Vineyard Theatre Updates 2022 Season with Full Run of LESSONS IN SURVIVAL: 1971

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern have announced updates for the company's season. Initially announced as a special event, Lessons in Survival: 1971 will now receive a full production on the Vineyard stage May 25 - June 30.

In 1971, 28-year-old poet Nikki Giovanni interviewed renowned novelist James Baldwin, 47, on America's first "Black Tonight Show," SOUL! Fifty years later, Lessons in Survival: 1971 reintroduces their candid, provocative dialogue on race and liberation in America to our present moment. Building on the digital exploration of Lessons in Survival, which was recognized by the New York Times as Best in Theater 2020, this revelatory live staging explores the layers of intimacy and ideas between two Black revolutionary artists of different generations, with astonishing resonance for today.

Members of Vineyard Theatre can book their tickets starting at 1:00PM April 4. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on April 25 at 10:00AM at www.vineyardtheatre.org or by calling 212-353-0303.

Presale tickets for Lessons in Survival: 1971 are available exclusively to Audience Rewards® members from April 18 at 10AM through April 25 at 9:59AM EST. It's free and fast to join at www.AudienceRewards.com.

The previously announced world premiere of Sandra from Obie Award-winning playwright David Cale and Obie Award-winning director Leigh Silverman will now open Vineyard's 2022-23 season in the fall. This one-woman thriller reunites the Harry Clarke (2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show) playwright and director and features an original piano score by Matthew Dean Marsh.

In this new one-woman thriller, Sandra seeks to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of her closest friend, a young pianist and composer, who went on a trip to Mexico and never returned. Her search for clues leads her into both a highly charged love affair, and increasingly dangerous territory.

Currently playing through March 13 at The Vineyard's home in Union Square is the world premiere of Charly Evon Simpson's sandblasted, directed by Summer L. Williams, who is making her New York directorial debut. sandblasted is a co-production with WP Theater, the first in a two-show collaboration between the companies. sandblasted stars Marinda Anderson (Miss You Like Hell), Brittany Bellizeare (The Bluest Eye), Andy Lucien ("The Blacklist"), and Rolonda Watts ("Rolonda").

Membership info:
Vineyard Theatre 2021-2022 Season Memberships are currently on sale. Members have access to the best seats at the best prices to all Vineyard Theatre productions.

Vineyard Members will also have access to purchase tickets to Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive beginning performances on Broadway March 29. Having premiered at The Vineyard 25 years ago, the Broadway production this spring reunites original cast members Mary-Louise Parker, David Morse and Johanna Day with director Mark Brokaw.

To purchase a Vineyard Membership and for additional information regarding packages please visit HERE or the box office can be reached by phone Monday - Friday 1:00-6:00pm at 212-353-0303.

The Commissary is a grassroots, multi-generational theater collective whose primary work centers on new investigations of historical, found, and verbatim texts as a means of exploring radical listening and embracing difficult conversations on the path to collective liberation. In addition to the Lessons In Survival digital anthology series developed with and produced by Vineyard Theatre (a New York Times Top 10 Theatre Pick for 2020), The Commissary also presented (in partnership with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and New Neighborhood) the trial transcript of Crystal Mason's hearing in hopes of amplifying her continued search for justice. The collective came into being in the summer of 2020 and meets regularly to explore material and new work.

Tyler Thomas is a director, choreographer, and current Susan Stroman Award recipient. She has developed and staged work with the Vineyard Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights, Playwrights Center, Northern Stage, New Ohio Theatre, NYMF, The Flea, NYU Tisch, UCLA, Columbia University, and Lincoln Center Education. She is a 2050 Fellow with New York Theater Workshop, Foeller Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival, member of the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab and has been a Visiting Artist at the Athens Conservatoire in Greece, and Guest Artist at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. Tyler is currently the Resident Director of The Commissary.

About Vineyard Theatre

Vineyard Theatre is an Off-Broadway theatre company dedicated to nurturing the voices of daring artists and developing and producing work that pushes the boundaries of what theatre can be and do. One of the country's preeminent centers for the creation of new plays and musicals, our work seeks to challenge and inspire all of us to see ourselves and our world from different perspectives.

The Vineyard's 2021-22 season launched with the Broadway transfers of its productions of Tina Satter's Is This A Room, named "Best Theater of 2019 and 2021" by The New York Times, Time Out and New York Magazine and winner of the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience; and Lucas Hnath's Dana H., chosen as The New York Times and Time Out "Best Theatre of 2020 and 2021" and winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, which played in repertory at the Lyceum Theatre fall of 2021. Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive, which premiered at The Vineyard 25 years ago, will open on Broadway this spring reuniting original cast members Mary-Louise Parker, David Morse and Johanna Day with director Mark Brokaw.

The Vineyard's fall season also included commissioned new works from Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen, and Madeline Sayet.

Notable Vineyard Theatre premieres include Ngozi Anyanwu's Good Grief; Jeremy O. Harris' "Daddy"; Mara Nelson-Greenberg's Do You Feel Anger?; David Cale's Harry Clarke (2018 Drama Desk, Obie, Lucille Lortel Awards); Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman's Indecent (two 2017 Tony Awards); two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, Paula Vogel's How I Learned To Drive and Edward Albee's Three Tall Women; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Gloria; Nicky Silver's The Lyons; Marx, Lopez and Whitty's Avenue Q (Tony Award, Best Musical); Kander, Ebb, and Thompson's The Scottsboro Boys; Bell and Bowen's [title of show]; Polly Pen's Goblin Market; Tarell Alvin McCraney's Wig Out!; Jenny Schwartz' God's Ear; Will Eno's Middletown; Becky Mode's Fully Committed; Colman Domingo's Dot, and many more.

The Vineyard's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Susan Stroman Directing Award, and Colman Domingo Award provide residencies to early-career artists and our education programs serve over 700 NYC public high school students annually and culminate in presenting Developing Artists' REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival. Works developed and premiered at our home in Union Square have gone on to be seen around the world and The Vineyard is proud to be the recipient of special Drama Desk, Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards for artistic excellence.

The Vineyard's 2021-2022 Artists-in-Residence include The Commissary, Ryan Haddad, Michael R. Jackson, Lightning Rod Special, Tyler Thomas, and Reggie D. White. Vineyard Theatre's leadership includes Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern and Managing Director Suzanne Appel.

www.vineyardtheatre.org

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Vineyard Theatre website