Vineyard Theatre 2020-2021 Season

Artists include Ngozi Anyanwu, David Cale, Kirsten Childs, Lucas Hnath, Marin Ireland, Bill Irwin, Peter Mark Kendall, Jared Mezzocchi, Deirdre O’Connell,  Polly Pen, Tori Sampson, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Tyler Thomas, Les Waters, Reggie D. White, Whitney White, and more      Works will be performed digitally, in person outside in New York City, and on stage at the Vineyard […]

Artists include Ngozi Anyanwu, David Cale, Kirsten Childs, Lucas Hnath, Marin Ireland, Bill Irwin, Peter Mark Kendall, Jared Mezzocchi, Deirdre O’Connell,  Polly Pen, Tori Sampson, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Tyler Thomas, Les Waters, Reggie D. White, Whitney White, and more 

 

 

Works will be performed digitally, in person outside in New York City, and on stage at the Vineyard Theatre in 2021.  

Lessons In Survival
Conceived by Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall, Tyler Thomas, Reggie D. White
Performed by The Commissary
A multigenerational group of more than 40 ​theatre artists
Directed by Tyler Thomas 

The Busking Project
Created and Performed by Bill Irwin

Commissioned Works
Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen, Madeline Sayet

Dana H.
Returns to Vineyard Theatre
By Lucas Hnath
Adapted from interviews with
Dana Higginbotham conducted by Steve Cosson
Directed by Les Waters
Featuring Deirdre O’Connell 

This Land Was Made
World Premiere
By Tori Sampson
Directed by Whitney White

Sandra
World Premiere
By David Cale
Music by Matthew Dean Marsh
Directed by Leigh Silverman

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern are pleased to announce the company’s upcoming 2020-2021 Season which includes digital and outdoor productions, as well as the reopening when safe to do so of Vineyard Theatre’s home at 108 East 15th Street with the return of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Dana H. by Lucas Hnath and two world premieres from Tori Sampson and David Cale. 

Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern said: “We are thrilled to announce our 2020-2021 Season, which will take place digitally, in person outside, and eventually, back in our theatre. 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.”

Current artists for the season include Ngozi Anyanwu, David Cale, Kirsten Childs, Lucas Hnath, Marin Ireland, Bill Irwin, Peter Mark Kendall, Jared Mezzocchi, Deirdre O’Connell, Polly Pen, Tori Sampson, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Tyler Thomas, Les Waters, Reggie D. White and Whitney White, among others. The Vineyard’s 2020-2021 Artists-in-Residence include The Commissary, Michael R. Jackson, Charly Evon Simpson, York Walker and Whitney White. Recipients of The Vineyard’s 2020-2021 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Susan Stroman Directing Award residencies will be announced later this fall.

Membership info: Memberships ensure great access to all Vineyard Theatre productions for a fraction of the full ticket price. Memberships are now on sale for The Vineyard’s 2020-2021 season. To purchase and additional information regarding packages please visit WEBSITE HERE or by calling the box office at 212-353-0303.


Vineyard Theatre 2020-21 Season

Lessons In Survival
October 6 – November 1 (Part 1)
Digital
Conceived by Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall,
Tyler Thomas, Reggie D. White
Directed by Tyler Thomas
Video Design and Editing by Josiah Davis
Sound Design by Daniel Kluger

Production Design by You-Shin Chen
Production Coordinator Clarissa Marie Ligon

Performed by The Commissary
With Kyle Beltran, Dan Butler, Helen Cespedes, Kalyne Coleman, Crystal Dickinson, Brandon Dirden, Ricardy Fabre, Yonatan 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, Reggie D. White

“How do you talk about 300 years in four minutes? Was it ever so apparent we need this dialogue?”  — Lorraine Hansberry, 1964

 “This country’s my problem and your problem.”  — James Baldwin, 1968

Fueled by the urgency of our present moment, The Commissary, a multigenerational collective of more than 40 ​theatre artists, have come together to reinvestigate the words​ ​of trailblazing artists​ ​and activists ​who survived and created in times of revolution in our country​. Baldwin. Giovanni. Davis. Lorde. Hansberry. Rustin. Hamer. ​In Lessons In Survival, a cohort of actors channel historic conversations, interviews and speeches, listening to original broadcasts on an in-ear feed and speaking exactly what they hear. In bringing these words to new life in the present, they ask what these voices can teach us about our country now and the opportunity for true change that stands before us. How might they propel us to look courageously at the effects of systemic racism, to imagine ourselves outside of its prescriptions, and to create, together, a shared future of collective liberation?  

Lessons In Survival will continue to develop throughout the season, with The Commissary as an artistic-collective-in-residence at The Vineyard, and will be shared with audiences at different stages over the coming months. Join us in October for the first round of eight performances and four open rehearsals. Each Sunday, free weekly community conversations with current leaders will build on the legacy of daring conversations that reflect the times and inspire the future.


