NEW YORK CITY: Vineyard Theatre has announced its 2020-21 season, featuring a mix of digital and outside offerings. In-person performances will resume when it is safe to return to the theatre.
“We are thrilled to announce our 2020-21 season, which will take place digitally, in person outside, and eventually back in our theatre,” said co-artistic directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern in a joint statement. “With daring imagination and reinvention, the artists creating in our season are bringing new work to life in and for our moment. It is a season that looks at the stories we tell about who we are—as individuals and as a country—and asks how we change when our stories do. We are inspired by the power and artistry of these works, and invite audiences across our city, country, and world to join us for an adventure in what theatre can be and do.”
The Vineyard‘s 2020-21 artists-in-residence include the Commissary, Michael R. Jackson, Charly Evon Simpson, York Walker, Whitney White, and more to be announced this fall.
The season will start with part one of Lessons in Survival (Oct. 6-Nov. 1), a digital performance conceived by Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall, Tyler Thomas, and Reggie D. White as part of a multigenerational theatre artists’ collective called the Commissary. The a cohort of actors will channel historic conversations, interviews, and speeches, and speak exactly what they hear from an in-ear feed. The cast will feature Kyle Beltran, Dan Butler, Helen Cespedes, Kalyne Coleman, Crystal Dickinson, Brandon Dirden, Ricardy Fabre, Yonaton Gebeyehu, Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall, Nicole Lewis, Nana Mensah, Joe Morton, Deirdre O’Connell, Keith Randolph Smith, Ryan Spahn, Chris Stack, Myra Lucretia Taylor, TL Thompson, Nicole Villamil, Victoria Villier, and Reggie D. White. Tyler Thomas will direct.
Next up will be Bill Irwin’s The Busking Project (Sept. 23-25, Oct. 1-3), which will feature Irwin performing on the streets of the Union Square/Flatiron neighborhood to limited audiences of Vineyard members.
Following will be a series of mini-commissions of new digital or alternative theatre works from Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen, and Madeline Sayet.
The season will continue with the return of Dana H. (TBA) by Lucas Hnath, a co-production with Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group. The play is adapted from interviews by Steve Cosson with Dana Higginbotham, the playwright’s mother, about the true story of when Dana was held captive for five months. Les Waters will direct.
Next will be the world premiere of This Land Was Made (TBA) by Tori Sampson, about patrons of a bar in Oakland inspired to turn social activism into action in 1967. Vineyard artist-in-residence Whitney White will direct.
The season will conclude with the world premiere of David Cale’s Sandra (TBA), a one-woman thriller about a woman seeking answers about her friend’s mysterious disappearance. The show will feature an original compositions by Matthew Dean Marsh, and Leigh Silverman will direct.
Founded in 1981, Vineyard Theatre is an Off-Broadway company dedicated to developing and producing groundbreaking new works by both emerging and established artists.
