NYTW Virtual Programming

Virtual programming is free and available to the entire NYTW community. If you’re in the position to support our work with a donation of $25, $10, even $5—no gift is too small.

MISSED AN EVENT? Check out these recordings

💡 MASTERCLASS: How I Think About Directing Text

HOW I THINK ABOUT DIRECTING TEXT with Tony Award-winning director and NYTW Usual Suspect Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812).

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Doug Wright, Lisa Peterson & Rachel Hauck

FIRESIDE CHAT with NYTW Trustee, Usual Suspect and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife, Quills), NYTW Usual Suspect and award-winning writer/director Lisa Peterson (An Iliad) and NYTW Usual Suspect and award-winning scenic designer Rachel Hauck (An Iliad, Hadestown, Hurricane Diane, What the Constitution Means to Me).

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Penny Arcade

NYTW Artistic Director James C. Nicola in conversation with the ‘Queen of Underground Performance’  Penny Arcade.

💡 MASTERCLASS: Dramaturgies for Dystopias 101

A master class with award-winning playwright Jeremy O. Harris (Daddy, Slave Play).

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Celine Song

NYTW Literary Director & Dramaturg Aaron Malkin will dive into the life and artistry of Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist ENDLINGS playwright Celine Song (aquatic pun intended).

🎤 JAM SESSION: The Lazours

As part of our virtual programming, brothers Daniel & Patrick Lazour played original songs from their musicals and their recent E.P. freres on April 19, 2020!

💡 MASTERCLASS: The Tools of the Artist

A master class with Tony Award-winning performer Celia Keenan-Bolger (Peter and the Starcatcher, To Kill a Mockingbird). 

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: The Sanctuary City Team

Join NYTW Literary Director & Dramaturg Aaron Malkin in conversation with the Sanctuary City team including playwright Martyna Majok, director Rebecca Frecknall, and actors Jasai Chase-OwensSharlene Cruz and Austin Smith.

🔥 Teaching Theatre Online

NYTW Director of Education Alexander Santiago-Jirau will moderate a conversation with Heleya de Barros, Sobha Kavanakudiyil, Micheal Rohd and Dr. Daphnie Sicre on how artists and educators can adapt their practice to teach the art form online. Join us for some practical tips, ideas and resources.

 

💡 MASTERCLASS: Imagining Worlds

A master class with Director Lileana Blain-Cruz (The House That Will Not Stand, Red Speedo, Fefu and Her Friends) and scenic/costume designer Adam Rigg (The House That Will Not Stand, Fefu and her Friends) on collaboration.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby

NYTW Artistic Director James C. Nicola chats with musical duo Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby.

🔥 500 Years & Counting: The East Coast Blind Spot

Join Safe Harbors NYC and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning in partnership with NYTW and La MaMa for an artist conversation on the planned events of the Mayflower 400 celebrations and the non inclusion of Wampanoag peoples as contemporary artists.

💡 MASTERCLASS: Cabaret Workshop

“How To Grab Your Audience Without Even Touching Them” with performer Dito van Reigersberg (co-founder of Pig Iron Theater Company) and Dito’s alter-ego Martha Graham Cracker (Joe’s Pub, “Lashed but not Leashed” album).

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Victor I. Cazares & Rubén Polendo

Join NYTW Literary Director & Dramaturg Aaron Malkin, NYTW Tow Playwright-in-Residence Victor I. Cazares and longtime Usual Suspect Rubén Polendo (Artistic Director, Theater Mitu) in conversation about their artistry and being in residence at NYTW.

💡 MASTERCLASS: The Text in Space

Former NYTW 2050 Directing Fellow Whitney White (What to Send Up When It Goes DownOur Dear Dead Drug Lord) explores how she interprets text for acting, design and movement.

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Thaddeus Phillips

Go into the studio with internationally acclaimed theater director/designer/performer Thaddeus Phillips (¡El Conquistadror!, Red-Eye to Havre de Grace, 17 Border Crossings) as he takes you step by step through his creative process.

💡 MASTERCLASS: Marvel at the Classics

Watch and learn how to work on classical text with award winning stage and screen actress Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland, House of Cards, Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler).