The Busking Project
Created and performed by Bill Irwin
September 23, 25, 26
October 1, 2, 3

Tony Award-winning actor and legendary clown Bill Irwin returns to his roots: busking on the street. In an eight-minute foray into rhythm and language, Bill taps into the energy of the Union Square/Flatiron neighborhood as an evolving site of storytelling, spinning rhymes for our changing times. 

Limited reserved spots are available for Vineyard Members only for this in-person, outdoor, socially-distanced live performance.


Vineyard Theatre 2020-2021 Mini-Commissions
Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen, Madeline Sayet 

In a new program created for this season, The Vineyard has commissioned five artists to create new digital or alternative theatre works. From short plays to musicals to adventurous digital theatre design, these wildly original artists will create new digital or alternative theatre works that will premiere over the course of the season.  


Dana H.
By Lucas Hnath
Adapted from interviews with
Dana Higginbotham conducted by Steve Cosson
Featuring Deirdre O’Connell
Directed By Les Waters
A co-production with Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group
2021 Dates TBD

DANA H. RETURNS! Don’t miss “one of the richest, most complete works of theatre to come along in many seasons”(The New York Times). A harrowing true story, Dana was held captive — trapped in a series of Florida motels, disoriented and terrified — for five months. Told in Dana’s own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son Lucas Hnath (A Doll’s House Part 2, The Christians), this innovative work shatters the boundaries of the art form and our understanding of good and evil. Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show and Lortel and Obie Awards for Deirdre O’Connell’s “simply astonishing” performance (Time Out NY).


This Land Was Made
by Tori Sampson
Directed by Whitney White
World Premiere
Dates TBD

Liberation. Peace. Love. Self-Defense. Oakland in 1967 is a powder keg of social activism ready to boil over into radical action. For the patrons of Miss Trish’s bar, it’s all just talking points — until the full, seductive and explosive force of the revolution walks through the door. History and imagination collide with vibrant humor and echo into our present moment in this stirring new play from Tori Sampson, playwright of the New York Times Critic’s Pick If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be A Muhfucka, directed by Obie Award-winner and Vineyard artist-in-residence Whitney White (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord).


Sandra
By David Cale
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Original compositions by Matthew Dean Marsh
World Premiere
Dates TBD

In this new one-woman thriller from David Cale (Harry Clarke, 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show), Sandra seeks to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of her closest friend, a young pianist and composer, who went on a trip to Mexico and never returned. Her search for clues leads her into both a highly charged love affair, and increasingly dangerous territory. Featuring an original piano score by Matthew Dean Marsh (We’re Only Alive For A Short Amount Of Time) and direction by Obie Award-winning director Leigh Silverman (Harry Clarke), Sandra asks how far would you go for love?


About Vineyard Theatre
Vineyard Theatre is an Off-Broadway theatre company dedicated to nurturing the voices of daring artists, and developing and producing work that pushes the boundaries of what theatre can be and do. One of the country’s preeminent centers for the creation of new plays and musicals, our work seeks to challenge and inspire all of us to see ourselves and our world from different perspectives.

Notable premieres include David Cale’s Harry Clarke (2018 Drama Desk, Obie, Lucille Lortel Awards); Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman’s Indecent (two 2017 Tony Awards); two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned To Drive and Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria; Nicky Silver’s The Lyons; Marx, Lopez and Whitty’s Avenue Q (Tony Award, Best Musical); Kander, Ebb, and Thompson’s The Scottsboro Boys; Bell and Bowen’s [title of show]; Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar And Grill; Polly Pen’s Goblin Market; Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Wig Out!; Jenny Schwartz’ God’s Ear; Will Eno’s Middletown; Becky Mode’s Fully Committed; Colman Domingo’s Dot; Ngozi Anyanwu’s Good Grief; Jeremy O. Harris’ “Daddy”; Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger?; Tina Satter’s Is This A Room, named “Best Theater of 2019” by The New York Times and New York Magazine and nominated for four Lortel Awards with Emily Davis winning for Outstanding Actress in a Play; and most recently Lucas Hnath’s Dana H., a 2020 New York Times Critic’s Pick which was nominated for three Lortel Awards, winning Outstanding Solo Show and Outstanding Sound Design.

The Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Susan Stroman Directing Award residencies recognize and provide resources to gifted early-career artists, and our education programs serve over 700 NYC public high school students annually, culminating in the Rebel Verses Youth Arts Festival in collaboration with Developing Artists. Works developed and premiered at our home in Union Square have gone on to be seen around the world, and The Vineyard is proud to be the recipient of special Drama Desk, Obie, and Lucille Lortel awards for artistic excellence.

The Vineyard’s 2020-2021 Artists-in-Residence include The Commissary, Michael R. Jackson, Charly Evon Simpson, York Walker, Whitney White and more to be announced this fall. 

