NEW YORK CITY: Playwrights Horizons has announced its 2018-19 season, featuring six productions.
The season will kick off with I Was Most Alive With You (begins Aug. 31, 2018), written and directed by Craig Lucas, about a man’s struggle to protect his family and his Deaf son after everything is taken away from him. The cast will feature Marianna Bassham, Tad Cooley, Lisa Emery, Russell Harvard, Lois Smith, Gameela Wright, with a shadow cast of Deaf actors, simultaneously performing in American Sign Language, including Beth Applebaum, Seth Gore, Dickie Hearts, Amelia Hensley, Anthony Natale, and Alexandria Wailes. Tyne Rafaeli will co-direct and Sabrina Dennison will be the director of Artistic Sign Language.
Next up will be the world premiere of Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Oct. 2018) a satire about a group of “woke” teachers putting together a school pageant to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month. Moritz von Stuelpnagel will direct.
The season will continue with Heather Raffo’s Noura (Nov. 2018), produced in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, about a woman and her family whose decision to flee from Iraq is challenged when an unexpected visitor arrives during the holidays and makes them retrace their past. The cast will feature Raffo, and Joanna Settle will direct.
Following will be the world premiere of Tori Sampson’s If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhafucka (Feb. 2019), a contemporary riff on a West African fable that follows Akim, a perfect beauty living in the village of Affreakah-Amirrorkah. Liesl Tommy will direct.
Next up will be the world premiere of Halley Feiffer’s The Pain of My Belligerence (April 2019), commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, a comedy about a twenty-something journalist having an affair with a married man.
The season will conclude with the world premiere of A Strange Loop (May 2019), with book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. The musical, produced in association with Page 73 Productions, is about a black gay writer working a day job that he hates while writing his original musical. Stephen Brackett will direct.
Founded in 1976, Playwrights Horizons produces contemporary plays and works by American writers.
