New Ohio Theatre and The Mill Theatre present

WORSE THAN TIGERS
A Comedy...Until It's Not

By Mark Chrisler
Directed by Jaclyn Biskup

Olivia and Humphry have a safe, comfortable, enviable life. Their condo is well-adorned with fancy knick-knacks, their social media presence is meticulously groomed, and they never fight. Or laugh. Or kiss. Or talk very much.

Unexpectedly, Olivia’s lover-- id-driven Officer Kirk Patrick --shows up, trailing a man-eating tiger which takes up residence right outside, threatening to devour anyone who opens the door. Tigers may be dangerous, but there might be something worse inside.

Worse Than Tigers premiered at Seattle’s ACT in March 2016 under the direction of Emily Penick. Previously it was developed at New York’s Stella Adler Studio (dir. Lee Kinney), Chicago’s The Mill Theater (dir. Jaclyn Biskup), The San Francisco Playhouse, Uzbekistan’s Ilkhom Theatre (translated to Russian by Ekaterina Raykova-Merz), Seattle’s Washington Ensemble Theatre (dir. John Langs) and Ohio University’s Seabury Quinn Jr. New Play Festival (dir. Shelley Delaney).

New Ohio Theatre presents

LOVE

Written and performed by Vichet Chum and Laura Gragtmans
Directed by Emily Kitchens
Designed by Aaron Richard Johnson

Watch Lilly and Billy as they move through a full New York City day. They will gloriously fumble, stumble and make a mess in their pursuits of love. Part storytelling event, part theatrical narrative, with original music from singer/songwriter Laura Gragtmans and original poetry from theatre maker Vichet Chum.

Vichet Chum is a writer, actor, director & theater maker. His plays have been workshopped and performed at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Florida State University, Cleveland Public Theatre, All For One Theater and Amios. Laura Gragtmans is an actress, composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. In 2014, she completed her first full score for the Ars Nova production of Astronaut, and in 2016 released her debut album, Hug the Lonely Cactus.

New Ohio Theatre and Antigravity present

DEAR DIARY LOL

Devised and performed by Antigravity Performance Project
Directed by Francesca Montanile Lyons and Michael T. Williams

Dear Diary LOL is an ensemble-driven comedic theatre work born verbatim from the real-life tween-teen diaries of the show's creators. Antigravity's devising ensemble of high-octane funny women invites you to cringe, laugh, and cry at their most earnest desires, deepest fears, secret shames, and terrible poetry written as coming-of-age girls in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Antigravity Performance Project is a devising company with a creative aesthetic rooted in play, ensemble, movement, music, and performance text. As an interstate company, Antigravity makes work in RI, PA, and NY led by Kym Moore (Providence, RI), Francesca Montanile Lyons (Philadelphia), and Michael T. Williams (New York City). The New York Times calls their work "energizing and frightening" and Opplaud New York gave Dear Diary LOL ★★★★★ saying, "This is one trip down memory lane that’s definitely worth taking!"

New Ohio Theatre Hosts
The Amoralists

STAINED

by Charly Evon Simpson
Directed by Kate Moore Heaney

STAINED is presented as a part of the 'Wright Club 2018/2019 Anthology,
RICOCHET: RICOCHET, an Amoralists Anthology about surviving in an American Epidemic
Created by the 2018/2019 'Wright Club

The Amoralists are a diverse collective of uncompromising artists. Founded in 2006, they produce original work that confronts the American condition in all its complexity. Their stories are emotionally charged and character driven, a place where politics and perspectives collide and no side emerges unscathed. Explosive, vital, raucous and raw, we do theatre, no moral judgement.

