NEW YORK CITY: Playwrights Horizons has announced its 2015–16 season, which will include a world premiere by Anne Washburn, and new plays from Lucas Hnath, Taylor Mac and Danai Gurira.
First up will be The Christians by Lucas Hnath (beginning Aug. 28), about a megachurch pastor who delivers a controversial sermon to his parish. The play originally premiered at the 2014 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky. Les Waters, who directed the production at Humana, will direct the Playwrights Horizons version, as well as an upcoming production at Center Theatre Group (running Dec. 2–Jan 10).
Following will be Hir by Taylor Mac (beginning Oct. 16), an unconventional family comedy featuring a war veteran, a feminist mother and a transgendered brother. Niegel Smith, who directed the world premiere production at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco and subsequently at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, will direct the NYC production.
Closing out the year will be Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison (beginning Nov. 20), which imagines an 86-year-old woman Marjorie spending her autumn years with a robot replicant of her late husband. Anne Kauffman will direct.
Beginning Feb. 2, 2016 will be Familiar by Danai Gurira, an exploration of old and new world customs during a Zimbabwean family wedding in Minnesota. The play is currently in its world premiere run at Yale Repertory Theatre through Feb. 21, under the direction of Rebecca Taichman, who will also helm the NYC production.
The world premiere of Anne Washburn’s new play Antlia Pneumatica will begin March 11. Ken Rus Schmoll directs this play about a group of friends who reunite in Texas Hill Country to bury one of their own. This season at Playwrights, Schmoll is directing the Jenny Schwartz–Todd Almond musical Iowa, March 20–May 10. Washburn’s previous play Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (directed by Steve Cosson) was produced to great acclaim at Playwrights in 2013.
The final production of the season will be the world premiere of Indian Summer by Gregory S. Moss (beginning May 13), a romantic comedy about two young people who spend the summer in a Rhode Island beach town. Carolyn Cantor will helm the production.
Playwrights Horizons, founded in 1971, is dedicated to developing and producing new plays and musicals.
