Juilliard Drama Announces 2019-20 Season

Juilliard Drama announces fully staged productions showcasing Juilliard's Group 49 acting students in their fourth and final year in the program. Evan Yionoulis, an Obie award-winning director and nationally recognized acting teacher, is entering her second season as Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division.

This fall season's productions feature Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw, directed by alumna Janet Zarish (October 9-13); Bright Half Life by alumna Tanya Barfield, directed by faculty member and alumna Rebecca Guy (November 6-10); and Paradise Blue by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Brandon Dirden (December 12-15). In February, Juilliard Drama presents three plays in repertory: Crumbs From the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, directed by Melissa Maxwell; The Flick by Annie Baker, directed by Zi Alikhan; and Black Snow, Keith Reddin's dramatization of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, directed by Dustin Wills.

All performances take place in the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater at Juilliard.

Juilliard's fourth-year actors (Group 49) are Sekai Abeni, Shaun Anthony, Tom Blyth, Michael Braugher, Mary Cavett, Jalen Coleman, Bianca Crudo, Lucy Freyer, Mathias Goldstein, Mel Golliday, Jules Latimer, Hayward Leach, Liam McKenna, Emma Pfitzer Price, Julian Robertson, Jacob Daniel Smith, and Katherine Renee Turner.

While Juilliard Drama Division performances are not open for review, we invite members of the press to enjoy these productions featuring the next generation of actors.

Third-year drama students will perform two Shakespeare plays in repertory, April 23-26, 2020, and May 9, 10, 12, and 13, 2020. Those plays will be announced publicly, and tickets will be on sale at a later date.

Juilliard Drama 2019-20 Calendar of Events

Major Barbara
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Janet Zarish

Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 7:30pm
Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30pm
Friday, October 11, 2019, 7:30pm
Saturday, October 12, 2019, 2 and 8pm
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 7pm

Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army, is forced to examine her moral assumptions when her estranged father, a millionaire arms dealer, makes a sizable donation to the organization. With his signature wit, Shaw critically examines charity, faith, justice, and family in his provocative 1905 play. Major Barbara continues to ignite debate among audiences and artists alike: Is it money or poverty that is the greatest evil?

Bright Half Life
By Tanya Barfield
Directed by Rebecca Guy

Wednesday, November 6, 2019, 7:30pm
Thursday, November 7, 2019, 7:30pm
Friday, November 8, 2019, 7:30pm
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 2 and 8pm
Sunday, November 10, 2019, 7pm

Written by Juilliard playwriting alumna Tanya Barfield, Bright Half Life follows Vicky and Erica through the ups and downs of their deeply committed four-and-a-half-decade relationship. The play flashes back and forth across the years, blurring boundaries of time, memory, and fantasy. The New Yorker described the play as "profound - a well-written, engaging portrayal of smart women finding themselves, and each other."

Paradise Blue
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Brandon Dirden

Thursday, December 12, 2019, 7:30pm
Friday, December 13, 2019, 7:30pm
Saturday, December 14, 2019, 2 and 8pm
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 7pm

The second play of 2018 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant fellow Dominique Morisseau's Detroit Project trilogy, Paradise Blue finds jazz joint owner and musician Blue at a crossroads between the future and his past. When his Black Bottom neighborhood is threatened by gentrification and a mysterious woman arrives, the fate of his Paradise Club and the community which has formed there hangs in the balance. Underscoring this haunting drama are the soulful and heartbreaking cries of Blue's jazz trumpet.

Fourth-Year Spring Repertory:

Crumbs From the Table of Joy
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Melissa Maxwell

Friday, February 14, 2020, 7:30pm
Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 7:30pm
Friday, February 21, 2020, 7:30pm
Saturday, February 22, 2020, 2pm

Godfrey, recently widowed, is spellbound by a charismatic preacher while his teen daughters, Ernestine and Ermina, find refuge from the racial prejudices of 1950s Brooklyn in Hollywood movies. With the arrival of their fiercely independent Aunt Lily, things suddenly change: Godfrey marries a white woman displaced from war-torn Germany, Ermina discovers boys, and Ernestine is torn between communism and bebop. From the pen of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, the play examines a family's process of grief and healing in a decade of political, racial, and social upheaval in the United States.

The Flick
By Annie Baker
Directed by Zi Alikhan

Saturday, February 15, 2020, 7:30pm
Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 8pm
Thursday, February 20, 2020, 7:30pm
Sunday, February 23, 2020, 8pm

In this 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, audiences are given a glimpse into the lives of three Worcester, Massachusetts movie theater employees on a routine workday. As they clean the spilled popcorn and discarded candy cartons left by their patrons, Sam, Rose, and Avery reveal their buried desires for life and love and try to make at least some of their future hopes reality.

Black Snow
Keith Reddin's dramatization of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov
Directed by Dustin Wills

Sunday, February 16, 2020, 7pm
Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 2pm
Saturday, February 22, 2020, 8pm
Sunday, February 23, 2020, 2pm

Struggling writer Sergei Maxudov becomes the surprise envy of the Moscow literary elite when his play is chosen to be produced by the Independent Theatre. However, his hopes of a glorious life in the theater are soon dashed as he confronts Soviet bureaucracy, artistic disputes, and a revered artistic director of supposed mythic powers. The play and the darkly satiric novel on which it is based are inspired by Bulgakov's own experiences with the Moscow Art Theatre and its renowned director, Konstantin Stanislavski, at the onset of Stalinist repression in the 1920s.

Extremely limited tickets for $20 will be available beginning September 19, 2019, at juilliard.edu/calendar or at the Juilliard Box Office. Full-time students may purchase tickets for $10, only at the Juilliard Box Office. Additional tickets may be released closer to the date of the performances, so please check back.

All performances take place in Juilliard's Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater, 155 West 65th Street, 4th Floor, N.Y.C.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson

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