GROUP is a contemporary piece that explores the depth and intricacies of group therapy, more specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic when the intimate practice is thrust into the virtual realm. The show follows a handful of adults and their ‘fearless’ therapist, whose tactics are somewhat questionable. As her clients’ stories unfold, so do her own. Written by Shelby Solla and Keira McGill, GROUP is a laugh-out-loud comedy that highlights the importance of accessible pathways to finding help.

The reading will premiere live via YouTube on Tuesday, May 18th, 2021 at 8:00PM EST and run approximately 45 minutes. Under the direction of Sarah Rosenthal, the cast of GROUP includes Jamie Green as Simon, Melissa Aquiles as Izzie, Ned Burton as Morgan, Macarena Ramos as Beth, Bryce Valle as Jordan, and Jodi Beck as Selma, with stage management by Kayla Michelle Williams.

While there is no charge for admission, there is a suggested $5 donation to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, for those watching the livestream. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. Today, they are an association of more than 600 local affiliates who work in communities to raise awareness and provide support and education to those in need. Donate to HARP’s NAMI fundraiser at donate.nami.org/harpgroup.

HARP Theatricals (Hayden and Rikki Productions) is a New York City based production company dedicated to producing new and original work that promotes change and is reflective of the social and political climate. The company was founded in 2018 by Hayden Anderson and Rikki Ziegelman. Visit HARPTheatricals.com for more information or connect with us at @HARPtheatricals on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter or HARP Theatricals on YouTube.

In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the BIPOC new works incubator Live & In Color presents four online forums focusing on Asian artists and activists who are changing the future of theatre and the world.

After a year in which the Asian community continues to face xenophobia and violence, Live & In Color dedicates each weekly installment to AAPI trailblazers, storytellers, and future faces. The forums, hosted by Founder and Artistic Director Devanand Janki, will take place Wednesdays at 6 PM ET during Be Our Guest, LAIC’s weekly interactive web series.

Writer-composer Cheeyang Ng (Eastbound), actor-write-lyricist Jessica Wu (Poupelle of Chimney Town), and singer-songwriter Janet Noh (Pangea).

In recognition of the courage and strength of members of the Philippine Nurses Association of America, Lincoln Center is proud to present an intimate evening with the singer and Broadway star, Jose Llana. Best known for his memorable portrayal as The King of Siam in Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of The King and I and his Drama Desk Award-winning turn in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Llana is a favorite among theater fans for his broad vocal range and impressive versatility as a performer. For the evening concert, he’ll be joined on piano accompaniment by Music Director Kimberly Grigsby (To Kill a Mockingbird, Head Over Heels, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) and will perform numbers from The Lion King and RENT, a few Filipino Pop Songs, as well as favorites by Billy Joel and more.

Dixon Place announces its Spring 2021 Production Season, premiering four commissioned puppetry productions performed for in-person and virtual audiences, with video on demand (VOD) streaming available immediately following the live premieres. In-person performances will take place at 161A Chrystie Street, New York, NY. Tickets are $10.50-$35 and can be purchased online http://dixonplace.org/productions-2021/.

NEW MONY! by Maria Camia
May 19, 20, 21, 22, 2021 at 7:30pm EST (Live performances with limited in-person audiences)
Available to stream through June 1, 2021
Step into the colorful, comical, spiritual, sci-fi, psychedelic world of Aricama where we explore duality and ancestry with puppets, body costumes, Toy Theater, original live music, and projections in this full-length workshop production. In the human cloning family business, Allimah lives a quiet, regimented life with her parents on a tiny blue planet. But after experimenting with life, she recovers in a hospital. Slowly, her dreams become reality as she finds herself related to the prestigious Utopian planet Aricama, the land of practice, play, and healing. Will she be able to live a normal life after aligning with her truth? Join Allimah in her most groundbreaking awakening yet! Approx. run time: 65 minutes. Rated PG.

This Dixon Place Commissioned Production is made possible with private support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Cheryl Henson & the Jim Henson Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Scherman Foundation, and Shubert Foundation; and public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs with the City Council, and the NY State Council on the Arts w/the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature.

