Vineyard Theatre Announces Fall Forward Festival Featuring New Works From Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs & More

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern have announced the Fall Forward Festival featuring new works from Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen and Madeline Sayet, beginning today through December 31. During the pandemic shutdown, the Vineyard commissioned these five daring artists to create new works of alternative theatre. The Vineyard's Fall Forward Festival will share the works that have emerged -- some fully realized, and some in process --a mix of live in-person, live virtual, filmed and audio performances, as varied as the artists creating them.

The Fall Forward Festival includes Kirsten Childs' Aunt Lillian, a wickedly funny audio musical about a battle of wills between two young girls and their no-nonsense aunt, directed by Awoye Timpo; Ngozi Anyanwu's Maybe Dorothy Was Right, a short film and love letter to New York and the theatre, directed by Alfonso Johnson; Jared Mezzocchi's On the Beauty of Loss, an introspective multimedia virtual live performance exploring the emergence of social technology and its impact on memory and grief; a live in-person reading of Polly Pen's 56 Flowers, a chamber musical about a receptionist who finds herself drawn to the story of the 19th century composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond; and a live in-person reading of Madeline Sayet's The Fish, a new full-length play following two Mohegan-Jewish siblings on a search to find out what their ancestors never meant for them to know.

Please visit https://www.vineyardtheatre.org/fall-forward-festival/ for access to each event in Vineyard Theatre's Fall Forward Festival.

AUNT LILLIAN

By Kirsten Childs
Directed by Awoye Timpo
Audio Musical, 20 minutes
Available today -December 31 (FREE)

Cast Includes:
Amber Iman, Ashley D Kelley, NaTasha Yvette Williams, Darlesia Cearcy, Jasmin Walker, Brandon Gill, and Kevin Massey

Band Includes:
Jacinth Greywoode (Keys), Kevin Wunderlich (Guitar), Parker McAllister (Bass), Spencer Cohen (Drums)

From Obie Award-winning composer Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl..., The Vineyard's Miracle Brothers), this wickedly funny and captivating audio musical delves into a story from her own childhood. When Aunt Lillian travels from North Carolina to Los Angeles to help care for Kirsten and her siblings, a battle of wills begins.

MAYBE DOROTHY WAS RIGHT

By Ngozi Anyanwu
Directed by Alfonso Johnson
A Short Film, 8 minutes
Available to the public October 7-December 31 (FREE)
A short film love letter to New York City and the theatre.

Playwright and actress Ngozi Anyanwu (Good Grief) takes us to the neighborhoods and theatres that have been part of her NYC journey, in this short film made in collaboration with filmmaker Alfonso Johnson.

A love letter
A welcome back
A homecoming
A remembering
A goodbye
A reconciling
A hello
A visit
To this place I know but wasn't born
To this place that I wasn't born, but somehow birthed me

**Vineyard Members are invited to attend a one-hour live chat with Maybe Dorothy Was Right writer/performer Ngozi Anyanwu, director Alfonso Johnson, and Vineyard Theatre Artistic Director Sarah Stern on November 1 at 7pm.

ON THE BEAUTY OF LOSS

Created by Jared Mezzocchi
Original composition by Lee Kinney
Live Streaming Performance
November 11 - November 21, 2021
Member booking begins October 19
General booking begins October 27

On The Beauty of Loss is an introspective live digitally-based multimedia performance that explores how the emergence of social technology has shifted the ways humans collect memories and comprehend grief. This journey explores the loss of two family members, a father passing before the invention of the iPhone, and a grandfather reaching the end of his life 16 years later, in the peak of the pandemic. Our journey places the audience in a car, traveling hundreds of miles... and challenges the live virtual performance space to be as live as it has ever been.

56 FLOWERS

By Polly Pen
Directed by Dustin Wills
In-Person Reading at Vineyard Theatre (108 West 15th Street)
October 24 at 3pm & October 25 at 7pm

In this new musical, a receptionist at a small animal hospital finds herself drawn to the story of Carrie Jacobs-Bond, a relentlessly cheerful yet obstacle-prone early 20th century composer, whose heart-filled songs brought her fame and fortune. A searching and comic look at how we fill our time, from Obie Award-winning composer Polly Pen.

THE FISH

By Madeline Sayet
In-Person Reading at Vineyard Theatre (108 West 15th Street)
December 2021

A new full-length play following two Mohegan-Jewish siblings on a search to find out what their ancestors never meant for them to know (live reading in person).

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