NEW YORK CITY: The New Victory Theater has announced its 2018-19 season, which includes 16 productions, 9 of which will be U.S. premieres. The productions will include a wide variety of different theatre, music, dance, puppetry, and circus performances from all over the world.
The season will open with Machine De Cirque (Sept. 28-Oct. 7), a circus performance by a French troupe of artists from Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize, and Les 7 Doigts. Vincent Dubé will direct.
Next will be the U.S. premiere of New International Encounter’s Beauty and the Beast (Oct. 26-Nov. 11), a rustic retelling of the French story about love, family, and the beauty that lies within, featuring six actor-musicians and a jazz score. Alex Byrne will direct. Cambridge Junction and Tobacco Factory Theatres will co-produce.
Following will be the U.S. premiere of Velocity (Nov. 16-25), a production celebrating the history of Irish dance, featuring James Devine, David Geaney, and AnneMarie Keaney. James Devine and David Geaney will choreograph.
Next will be the U.S. premiere of Circus Abyssina: Ethiopian Dreams (Nov. 30-Dec. 30), an Ethiopian circus spectacle for the holidays, created by juggling duo Bibi and Bichu and featuring the Circus Abyssina Troupe.
Following will be A Simple Space (February 9-24, 2019), a performance by Australian circus troupe Gravity & Other Myths with music by Elliot Zoerner and additional onstage seating. Lachlan Binns, Jascha Boyce, Jacob Randell, Martin Schreiber and Triton Tunis-Mitchell will co-direct.
Next will be IBEX Puppetry’s Ajijaak on Turtle Island (March 1-10, 2019), by Ty Defoe, Kevin Tarrant, Dawn Avery, and Larry Mitchell. Featuring puppets designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and indigenous songs, languages, and dance, it is about the importance of living in balance with Mother Earth. Ty Defoe and Heather Henson will co-direct.
Following will be the U.S. premiere of Theatre Re’s The Nature of Forgetting (March 23-31, 2019), about a father who has early onset dementia. Guillaume Pigé will direct. Alex Judd will music direct.
Next will be the U.S. premiere of GRUEJARM Productions’ SNAP (April 13-28, 2019), a magic show featuring illusions, mime, vaudevillian comedy, and media performed by South Korean artists.
Following will be Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ third installment of their Silent Voices series, Silent Voices: Lovestate (May 2-5, 2019). The concert is inspired by the young singers’ personal stories and struggles with racism, sexism, and their identities, and features commissions by David Lang and Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, and others. Founder and artistic director Dianne Berkun Menaker will conduct.
Closing out the season will be the U.S. premiere of New Vic Theatre Staffordshire’s Around The World in 80 Days (May 10-19, 2019), adapted from the Jules Verne book by Laura Eason. It features 8 actors who will play over 125 characters. Theresa Heskins will direct. It will be co-produced with Kenny Wax and Simon Friend.
The New Victory will also present works at the Duke on 42nd Street for young theatregoers, from babies to 5-year-olds. First to play the Duke this season will be Boing! (Dec. 7-23), a U.S. premiere dance-theatre work originally by Traveling Light Theatre Company in Bristol, England. It is about waiting for Santa and features acrobatics and breakdancing. It will be choreographed and performed by Wilkie Branson and Joêl Daniel. Sally Cookson will direct. Heidi Vaughan will produce.
Next will be Spellbound Theatre’s The World Inside Me (March 29-April 7, 2019), created by Christine Dehne and Lauren Jost, with music and lyrics by Jono Waldman. It is a show with interactive play, music, dance, and visual effects, about how our bodies grow. One version of the show will be aimed towards ages 0-2, and another will be for ages 2-4. Lauren Jost will direct. Chicago Children’s Theatre will co-produce.
The final Duke production will be the U.S. premiere of Bout À Bout (May 31-June 9, 2019), a show for ages 2-4 about the adventures of an ordinary piece of rope that turns into a hero. It will feature puppetry by Le Clane des Songes.
The New Victory will also have a series of offerings for ages 4-7. The first production for ages 4-7 will be U.S. premiere of Tinga Tinga Tales – The Musical (Oct. 13-20), written by Kenyan pop singer/songwriter Eric Wainaina, based on the popular BBC and Disney cartoon series about African folklore. Original Tinga Tinga Tales producer and writer Claudia Lloyd will direct. Sheba Hirst will produce.
Next will be the U.S. premiere of England-based company Tall Stories’ Emily Brown and the Thing (Jan. 26-Feb. 4, 2019), a musical adventure adapted from Cressida Crowell and Neal Layton’s picture book, with music by Jon Fiber and Andy Shaw. It is about a girl named Emily Brown who tries to help a creature called The Thing. Olivia Jacobs will direct. Toby Mitchell will be the creative producer.
The final production for ages 4-7 will be the world premiere of Fiesta Con Sonia De Los Santos (March 15-16, 2019), a concert by Sonia De Los Santos and some of her fellow musicians from Latin America who will all bring instruments from their native countries, featuring songs in both English and Spanish from her albums Mi Viaje: De Nuevo León to the New York Island and Alegría.
Founded in 1995, The New Victory Theater is a children’s theatre company in New York City, dedicated to arts access and education for young people.