Vineyard Theatre’s leadership includes Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern and Managing Director Suzanne Appel.

www.vineyardtheatre.org

Follow Vineyard Theatre on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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Lessons In Survival

Tyler Thomas (she/hers), director and co-conceiver, is a director and choreographer, currently based in NYC. Her work has most recently been shown at The New Ohio, Signature Theatre, The Flea, HERE Arts Center, NYMF, Paradise Factory, and NYU Tisch. As an associate and assistant, she has worked with directors such as Lear deBessonet, Taibi Magar, Whitney White, Young Jean Lee, Lee Sunday Evans, Niegel Smith and Jo Bonney, as well as with the Builders Association as Associate Dramaturg. Tyler is a former SDCF Observer, member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, Visiting Artist at the Athens Conservatoire in Greece, Resident Director at The Flea, current 2050 NYTW Fellow and Foeller Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival. She holds a BFA in Drama and MA in Arts & Politics from the Tisch School of the Arts. 

 Marin Ireland (she/hers), co-conceiver. Theatre credits include Reasons to be Pretty, for which she won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for a Tony. Her other New York credits include The Big Knife and After Miss Julie (Broadway), Ironbound at Rattlestick, Kill Floor at Lincoln Center, Blasted and Marie Antoinette, both at Soho Rep, Three Sisters at Classic Stage, Cyclone at Studio Dante (Obie Award), and In The Wake at the Public Theatre. Some of her TV and film work includes the second season of the “Umbrella Academy,” “Girls,” “Homeland,” “Masters of Sex,” The Divide, “The Slap,” “Sneaky Pete,” Glass Chin (Independent Spirit nomination 2016), Sparrows Dance, The Family Fang, 28 Hotel Rooms, The Irishman, Hell or High Water and the Lifetime movie Flint, about the Flint water crisis, playing activist Melissa Mays. She co-founded the website hrforthearts.org with civil rights and liberties lawyer Norman Siegel, which aims to be a resource to help address harassment and bullying within the arts community.

 Reggie D. White (he/him), co-conceiver. Broadway: The Inheritance (Drama Desk Award for Best Play). International: Flood In The Valley (China). Off-Broadway: Hundred Days, I & You, For The Last Time. Regional: The Luckiest (La Jolla Playhouse), The Bluest Eye (Arden Theatre), And She Would Stand Like This (The Movement Theatre Company), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr), The Last Tiger in Haiti (Berkeley Rep/La Jolla Playhouse), Party People (Berkeley Rep). Film & TV: “Gotham”, “Blindspot”, “The Parent ‘Hood”, Buzzer, Medias Res, Stranger In Blood. Training: Atlantic Theater School, Cal State Hayward. Reggie is a Company Member of The Williams Project – a living wage theatre company. Reggie is also a recipient of the TBA Titan Award and the TCG Fox Fellowship. www.reggiedwhite.net

 Peter Mark Kendall (he/him), co-conceiver. Broadway: Six Degrees of Separation (Tony nomination for Best Revival), The Rose Tattoo (The Acting Company: with Patti LuPone & Bobby Cannavale). Off-Broadway: Blue Ridge (Atlantic), The Harvest (LCT3), Mercury Fur (The New Group), Joe’s Pub (with Whitney White), Judson, Partial Comfort. Regional: Lake Lucille Chekhov, Bay Street, Baltimore Center Stage, Trinity Rep., Chautauqua, Gloucester Stage, Baltimore Shakespeare, Studio Theatre (DC), Rep Stage, Kennedy Center. Film: Entangled, Time Out of Mind, Louder Than Bombs, The Ticket (TriBeCa), The Rest of Us, Seven Lovers. Television: “Strange Angel,” “Outpost” (series regular), “Girls,” “The Americans,” “Chicago Med,” “Eye Candy” (recurring),  “Awkwafina…from Queens,” “The Good Fight,” “Gotham,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “The Leftovers,” “Blue Bloods,” “Public Morals.” Upcoming TV: “The President is Missing” on Showtime (recurring); Upcoming films: The Scottish Play, Top Gun: Maverick. Education: M.F.A., Brown/Trinity Rep. Peter is also a musician, and creates music with the band Hickory.

The Busking Project

Bill Irwin is an actor, director, writer, and clown. His original works include The Regard of Flight; Largely New York; Fool Moon; Old Hats; The Happiness Lecture; and others. His theater credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Goat, Waiting for Godot, Endgame and On Beckett (an evening of passages from Samuel Beckett’s work).  Television appearances include FX’s “Legion,” HBO’s “Confirmation,” “This Is Us,” and Mr. Noodle in “Elmo’s World.” His film credits include Rachel Getting Married, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Eight Men Out and Interstellar. His work has been honored with Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Barrymore, and Helen Hayes Awards. He is also a recipient of Guggenehim, Fulbright, MacArthur and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.

Dana H.

Lucas Hnath, Playwright. Lucas’ most recent play Dana H. was at the Vineyard Theatre in New York. Lucas received a 2017 Tony Award nomination for Best Play with A Doll’s House, Part 2. Hnath’s other plays include Hillary and Clinton, The Thin Place, Red Speedo, The Christians, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, Isaac’s Eye and Death Tax. He has been produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have also premiered at the Humana Festival of New Plays, Victory Gardens and South Coast Repertory. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumnus of New Dramatists. Awards: Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Kesselring Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Obie Award for Playwriting, Steinberg Playwright Award, and the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize. 