About the Artist
Maria Camia is a visual theatre artist who creates spiritual/sci-fi plays, puppets, spiritual clothing, illustration, comics, and social media videos with the intention to globally inspire healing and play. Maria performed original work for La Mama, 7 Daughters of Eve’s Church Service, FEAST, Great Small Works, Dixon Place, The Center @ West Park’s Object Movement, and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. She is a 2020 Jim Henson Workshop Grant Recipient and a participant in DP’s Puppetry Residency Program, both in support of her first full length puppetry production New Mony! premiering May 2021. For more on Maria, visit maricama.com or follow her on Instagram @themaricama.

About Dixon Place
An artistic incubator since 1986, Dixon Place (DP) is non-profit institution committed to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, puppetry, circus arts, literature and visual art. Presenting over 1000 creators a year, this local haven inspires and encourages diverse artists of all stripes and callings to take risks, generate new ideas, and consummate new practices. The artist’s experience is given top priority through our professional atmosphere and remuneration, and their process is enhanced by our adventurous audiences. With a renewed commitment to racial equity and justice, Dixon Place is a local haven for creativity as well as an international model for the open exploration of the creative process. After spawning DP in 1985 as a salon in Paris, Ellie Covan pioneered the organization in her NYC living room for 23 years. Organic development and expansion, DP is now a leading professional, state-of-the-art facility that remains at the heart of the NYC experimental performance scene. In compliance with Covid19 restrictions, DP’s live programs were suspended March 13, 2020. Deeply committed to artists and patrons, DP began presenting virtual literary, dance, & theater programs on DP TV in April ’20. The theater is reopening in May 2021 for in-person performances. For service to the community, DP has received a NY Dance & Performance Award (a Bessie), two Obies, a BAXten Award, the NY Innovation Theater Foundation’s Stewardship Award, CUNY’s Edwin Booth Award, and the Alliance of NY State Arts Organization’s Celebrate the Arts Award for outstanding contributions to NYC. Many artists, such as Deb Margolin, Blue Man Group, John Leguizamo, Lisa Kron, David Cale, Penny Arcade, and Reno began their careers at Dixon Place. Over the years, DP has also been privileged to present performances by established artists, such as: Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Lily Tomlin, Wallace Shawn, Craig Lucas, BD Wong, James Lecesne, John Fleck, Kate Bornstein, Ethyl Eichelberger, Holly Hughes, Karen Finley, Kate Clinton, Peggy Shaw, Mac Wellman, Big Art Group; A.M. Homes, Rick Moody, and Oscar Huelos; Mark Dendy, Jane Comfort, Sarah Michelson, Douglas Dunn, Paul Taylor 2, and Yoshiko Chuma; Vernon Reid, Diamanda Galas, Martha Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Suzy Roche, Maggie Roche, and They Might Be Giants. For more information, visit dixonplace.org.

Mia Katigbak, co-founder and actor-manager of NAATCO, today announced that NAATCO will present a virtual reading of Our Town by Thornton Wilder with an all-Asian American cast for one night only, Wednesday May 19th, at 8pm, in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The proceeds of this reading will benefit the company.

Yumi Iwama, who portrayed Emily Webb in NAATCO’s 1994 production of the play, proposed the reading to NAATCO, following her recent interview with The New York Times: “The idea that I was this Asian actress playing this iconic American role was just daunting. I remember being in kind of a high emotional state throughout the run, because I really wanted to do it well. And I loved Emily. She didn’t have these issues of ‘Do I belong here?’ She was part of this town, part of this community. She just lives her life with abandon in a way that I never felt I had the license to. I grew up in a very white town, Rumson, N.J., and I was one of maybe two or three Asians in my entire high school. It was hard. My career started doing The King and I. I played Tuptim in seven different productions over the years. Emily was that first opening to me, that ‘Oh! Maybe there’ll be more to my career than these stereotypical Asian characters.’”

For this reading, Yumi will be playing the role of Emily’s mother, Mrs. Webb, and suggested her niece, Midori Francis Iwama (Usual Girls – Roundabout, The Wolves – Lincoln Center Theater), for the role of Emily. NAATCO enthusiastically agreed.