Charly Evon Simpson's work has been seen and/or developed with Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ars Nova, The Tank, Chautauqua Theater Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, PAGE 73's Summer Residency, NNPN at its Kennedy Center MFA Playwright's Workshop and National Showcase of New Plays, and others. www.charlyevonsimpson.com

New Ohio Hosts
Page 73 Productions

CATCH AS CATCH CAN

Written by Mia Chung
Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll

World Premiere

The Phelans and the Lavecchias grew up together in working class New England, weathering good times and bad. But Tim Phelan’s homecoming this winter sets off a spiraling crisis that strains their hold on each other—and themselves. In Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can, six characters are brought to life by three actors playing across gender and generation, capturing father/daughter and mother/son in a family drama that doubles as a theatrical tour de force.

Page 73's mission is to develop and produce the work of early-career playwrights who have shown a commitment to playwriting as a career but who have yet to receive a professional production in New York City. Page 73 plays an important role in the playwriting community by offering career guidance, financial assistance, and development and production opportunities. Our goal is to move our playwrights’ work toward production, either through Page 73’s own presentation of their professional premieres or by helping our playwrights connect to available opportunities at our colleague theaters. Our developmental programs offer a forum through which playwrights can develop performance-ready drafts, and our productions create rare opportunities for world and New York premieres.

New Ohio Theatre Hosts
spit&vigor

THE BRUTES

Written by Casey Wimpee
Directed by Sara Fellini

Go backstage at an historic performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, featuring the renowned theatrical Booth family - brothers Edwin, Junius Jr. and John Wilkes. This was the first and only time that the three brothers shared a stage together. The backstage drama becomes the focus of this portrait of their tempestuous relationship fraught with political conflict ending in an American tragedy.

The Brutes is a deeply intimate portrait of a family divided. Civil strife, family devolution, and a country sharply divided - today or 150 years ago, the parable of this drama remains strong.

Founded in 2015, spit&vigor is devoted to the development of new plays and spirited, innovative productions of existing work. Their small roster of productions has been award winning and critically acclaimed, praised as "darkly humorous", "deliciously ghoulish", and "wrenching and visually eloquent" by The New York Times. In collaboration with theater company Theatre4thePeople, spit&vigor was the recipient of the 2015 New York Innovative Theater Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play for In Vestments. spit&vigor was granted The Center at West Park’s Artist Residency to produce Sara Fellini's play MOTH&FLAME, after touring earlier versions of the play to Theater Row as part of the United Solo Festival 2017, The Tank as part of the 2017 DarkFest, the NOLA 2017 InFringe Festival and The Glitterbox Theater in Pittsburgh, PA by special invitation in 2018.

New Ohio Theatre Hosts
Doug Varone and Dancers

everything is fine

A New Work by Doug Varone (world premiere)

"Varone’s ability to convey depths of emotion through highly charged, physically exciting choreography has made him a rarity among his generation" - The New York Times

Inspired by the complex, haunting imagery of Billy Collins's poetry, Doug Varone's new work unfolds in eight interwoven narratives mapping an array of themes: love, solitude, separation, forgiveness, aging. Performed by a multi-generational cast of 16 artists, it delves deep into our memories, creating intimate portraits of ordinary lives. "This new theater piece", says Varone, "explores a darker and more disturbing range of emotions than has generally characterized my work; it is about the relationships we've all survived and their impact on our lives."

Envisioned as a series of cinematic dialogues, it is performed to a newly commissioned score by renowned composer David Van Tieghem. Lighting Design by Ben Stanton. Costume Design by Liz Prince.

COMPANY DANCERS: Hollis Bartlett, Courtney Barth, Bradley Beakes, Jake Bone, Whitney Dufrene, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Aya Wilson and Ryan Yamauchi

ALUMNI GUEST DANCERS: Daniel Charon, Natalie Desch, Adriane Fang, Rui Forsberg, Larry Hahn, Eddie Taketa and Nina Watt.

SPECIAL EVENTS:
Wed, Dec 12: Reunion Benefit. Please visit dougdaroneanddancers.org/reunion-benefit for more information
Fri, Dec 14 at 9:30: Alumni Night (workshop attendees encouraged!)

