The Collective Returns Featuring World Premiere Tennessee Williams Play Starring Amanda Plummer
By: Julie Musbach Jul. 11, 2018
THE COLLECTIVE NY announces its Fall 2018 season, marking the company's return to producing in New York and beyond.
"We're very excited to bring these productions to audiences in New York City and Provincetown this fall," stated Artistic Director Ross DeGraw. "THE COLLECTIVE consists of extremely talented artists in many fields, and we wanted to create a season that would celebrate these artists and allow them to continue to hone their craft with their home company."
Founded in 2007 by a group of alumni of the William Esper Studio, the mission of THE COLLECTIVE NY is to unite professional artists who share a responsibility to create work in the contemporary American theatre that is emotionally truthful, socially relevant, and defiantly accessible through weekly studio development sessions and full productions. Founding Members include Mike Houston, Kevin Kane, and Amy Schumer. Company credits include revivals of Ionesco's The Lesson, McGuinness's Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, and original productions 360, Me Equals This, Happy Girl and the Emmy Award-winning television show "Inside Amy Schumer."
The season will begin with the world premiere of David Thigpen's THE HURRICANE PARTY, directed by Tony Award nominee Maria Dizzia (In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play) at The Cherry Lane Theatre in September 2018.
From September 27-30, THE COLLECTIVE NY will present the world premiere of a never-been-read Tennessee Williams play, TALISMAN ROSES, at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, starring Tony Award Winner Amanda Plummer (Agnes of God, Pulp Fiction) and directed by Golden Globe Winner Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl, Cinderella Liberty), alongside Williams's SOME PROBLEMS FOR THE MOOSE LODGE and STEPS MUST BE GENTLE, which will be directed by Rory Pelsue. Tickets are on sale now at TWPTown.org.
David Kaplan, curator and co-founder of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Play Festival, recounts finding the manuscript for TALISMAN ROSES: "One folder stood out in the Ransom Center collection of Williams' manuscripts: a set of drafts for a short play titled TALISMAN ROSES. The drafts showed steady progress and there was a version with a cover page. I can't say I discovered it, but I can say I recognized it is as stageworthy. As the drafts developed, Williams altered the spelling - "sassiety column" for "society column" for example -- to catch the music of Mid-Western speech, something different than the music of Southern speech he's known for in, say, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Also, importantly, TALISMAN ROSES had a happy ending, but a close reading of the drafts revealed that when Williams revised the play he made his happy ending less sure. Is the longed-for conclusion a loving hoax? This question gives leeway for interpretation and nuance in performance. It makes the performance of the play an event."
The 6th annual C:10, featuring ten 10-minute world premiere plays, will take place in November 2018. A venue will be announced at a later date, along with ticket information.
The season will conclude with the New York premiere of THE NET WILL APPEAR, coproduced with Mile Square Theatre at 59E59 in December 2018. THE NET WILL APPEAR was written by Erin Mallon, directed by Mark Cirnigliaro, and will star Richard Masur (Relevance).
THE HURRICANE PARTY
By David Thigpen
Directed by Maria Dizzia
September 2018
THE HURRICANE PARTY, a new play by Company Member, David Thigpen. Thigpen's pulverizing southern American voice takes us on a break neck roller coaster ride where the characters are forced to face themselves in the most dangerous time of their lives. This slickly invented and hilariously debaucherous journey into the heart of an approaching storm grabs from the first second and doesn't let go until long after it's too late.
TALISMAN ROSES
Starring Amanda Plummer
Directed by Marsha Mason
Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival
September 27-30, 2018
Tennessee Williams imagines flowers might restore a crushed soul in this unpublished one-act, performed for the first time under the direction of distinguished actress and director Marsha Mason.
SOME PROBLEMS FOR THE MOOSE LODGE and STEPS MUST BE GENTLE
Directed by Rory Pelsue
Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival
September 27-30, 2018
Steps Must Be Gentle is Williams' fantasia about the poet Hart Crane, who committed suicide by jumping off a ship into the Gulf of Mexico. Crane's life, death, and poetry were inspirations to Williams. In Steps Must Be Gentle, Williams pictures Hart Crane at peace on the bottom of the sea, until his mother dies and tracks him down to straighten him out.
The play pairs with Moose Lodge, the action of which begins as a family returns from a funeral of a gay son. In Steps Must Be Gentle, life after death and the hope of reconciliation set off the action of the play. Steps Must Be Gentle was first published in 1980 and first performed in 1983 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
C:10
Ten world premieres of 10-minute plays
November 2018
From school shootings to the NFL, from anti-Semitism to #metoo, our playwrights tackle issues that we face day to day. C:10 doesn't tip-toe, these plays go for the gut punch and leave you laughing.
THE NET WILL APPEAR
By Erin Mallon
Directed by Mark Cirnigliaro
Starring Richard Masur
Coproduced by Mile Square Theatre
59E59
December 2018
On their rooftops, 75-year-old Bernard and 9-year-old Rory meet, and find solace from the challenges each faces beneath. THE NET WILL APPEAR is a shockingly funny story full of heart, in which two wonderful, eccentric people find true friendship.
The Collective NY unites professional artists who share a responsibility to create work in the contemporary American Theatre that is emotionally truthful, socially relevant, and defiantly accessible.
The company was established in the tradition of The Group Theatre out of a belief that the current conditions of commercialized theatre necessitate collective action.
Commitment to a permanent ensemble distinguishes The Collective NY. Through a shared vocabulary, uniform technique, and continual practice, the group pursues a common purpose: to establish a theatre that is uncompromising, relevant, and inclusive.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
http://www.thecollective-ny.org
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