Deirdre O’Connell (she/her), Dana H. Recent favorite theatre includes: Dana H. by Lucas Hnath (Los Angeles Ovation Award, Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Goodman Theater and Vineyard Theatre), Before The Meeting by Adam Bock (Williamstown Theater Festival), Thunderbodies by Kate Tarker (Soho Rep.), Fulfillment Center by Abe Koogler (Drama Desk and Drama League Award nominations) and By the Water by Sharyn Rothstein (Lortel nomination, Manhattan Theatre Club), Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean (New York Theatre Workshop), The Way West by Mona Mansour and Thinner Than Water by Melissa Ross (Labyrinth), Judy by Max Posner (Page 73), Little Children Dream of God by Jeff Augustin (Manhattan Theatre Club), Scarcity by Lucy Thurber (Rattlestick), The Vandal by Hamish Linklater (The Flea), Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (Obie and Drama Desk Awards; Playwrights Horizons), In the Wake by Lisa Kron (Los Angeles Ovation Award, Richard Seff Actors’ Equity Award, Lortel nomination,Kirk Douglas Theatre and Public Theatre), In the Blood by Susan Lori Parks (Public Theatre). Other favorite writers she has performed include Jenkins, Wellman, Schulman, Nelson, Meyer, Fornes, Shepard, Smith and Chekhov. Recent films include Diane, Lez Bomb, I Am a Seagull, The Boy Downstairs, Gabriel, Synecdoche, NY and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. TV includes recurring roles on “One Dollar,” “The Path,” “The Affair” and “Nurse Jackie.” She has an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Performance, a New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation and a Lilly Award.

Les Waters, Director. An Obie Award winner, Waters was Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2012–2018, where he directed The Thin Place, The Christians, Evocation To Visible Appearance, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Recent Alien Abductions, Macbeth, For Peter Pan On Her 70th Birthday, The Glory Of The World, Luna Gale, At The Vanishing Point, Our Town, Gnit, Girlfriend, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Big Love. His productions have been seen in New York at Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre Company, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Connelly Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, and Brooklyn Academy of Music and regionally at theatres such as Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse and American Repertory Theater. In 2009, he made his Broadway debut with In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play). He led the MFA directing program at University of California, San Diego from 1995–2003

Dana Higginbotham is a writer, educator and chaplain. For the past 20 years, her work as a chaplain in both hospitals and hospices throughout Florida has involved providing counsel for those who live with the effects of trauma, loss and life threatening or life limiting issues. She develops and leads workshops on “Stress Debriefing,” “Living with PTSD” and “Bereavement Intervention.” The “Practical Spirituality” curriculum she developed is used to address both addiction and adolescent affective disorders. She holds a Master’s of Divinity and a PhD in counseling.

Steve Cosson, Interviewer. New York credits include This Beautiful City (Vineyard Theatre and Center Theatre Group), Paul Swan Is Dead And Gone, Times Square (The Civilians), The Abominables (Children’s Theatre Company), The Undertaking (BAM Next Wave, US Tour, Theatre de la Ville, Paris, 59E59), Rimbaud in New York (BAM), The Belle of Amherst (Westside Theatre), The Great Immensity (The Public Theater), Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (Playwrights Horizons). Regional theater credits include Pretty Filthy, (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch and Gone Missing. Cosson was a Metropolitan Museum of Art Artist-in-Residence from 2014-2015. SteveCosson.com

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading non profit theatre company, which, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Ritchie, Managing Director Meghan Pressman and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, programs seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2100-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles.

Goodman Theatre, “Chicago’s flagship resident stage” (Chicago Tribune), is a premier not-for-profit theater distinguished by the quality and scope of its artistic programming and civic engagement. Led by Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, the theater’s artistic priorities include new play development (more than 150 world or American premieres), large scale musical theater works and reimagined classics. In addition, the Goodman is the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle.” Key to the theater’s success are its distinguished members of the Artistic Collective: Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Steve Scott, Kimberly Senior, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman. Awards for artistic excellence include two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards and more than 160 Joseph Jefferson Awards. GoodmanTheatre.org  

This Land Was Made 

Tori Sampson, Playwright. A native of Boston, Tori’s plays include If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, 2019), This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre, 2018), and Cadillac Crew (Yale Repertory Theater, 2019). She also wrote for Season 2 of “Hunters” on Amazon. Her plays have been developed at Great Plains Theatre Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s The Ground Floor residency program, Victory Garden’s IGNITION Festival of New Plays, Playwrights Foundation, and Ubuntu Festival. Tori is a 2017–18 Playwright’s Center Jerome Fellow and a 2018-19 McKnight Fellow. Two of her plays appeared on the 2017 Kilroys List. Her awards and honors include the 2016 Relentless Award, Honorable Mention; the 2016 Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting from The Kennedy Center; the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Second Place; the Alliance Theater’s 2017 Kendeda Prize, Finalist; the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Finalist; the 2018 National Theater Conferences, Paul Green Award. Tori is currently working on commissions from Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre and Atlantic Theater Company. She holds a BS in sociology from Ball State University and an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama.