For more than 30 years, Obie Award winning choreographer Doug Varone has devoted himself to the humanity and virtuosity of dance. His Company has created an expansive legacy, encompassing dance, theatre, opera and film. The recipient of 11 Bessie Awards, Doug Varone and Dancers has toured to more than 125 cities in 45 states across the U.S., as well as in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America.

Photo: Jake Bone & Bradley Beakes. ©Erin Baiano

New Ohio Theatre for Young Minds presents
The inaugural
(and-first-ever-of-its-kind)

UP CLOSE FESTIVAL

Curated and Produced by Peter Musante
Hosted by Summer Shapiro

Bring the entire family as the New Ohio's underground theatre is transformed into a living archive of characters, both real and imagined, from the rich history of NYC's West Village. Guided by a local expert host, modeled after legendary community activist Jane Jacobs, families engage in a hands-on 360° pre-show experience, then become immersed in four different short stories, created by some of NYC's most accomplished theater artists.

Program A: Dec 20-24
Trusty Sidekick, Jono Waldman, Lauren Sharpe, and Marisol Rosa-Shapiro

Program B: Dec 27-31
Bated Breath Theatre Company, Peter Musante + Summer Shapiro, Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, and Christina Eskridge

Peter Musante (Producer/Curator) works at the nexus of immersive theater, dance, music and technology to invent unique performance-based experiences that transform space and create community. His approach is highly physical and focuses on discovering new points of connection that allow us to celebrate the complexity, and diversity, of human experience. Peter is a long-time collaborator of Trusty Sidekick Theater Company - New York City's most adventurous theater company for young people and their families (Lincoln Center, Park Ave Armory, Abrons Art Center) - most recently, Lead Artist/1-on-1 Experience Director for Up and Away, an immersive work for young people on the Autism spectrum.

New Ohio Hosts
The Drama League

DRAMA LEAGUE DIRECTOR FEST

Featuring the work of directors: Jennifer Chang, Tara Elliott, Kemar Jewel, Seonjae Kim, Boyan Kracholov, Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li, and Whitney White. DRAMA LEAGUE DIRECTORFEST is a multi-week, city-wide festival focusing on the art of contemporary stage directing. For its 35th year, the festival will include four fully-staged plays, a classic American musical, a concert of music from a hit new musical, an American premier by a hit new Bulgarian director, discussion panels, and conversations with America’s most notable directors.

As the leading career development organization for emerging and mid-career theater directors, the Drama League offers hands-on instruction, mentorship, opportunities to create new theater, and work experience with established professionals. We identify talented directors through a rigorous, national selection process with outside theater luminaries and provide them with the skills, experiences, and contacts they need to bridge the gap between training and professional success. The high cost of theater productions deter most artistic leaders from risking the success of their productions on early and mid-career directors. Since 1984, the Drama League has set out to take on those risks by allowing directors to explore and create alongside their collaborators, providing its participants with the necessary professional experience to further advance their careers.

New Ohio Presents

PRODUCERS CLUB 2019

Producers Club is our free-floating, ad hoc, instant-gratification, impulse-driven pop-up program. We invite familiar and new-to-our-orbit companies into the New Ohio for a couple of days to flex their muscles, share their current thinking, and test their next great idea. The stakes are low, but the bar is high!

Jan. 30-31: A Burning Church
A kaleidoscopic new musical dramatizing the recent history of a black church in Alabama over the last thirty years, tracing the lives of its leaders and congregants amidst political movements, tragedies, and possibly, spiritual rebirth.

Co-Directed by Alex Hare and Zhailon Levingston; Book & Lyrics by Zhailon Levingston; Music by Nehemiah Luckett

Feb. 2-3: Mammelephant
A mammoth-elephant hybrid is released into the Arctic for a grand experiment to save the world. Three women trace the origins and aftermath of this moment from early history to an imagined future.

