NEW YORK CITY: New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced the lineup of its 2018-19 Next Door at NYTW Series. NYTW aims to provide a home for theatre artists who want to produce their own work, and will present a series of works at its black box performance space, Fourth Street Theatre.
The series will open with This American Wife (July 25-Aug. 4), which will be created and performed by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley. It is a multimedia theatre work that depicts Breslin and Foley as they binge “Real Housewives” and obsess over both its gaudiness and their desire to see and be seen. Caitlin Crombleholme and Jen Hoguet will produce.
Next is 1969: The Second Man (Aug. 24-Sept. 9) by Dan Giles, with an original concept, music and lyrics by Jacob Brandt. It is a song cycle about the life of the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin. Jaki Bradley will direct and Madeleine Foster Bersin will produce.
Following is Noor Theatre’s first full-length play commission, Dead Are My People (October 2018) by Ismail Khaidi, with original compositions by Hadi Eldebek. It is a play with music about a young Syrian’s journey from Mount Lebanon to the U.S. during World War I, and his experiences assimilating and facing white supremacy in the Jim Crow South. Leah Gardiner will direct.
Next is Intelligence (Jan. 10-Feb. 2, 2019) by Helen Banner, a semi-immersive play about a woman who works in the Foreign Service and engages in a series of role-plays with two young diplomats, which escalate as an insurgent group emerges from a country where she recently negotiated peace talks. Jess Chayes will direct. Lucy Jackson will produce, in association with Dutch Kills Theater.
Following is Bonnie’s Last Flight (Feb. 4-March 3, 2019) by Eliza Bent, a three-part comedic play about the relationships of several passengers on a plane ride, including Jan, who is taking her retirement flight. Annie Tippe will direct and Caroline Gart will produce.
Next is Little Lord’s Skinnamarink (March 8-23, 2019), a new play based on “McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers,” which were a series of 19th-century American schoolbooks that taught generations how to read, think, and behave. Michael Levinton will direct.
Following is Eh Dah? Questions For My Father (March 28-April 14, 2019), a musical about a family living in post-9/11 Egypt and America with a book, music, and lyrics by Aya Aziz. Arpita Mukherjee will direct. The Hypokrit Theatre Company will produce.
Next is Tragedy in Spades: A Crime Documentary (April 19-May 4, 2019), co-created by Liza Birkenmeier and Katie Brook, with a book by Birkenmeier. It is a true crime murder mystery about society’s fascination with dead girls, with choreography by Katie Rose McLaughlin O’Neil, and a sound score by Chris Giarmo and Taylor Brook. Katie Brook/Tele-Violet will produce, and Brook will also produce.
The season will conclude with the world premiere of [Veil Widow Conspiracy] (May 27-June 23) by Gordon Dahlquist, a political murder mystery of a story originally from 1922 Xianjiang, Western China. Ed Sylvanus Iskander will direct. The National Asian American Theatre Company developed it and will produce it.
Founded in 1979, New York Theatre Workshop is committed to developing and producing new plays and giving artists platforms to develop their work through workshops, readings, and full productions.