Whitney White, Director, is an Obie-Award and Lily Award winning director, writer and musician originally from Chicago. She is a believer of alternative forms of performance, multi-disciplinary work and collaborative processes. Recent directing: The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre DC), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theatre and Second Stage, NYT Critic’s Pick), Aleshea Harris’ What to Send Up When it Goes Down (The Movement Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth, American Repertory Theatre, The Public, NYT Critic’s Pick), An Iliad (Long Wharf), Canyon by Jonathan Caren (LA Times Critic’s Choice and recipient of the CTG Block Party Grant, IAMA), Jump by Charly Evon Simpson (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, PlayMakers Rep). Digital projects include: Finish the Fight by Ming Peiffer (The New York Times, 24K+ viewers), Animals by Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Williamstown Theatre and Audible) and Soft Light by Aleshea Harris (The Movement Theatre). Her original musical Definition will debut at the Bushwick Starr in 2021 and her five-part cycle deconstructing Shakespeare’s women, music and female ambition is currently in development with American Repertory Theater (Boston, MA).  Whitney is the current recipient of Vineyard Theatre’s Susan Stroman Directing Award, is part of the Rolex Protegé and Mentorship Arts Initiative and is an Associate Artist at The Roundabout. She is also an Associate Director at Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. Past residencies and fellowships: Sundance Theatre Lab, Colt Coeur, The Drama League, the Roundabout and the 2050 Fellowship at the New York Theatre Workshop. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA: Northwestern University.

Sandra

David Cale, Playwright, returns to the Vineyard Theatre following his solo play Harry Clarke, starring Billy Crudup, and directed by Leigh Silverman, which transferred to the Minetta Lane Theatre in a run produced and recorded by Audible (2018 Lucille Lortel Award). Cale’s works as both writer and performer include The History of Kisses, Palomino, A Likely Story, Lillian (Obie Award), Deep in a Dream of You (Bessie Award), Smooch Music and The Redthroats (Bessie Award). He wrote the book, lyrics, co-composed the music and starred in the musical Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination). His most recent work is his solo musical memoir We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time, for which he wrote the book, lyrics and co-composed the music with his musical collaborator Matthew Dean Marsh. For We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time, Cale and Marsh received a 2019 Jeff Award and a 2020 Lucille Lortel Award nomination, and Cale was the recipient of a 2020 Drama Desk Award nomination, a 2020 Outer Critics Circle Award and a 2020 Obie Award.

Matthew Dean Marsh, Composer, has collaborated with David Cale over the past four years, their anthology of songs growing extensively during this time. Most notably, We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time, the autobiographical one-man musical with Cale as the starring role, featured music written by the duo and arranged by Marsh. For We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time, Cale and Marsh received the 2019 Jeff Award for New Musical and a 2020 Lucille Lortel Award nomination. Matthew music directed Clubbed Thumb’s revival of Tumacho, directed by Leigh Silverman, in early 2020. His compositions have sounded at Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center, Tribeca Film Festival, The Public Theater, MassMOCA and The Goodman Theater in Chicago.

Leigh Silverman, Director. Broadway: Grand Horizons (2ST; Williamstown Theater Festival); The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54); Violet (Roundabout; Tony Award nomination); Chinglish (Goodman Theatre; Longacre Theatre); Well (Public Theater; ACT; Longacre Theatre). Recent Off-Broadway: Soft Power (Public Theater; Ahmanson Theater/ Curran Theater; Drama Desk nomination); Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb); Hurricane Diane (New York Theatre Workshop; Two River Theater); Harry Clarke (Vineyard Theatre/Audible, Minetta Lane; Lortel nomination); Wild Goose Dreams (Public Theater; La Jolla Playhouse); Sweet Charity (New Group); On The Exhale (Roundabout); All The Ways To Say I Love You (MCC); The Way We Get By (2ST); The Outer Space (Public Theater); Bright Half Life (WP); No Place To Go (Public Theater); American Hero (WTF; 2ST); Kung Fu (Signature Theatre); The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons). Encores: Violet; The Wild Party; Really Rosie. 2011 Obie Award and 2019 Obie for Sustained Excellence.

Mini-Commission Recipient Artists

Ngozi Anyanwu’s play Good Grief (Kilroys List 2016, semi finalist Princess Grace, Humanitas Award), in which Anyanwu also starred, recently ran Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre and was produced at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles in Spring 2017. Nike… (Kilroys List 2017) was recently workshopped at The New Black Fest in conjunction with The Lark and The Strand Festival in conjunction with A.C.T and Space on Ryder Farm. The Homecoming Queen (Kilroys List 2017, Leah Ryan Finalist) recently had its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater which also had a sold out run. Anywanwu has commissions with NYU, The Old Globe and The Atlantic Theatre and has received residencies from LCT3, Space on Ryder Farm, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, The New Harmony Project, New York Stage and Film and Page 73. She attended Point Park University (BA) and received her MFA in Acting from University of California, San Diego.