Text by Lanxing Fu; Music by Treya Lam & Serena Ebony Miller; Sound/Visual Design and Additional Text by Eva von Schweinitz; Directed by Jeremy Pickard; Choreography by KatieRose McLaughlin; Science Dramaturgy by Sergio Botero

Feb. 5-6: American Juggalo
A snapshot of the often mocked and misunderstood subculture of Juggalos - hardcore Insane Clown Posse (ICP) fans - who meet once a year for four days at The Gathering of the Juggalos.

Not appropriate for audiences under the age of 17. Content includes: Scenes of violence. References to sexual abuse. Graphic language. Nudity.

Written by Sean Pollock; Directed by Drew Weinstein; Produced by Alyssa Berdie; Associate Director and Associate Producer: Connor Scully; Dramaturg: Anna Schultz. Adapted by Sean Pollock based on the 2011 documentary American Juggalo by Sean Dunne with inspiration from other found sources.

New Ohio Presents

NEW YORK INDIE THEATRE FILM FESTIVAL

The NY Indie Theatre Film Festival supports indie theatre artists defying labels and branching out into recorded media. We bring them together over five nights of screenings so you can see what they're up to.

Check out the 2019 lineup here!

New Ohio Hosts
Make/Shift

SHE Creates
 

SHE Creates is an annual, all-inclusive celebration of womanhood featuring dozens of female-identifying artists and their work. These works include writing (film, theatre, narrative, poetry), performance art, visual art, video, movement, music, and comedy. A ticket to this year's festival includes the New York Premiere of Liz Morgan's The Clark Doll, an art gallery, performing artists, and a party!

The Clark Doll
Written by Liz Morgan
Directed by Tyler Thomas

Three black women find themselves confined to a space; the kind that doesn't allow visitors. It isn't the first time but hopefully, it will be the last. Natasha wants to escape for good; Judi wants to sleep; and Sophia just doesn't want to end up left alone. Meanwhile, this trio of "sistas" will do what they can to survive their circumstances and each other.

New Ohio Hosts
The New Natives

HOLY DAY

Written by Andrew Bovell
Directed by Barbara Rubin

Australia, 1850s.
A traveler’s rest on the ruthless colonial frontier.
A child is missing. A man is dead. A church is burned to the ground.
When strangers take the law into their own hands in a land that is not their own, history will be forged and stories will be told in the name of survival.

Holy Day is a powerful piece of gothic storytelling. Set against the isolation of the mid-19th century Australian landscape, the play begins with the arrival of three mysterious travellers and a stolen child. The relationship between white European settlers and the First Peoples is already fraught, and when an Indigenous woman is accused of taking the child, it sets in motion a series of tragic events, as the intersecting lives of four women and four men help shape the history of a nation. Political, complex and frighteningly current, this award-winning work deals with themes of race, gender and justice, exploring the conflict between new beginnings and forgotten pasts.

2002 Victorian Premier's Literary Award and AWGIE – Stage Award winner

The New Natives is a NYC-based theatre company which focuses on producing new work and showcasing international playwrights. Established by Charly Clive and Jillian Geurts in 2015, The New Natives believe in making theatre for the people; contemporary, thought-provoking work that is funny, sad and everything in between. In 2016 Charly premiered her autobiographical show "Britney" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to great acclaim, and it continues to play sold-out shows throughout the UK.

New Ohio Hosts
Yangtze Repertory Theatre

JUNE IS THE FIRST FALL

Written by Yilong Liu
Directed by Michael Leibenluft

What compels people to cross mountains and seas to another country, another continent, and another culture to find their true selves? What are the journeys we take to find home and belonging?

In Yilong Liu’s new play June is the First Fall, Don, a gay Chinese man returns home to Hawaii to rediscover missing memories of himself and his family that he left behind. His week-long stay opens wounds with his father and sister that never healed, aggravating Don’s struggle to find love and belonging in his life.

