New Work Now!
New Work Now! is The Public Theater’s festival of readings featuring new work from emerging and established artists. See the hits of tomorrow today and for FREE!
In addition to our regular New Work Now! readings this year, New Work Now! presents the Arab/Israeli Festival. The Public Theater is joined by The Flea Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Nibras, The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, and Culture Project/Impact Festival, in presenting works by Israeli and Arab writers as well as American playwrights writing in response to the situation in the Middle East. All Arab/Israeli Festival readings will be followed by panel discussions.
NEW WORK NOW! alumni include last season’s Satellites by Diana Son and Measure for Pleasure by David Grimm, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, as well as Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori, Well by Lisa Kron, The Story by Tracey Scott Wilson, and Biro by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Things We Want
Written by JONATHON MARC SHERMAN
Directed by ETHAN HAWKE
A lovelorn cooking-school drop-out returns home to the family apartment. When his older brother leaves for a business trip, his middle brother tries to fix things the only way he knows how. A year later, his older brother tries to fix things somewhat differently.
October 23, 2006 8:30 PM
iWitness
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL READING
Written by JOSHUA SOBOL, adapted by Barry Edelstein from an English language version by Joshua Sobol
Directed by BARRY EDELSTEIN
With Lydia Jordan, Austin Lysy, Mark Dold, Brennan Brown, Katrina Lerk, Michael Rudko, JB Blanc, Rebecca Lowman
and Meg Gibson
Post-reading discussion moderated by Ron Jenkins, author and translator
Written by one of Israel’s leading playwrights and based on a true story, iWitness chronicles the life and death of Franz Jaegerstaetter, a farmer in World War II Germany who was jailed for refusing to wear the Nazi uniform.
October 24, 2006 8:30 PM
In the Red and Brown Water
Written by TARELL MCCRANEY
Directed by TINA LANDAU
With Heather Alicia Simms, Yolonda Ross, McKenzie Frye, Amefika El-Amin, Rodney Gardiner, LeRoy McClain, Tina Fabrique, Turron Kofi Alleyne and Kevin Geer
In a manner both mythic and quotidian and suffused with Southern rhythms, In the Red and Brown Water charts fast dreaming Oya's powerful ascent into womanhood and her tumultuous fall into murky waters.
October 25, 2006 8:30 PM
When the Bulbul Stopped Singing
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL READING
Adapted from the book of diaries of Raja Shehadeh by DAVID GREIG
Directed by JOANNE AKALAITIS
With Joseph Haj
Post-reading discussion moderated by Zachary Lockman, Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University
Raja Shehadeh, acclaimed Palestinian lawyer, activist and writer, describes how his world was affected during the Israeli siege of Ramallah in 2002.
October 26, 2006 8:30 PM
New York Theatre Workshop & Nibras Program A:
Cast to be announced.
Post-reading discussion moderated by James C. Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop
New York Theatre Workshop and Nibras, an Arab-American theater collective, present readings of new plays in progress. Program A will feature an untitled one-woman show by Najla Said and directed by Maha Chehlaoui, In Between Our Lips by Nathalie Handal and directed by Shoshana Gold (dramaturg: Nancy Vitale), and Power Lunch by Kia Corthron.
Friday, October 27th at 8:30 PM
New York Theatre Workshop & Nibras Program B:
Cast to be announced.
Post-reading discussion moderated by James C. Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop
New York Theatre Workshop and Nibras, an Arab-American theater collective, present readings of new plays in progress. Program B will featureIn the Crossing by Leila Buck (Dramaturgical and Directorial Consultants: Catherine Coray and Shoshana Gold), La Cosa Dei Sogni by Nathalie Handal and directed by Shoshana Gold (dramaturg: Nancy Vitale), and Lebanon by Najla Said.