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Intimacy Direction

Join Intimacy Directors Claire Warden and Teniece Divya Johnson in conversation about their work and intimacy direction’s role in bringing us together as we return to rehearsal.

💡 Teaching Theatre Online: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy

NYTW Education Associate Adam Odsess-Rubin will interview NYU Drama Therapy Program Director Dr. Nisha Sajnani about taking care of students in the midst of a crisis, the potential power of theatre for radical healing, and how teachers can use artistic tools to help students face new challenges with creativity.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Theatre of the Oppressed

NYTW Director of Education Alexander Santiago-Jirau will be in conversation with international Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner Julian Boal on the future of global popular theatre movements.

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Queering Borders—Immigration & the Arts

Join NYTW Community Engagement Associate Gaven Trinidad, NYTW Tow Playwright-in-Residence Victor I. Cazares and Immigration Equality in conversation about the political intersections of art, activism, immigration, and queerness. This conversation is in collaboration with National Queer Theatre.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: The Craft of Directing

Join NYTW 2050 Directing Fellow Kimille Howard in conversation with NYTW Usual Suspect Ruben Santiago-Hudson on the craft of directing as a multifaceted artist.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Reflections on the Recession

Join 2050 Literary Fellow Tramane Harris and Executive Fellow Declan Zhang in conversation with Stephanie Ybarra (Artistic Director, Baltimore Center Stage), Jonathan McCrory (Artistic Director, National Black Theater) & Pirronne Yousefzadeh (Associate Artistic Director and Director of Engagement, Geva Theatre Center) for a discussion on the 2008-10 recession and the changes it created within the theater industry relative to the current challenges posed by COVID-19.

🔥 Staging Queerness Through the Generations

Join moderators Gaven Trinidad and Bri Ng Schwartz for a conversation with an intergenerational group of LGBTQ+ theater makers to discuss the past, present, and possible futures of LGBTQ theater in the US. The panelists include André De Shields, Leigh Fondakowski, Ryan J. Haddad, and L Morgan Lee. The panel discussion is in proud collaboration with National Queer Theater. ASL interpretation by Brandon Kazen-Maddox.

 

💡 MASTERCLASS: The Play in Previews

Playwright Mfoniso Udofia (Sojourners, Her Portmanteau, runboyrun, In Old Age) works through the process of re-writes and the evolution of a new play during previews.

 

 

💡 MASTERCLASS: Designing A Look

Join us for a Masterclass with costume designer Montana Levi Blanco (The House That Will Not Stand, Nat Turner in Jerusalem, Red Speedo) and hair, wig & makeup designer Cookie Jordan (Slave Play, The House That Will Not Stand). The two have collaborated on countless productions and they’ll come together to discuss their collaborative process and how they imagine a look for the stage.

💡 MASTERCLASS: Never Any More Perfection Than There Is Now

Join us for a masterclass on October 7th with Maria Dizzia (national tour of Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, Belleville, In the Next Room). In this acting class, stage and screen actress Maria Dizzia will explore encountering the script for the first time. This class is asking for participants to work with the teacher during the virtual class. If you would like to participate by performing on screen for those tuning in, please register via Zoom and volunteers will be selected at random. Selected participants will be notified in advance of the class.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: See Lighting Foundation

Confronted with the lack of support for immigrant theater artists, See Lighting Foundation was started to give immediate relief for those in need. Join Stefania Bulbarella (theater director/projection designer), Yijun Yang (set designer), Danilo Gambini (Director) and Kimie Nishikawa (set designer/ co founder of See Lighting Foundation) to hear about the immigrant theater artist experience and how you can help.

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Let's Play

Video Games have evolved in the past 40 years into a sophisticated artform that has catapulted generations of players into deep immersive, digital worlds, creating new forms of storytelling, entertainment, and community.

This digital storytelling has greatly affected the aesthetics of contemporary theatre making, finding conventions of gaming on the stage and vice versa. In advance of her Artistic Instigator Project, The Seagull on The Sims 4, at the end of the month, join theatre maker and gamer Celine Song in conversation with other theater makers about how video games have affected their artistry and their ideas of theatrical storytelling in the twenty-first century.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: What the Constitution Means to Me

What the Constitution Means to Me will stream to homes across America when it premieres on Amazon Prime on October 16th!

