| WP Theater Announces 2024-2025 Season | |
| Last Edit: Official_Press_Release 07:37 pm EDT 06/20/24 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 07:28 pm EDT 06/20/24 | |
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| WP THEATER ANNOUNCES 2024-2025 SEASON SEPTEMBER 21- OCTOBER 20, 2024 WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION MATHILDE DRATWA'S DIRTY LAUNDRY Directed by Rebecca Martinez By special arrangement with Spark Theatrical/Laurie Bernhard MARCH/APRIL 2025 WORLD PREMIERE FRANCISCA DA SILVEIRA'S minor.ity Directed by Shariffa Ali A co-production with Colt Coeur (New York, NY – June 20, 2024) WP Theater (Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag) is thrilled to announce their 2024-25 Season at WP Theater (2162 Broadway, at 76th Street). "It has been a personal privilege to work with our incredible team, and our brilliant partners at Spark Theatrical and Colt Coeur, to bring you WP's latest season, which features stellar new work from from artists old and new to WP, sharing offerings that are as joyful, smart, perceptive, thought-provoking, and laugh-out-loud funny as the artists themselves," says WP's Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty "The season shifts from grief and betrayal and the voices in one's head that give TERRIBLE advice, to the complications and rivalries that divide three artists at an international African arts conference. We can't wait to share it all with you–this season is going to be a blast!" The season kicks off in the fall of 2024 with Dirty Laundry, written by Mathilde Dratwa (Milk and Gall, A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein) and directed by former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater Rebecca Martinez (Sancocho, The Comedy of Errors). After the woman who unites them dies, three people grapple with love, loss, lust...and household chores. Meanwhile, a spin cycle of voices pings with questions: are you still a daughter when your mother dies? Are you still the other woman when the first woman is gone? And maybe more importantly–how do you clean all that Dirty Laundry? By special arrangement with Spark Theatrical, Dirty Laundry runs from September 21st through October 20th, with opening night on October 6th. In the spring 2025, the world premiere of minor.ity by Francisca Da Silveira, directed by Shariffa Ali (We Were Everywhere, Eclipsed), will begin its limited engagement at WP Theater, in partnership with Colt Coeur. In a world plagued with scarcity, minor•ity is a powerful three-hander that interrogates Black identity, the plurality of the African diaspora, and what it means to be a sought-after artist of color. An international African arts conference, Diaspora Now!, is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee in Paris and the panel line-up this year is sure to cause a stir. Newcomer Sami Monroe, a go-getting directing prodigy from America, joins jaded veteran painter Céza Depina and formerly banned storyteller, Cheikh Malick Diallo. As they prepare for each panel discussion, generational and cultural differences lead to clashes and a fierce competition emerges between the three artists. minor.ity runs in March and April of 2025, exact dates to be announced. "WP THEATER ENSURES THE FUTURE IS FEMALE" Playbill "AN IMPORTANT, RISK-TAKING ORGANIZATION." New York Magazine "WP THEATER IS ENDURINGLY VITAL." The New York Times WP Theater, now in its 47th Season, is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ at every stage in their careers. For almost five decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond. WP Theater received a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award, a 2019 Obie Award, and a 2020 Drama Desk Award, all for Outstanding Body of Work, recognizing WP's unique place and vital work in the theatrical landscape. WP empowers Women+ of all kinds to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays Women+ write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential Women+ theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including 2024 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Danya Taymor, 2019 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Rachel Chavkin, 2018 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Rebecca Taichman, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Pam MacKinnon, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Diane Paulus, 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner Eboni Booth, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner Martyna Majok, and two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage. These powerful women found an artistic home at WP and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force. WP was founded in 1978 by visionary producer, Julia Miles, to address the significant under-representation of women in theater. Today, WP accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs, including: the WP Lab, a celebrated two-year mentorship and new play development program for Women+ playwrights, directors,and producers; the Domestic Partner residency program; the Developmental series of workshops and readings; the Commissioning series, and the Mainstage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary theater artists. Current artists under commission are: Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Emily Kaczmarek, MJ Kaufman, Sylvia Khoury, Zizi Majid, Rehana Mirza, Zoe Sarnak, Rachel Wax, and Leah Nanako Winkler. When we say Women+ we mean: cis women, trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming people and all gender identities which have been systematically oppressed throughout history in the theater and beyond. WP offers tickets from $10 to $100 for all performances of every show each season with no need for subscription or membership. Everyone is welcome and we have a price that is accessible for all. For more information, please visit www.WPTheater.org. BIOGRAPHIES: MATHILDE DRATWA (Dirty Laundry – Playwright) is a Belgian playwright and screenwriter based in Brooklyn. Her plays include Dirty Laundry (world premiere WP), which was commissioned and released as an audio play by Audible, for which she won the Henley Rose Award; Milk & Gall (world premiere Theatre503, London, published by Nick Hern Books); A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein; and Esther Perel Ruined My Life. Her work has been presented by the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Roundabout Theatre Company, Rattlestick, Berkshire Theatre Group, American Players Theater, LAByrinth Theater Company, the Cape Cod Theater Project, and in London at the Young Vic. Mathilde is an inaugural Powers Playwriting Fellow at the Old Globe, an Affiliated Writer at the Playwrights' Center, and was recently a member of the Orchard Project's Greenhouse, a Dramatist Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellow and a member of New York Foundation for the Arts' Immigrant Artist Program. She also writes for film and television; she has developed content for Netflix, FX, Chernin Entertainment, LuckyChap, Endeavor, Dirty Films, Red Wagon, Sony/TriStar and Wiip. REBECCA MARTINEZ (Dirty Laundry – Director) (she/her) is a multidisciplinary director and the Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project. Recent projects: Bite Me (WP Theater / Colt Coeur), It Happened in Key West (Fulton Theatre), Sancocho (WP Theater), Living and Breathing (Two River), Los Complicados (EST Marathon), Randy's Dandy Coaster Castle (Egg & Spoon Collective), Songs About Trains (Working Theater and Radical Evolution), Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre). Rebecca co-adapted and directed the 2023 & 2024 touring bilingual musical production of The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater's Mobile Unit, Drama Desk Nomination, Outstanding Adaptation). She has developed new work with The Public Theater, Amas Musical Theater, the O'Neill, Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Sol Project, NAMT, INTAR, Working Theater, The Playwrights Realm, among others. As Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project, Rebecca works alongside participating communities to imagine, plan, and create public, large-scale participatory art and health projects debuting simultaneously on July 27, 2024 under the campaign Arts for EveryBody. Her work leading up to July 27th aims to strengthen bonds and deepen cross-sector relationships across the arts, health, and municipal governments in each community – laying a foundation for equitable and lasting community development. Affiliations: Member of the Obie Award winning Sol Project Collective, Co-facilitator of the WP Directors Lab, 2021 TCG Rising Leaders of Color, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR's Unit52, New Georges Affiliated Artist, Drama League Directing Fellow, member of SDC. Awards: Colorado Henry Award for Directing; four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is originally from Colorado with ancestral roots in the Southwest and Bohemia. Rebeccamartinez.org LAURIE BERNHARD/SPARK THEATRICAL Laurie is an independent theatrical creative producer concentrating on daring new plays that provide a lens into the condition of being human. She collaborates with playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, actors and designers exploring new work, experimenting and pushing boundaries. Her company SPARK Theatrical has multiple projects in development in Los Angeles and New York. Laurie is on the Boards of Ojai Playwrights Conference and Thunder River Theatre Company. SparkTheatrical.com FRANCISCA DA SILVEIRA (minor.ity – Playwright) is a Cape Verdean-American playwright, tv writer and Boston native whose work has been featured in ArtsBoston, The LA Times, The Boston Globe and American Theatre Magazine. Her play Can I Touch It? was featured in the National New Play Network's 2020 National Showcase of New Plays and enjoyed a Rolling World Premiere at Company One Theatre (Boston), Rogue Machine Theatre (Los Angeles), and Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland) in 