New York Theatre Workshop

The NYTW 2009/10 Season
Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank	AFTERMATH Written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen Directed by Jessica Blank September - October 2009 March 20, 2003. A date that the ordinary people of Iraq will never forget. A day that changed their lives forever. The day the Americans arrived in their country. New York Theatre Workshop sent Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the award-winning creators of The Exonerated, to Jordan in June 2008 to find out firsthand what happened to the Iraqi civilians as a result of the events that began on that fateful day. They interviewed some 35 people—a cross-section of lives interrupted—who fled the chaos and violence that befell Iraqi society for the relative safety of Jordan. Following the visit to Amman, Jessica and Erik crafted their conversations with the Iraqis and have turned them into an unforgettable theatrical event.
Doug Hughes	THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER Based on the novel by Carson McCullers Adapted by Rebecca Gilman Directed by Doug Hughes A co-production with The Acting Company November – December 2009 Carson McCullers’ classic novel is adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter) and directed by Doug Hughes (The Beard of Avon at NYTW, Doubt). *The Heart is a Lonely Hunter* is a beautiful and timeless tale about the universal need for human connection. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter follows the story of a deaf man, John Singer, as he navigates the world without his dearest friend who has been committed to an insane asylum. When Singer moves to a small Southern town, the locals flock to him as a newfound confidant, seeking compassion and understanding from the one person who needs it the most. Singer’s isolation in the world is mirrored in a few of the townspeople he meets along the way – a café owner, a rebellious teenager, a black physician, and an idealistic labor organizer whose dreams have been shattered. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter intertwines the lives of these characters in a surprising way that results in a deeply moving story of outcasts in the South during the Great Depression.
John Rubinstein	TOP SECRET Written by Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons Directed by John Rubinstein A co-production with L.A. Theatre Works and Affinity Collaborative Theater Spring 2010 It�s 1971 and the nation is at war. The intractable conflict escalates in Vietnam while here at home the battle for public opinion rages. A federal court blocks The New York Times from publishing the top-secret history of US involvement in Vietnam. Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham has a single day to decide whether to print these Pentagon Papers. When the Nixon administration closes in and charges treason, the fight for a free press explodes. Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons' riveting and suspenseful TOP SECRET: THE BATTLE FOR THE PENTAGON PAPERS animates the frontline clash between the government�s need for secrecy and the public�s right to know. TOP SECRET is a triumphant reminder of the importance of the continuing battle fought in the name of the First Amendment.
Claudia Shear	RESTORATION Written by Claudia Shear Directed by Christopher Ashley Spring 2010 Two-time Tony Award-nominee, playwright and actress Claudia Shear reunites with acclaimed director Christopher Ashley to create and star in her new play Restoration. Shear plays the lead role of Giulia, down-on-her-luck art restorer from Brooklyn who receives the possibly career-reviving job of “refreshing” Michelangelo's sculpture David in time for its 500th birthday celebration in Florence. Claudia Shear and Christopher Ashley first met and worked together in the legendary NYTW production of Shear’s OBIE Award-winning solo performance piece Blown Sideways Through Life. Directed by Ashley, Blown Sideways played an extended New York run and was later filmed for PBS’s “American Playhouse.” Shear triumphantly returned to NYTW with Dirty Blonde, a comic exploration of the life of Mae West, directed by James Lapine, for which she won a Theatre World Award, as well as Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for Best Play and Best Actress. Christopher Ashley’s directing credits include Xanadu, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, and The Rocky Horror Show for which he received nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical.

FALL
2010

THE LITTLE FOXES
Written by Lillian Hellman
Directed by Ivo Van Hove
September – October 2010

Acclaimed director Ivo van Hove returns to NYTW to take on one of Lillian Hellman’s most well-known plays, The Little Foxes. Van Hove’s fresh vision of this iconic play will shine a light on an often ignored theme: Hellman’s pioneering feminist study of how women of differing races and classes contend with male aggression and power. Elizabeth Marvel, who has memorably collaborated with van Hove at NYTW, playing the title role of Hedda Gabler and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, will take on the role of Regina Giddens, the strong and determined woman at the center of Hellman’s web of deceit.

Jenny Allen
Photo by Jayne Wexler

NYTW PRESENTS
A SPECIAL MEMBER ADD ON*

I GOT SICK THEN I GOT BETTER
Written and performed by Jenny Allen
Directed by James Lapine & Darren Katz

I Got Sick Then I Got Better is a comic riff on one woman's adventures after falling down the medical rabbit hole. Diagnosed with and treated for ovarian cancer in 2005, writer and performer Jenny Allen (The New Yorker, The New York Times) tells her story of the harrowing tailspin she took following her diagnosis, combining biting humor with searing emotion in a witty, bittersweet monologue that limns the personal and family collateral damage a life-threatening illness brings.