Join us for a virtual conversation hosted by Clubbed Thumb & New York Theatre Workshop with Heidi Schreck & special guests in a conversation moderated by former Director of the ACLU Women’s Project and NYTW Trustee Kathleen Peratis.

 

 

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Spotlight on The Cooking Project

Welcome to the kitchen of the Dominican Artists Collective. Get to know members of the DAC, learn about their process, Dominicanidad, Washington Heights, and what it means to be making art and theater right now as Dominican artists. This conversation will give you a taste and sneak peek into The Cooking Project, the DAC’s Artistic Instigator project coming in November.

 

 

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Spotlight on Black Acting Methods

Join us for a lively conversation with Dr. Sharrell D. Luckett and Dr. Tia M. Shaffer, editors of Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches. Published in 2016, this anthology “seeks to offer alternatives to the Euro-American performance styles that many actors find themselves working with” and to “reclaim, reaffirm, and even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts.” Since then, the book has evolved into the Black Acting Methods Studio, a mobile and online training institute, for “actors of all heritages” seeking to “gain in-depth knowledge about acting processes, methodologies, and philosophical underpinnings in Black American culture and tradition.” The conversation will be moderated by theatre artist, educator, and NYTW Teaching Artist marcus d. harvey.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: What the Hell is a Republic, Anyway?

WHAT THE HELL IS A REPUBLIC, ANYWAY? Episode 5: What Happens Next? Two weeks after the election, Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare will reconvene to touch base, take stock and see what the history of the Roman Republic has to offer us in Late 2020. We don’t know yet what the election will bring, but whatever it brings, we’ll need to talk about it!!

 

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Safe Harbors NYC

Safe Harbors NYC Logo

Join Safe Harbors NYC and NYTW Literary Director & Dramaturg Aaron Malkin for an artist conversation on how the company and its artists have pivoted to produce its annual Reflections of Native Voices Festival online.

The virtual two-week festival is curated by Safe Harbors NYC and hosted in partnership with NYTW and La MaMa Indigenous Initiative. It runs from January 25–February, and will feature theatre, music, and native dance performances by visionary Indigenous artists from across the country.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: The Power of Proverbs & the Tradition of Oral Storytelling

Traditionally, Africans have used proverbs and oral storytelling as a primary method by which elders bestowed pearls of wisdom, shared deep knowledge of culture, passed down family history as a preservation of legacy, and taught social practices. These narratives provide entertainment and are experienced as folktales, myths, fables, epic histories, common sayings, and legends. But they are also purposed to inform, educate, persuade and teach values much as theatre today informs, widens our perspectives, and helps us better understand our world. Join us in conversation with Dael Orlandersmith, Martha Redbone and Jillian Walker, moderated by Brennie Tellu, as we explore how the power of proverbs and oral storytelling has inspired and/or informed the artistry of each of these gifted theatremakers and how these narratives have shaped their experiences as Black women.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: No Passing Here: Four Latinx Artists on Theatre and Race/Ethnicity

What happens when Indigenous, Black, and Asian Latinx theatre artists get together to talk about art, life, the myths of Mestizaje and dismantling Latinidad? We literally don’t know because it hasn’t been done before. The theatre world in the US is behind on understanding Latinx communities and the complexities of both race and ethnicity within them. Inspired by conversations about race and indigeneity that are being led by actors Tenoch Huerta and Yalitza Aparicio in Mexico, Playwright Victor I. Cazares has invited artists Virginia Grise, Lindsay Rico, Andrew G. Rodriguez and Tiffany Small to discuss, organize and dream.

🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: An Actor's Journey

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Join us as we chat with Tony nominated actors Ato Blankson-Wood and Annie McNamara (Slave Play) and explore everything that goes into making a life and career in acting. While their lives as artists converged in Slave Play at NYTW, both have traveled rich, winding paths through life and show business and we are excited to reflect on the big breaks, setbacks, detours and adventures that have brought them to this moment.