Amy Hill (best known for her TV work, from “All-American Girl” to the reboot of “Magnum P.I.” as well as “American Dad,” “Black-ish,” “Mom,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and more) will lead the cast as the Stage Manager, along with Cindy Cheung, Kassandra Cordova, Autumn Domingo, Connor Domingo, Ron Domingo, John D. Haggerty, Midori Francis Iwama, Yumi Iwama, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim (NAATCO’s associate producer), Glenn Kubota (who played Mr. Charles Webb in the 1994 production), Clara Mulligan, Olivia Oguma, Trevor F. Salter, Jon Norman Schneider, Alok Tewari, CJ Uy, Izaac Wayne, and Rita Wolf. Special guests will include Richard Eng, the co-founder of NAATCO and president of the board; Larry Schafer, NAATCO board member; Susan Bernfield, New Georges’ Artistic Director; Maria Striar, Clubbed Thumb’s Artistic Director; and Kate Katigbak, NAATCO’s graphic designer.

Mia Katigbak will direct the performance; Sean Seau is the assistant director; Alyssa K. Howard will be production stage manager.

“The decision to do this reading came on the heels of the Georgia senate elections, when we thought an all-Asian American cast performing an American classic would be part of a celebration of hope and healing after the devastating events earlier in the month. Recent events of anti-Asian violence, however, have reframed our presentation. With this reading, we denounce the brutal and senseless attacks on Asian Americans as we underscore one of the basic tenets of NAATCO’s mission in the most affirmative way: to reflect and emphasize the kinship among people of disparate cultures,” said Ms. Katigbak.

NAATCO wishes to express its gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, and SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. NAATCO joins The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America’s history and are instrumental in its future success.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was a novelist and playwright whose works celebrate the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. He is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both drama and fiction: for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and two plays, Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. His other nov­els include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, Pullman Car Hiawatha and The Long Christmas Dinner are among his well-known shorter plays. He enjoyed enormous success as a translator, adaptor, actor, librettist and lecturer/teacher and his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More information on Thornton Wilder and his family is available in Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013) as well as on the Wilder Family website, www.thorntonwilder.com

By Alex Hare and Julia Izumi
Directed by Alex Hare
Co-Produced with Sami Pyne

On the eve of her 29th birthday, a Very Online millennial stumbles upon a curious conspiracy theory: the powers-that-be have initiated a new capitalist plot to eliminate unsuccessful 30 year olds. What sounds at first like the byproduct of someone watching too many dystopian films from the 1970s quickly proves harder to dismiss. And as the countdown to 30 begins, surviving and saving a generation may be the opportunity one young-ish adult needs to finally fulfill her rapidly fading potential.

Unfolding in the form of a hallucinatory YouTube wormhole, CAPRICORN 29 is a micro movie musical that wrestles with the tyranny of age-based milestones.

More than 20 presentations on two outdoor stages on 153 acres in the Hudson Valley featuring American Ballet Theatre; Mark Morris Dance Group; Yannick Lebrun from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Maria Kowroski, Ask la Cour, and Gonzalo Garcia from New York City Ballet, and more.

Tivoli, NY – Kaatsbaan Cultural Park will present an outdoor Spring Festival in May 2021 across its 153-acres in the Hudson Valley. The multi-disciplinary festival will feature dance performances and music concerts, as well as panel discussions with world-renowned culinary artists and poets.

“This inaugural Spring Festival continues the celebration and support of our local and artistic communities that began with Summer Festival 2020, and is a massive programmatic expansion, as our organization continues to develop and realize its potential for fully becoming a Cultural Park for the Hudson Valley,” said Sonja Kostich, Executive Director

“Kaatsbaan’s outdoor stages in the sweeping fields will ensure a high level of safety during this COVID era and they will continue to serve as a beautiful performance venue in the times beyond. Kaatsbaan is committed to providing opportunities for artists to practice their craft and for audiences to enjoy live art,” said Stella Abrera, Artistic Director