Kirsten Childs is the award-winning writer of the musicals The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Miracle Brothers, Fly (with Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman), Funked Up Fairy Tales and Bella: An American Tall Tale (directed by Robert O’Hara). Bella received its world premiere in the 2016-2017 season at Dallas Theater Center, with a co-production at Playwrights Horizons. Bubbly Black Girl was recently produced at Theatre Royal Stratford East in the UK and at City Centers Encores! Off-Broadway. For her work, Kirsten has received Obie, Kleban, Larson, Richard Rodgers, Audelco and Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla awards, as well as Lortel and Drama Desk nominations. She is currently working on a commissioned project for The New Group with writer/director Gordon Greenberg. Kirsten has written for Disney Theatricals, the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center, the New Electric Company, City Center Encores!, Works and Process @ Guggenheim Museum, and Premieres/Inner Voices under the producership of Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference. She is an adjunct professor in NYU’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program and a member of the Dramatists Guild Council.

Jared Mezzocchi is a Lucille Lortel and Obie Award-winning multimedia artist based out of Washington, DC. He is a resident artist at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington DC and has directed and designed at theaters across the U.S. including The John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Milwaukee Rep, Portland Center Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, National Geographic, National Gallery of Art and Centerstage Baltimore, Roundhouse Theater and The National Players. In NYC, he has worked with Manhattan Theatre Club, Big Art Group, The Builders Association, Rob Roth, 3-Legged Dog, New Georges and HERE Arts Center. Other honors include the Henry Hewes Award, Princess Grace Award, and a Helen Hayes nomination. He is currently co-directing and media designing Sarah Gancher’s Russian Troll Farm, blending theatre, cinema and television technique into a live online performance. Mezzocchi received his MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College and is currently on faculty at University Of Maryland, College Park, where he built the projection design curriculum in the MFA design program. His book, A Multimedia Designer’s Method To Theatrical Storytelling, will be published through Routledge in Spring 2021. Mezzocchi grew up in New Hampshire, where he returns every summer as Producing Artistic Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse.

Polly Pen writes book, music and lyrics. She is an Obie Award winner for the score of Bed and Sofa, which received seven Drama Desk nominations. Bed and Sofa premiered at the Vineyard Theatre and received its London premiere at the Finborough Theatre.  Polly’s first Off-Broadway production as both composer and co-author, Goblin Market, received five Drama Desk nominations and the BEST PLAYS Special Citation for Musical Composition and Adaptation.  Other works include The Night Governess (McCarter Theatre), House for Sale (Transport Group), Her Lightness (Sarasota Opera), The Dumb Cake (a radio musical for NPR), Embarrassments (Wilma Theater) and Christina Alberta’s Father (Vineyard Theatre), which received a Richard Rodgers Award, an Obie and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music. Polly is the recipient of several NEA grants, The Kitty Carlisle Hart Award and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Award for Musical Theatre.  She has been honored by fellowships at Moulin á Nef in Auvillar, France, Sundance Theatre Lab at Ucross and The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, Italy. Polly received the 2009 Flora Roberts Award for a distinguished body of work. She has been a National Theatre Artist-in-Residence at McCarter Theatre and is a professor at NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Polly has served on the Council of The Dramatists Guild, the Board of Dramatists Play Service and the nominating committee of the Tony Awards. Polly’s latest work, Arlington, premiered at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco and the Vineyard Theatre, NYC. The original cast album of Arlington was recently released by Broadway Records. In another life, Polly worked extensively as an actor on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in repertory theatres throughout the U.S. 

Madeline Sayet is a citizen of the Mohegan Tribe and the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. For her work as a director, writer, and performer she has been honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30, TED Fellow, MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, National Directing Fellow, Native American 40 Under 40, and a recipient of The White House Champion of Change Award from President Obama. Her play Where We Belong, first shown in London at Shakespeare’s Globe, will have its US Premiere in DC as part of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s coming season. Recent directing work includes: Staged at Home: a Virtual Benefit Concert (Long Wharf Theatre), Henry IV (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), Whale Song (Perseverance Theatre), She Kills Monsters (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), As You Like It (Delaware Shakespeare), The Winter’s Tale (Amerinda/HERE Arts), Poppea (Krannert Center, Illinois), The Magic Flute (Glimmerglass), Miss Lead (59e59).  www.madelinesayet.com

Artists

JESSI COTTER

(Assistant Stage Manager) Vineyard Theatre: KID VICTORY (PA). NYC credits: LIFE SUCKS, SINCERELY OSCAR, BLACK LIGHT, MILE LONG OPERA, CRUEL INTENTIONS: THE MUSICAL, MONICA: THIS PLAY IS NOT ABOUT MONICA LEWINSKY, ECOVILLAGE, MUST, COMEDY OF ERRORS (Classic Stage Company), VOODOO (Harlem Opera Theatre), AN ASTRONAUT’S TALE (Encompass Opera/BAM), “MASTER HAROLD”… (Signature-PA), HAMILTON (PA). Event Stage Management. Oregon credits: PM Ballet Fantastique, Shedd Institute; SM Oregon Contemporary Theatre; QM Pickathon Music Festival. MFA, Columbia University.

