Tickets Now On Sale for New Victory Theater's Spring 2022 Productions

Today, the New Victory Theater announced that tickets are now on sale for all of their live Spring 2022 productions, which will include a mix of in-person and virtual offerings.

Following their respective sold-out runs at the New Victory, the Acrobuffos' Air Play and Step Afrika! will return for highly anticipated limited engagements. Additionally, Nambi E. Kelley's Jabari Dreams of Freedom and Manual Cinema Presents: Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster, inspired by the work of Mo Willems, will make their New York Stage premieres at the New Victory. All live stage shows will also be available to rent on demand.

Tickets for both live and on demand shows can be purchased at https://newvictory.org/tickets-and-events/.

These shows round out the New Victory's 2021-22 Season, which opened in November 2021 with Generation Rise (November 5-14) and Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which runs now through January 2nd.

"The New Victory 2022 Spring shows, some of which were developed in New Victory LabWorks, our new work development program, are beautifully playful and visually stunning in a way that truly celebrates a return to live performance," says Artistic Director Mary Rose Lloyd.

Spring 2022 in-person offerings, versions of which will also be available to stream on demand, include:

AIR PLAY (running February 11 through March 6)

From Acrobuffos

Written and Created by Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone

Performed by Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone

Air Sculptures in collaboration with Daniel Wurtzel

Directed by West Hyler

Developed with support from Playhouse Square, New Victory LabWorks, Flushing Town Hall, and Zoellner Arts Center.

The Acrobuffos are back! Circus and science collide when these globetrotting clowns return with their sold-out spectacle, AIR PLAY (New Victory 2018). With knowing smiles and suitcases full of surprises, this comedic duo elicits gales of laughter as they transform ordinary objects into uncommon beauty. This delightful, flightful homage to the power of air will take your breath away as the Acrobuffos goad gravity and make really, really, really high art out of the very thing we breathe.

Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone are the performers and not-so-typical clowns behind the award-winning theater company Acrobuffos. Partners on stage and off since 2005, Bloom and Gelsone use their signature mix of circus and street theater to create wordless comedic works around the world, performing for audiences of all ages in over 25 countries, including Afghanistan, China, and Scotland. Since developing Air Play as part of New Victory LabWorks in 2014, they've brought Air Play to over 75 theaters on 5 continents, and are now returning to the New Victory stage for the second time.

JABARI DREAMS OF FREEDOM (running March 25 through April 3)

Produced by First Woman Productions

Written by: Nambi E. Kelley

Directed by: Daniel Carlton

Music Composition by: Joe Plummer

Developed as part of New Victory LabWorks at New Victory Theater in New York City.

Young Jabari isn't trying to dream big. He's just trying to live free. Scared to leave his home with the threat of an unsafe world just outside his front door, Jabari escapes to his dreams where Ruby Bridges, Claudette Colvin and other heroes of the Civil Rights Movement teach him what it means to be fearless. When he meets an impressionable six-year-old Barack Obama, will Jabari have the courage to share the lessons he learned from the past to help ensure the future? Through rap, freedom songs, hip-hop dance and humor, JABARI DREAMS OF FREEDOM is history in the dreaming.

First Woman Productions (FWP) is named for the East African creation story from which playwright and founder Nambi E. Kelley's i??rst name comes, and the digital version of JABARI DREAMS OF FREEDOM was the inaugural production. Nambi E. Kelley first developed the show at Chicago Children's Theatre in 2016, then continued developing it during her time as a New Victory LabWorks Artist. Kelley is the recipient of the Ben & Jerry's Peacemaker of the Year Award for her work on Peace to the Fourth Power, a violence prevention play for young people.

STONO (running April 20 through May 8)

From Step Afrika!

With beating drums and shouts of "Liberty!," the Stono Rebellion spurred the Negro Act prohibiting, among numerous rights, enslaved Africans' use of drums. But the fight for freedom is never silent. A story of resistance, resilience and reclamation, STONO fills the stage with music and dance to honor the artistry and activism borne out of the body as a percussive instrument. From traditions of the ring shout to contemporary stepping, Step Afrika! reveals the hidden histories and resounding rhythms that transformed America.

Founded in 1994 by C. Brian Williams, Step Afrika! is the first professional dance company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. Step Afrika! blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities, traditional African dances and an array of contemporary dance forms into a cohesive, compelling artistic experience. Step Afrika! promotes stepping as an educational tool for young people, focusing on teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. Step Afrika!'s Drumfolk was playing at the New Victory in March 2020 when the theater and New York City shut down. They now return to the stage with Stono, which like Drumfolk before it, honors the spirit of resistance and activism that remains critical to securing freedom and justice in America.

MANUAL CINEMA PRESENTS: LEONARDO! A WONDERFUL SHOW ABOUT A TERRIBLE MONSTER

(running June 4 through June 26)

Leonardo tries so hard to be scary. But... he just isn't. When he searches far and wide for a friend to frighten, he discovers Sam, who is scared of anything and everything! With puppets, projections, live music and a story by none other than Your Pal Mo Willems, this performance will surprise you with its cinema-sized story about fright, feelings and friendship. See how multimedia movie magic gets made in MANUAL CINEMA PRESENTS: LEONARDO! A WONDERFUL SHOW ABOUT A TERRIBLE MONSTER.

Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors and live feed cameras, the artists of Manual Cinema cross moviegoing with theatergoing, remaking the cinema experience with liveness, ingenuity and theatricality for the stage. Manuel Cinema's earlier version of the work, LEONARDO AND SAM: THE TERRIBLE MONSTER AND MOST SCAREDY-CAT KID IN THE WHOLE WORLD, received its virtual world premiere on March 15, 2021, via the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The stage production at the New Victory will come to life through live actors, 3D puppets, DIY cinema and immersive sound.

To post a comment, you must register and login.