and 23rd. Single tickets for How to Defend Yourself are on sale now at NYTW.org or by calling 212-460-5475.

To enable more young people to see How to Defend Yourself, a block of tickets will be available at every performance to audience members age 30 and under for $30 per ticket. This offer is exclusively available to audience members age 30 and under and valid identification with date-of-birth will be required for each attendee. Tickets are non-transferable and anyone without proper identification will be required to pay the difference in the cost of a regular ticket to gain admission. All sales are final-no refunds or exchanges.

In order to provide access to those in their surrounding community and those with income limitations, NYTW launched CHEAPTIX, an affordable ticket program. At the first two performances of every NYTW production, tickets are sold to the general public for just $25. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, online at NYTW.org or by phone from the NYTW Box Office at 212-460-5475. Standard ticketing fees apply.

Additionally, a $25 day-of CHEAPTIX RUSH will be available for young people, seniors, artists and Lower East Side residents. Rush tickets are subject to availability and are sold cash-only, limit two per person. Proper identification is required for all rush tickets. Youth (ages 25 and under) and seniors (ages 65+) may present an ID indicating date-of-birth; Artists may present an ID and a program or union card; Lower East Side residents may present an ID that includes your address.

Currently in performances at NYTW is Merrily We Roll Along, featuring music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Merrily We Roll Along is directed by Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson and runs through January 22, 2023.

NYTW's 2022/23 season began with american (televisions) by NYTW Tow Playwright-in-Residence Victor I. Cazares, directed by NYTW Usual Suspect Rubén Polendo; and will continue in 2023 with Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, in a new adaptation by Pulitzer Prize finalist Clare Barron (Dance Nation, You Got Older), directed by Tony Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect Sam Gold (Othello, Fun Home); and The Half-God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles), directed by Taibi Magar (Help).

ABOUT NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP

New York Theatre Workshop empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and education and community engagement programs. We nurture pioneering new writers alongside powerhouse playwrights, engage inimitable genre-shaping directors, and support emerging artists in the earliest days of their careers. We've mounted over 150 productions from artists whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power's The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick and Forever; Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me; Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards, 2 Grammy Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin and the upcoming Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman.

Alongside its artistic and community engagement activities, NYTW is engaged in the essential, sustained commitment of becoming an anti-racist organization in support and affirmation of Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color in its community. In June of 2020, NYTW published its Core Values statement and initial action and accountability steps. In an effort to provide greater transparency, NYTW shares progress updates, further commitments and next steps at nytw.org/accountability.

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