Highlights of the Spring Festival include:
America’s leading dance companies American Ballet Theatre and Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as featured dancers Yannick Lebrun from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Maria Kowroski, Ask la Cour, and Gonzalo Garcia who are celebrating their final season with New York City Ballet, will present signature pieces and newly commissioned works.
Pianist Hunter Noack will bring his acclaimed IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild™ series, co-curated by Garen Scribner, to Kaatsbaan. With the support of a Howard Gilman Foundation grant, we are proud to be commissioning new works for this outdoor concert series, with a focus on indigenous artists, with dances created during a Kaatsbaan 2021 residency.
Oliver Ray, former guitarist and singer/songwriter for Punk Poet Laureate Patti Smith, will curate an inaugural music & poetry program.
Jeff Gordinier, the food & drinks editor of Esquire and author of Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World, is leading Kaatsbaan’s new focus on the culinary arts. Gordinier will curate and moderate two roundtables: one on the booming culinary scene in the Hudson Valley, dubbed “the next Napa Valley” by Esquire, and another on the nourishing, fascinating, and once-again fashionable practice of foraging for wild edibles. In both discussions Gordinier, who is also a frequent contributor to The New York Times, will speak with superstars from the food world about how our growing obsession with what we eat is changing the culture in which we live. Joining him on the Hudson Valley panel are two chefs whose acclaimed restaurants recently appeared in Esquire’s “Best New Restaurants 2020” list – Dale Talde of Goosefeather in Tarrytown and Gabe McMackin of Troutbeck in Amenia – as well as Hudson Valley farmer and good-meat advocate Celine Kagan. Joining Gordinier on the foraging panel will be poets and foragers Maria Pinto and J. Mae Barizo, as well as New York-based chef Will Horowitz, co-author of Salt Smoke Time: Homesteading and Heritage Techniques for the Modern Kitchen.

Additional program information will be made available online at www.kaatsbaan.org. Ticket availability and additional artists will be announced in early 2021. Kaatsbaan Spring Festival 2021 will be made available via digital platforms for those who cannot attend the live performances.

All events and performances of the Spring Festival will take place outside across the 153-acres of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and will follow all CDC and NYS guidelines. Proper safety protocols will be in place, similar to ones followed during Kaatsbaan Summer Festival 2020, which yielded zero reports of COVID-19. These protocols include mandatory masks, socially-distanced seating, health surveys, temperature checks, timed arrivals, and one-direction foot traffic.

The Spring Festival 2021 springboards off the overwhelming success of Summer Festival 2020, which supported over 100 New York City artists and gave 1,800 audience members an opportunity to attend safe, live performances outdoors over the course of nine weeks. With the reality of the economic challenges for many during Covid-19, all 17 performances were free with a request for donations. Kaatsbaan was able to donate 25% of performance donations to NAACP, LeBron James’ More Than a Vote and MOVE|NYC, a New York City based arts and social justice organization. Summer Festival 2020 was a direct response to both the violence inflicted upon the global Black community and to the needs of the many unemployed artists. It also provided a means for local economic recovery.

About Kaatsbaan Cultural Park
The mission of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park is to provide an extraordinary environment for cultural innovation and excellence. As both an incubator for creativity and presenter for world-class artists in dance, theater, music, film, poetry and visual art, Kaatsbaan provides artists with state-of-the-art dance studios, accommodations, an indoor theater, and an outdoor stage. Sitting on 153 Hudson River-adjacent acres, Kaatsbaan is free of urban facilities’ space and time constraints, allowing for exciting levels of artistic exploration, creative action, and achievement – just two hours north of New York City. Kaatsbaan Cultural Park is committed to the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts as we aim to present, promote, and embrace programming that accurately reflects our society. We encourage a broadly diverse group of individuals to participate in our programs and join our Board and Staff and insist on being inclusive of all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socio-economic background, physical or mental ability.

Herding Cats by Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl) is a chillingly funny play about a generation negotiating intimacy and independence in the 21st century. Meeting the demands of modern life is as impossible as herding cats for Justine, Michael and Saddo. To deal with work, Justine talks – a little too much – to her roommate Michael who earns a living by chatting with strangers like Saddo. But all three will soon find that in a cold, disconnected world, words may not be enough.

Directed by Anthony Banks (The Girl on the Train, West End), this groundbreaking revival of Coxon’s “brave, brutal” (Guardian) play uses the technical feats that adventurous theater artists have discovered during the pandemic and combines them with the raw intimacy of in-person performance. This first-of-its-kind, transcontinental event features two actors performing for an in-person audience on Soho Theatre’s London stage with a third actor performing live via video from New York. The production, simultaneously accessible online to audiences across the globe via Stellar and in-person in London via Soho Theatre, marks a new type of international collaboration.