2023. Her play Pay No Worshipis a 2023 Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and received a World Premiere at InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia) in April 2023. Her play Not-For-Profit (Or the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Play) was featured in The Playwrights' Realm's INK'D Festival in April 2021 and in La Jolla Playhouse's DNA New Works Series in July 2021 and will receive its world premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre in Fall 2024. da silveira was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a member of The Public Theater's 2020-2023 Emerging Writers Group, a 2022-2023 Jerome Fellow with the Playwrights' Center, member of The Apollo Theater's 2023 New Works Initiative Cohort, a Winter 2024 MacDowell fellow and a participant in the 2024 Banff Playwrights Lab. She is currently the 2024-2025 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at WP Theater and is working on commissions from the Brooklyn-based theater Colt Coeur and Grammy Award-winner Christopher Lennertz. In TV land, da silveira was in the writers' room for HBO's Season 3 of Industry and is in development with HBO. She holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and an MSc in Playwriting from the University of Edinburgh. SHARIFFA ALI (minor.ity – Directorshe/her) is an international creative leader committed to advancing radical change through the power of art & activism. She works across disciplines directing and producing films, virtual reality experiences & plays and moves her audiences to engage with timely issues touching upon Black, Afropolitan, and African-American identities. Originally from Kenya and raised in South Africa, Shariffa has been a New York resident since 2013 where she has worked primarily as a director, community organizer and administrator at The Public Theater and The New Group among others. She is currently on faculty at Princeton University. As a filmmaker, Shariffa's works have been featured at acclaimed film/VR festivals & institutions worldwide including Sundance Film Festival (USA); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (South Africa); Brooklyn Film Festival (USA); Pan African Film Festival (USA); Electric Africa VR festival (South Africa) and DOK Neuland (Germany). Select theatre credits include Mies Julie (Classic Stage Company), School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), The Copper Children , (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Mlima's Tale (St Louis Rep) Film/VR: "Ash Land", "Atomu" (Official Selection at Sundance Festival 2020), "Sink Sank Sunk, You Go Girl!" (Official Selection at Sundance Festival 2022), "O-Dogg" (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) Honors: New Frontier Fellow, Sundance Institute Lab, and the Royal National Theater (UK); POV/PBS Spark Grant. Education: BA with honors, Theatre and Performance, University of Cape Town, South Africa. COLT COEUR is a Brooklyn-based theatre company founded in 2010. Their original, story-driven, visceral theatre embraces the power of intimate live performance—it pulls you close and doesn't let go. Their community of artists nurtures and invests in diverse perspectives to produce work that challenges the boundaries between tradition and experimentation. They embrace the ambivalence, terror and exhilaration of our time with theatre that is an antidote to the pervasive cultural illness of loneliness. They explore themes of coming-of-age, individual and collective identity, nostalgia and history, public versus private, love, lust, and loss. Through their unique collective process, every theatre artist—actor, playwright, designer—takes part in shared invention and collaborative creation; creating heart- and mind-opening audience experiences unlike any other. They nurture the next generation of theatre artists by providing access, education and a professional pipeline, while amplifying voices and perspectives that have historically been sidelined. Colt Couer's 24-member ensemble of actors, designers, playwrights, and directors incubates the next generation of theatre artists through the development and production of new plays—which they create from scratch. Over 14 years, Colt Coeur has produced 17 world premieres, one East Coast premiere, developed nearly 50 plays, and provided free arts intensives for over 200 students. They pride themselves in being a laboratory for exploration while also nurturing the work of emerging artists and providing them a launch pad for their visions. Colt Coeur has a tremendous reputation among artists and audiences alike. The company is renowned for its high artistic standards, and artists who work with Colt Coeur have gone on to contribute to and excel in every level of the entertainment industry. Colt Coeur has helped launch the multi-faceted careers of Timothée Chalamet, Ato Essandoh, Betty Gilpin, Steven Levenson, Ana Nogueira, and Joe Tippett, among many others. |
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