FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PTP/NYC’s (Potomac Theatre Project) 35th season to include plays by
Caryl Churchill, Steven Berkoff, Robert Chesley, Jim Petosa and Jonathan Adler
Off-Broadway previews begin July 5 at Atlantic Stage 2, with openings beginning on July 10, running through July 31
Press Invitation (SEX, GRIFT AND DEATH):
Sun 7/10 at 2pm, Wed 7/13 at 7pm, Thu 7/14 at 7pm, Sun 7/17 at 2pm
Press Invitation (REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION):
Sun 7/10 at 7pm, Tue 7/12 at 7pm, Fri 7/15 at 7pm, Sat 7/16 at 2pm & 7pm
(Press are welcome to attend shows beyond official press dates.)
New York, NY – PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, proudly presents its 35th repertory season, running July 5 – 31, 2022 in a limited Off-Broadway engagement at The Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street). Previews begin July 5 and openings begin July 10.
This season’s line-up includes SEX, GRIFT AND DEATH, an evening of one act plays by Steven Berkoff and Caryl Churchill, directed by Richard Romagnoli and Cheryl Faraone, and REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION, an evening of two intertwined one act plays by Robert Chesley, Jim Petosa and Jonathan Adler, directed by Jim Petosa.
SEX, GRIFT AND DEATH, the evening’s ironic umbrella title, features the New York premiere of Steven Berkoff’s LUNCH, directed by Richard Romagnoli, and Caryl Churchill’s HOT FUDGE and the New York premiere of Churchill’s HERE WE GO, both directed by Cheryl Faraone. Previews begin July 6 for a July 13 opening, running through July 31. Running time is approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes including intermission.
In LUNCH, a woman and man, (ostensibly) strangers, engage in a provocative encounter that forces them to recognize their loneliness. Sexy, rude and funny.
LUNCH cast includes Bill Army (The Band’s Visit on Broadway, PTP’s Vinegar Tom) and Jackie Sanders (Shakespeare in the Park’s The Taming of the Shrew, NBC’s “The Blacklist”).
HOT FUDGE is an explosive short play about greed and self-invention – a bleak, black comedy.
HOT FUDGE cast includes David Barlow (PTP’s Havel: The Passion of Thought and No End of Blame), Tara Giordano (PTP’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth and The After-Dinner Joke), Christopher Marshall (PTP’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth and Havel: The Passion of Thought), Danielle Skraastad (Hurricane Diane with Women’s Project, PTP’s Havel: The Passion of Thought), Teddy Best, Molly Dorion, Gibson Grimm and Wynn McClenahan.
HERE WE GO is written in three brief scenes. The play drifts from conversations among mourners at a post-funeral party to the dying process of (possibly) the man mourned and finally a wordless sequence with a man and his caregiver.
HERE WE GO cast includes Bill Army, David Barlow, Christopher Marshall, Jackie Sanders, Danielle Skraastad, Maggie Connolly, Meili Huang, Annabelle Iredale, Victoria Keith and Charlie Porto.
REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION, Hauntings from Pandemics Past and Present, features Robert Chesley’s DOG PLAYS and the world premiere of Jim Petosa and Jonathan Adler’s A VARIANT STRAIN, both directed by Jim Petosa. Previews begin July 5 for a July 10 opening, running through July 30. Running time is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes including intermission.
This pairing of plays sees the AIDS epidemic (DOG PLAYS) as a prologue to the COVID pandemic (A VARIANT STRAIN). By looking back, we see our present with new eyes, deeper understanding and a moment of unexpected healing.
DOG PLAYS cast includes James Patrick Nelson (Slave Play at Mark Taper Forum, Three Sisters with CSC), Jonathan Tindle (PTP’s The After-Dinner Joke and The Possibilities), Joshua Mallin and Trey Atkins.
A VARIANT STRAIN cast includes James Patrick Nelson, Francis Price and Ryan Kirby.
The production team includes Mark Evancho (Set & Projection Design), Courtney Smith (Lighting & Projection Design), Sean Doyle (Sound Design), Peter Hamlin (Composer for Hot Fudge & Here We Go), Bella Costantino-Carrigan (Costume Design for Lunch & Hot Fudge), Carol Wood (Costume Design for Here We Go & Reverse Transcription), Christine Lemme (Stage Manager for Sex, Grift and Death), Abbey Murray (Stage Manager for Reverse Transcription) and Courtney Smith (Company & Production Manager). Understudies, stage managers assistants and Covid compliance officers are Catie Clark, Qinyi Hua and Katelyn Wenkoff.
