Core Creative Productions will premiere an updated version of CHOKEHOLD by Anthony P. Pennino, directed by Tim Cusack. An earlier version of this intense drama about police brutality won Outstanding Overall Production of a New Play at the 2015 Planet Connections Festivity. Previews begin September 16 at The Theatre at the 14th Street Y with opening slated for September 22.
#BlackLivesMatter first arose in response to police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri. Then came incidences in Maryland, Ohio, Louisiana, and Minnesota, among too many others. Another could happen tomorrow. In CHOKEHOLD, five friends have come to the conclusion that peaceful protests will no longer change the course of justice. So they take the extraordinary step of committing to an act of violence to shake the nation out of its complacency. But what they discover is that planning an act of violence against the innocent is one thing, executing that plan is something else entirely. CHOKEHOLD walks the razor's edge of what is right and what is necessary, of the political and the personal, of rage and reason.
Casting and production team will be announced shortly.
Anthony P. Pennino (playwright) has had his work performed across the US and around the world. He has written Dia de los Muertos (at CSV in 2011), Iron Tongue of Midnight (produced by
The Neighborhood Playhouse in 2016), Drones (Planet Connections 2016), I, Horatio (FringeNYC 2015 and London's Rose Theater), A Thousand Deaths (FringeNYC 2014), Call It Peace (Finborough Theater in London, 2002), Story of an Unknown Man (Gorilla Rep 2000), the libretto for the folk musical
The Devil and
Tom Walker (Metropolitan Playhouse, 2008) and many more. He has been awarded two fellowships from the New Jersey Council of the Arts. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of London in Drama. He currently teaches literature and theatre at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.
Tim Cusack (director) is the artistic director and co-founder of Theatre Askew. For Askew he conceived, co-adapted and co-directed, I, Claudius Live, for which Next magazine named him one of its "Future Legends". Other Askew projects include world premieres of
David Koteles's Bald Diva! (a TheaterMania Top10 of that season, GLAAD Media Award nomination), Jason Schaefer's i google myself (GLADD Media Award nomination), and
William M. Hoffman's Cornbury: The Queen's Governor. In 2007, he directed "The Bed" and "Camera Obscura" in the OBIE-winning East and West Village Fragments for Peculiar Works Project. NYTheatre.com named him a "Person of the Year" in 2007 and he was inducted into the Indy Theater Hall of Fame in 2014. He holds a BFA in Drama from NYU/TSOA and an MA in Theatre from Hunter College, where he has served as an adjunct instructor.
Core Creative Productions was formed by
Alberto Bonilla,
Elizabeth Inghram, and Anthony P. Pennino. The company develops plays in a collaborative environment - similar to the one utilized by
The Royal Court Theatre under the direction of
Max Stafford-Clark - that values directors, writers, and actors equally in the creation of a new play. Core Creative has produced Dia de los Muertos, A Thousand Deaths, Drones, and Chokehold. They are currently developing a new work about the impact of Shakespeare plays on the prisoners of Robben Island.
CHOKEHOLD runs September 16 - October 8. The Theatre at the 14th Street Y is located at 344 East 14th Street (near the corner of 1st Avenue -- accessible from the L train at 1st Ave). Tickets are $18, available at 212-352-3101 or
www.14streety.org.
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