Ars Nova kicks off 2014 with Game Play, this year's incarnation of Ars Nova's annual Play Group production. An evening of original short plays and live music inspired by classic board game titles, Game Play features Peter Benson, Marcia DeBonis, Dashiell Eaves, Brandon Gill, Ben Graney, Susan Heyward, Jessica Love and Carmen Zilles. This production plays 10 performances, January 29 - February 8.
Game Play is performed by Peter Benson (Broadway: The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Harvey, Promises, Promises, The Pajama Game; at Ars Nova: The Urban Dictionary Plays), Marcia DeBonis (Off-B'way: Fran's Bed; Film: The Truman Show), Dashiell Eaves (B'way: A Time to Kill, A Behanding in Spokane, Coram Boy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, James Joyce's The Dead, 1776, The Sound of Music), Brandon Gill (The Last Goodbye - The Old Globe), Ben Graney (B'way: War Horse; Off-B'way: When The Rain Stops Falling; at Ars Nova - The Netflix Plays), Susan Heyward (B'way: The Trip to Bountiful), Jessica Love (Bottom of the World - Atlantic Theater Company - Stage 2; Bachelorette - Studio Theater; Anna Christie - The Old Globe) and Carmen Zilles (Off-B'way: Chimichangas and Zoloft).
Game Play features new works by Sofia Alvarez, Sarah Burgess, Sarah Gancher, Nick Gandiello, Stephen Karam, Brian Otaño, Daniel Pearle, Max Posner, Erica Saleh, A. Zell Williams and Bess Wohl.
Sofia Alvarez's plays include Between Us Chickens, Life Drawing, The Fish Bowl, Nylon and Friend Art. She is a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, New George's JAM and Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group. She is currently a staff writer for USA's Sirens. Education: Bennington, Juilliard.
Sarah Burgess's plays include Earthsiege: Commence (Steep Theatre workshop, Chicago), FAIL: Failures (ANT Fest), Camdenside (Ground Floor 2013, Berkeley Rep) and Liquidation Play. Writer for The Tenant (Woodshed Collective), The Living Newspaper and Naked Radio. In 2013, Sarah was a Working Farm resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm. BFA NYU Film. Sarah Gancher's work has been produced/developed at London's National Theatre, Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, Budapest's Quarter6Quarter7 Festival, PS122, Ars Nova, NYC SummerStage and the Great Plains Theatre Conference, among others. She also works as a collaborating playwright with devising ensembles including The TEAM, Hand2Mouth and Telluride Theatre. Winner, 2013 Founder's Award, New York Stage and Film; 2012-2014 Time Warner Fellow at the Women's Project Playwrights Lab. Nick Gandiello's plays include Oceanside, Sunrise Highway, Black Fly Spring and Off the Realness. He has attended residencies at The Blue Mountain Center, SPACE on Ryder Farm and Page 73's Summer Residency at Yale. Nick is the Literary Manager of Young Playwrights Inc., where he is also a teaching artist. MFA Playwriting, The New School for Drama.Stephen Karam is the author of Sons of the Prophet (2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and winner of the 2012 Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and Hull-Warriner Awards for Best Play), Speech & Debate, columbinus and Dark Sisters. His new play, The Humans, will premiere in 2014-15. Brian Otaño's plays include The Ocean at Your Door, What We Told the Neighbors, Between The Sandbar and the Shore and Zero Feet Away. His work has been developed and workshopped with New Dramatists, ArsNova, Atlantic Theater Company, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Amoralists and the LARK. Brian is a 2012-2013 New Dramatists Van Lier Fellow.Daniel Pearle's plays include: A Kid Like Jake (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater; 2013 Laurents/Hatcher Award; 2013 Laurie Foundation's Theatre Visions Fund Grant), The Prodigies, Freefall, Plunder (2008 Loeb Drama Center's Phyllis Anderson Prize) and The Truth About Christmas (2011 Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival Winner). He earned his BA from Harvard University and his MFA from The New School for Drama. Max Posner's plays include The Thing About Air Travel, The Famished, Snore, Gun Logistics and Judy. Produced or developed at Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Page 73, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Hangar Theatre, Curious Theatre Company and Production Workshop. Recipient of the 2012 P73 Fellowship, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the Heideman Award from Actor's Theatre of Louisville and the Lila Acheson Wallace Fellowship at Juilliard. Alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. BA: Brown University. Erica Saleh's plays have been produced and developed by theaters including Ensemble Studio Theatre, The 52nd Street Project, Studio 42, 3 Graces and The Claque. She is the recipient of a Michener Fellowship and commissions from the EST/SLOAN project and Dramatics Magazine. Erica is a member of Ars Nova Play Group, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumna of Youngblood. She is a graduate of the Michener Center at the University of Texas and Brown University.A. Zell Williams is the recipient of The Terrence McNally New Play Award, NYU's Goldberg Playwriting Award, The National New Play Network's Smith Prize and the David C. Calicchio Award. His plays include The Urban Retreat, Down Past Passyunk, The Audacity, Carroll Gardens and The Biggest Valley.
Bess Wohl's plays have been produced around the country. Most recently, her play, American Hero (begun in Ars Nova Play Group), had its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, directed by Leigh Silverman. She has received various commissions (MTC, CTG) and is a MacDowell Fellow. She also writes for film and TV. THE DIRECTORS: Sash Bischoff: Broadway: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (AD). National tours: Shrek. Off-Broadway: Mine (Chautauqua), A Social Event (Atlantic), Cold and Seven Categories (Williamstown), Urinetown and She Loves Me (PST). Assisting includes The Mound Builders (Signature), All in the Timing (Primary Stages), Core Values (Ars Nova). Upcoming: Some Freaks (film), Guys and Dolls (concert). 2011 SDC Traube Fellow, Princeton graduate. Peter James Cook is a Brooklyn-based writer, director and performer. Recent NY directing: Just Right, Just Now (Lesser America), Raptured (Play Co.), TRAVIS (Ars Nova), Never Sleep Alone (Joe's Pub), The Tempest (Porpentine), Sailor Man (NY Int'l Fringe - Outstanding Play), Straight Up Vampire (Joe's Pub), The Nosemaker's Apprentice (The Brick). Drama League directing fellow.Portia Krieger's recent directing credits include Eager to Lose (Ars Nova), Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb), The Place We Built (Strasberg). Upcoming: The Vaults at New Georges. Portia is an alumna of the Drama League Directors Project and the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, a former Ars Nova Director-in-Residence, and a co-founder of the New Georges Jam. Andrew Neisler is a Brooklyn based theatre-artist. Recent directing credits: Byuioo (Pipeline Theatre Company, Judson Church), Charlatan (Ars Nova), Shoot the Freak (Paradise Factory), Tape (Strasberg Institute), Clown Bar (Pipeline), Folk Wandering (Ars Nova/Joe's Pub), Bebe Zahara Benet's Creature (XL Cabaret). Artistic Director, Political Subversities. Co-Founder/Co-Director, Fresh Ground Pepper. BFA, NYU/Tisch.Videos