Performances are Tuesdays – Sundays at 7pm, Saturdays – Sundays at 2pm, and select Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2pm. Tickets are $31.50 and $21.50 (students and seniors). Schedule varies – for exact days and times, and to purchase tickets, visit www.PTPNYC.org.
PTP/NYC’s Jim Petosa states, “For 35 years, PTP and PTP/NYC has maintained an ever-evolving community of theater-makers of all kinds, who are connected by their sheer will to make mission-driven, provocative productions of plays we care about deeply. It is cause for celebration!”
“PTP/NYC provides artists with an opportunity to work with playwrights whose works reflect the nightmares and hoaxes of our lives, without compromise,” says Richard Romagnoli.
Cheryl Faraone adds, “Thirty-five years of working with an extraordinary group of professional artists and the next several generations of theatremakers has been an unmatchable experience. We hope these artists and the work they have done will continue to enrich the country’s theatrical universe. And we look forward to our futures.”
After this season, the company will no longer follow its annual format but instead will reconfigure its work for the future.
PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project) continues to redefine politically aware theatre for the 21st century by presenting theatrically complex and thought-provoking work of contemporary social and cultural relevance. Howard Barker is one of PTP/NYC’s most produced writers, along with Caryl Churchill, Neal Bell, Sarah Kane and David Edgar. The company’s writers are provocative, engaging and often confrontational.
PTP was founded in 1987 by the artistic team of Cheryl Faraone, Jim Petosa and Richard Romagnoli who continue to run the company. Alex Draper is Associate Artistic Director. Since moving to New York in 2007, PTP/NYC has produced 30 main stage productions and numerous late evening readings, workshops, streaming productions and experimental theatre pieces in their After Dark series. The company is committed to the training of young actors and designers, enabling them to work with experienced and generous professionals as they serve an apprenticeship and begin their own work in the theatre.
The New York Times says PTP/NYC “stands out amid the summer season’s fluff and fringiness as one to turn to for serious work” and The New Yorker calls the company’s work “daring and provocative.” Time Out New York states, “PTP/NYC is one of New York’s best bets for summer counterprogramming.” Huffington Post says, “Potomac Theatre Project brings intelligent, beautifully directed and performed fare to New York and we are so much luckier for it.” One Magazine states, “PTP/NYC are an extraordinary company. They choose powerful, thought-provoking work, and their actors, directors and technicians work together in such a seamless way, there are no chinks in this armor. PTP/NYC is necessary theatre, right here, right now.”
For more info visit www.PTPNYC.org, like them on Facebook at Facebook.com/pages/Potomac-Theatre-Project-PTP/32709392256, follow on Twitter at @ptpnyc, and on Instagram at @ptp.nyc.
Audience members are required to have proof of full Covid-19 vaccination and wear a mask to be admitted into the venue.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PTP/NYC to present three online events, featuring works by Anne Sexton, Mac Wellman, David Auburn, Steven Berkoff & others, July 9 – August 16
PRESS INVITATION/COVERAGE REQUEST: Each show premieres on Friday at 7:30pm ET (July 9, July 23 & August 13), with replays available On Demand for four days
New York, NY – PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, proudly presents three unique streaming productions as part of its 34th year, running July 9 – August 16, 2021.
Each show premieres virtually on Friday at 7:30pm ET (July 9, July 23 & August 13). After the Friday premiere the stream will be available On Demand for four days – then disappears. Reservations are required to receive a link and password, reserve at www.PTPNYC.org. Viewing is free, but donations of any amount are most welcome and support the ongoing work of PTP/NYC.
LUNCH July 9 – 12
By Steven Berkoff, directed by PTP’s Co-Artistic Director Richard Romagnoli.
A man encounters a woman whom he finds enormously attractive. Introductions ensue and the subsequent exchange of “viscous bodily feelings” is a contest of wit that spirals into a unique seduction. In this wham-bam 40-minute encounter, histories are revealed, clichés avoided and a unique post-coital recognition is achieved. Steven Berkoff’s language is visceral, humorous and provocative, while always authentic and honest.
Filmed in its entirety, the cast includes Bill Army (The Band’s Visit on Broadway, PTP’s Scenes from an Execution) and Jackie Sanders (Shakespeare in the Park’s The Taming of the Shrew, NBC’s The Blacklist).
