New York Theatre Workshop Announces 2014-2015 Season
New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is the fancy theater on the Fourth Arts Block (the patch of East Fourth Street between Bowery Street and Second Avenue, which includes La MaMa and the Kraine Theater, theaters that we love but that are not fancy). NYTW is known as the birthplace of Jonathan Larson’s Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical Rent and more recently for Once and Peter and the Starcatcher.
NYTW recently announced its 2014-2015 season, including the New York premiere of a play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and the return of frequent NYTW collaborator Flemish director Ivo van Hove. A fourth production in the season is yet to be named. Memberships to NYTW for the 2014-15 season are on sale now. Single tickets will go on sale at a later date. For more information visit the New York Theater Workshop website.
(Descriptions provided by New York Theater Workshop)
Scenes from a Marriage (U.S. Premiere)
By Ingmar Bergman; Adapted by Emily Mann
Directed by Ivo van Hove
Internationally renowned Flemish director Ivo van Hove, returns to the city for his seventh collaboration with New York Theatre Workshop. Van Hove has received critical acclaim for his fresh interpretations of familiar dramatic works including, most recently, Roman Tragedies at BAM, as well as productions of The Little Foxes, A Street Car Named Desire and Hedda Gabler at NYTW. In Emily Mann’s highly theatrical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s popular 1974 film Scenes from a Marriage, an ensemble of virtuosic actors invite audiences into an intimate space to experience collectively the human dynamics of a relationship through all the stages of a life—from youth, to middle age to maturity. Van Hove’s interpretation illuminates the universal themes of love, identity and vulnerability that are at the heart of Bergman’s timeless film.
The Invisible Hand
By Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced) makes his New York Theatre Workshop debut with The Invisible Hand, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll (Red Dog Howls). The Invisible Hand follows Nick Bright, an American stock broker, into a terrifying world of kidnapping and torture in a remote region of Pakistan. As Nick negotiates to save his own life he begins to see his captors in a new light. This new play is a chilling and complex look at how far we will go to save ourselves and the devastating ramifications of our individual actions.
Forever
Created and Performed by Dael Orlandersmith
Directed by Neel Keller
Long time New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect Dael Orlandersmith (Monster, The Gimmick) returns to the Workshop with an uplifting semi-autobiographical exploration of the family we are born into and the family we choose. Forever draws from Orlandersmith’s own pilgrimage to the famed Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris – the final resting place of legendary artists such as Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. Inspired at the graveside of these timeless artists, Orlandersmith gives a gripping account of the legacy she inherited from her mother – one of bitterness, abuse, beauty and art.