Herding Cats is a Stellar Original production.

Beyond fundraising for non-profits, DEVELOPMENT, at its core, requires building and managing relationships, while honing passion through masterful storytelling. These responsibilities are fundamental to the sustainability of any organization, and equally intrinsic to the theatre itself. How do you begin a career in this essential role? Join us as panelists discuss the range of skills needed and share valuable insight to guide the next generation of arts administrators.

The Network provides emerging and developing theatre professionals advanced education, networking opportunities, and tools for career advancement within a supportive creative community.

Disability Representation in Storytelling will explore the connections between how disability has been historically represented in literature, TV/Film, and Theatre, and contemporary views of disability as an intersectional identity. What does responsible representation look like in 2021?

The panelists will offer practical suggestions for ways that theatre makers can improve disability representation and create radically access-centered spaces for disabled actors, artists, administrators and audiences to support those who are most impacted by ableism, racism, colonialism, misogyny, and other forms of oppression. ASL and Captioning will be provided.

Panelists: Elbert Joseph (they/them, he/him), Andrea Kovich (she/her), D’Arcee Charington Neal (he/they)

Panel Coordinator: Talleri McRae (she/her)

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) presents “The Fellowship Hall” celebrating the inaugural class of the BAC Artivism Fellowship, created this year to support Black femme-identifying artist-activists using their craft, tools and care for others to have an impact on the world around them.

Inspired by the familiar southern Black church, “The Fellowship Hall” will spotlight the dynamic and varied voices of the Black women and our non-binary homie from this year’s Fellowship and the artistic advocacy projects they have been developing over the last six months. The Fellowship Hall includes an Opening Night Celebration, the Fellowship Festival and the release of the online Fellowship Hall featuring the work of each Fellow.

The Opening Night on Thursday, May 20 is a night of celebration and reflection featuring BAC Co-founder Amber Iman, Artistic Director Chesray Dolpha, Program Managers Dria Brown and Nia Akilah Robinson and the full cohort of Artivism Fellows. The event will mark the official launch of “The Fellowship Hall” website spotlighting each of the Fellows and their work.

Written and created by Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype
Dramaturg & Project Design: Andrew Kircher
Line Producer: Cynthia J. Tong

Pick up the phone. Someone is on the line. You don’t know their name, and you still won’t when the hour is over, but through this exchange – as you follow a thread of automated prompts – a portrait of your partner will emerge through fleeting moments of exposure. A THOUSAND WAYS “takes a simple premise and turns it into magic” (The New Yorker).

Taking place around the world, A THOUSAND WAYS explores the line between strangeness and kinship, distance and proximity, and how the most intimate assembly can become profoundly radical.

Obie Award-winning theatermakers, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, known for exhilarating performances that challenge the very definition of theater, have created a quietly radical response to this new world with A THOUSAND WAYS. Taking place over several months, each distinct installment presents a new chance at making contact with a stranger. It is a chance at being heard, a brave moment to show up.

La MaMa and CultureHub present a new work by Theatre in Quarantine. The Little Hours is a livestreamed play-installation by Caridad Svich about two poet friends as they navigate their lives. An investigation of faith, love, and grace, amidst scattered snapshots of an old artist-bohemian New York that may never return. We wait and dream in the little hours for a radical utopia, even while the world crumbles.

The Little Hours is developed in CultureHub and La MaMa’s Experiments in Digital Storytelling Program, which incubates story-driven artworks that harness digital distribution platforms, expand online audience engagement, and push the boundaries of current artistic forms.

You’re invited to engage in a communal game of imaginative thinking, to time travel and to experiment with new processes for dreaming: alone and in community. What if we spent time imagining new futures as a practice? As we organize and build, how do we become clearer about the dreams we are moving toward?  Join us in excavating new language and possibilities for the future in this live participatory event to imagine utopia(s).

Note: This event takes place live on Zoom, and features audience participation. Additional details will be emailed to all ticket buyers in the days leading up to the event. A strictly limited quantity of tickets are available for this event.