Steven Berkoff hails from Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he entered a series of repertory companies and in 1968 formed the London Theatre Group. Berkoff’s plays and adaptations have been performed in many countries and in many languages. He is the author of East, Decadence, Greek, West and numerous other plays. His adaptations for the stage include Kafka’s The Penal Colony, Metamorphosis and The Trial, Agamemnon after Aeschylus, Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, and Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Berkoff played Lieutenant-General Orlov in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.
STANDING ON THE EDGE OF TIME July 23 – 26
A compilation and juxtaposition of the work of multiple writers including Mac Wellman, Steven Dykes, David Auburn and others, directed by PTP’s Co-Artistic Director Cheryl Faraone.
Standing on the Edge of Time begins by calling the ghosts of a vanished theatre to life. All theatres are haunted – by history as well as the immediate life outside their doors. The door of our theatre tonight opens to look at meanings – home, the Internet, community, no community, power, loss, love. The experiences of our company come from many different decades, many different Americas, many different life trajectories. All of these stories in some way illuminate our present.
Interweaving dramatic text, music, poetry and current news, this evening looks at our present and our options, with hilarity, fury and hope. A living tapestry of paranoia, beauty and belief. Includes both filmed and Zoom segments. Running time is approximately 90 minutes.
The cast includes Alex Draper (PTP’s Arcadia & No End of Blame), Tara Giordano (PTP’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth & The After-Dinner Joke), Stephanie Janssen (Death of a Salesman on Broadway, PTP’s Arcadia), Christopher Marshall (PTP’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth & The Possibilities), Aubrey Dube (PTP’s Serious Money & Pentecost), Sheyenne Brown, Maggie Connolly, Gabrielle Martin, Wynn McClenahan, Madison Middleton and Francis Price.
A SMALL HANDFUL August 13 – 16
Directed and conceived by PTP’s Co-Artistic Director Jim Petosa.
Sharing the experience of life in the extreme is the stuff of poetry. Expressed through the voice – an experiment in speech and song – we can discover something about the endurance of Anne Sexton’s complex journey. The enfleshment of her poetry through speech, song, and performance breathes life into those words, even as the poet, herself, makes an ultimate exit.
Composer Gilda Lyons wrote this set of unaccompanied songs to text by Anne Sexton (1928-1974). A filmed piece, spoken by Paula Langton (PTP’s Monster & A Question of Mercy) and sung by Kayleigh Riess. Running time is approximately 30 minutes.
Anne Sexton was one of the most widely-read poets of the 20th century, publishing nine volumes of poetry before her death in 1974. She was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, the 1967 Shelley Memorial Prize, the 1962 Levinson Prize, and the Frost Fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.
The production team for all three events includes Courtney Smith (Production Designer, Light Design, Cinematographer & Company Production Manager), Kevin McCord (additional Light Design for A Small Handful), Madison Middleton (Sound Design), Brianna Beach and Bella Costantino-Carrigan (Costume Design) and Devin Wein (Stage Manager).
PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project) continues to redefine politically aware theatre for the 21st century by presenting theatrically complex and thought-provoking work of contemporary social and cultural relevance. Howard Barker is one of PTP/NYC’s most produced writers, along with Caryl Churchill, Neal Bell, Sarah Kane and David Edgar. The company’s writers are provocative, engaging and often confrontational.
PTP was founded in 1987 by the artistic team of Cheryl Faraone, Jim Petosa and Richard Romagnoli who continue to run the company. Alex Draper is Associate Artistic Director. Since moving to New York in 2007, PTP/NYC has produced 30 main stage productions and numerous late evening readings, workshops and experimental theatre pieces in their After Dark series. The company is committed to the training of young actors and designers, enabling them to work with experienced and generous professionals as they serve an apprenticeship and begin their own work in the theatre.
The New York Times says PTP/NYC “stands out amid the summer season’s fluff and fringiness as one to turn to for serious work” and The New Yorker calls the company’s work “daring and provocative.” Time Out New York states, “PTP/NYC is one of New York’s best bets for summer counterprogramming.” Huffington Post says, “Potomac Theatre Project bring intelligent, beautifully directed and performed fare to New York and we are so much luckier for it.” One Magazine states, “PTP/NYC are an extraordinary company. They choose powerful, thought-provoking work, and their actors, directors and technicians work together in such a seamless way, there are no chinks in this armor. PTP/NYC is necessary theatre, right here, right now.”
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