NEW YORK CITY: Soho Rep has announced its 2018-19 season, which will feature two new plays* about the detrimental effects of imperialism, as well as several studio workshops.
“Thunderbodies and Passage are wildly distinctive works but share a resonance in that they are both an irreverent explosion of ‘nationalism,’” said artistic director Sarah Benson in a statement. “I am so thrilled to bring them to vivid production in the hands of Lileana Blain-Cruz and Saheem Ali.”
The season begins with the world premiere of Kate Tarker’s war satire Thunderbodies (Oct. 16-Nov. 18). Blain-Cruz will direct a cast that includes Deirdre O’Connell, Juan Carlos Hernandez, Mia Katigbak, Monique St. Cyr, and Matthew Jeffers. Tarker’s new play sets out to humorously depict the unfortunate reality of a society struggling through war.
Following will be the New York premiere of Christopher Chen’s Passage (April 23-May 26, 2019). Ali will direct the play, which follows the citizens of Country X, a nation colonized by Country Y. Including no obvious identifiers for either of the countries, Chen depicts the conflicts between two places imagined by their citizens.
The season will also include several Studio Workshops in January, February, and May 2019, featuring new plays by Becca Blackwell and Charlotte Brathwaite, Carmelita Tropicana and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Narcissister.
Also included in the programming will be the public presentations of new works developed during the 2017-2019 Soho Rep Writer/ Director Lab. Featured will be artistic collaborators Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Virginia Grise, Ann Marie Dorr and Paul Ketchum, Jen Goma and Kristine Haruna Lee, Raja Feather Kelly and Daaimah Mubashshir, and Julia Mounsey and Peter Mills Weiss. The event will be co-chaired by playwright, director, and curator William Burke and playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury.
Founded in 1975, Soho Rep creates and produces innovative new plays and is a hub for contemporary theatre artists.
*A previous version of this article mistakenly listed Passage as a world premiere at Soho Rep. The theatre is actually producing the New York premiere of the play.
