Normal Ave Announces 2019-20 Season With Two World Premieres, A Rare Revival, And The Return Of Free New Works Festival

Normal Ave is proud to announce its 2019-20 season. The season will kick off October 3, 2019 with the world premiere of Of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die by Lily Houghton, directed by Kylie M. Brown. Following will be another world premiere: Indoor Person by Kayla Martine, directed by Andrew Garrett, which begins performances February 19, 2020. The season will finish with The Book of Grace by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Shariffa Ali, which returns to New York for the first time since the 2010 run at The Public. The Parks revival begins performances April 23, 2020. Casts and creative teams will be announced at a later date.

Normal Ave will also continue it's Playwrights' Series (NAPseries). The free festival will take place January 3-12, 2020. Submissions for NAPseries will open June 17 and close July 17, 2019.

Of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die is a dynamic new play by Lily Houghton about the dangers of commercializing millennial femininity. The play follows Bluebell, Sweet Pea, Pumpkin, and Bleeding Heart; four femmes bound together by their workplace, the windowless basement of a Free People retail store. Allegiances are formed and spells are cast in this hilarious, poignant, and topical take on how we navigate femininity and expression in an often combative political and economic climate. Of the woman... is co-produced with Leigh Honigman.

Indoor Person is a play about Addie, a quick-witted high-functioning agoraphobe, and Cleo, her relentlessly compassionate best friend who tries to keep her afloat. Addie can't leave the apartment. Cleo can't leave Addie. Toss in a new roommate, a new boyfriend, and a fiercely protective brother, and their already complex home could reach a fever pitch. For Addie, functioning is a fine line, one where maintaining the balance just might be impossible.

The Book of Grace is a scorching three-person drama in which a young man returns home to south Texas to confront his father, unearthing deep-seated passions and ambition. The play premiered in 2010 at The Public Theater, where Parks is in the midst of a three-year residency as the first recipient of the theater's master writer chair.

Normal Ave's NAPseries continues after last year's sold-out weekend. NAPseries furthers Normal Ave's mission of supporting new voices and making theatre accessible to audiences. All readings will be free and open to the public. Submissions open on June 17 at normalave.org/napseries.

All performances will be held in Normal Ave's Medicine Show Theatre at 549 West 52nd St, New York, NY. Normal Ave has been operating the space since March of this year, after a planned merger of the two organizations.

"Having three spectacular female playwrights, all at different stages of their careers, on board with Normal Ave this season feels very right at this particular moment in American theater," said Artistic Director Shannon Molly Flynn, "We are honored to have Lily and Kayla trust us with their first world premieres, and are humbled and ecstatic to have Suzan-Lori gift us with a revival of one of the most beautiful pieces in her celebrated canon."

Lily Houghton is a NYC-based playwright whose plays have been produced/developed at MCC Theater Company, The Flea Theater, EST/Youngblood, NYU, Seattle Repertory Theater (Elizabeth George Grant recipient), University of Michigan, and more.

Kayla Martine is a New York-based playwright, screenwriter, producer, and actor. She co-created and produces Curmudgeons Sketch, a sketch comedy channel online. Her works for the stage include Indoor Person, (De)Fermentation, and The Eating Disorder Play. Readings and workshops of her plays have been produced by The Tribe Theatre Company and The Scratch, among other companies in Pittsburgh and New York.

Named among Time magazine's "100 Innovators for the Next Wave," Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most acclaimed playwrights in American drama today. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, is a MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient, and in 2015 was awarded the prestigious Gish Prize for Excellence in the Arts. Other grants and awards include those from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. She is also a recipient of a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Award, a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts, and a Guggenheim Foundation Grant. She is an alum of New Dramatists and of Mount Holyoke College.

Subscriptions for Normal Ave's 2019-2020 season start at $45, go on sale August 1, and include free admission to exclusive subscriber readings and events. Single tickets go on sale September 1.

Normal Ave believes in redefining normal by nurturing an inclusive community of fresh, diverse voices and inviting collaborative freedom at every stage of the artistic process.

Our accessible programming of new and existing works spark curiosity, challenge perception, and welcome our artists and audiences to think, listen and respond in radical ways.

Visit normalave.org for more information on subscription and ticket options.

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