Saturday, October 28th at 8:30 PM
The Good Negro
Written by TRACEY SCOTT WILSON
Directed by LIESL TOMMY
With Pascale Armand, Duana Boutte, Freedome Bradley, Jonathan Walker, Mike Doyle and Roslyn Ruff
Follow the everyday story of the men on the front lines of the epic Civil Rights struggle and the FBI investigators who silently track their every move.
October 29, 2006 7:00 PM
The Murder of Isaac
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL READING
Written by MOTTI LERNER, translated from the Hebrew by Anthony Berris
Directed by IRENE LEWIS
With Mia Dillon, Benjamin Pelteson, Gordon Joseph Weiss, Tzahi Moskovitz, David Margulies, Jeffrey Ware, Charlotte Cohn, Lise Bruneau, Olek Krupa, Chaz Mena and Joe Zaloom
Post-reading discussion moderated by Uri Cohen, Assistant Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature and Israeli Culture at Columbia University
In an Israeli trauma ward, wounded veterans and other victims of violence reenact the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in an effort to make sense of personal and national tragedies. Written by one of Israel's most exciting writers.
October 30, 2006 8:30 PM
Americans Respond: An Evening of Short Plays in Response to the Crisis in the Middle East
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL READING
Directed by JO BONNEY
Post-reading discussion moderated by Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater
Leading American playwrights, including Public Theater alumni Naomi Wallace and David Grimm, contribute world-premiere short pieces in response to the crisis in the Middle East. The plays will be followed by a Town Hall discussion featuring the writers.
November 1, 2006 8:30 PM
Celebrity Row
Written by ITAMAR MOSES
Directed by OSKAR EUSTIS
With Lili Taylor, Richard Montoya, Paul Sparks and Firdous Bamji
Colorado Supermax is the most secure prison in the United States. When Latin Kings leader Luis Felipe is transferred there, civil liberties attorney Maze Carroll attacks his sentence as unconstitutional. But Felipe and his new neighbors-- Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh, and Ramzi Yousef--have other ideas about how to use her assistance.
November 2, 2006 8:30 PM
Untitled Darfur Play
Written by WINTER MILLER
Directed by JOANNA SETTLE
With Howard W. Overshown, Miriam Laube, Sonja Parks, Manoel Felciano, Patrick Rameau, Marsha Stephanie Blake and Sharon Washington
For journalists and aid workers, there is a line between telling the story and becoming the story, between saving a life and breaking a code of ethics. There are victims with secrets that must not be revealed. The reading will be followed by a panel discussion on the crisis in Darfur.
November 3, 2006 7:30 PM
Again and Against -- The Art of Hoping Indefinitely
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL READING
Written by BETTY SHAMIEH
Directed by ROBERT O'HARAA
With Roxanna Hope and Aasif Mandvi
Post-reading discussion moderated by Asli Bali, President of the New York Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Eduardo Machado, Head of Playwriting at Columbia University and Artistic Director of INTAR
Palestinian-American graduate student is detained and interrogated by an Arab-American FBI agent, who tells her that her boyfriend used her as a pawn in a terrorist plot. She must now figure out whether or not to believe the agent and reveal evidence that may entrap her lover and herself.
November 4, 2006 8:30 PM
A Sneak Preview of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival at Joe's Pub
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL EVENT
With Helen Maalik, Maria Shehata, Omar Koury, Nasry Malak, Kerri Louise, Tamar Vezirian, Amanda Baramki and Joseph DeRosa.
The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival is the largest comedy festival in the US that brings together Arab-American artists to showcase a unique and edgy brand of humor.
November 4, 2006 11:00 PM
The Flea Theater Presents O Jerusalem
ARAB/ISRAELI FESTIVAL READING
Written by A.R. GURNEY
Directed by JIM SIMPSON
Cast to be announced.
Post-reading discussion moderated by The Honorable Richard C. Holbrooke, Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations
The Flea produced O Jerusalem on the eve of the War in Iraq. The play tells the story of an American State Department official who gets mired in the politics of the Middle East in the days before, during, and after the events of 9/11.
November 6, 2006 8:30 PM