CLARISSA MARIE LIGON

(Production Stage Manager) Vineyard Theatre debut. Clarissa is a self-proclaimed ‘Renaissance Woman’ who makes art because she believes it can change the world. Recent production work includes: MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Public (Mobile Unit), BEFORE THE MEETING at Williamstown Theatre Festival, JACK & at BAM Fisher, BLACK LIGHT at the Greenwich House Theatre, CRUEL INTENTIONS THE MUSICAL at le Poisson Rouge, 3/FIFTHS at 3LD, and Penny Arcade’s LONGING LASTS LONGER at St. Anne’s Warehouse.

STEVE COSSON

STEVE COSSON is a writer, director, and Artistic Director of The Civilians. Recently, Claire Kiechel’s PAUL SWAN IS DEAD AND GONE, Jill Sobule’s musical TIMES SQUARE, book/director THE ABOMINABLES (Children’s Theatre Company), writer/director THE UNDERTAKING (BAM Next Wave, US tour, Theatre de la Ville, Paris, and 59E59); José Rivera’s ANOTHER WORD FOR BEAUTY, (Goodman Theatre); writer/director, RIMBAUD IN NEW YORK (BAM); Michael Friedman and Bess Wohl’s PRETTY FILTHY; THE BELLE OF AMHERST starring Joely Richardson; writer/director THE GREAT IMMENSITY (The Public Theater); Anne Washburn’s MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY (Playwrights Horizons). Also, IN THE FOOTPRINT; writer/director, THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY (Center Theatre Group, Vineyard Theatre, and several other regionals); (I AM) NOBODY’S LUNCH; and GONE MISSING. In 2014-15, artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. stevecosson.com

DANA HIGGINBOTHAM

DANA HIGGINBOTHAM is a writer, educator, and chaplain. For the past 20 years, her work as a chaplain in both hospitals and hospices throughout Florida has involved providing counsel for those who live with the effects of trauma, loss, and life threatening or life limiting issues. She develops and leads workshops on “Stress Debriefing,” “Living with PTSD,” and “Bereavement Intervention”; and the “Practical Spirituality” curriculum that she developed is used to address both addiction and adolescent affective disorders. She holds a Master’s of Divinity and a PhD in Counseling.

STEVE CUIFFO

(Illusion & Lip Sync Consultant) Vineyard Theatre debut. Off-Broadway: THE THIN PLACE (Playwrights Horizons), OLD HATS, THE ANTIPODES (Signature); Lucas Hnath’s A PUBLIC READING… (Soho Rep.); HOME, THE OBJECT LESSON (BAM); THE PASSION OF THE CRAWFORD (Lypsinka). Consultant on several of David Blaine’s ABC television specials, and Magic Director on a recent U.S. tour of “David Blaine Live”. Co-Founder of SECRET ARTS, specializing in visual effects and illusions. Associate performing artist with The Wooster Group. Co-creator of ELEPHANT ROOM, an absurdist magic extravaganza.

MIKHAIL FIKSEL

(Sound Design) Vineyard Theatre debut. Other recent projects include Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, Signature Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Victory Gardens, South Coast Rep, A.C.T., Writers Theatre, The Civilians, PlayCo, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival, Albany Park Theater Project, and original audio plays with Make Believe Association. Film work includes original scores for Glitch, The Wise Kids, and In Memoriam. He is a recipient of two Lucille Lortel Awards, multiple Joseph Jefferson Awards, two Drama Desk nominations, and the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Outside of theater stages, he produces and performs as DJ, often under a moniker DJ White Russian, and he is a proud member of TSDCA and USA. mikhailfiksel.com

PAUL TOBEN

(Lighting & Supertitle Design) Vineyard Theatre debut. ANGELS IN AMERICA (PARTS 1 AND 2), PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, 4000 MILES, and many others at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and designs for five seasons of the Humana Festival including EVOCATION TO VISIBLE APPEARANCE, AIRNESS, THE GROWN-UP, and THE ROOMMATE. AUGUST RUSH (Paramount Aurora), MYSTERY OF LOVE & SEX, WITCH (Writers Theatre), ELECTRA (Court Theatre), CRY IT OUT (Northlight Theatre), THE WOLVES (Studio Theatre), NSFW (Roundhouse), SILENT SKY, TRIANGLE, UPRIGHT GRAND (TheatreWorks), THE BOOK OF WILL (Denver Center Theatre), FLY BY NIGHT, MEDEA (Dallas Theater Center), THE WHO AND THE WHAT (Kansas City Rep), FUTURITY (The Walker Arts Center), DADDY LONG LEGS (New York, regional and international premieres), THE STORY OF MY LIFE (Broadway). paultoben.com