Yangtze Repertory Theatre celebrates and inspires artists who are global citizens through producing work that evokes conversations across cultures. We see the world through a contemporary perspective and produce work that has immediacy. By bringing a unique voice to the cultural dialogue, we enrich the experience of the community we serve. We position ourselves at the nexus of ideas from East and West and strive to bridge the cultural gap between artists and organizations from different cultures through partnerships and collaboration.

New Ohio Theatre presents

THE ARCHIVE RESIDENCY PRODUCTIONS
in collaboration with IRT Theater

World Premiere productions by One-Eighth Theater and The Drunkard's Wife

The Archive Residency is our ongoing commissioning and presenting program, providing a two-year commitment of time, space, and support to select independent theatre companies. Each residency culminates in a world premiere of a new work. In partnership with IRT Theatre, our neighbors in the Archive Building, we provide independent theatre companies with that most elusive and invaluable resource: an artistic home.

After exciting first-look showings in Ice Factory 2018, One-Eighth Theater and The Drunkard's Wife are hard at work revising and reworking -- Don't miss their world premieres in Spring 2019!

The Archive Residency is supported, in part, by funds from The Mental Insight Foundation.

New Ohio Theatre and One-Eighth Theater present

NUMBNESS
Written by Sylvia Bofill
Additional text by Robert Lyons
Directed and Choreographed by Daniel Irizarry

An Archive Residency world premiere
in collaboration with IRT Theater

Deadpan dada meets Pina Bausch in this physically rigorous, movement-driven, self-imploding melodrama.

After a natural catastrophe blocks out the sun, Fred & Ginger spin, carry, and claw their way through the isolation of a forgotten government lab (or is it a 50's suburban kitchen?), while Yovo catalogs humanity in search of the post-post-post. This is sexy, visceral, bonkers buffoonery reimagined as The New Absurd.

Anticipate your participation.
For adventurous audiences only.
Splash sheets provided.

Featuring: Laura Butler Rivera*, Michael Leonard*, Gülin Langbroek, and Daniel Irizarry

11 years + 14 productions + 15 countries = One-Eighth Theatre.
Founded in 2008 by Artistic Directors Daniel Irizarry and Laura Butler Rivera, One-Eighth creates new, bold, international theatre exploring cross-cultural exchanges.

New Ohio Theatre and The Drunkard's Wife present

MADAME LYNCH

Written and Directed by Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin

An Archive Residency world premiere
in collaboration with IRT Theater

A spectacle with music that takes on the story of Eliza Lynch, an Irish prostitute who, through fate and machination, became de facto Empress of Paraguay in the mid 19th century. Lynch made it her project to bring European high culture to Paraguay, and she's revered by some as a national heroine for her contributions to music and dance. But she's also reviled: many accuse her of fomenting the war in which 90% of Paraguay's male population was killed. We are working to create a complex portrait of a complicated figure.


The Drunkard's Wife creates theatrical and musical spectacles with a generous, maximalist design sense and brings experimental music to experimental theater. Their shows are darkly comic, language-drunk, full of reverence for the hand-made, and therefore wholeheartedly feminist and anticapitalist. Helmed by Normandy Sherwood (of The National Theater of the United States of America) and Craig Flanagin (of God is My Co-Pilot and ½ Japanese), their shows have been seen at Rubulad (Tiny Hornets) Brick Theater (Permanent Caterpillar), New Ohio Theatre (Feather Gatherers), as well as block parties and bookstores and parades all over New York City.

New Ohio Theatre Presents

ICE FACTORY 2019

2019 is the 26th Anniversary season of our OBIE Award-winning summer festival of new work.

Every summer we invite the most exciting downtown companies to present their latest projects in an environment of generosity, dialogue, and inspiration. ICE FACTORY is a place where artists can take risks, try out new ideas, and
bring their projects to a new level.

Plays introduced in Ice Factory have gone on to garner Drama Desk nominations, OBIE Awards, Audience First Awards in Edinburgh, Off-Broadway productions, commercial runs, and national and international tours.