JANICE PYTEL

(Costume Design) Vineyard Theatre debut. Previous collaborations with Les Waters include OUR TOWN (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and MIDDLETOWN (Steppenwolf). With Lucas Hnath: the world premiere of HILLARY AND CLINTON (Victory Gardens Theater). Broadway: Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning production of I AM MY OWN WIFE by Doug Wright and Moises Kaufman’s 33 VARIATIONS. Chicago credits: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, Court Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Writers Theatre, About Face Theater, Lookingglass, Chicago Shakespeare, and others. Regional credits: Alley Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Madison Rep, Alliance Theatre, Centerstage, and others. She is a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in Chicago, a small equity company dedicated to advancing the lives of women through theatre. She co-chairs the Costume Design committee for her union, United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

Andrew Boyce

(Scenic Design) Vineyard Theatre debut. Andrew is a multi-disciplinary designer working on projects in theater, opera, live events, and film/TV. NYC: Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theater Company, Atlantic Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Primary Stages, Playwrights Realm, Lucille Lortel, Barrow Street, Rattlestick, PlayCo. Regional: A.C.T, Actors Theater of Louisville, Alliance, Baltimore Centerstage, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen, Goodman, Huntington, Longwharf, Milwaukee Rep, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Yale Rep, among many others. MFA: Yale School of Drama. Assistant Professor of Design at Northwestern.
www.andrewboycedesign.com

Deirdre O’Connell

Deirdre O’Connell (Dana H.) Recent favorite theatre includes: Dana H. by Lucas Hnath (Los Angeles Ovation Award, Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Goodman Theater and Vineyard Theatre), Before The Meeting by Adam Bock (Williamstown Theater Festival), Thunderbodies by Kate Tarker (Soho Rep), Fulfillment Center by Abe Koogler (Drama Desk and Drama League Award nominations) and By the Water by Sharyn Rothstein (Lortel nomination, Manhattan Theatre Club), Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean (New York Theatre Workshop), The Way West by Mona Mansour and Thinner Than Water by Melissa Ross (Labyrinth), Judy by Max Posner (Page 73), Little Children Dream of God by Jeff Augustin (Manhattan Theatre Club), Scarcity by Lucy Thurber (Rattlestick), The Vandal by Hamish Linklater (The Flea), Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (Obie and Drama Desk Awards; Playwrights Horizons), In the Wake by Lisa Kron (Los Angeles Ovation Award, Richard Seff Actors’ Equity Award, Lortel nomination,Kirk Douglas Theatre and Public Theatre), In the Blood by Susan Lori Parks (Public Theatre). Other favorite writers she has performed include Jenkins, Wellman, Schulman, Nelson, Meyer, Fornes, Shepard, Smith, and Chekhov. Recent films include Diane, Lez Bomb, I Am a Seagull, The Boy Downstairs, Gabriel, Synecdoche, NY, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. TV includes recurring roles on “One Dollar”, “The Path”, “The Affair”, and “Nurse Jackie”. She has an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Performance, a New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation and a Lilly Award.

Les Waters

Les Waters (Director, Dana H.) is an Obie Award winner, was Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2012–2018, where he directed The Thin Place, Evocation To Visible Appearance, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Recent Alien Abductions, MacBeth, For Peter Pan On Her 70th Birthday, The Glory Of The World, Luna Gale, At The Vanishing Point, The Christians, Our Town, Gnit, Girlfriends, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Big Love. From 2003–2011, he served as Associate Artistic Director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. His productions have been seen in New York at Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre Company, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Connelly Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, and Brooklyn Academy of Music, and regionally at theatres such as Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and American Repertory Theater. In 2009, he made his Broadway debut with In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play. He led the MFA directing program at University of California, San Diego from 1995–2003.

Lucas Hnath

Lucas Hnath (Playwright, Dana H.) received a 2017 Tony Award nomination for Best Play with A Doll’s House, Part 2. Hnath’s other plays include Hillary and Clinton, The Thing Place, Red Speedo, The Christians, A Public Reading Of An Unproduced Screenplay About The Death of Walt Disney, Issac’s Eye, and Death Tax. He has been produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have also been premiered at the Humana Festival of New Plays, Victory Gardens, and South Coast Repertory. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumnus of New Dramatists. Awards: Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Kesselring Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Obie Award for Playwriting, Steinberg Playwright Award, and the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize.

Conor McCarthy

(Production Manager) Conor is thrilled to be back at The Vineyard for his seventh show. Past Vineyard Theatre credits include: DO YOU FEEL ANGER?, IS THIS A ROOM, CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?, HARRY CLARKE, THE AMATEURS, and THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE. Select NYC credits include: GIRLS & BOYS, SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ, DANIEL’S HUSBAND, and SAKINA’S RESTAURANT. Conor would like to thank his family and friends for their constant support throughout his theater career so far. Proud graduate of La Salle University. Ave!