Rats aren’t usually a welcome sight in New York City, but you can’t help laughing at those currently infesting Theater 154 in the West Village.
Actually actors in fuzzy ponchos and masks, these rodents bring humor and fancy footwork to “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Written by Amina Henry and presented by Project Y Theater as part of the Women in Theater Festival, this adaptation has its furry pests perform ballet as they trash a playground. When the town sets out neck-snapping traps, the delighted creatures turn them into castanets for a flamenco number. (The production’s director, Michole Biancosino, choreographed the dances with the cast; Summer Lee Jack designed the costumes.)
The play also gives central roles to Hamelin’s children, played here by talented young adults. The juvenile characters’ earnestness and wry commentary contrast comically with the surrounding grown-ups’ venality.
Yet this “Pied Piper,” which has its final performances on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m., remains a dark fable. Theatergoers may wish that it concluded with another clever twist. But those who are the recommended ages — 8 to 12 — may have already realized that adults (and especially politicians) can’t always be trusted.
The Women in Theatre Festival seeks to broaden the opportunities for women in the entertainment industry by producing new work by women with more than 50% representation of all artists involved. Our festival is a model of going beyond parity, as we commission and produce new works by women+ writers, devisers, and creators, develop an audience interested in feminist theatre, and foster opportunities that center interdisciplinary practices and experimentation. More Women. More Theatre. All the Time.
For more information, click here to view the official WIT website.
Tuesday, February 20th through Saturday, February 24th 2024
10am-6pm daily
Project Y’s Devising Jam: a devised theater incubation lab.
This 5 day laboratory is an opportunity for artists seeking to explore, collaborate, and cross-pollinate on devised work they wish to bring to life. Curated and created by Sheila Bandyopadhyay, The Devising Jam is a dynamic workshop that brings together three lead artists with a team of up to five additional actor/creators who will play as collaborators on all 3 projects. A structured workshop, each lead artist will be offered the same amount of time to lead the room and work with the entire ensemble to explore their ideas and vision. The Devising Jam will cultimate with an invited sharing of the works in progress on the final day. As the Devising Jam is visioned as a starting point for more fully developed work, those pieces developed in the Jam will have a space to perform during Project Y's Women in Theatre Festival in June. All lead artists and actor/creators participate in the entirety of the Lab.
How to Apply:
- Lead Artists: If you're a visionary artist with a theater project in mind, we invite you to submit an application composed of your headshot, resume, and a 500-word summary of the work you wish to develop.
- Performing Collaborators: Submit your headshot, resume, and a concise 250-word statement of interest.
- Women and Women of Color are encouraged to apply. We believe in the power of diverse voices and experiences to enrich our artistic endeavors.
- Applicants may apply for both lead artist and performing collaborator roles if they wish.
Send all your materials as 1 PDF to info@projectytheatre.com
Accepting applications now through January 1st.
Sheila Bandyopadhyay is a Brooklyn rooted theater artist and Director of Training at Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training in Lenox, Massachusetts. Sheila’s career spans acting, directing, movement coaching, choreography, teaching and devising original theater. As a theatre maker, Sheila is committed to non-traditional performance that is physical, music-driven, and inclusive. Most recently, she played Puck/Starveling at Shakespeare & Company’s 2023 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In New York, Sheila has directed shows at the Brick, the United Solo Festival (Theater Row), the Tank, the West End Theater, and the 72nd St Theater Lab. For eight years Sheila served as Head of the Movement Department at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan where she regularly directed and coached productions in the 2nd year of training and for the Academy Company. In 2021-22, Sheila was Head of the Professional Training Program and Core Movement Faculty at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater. An AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, Sheila is intrigued by and actively investigating the overlap between physical training, creativity, mindful movement and Eastern meditation practices. Sheila is a proud member of the Humanist Project and a sponsored artist with Leviathan Lab. www.sheilabnyc.com IG: @sheilabnyc
Project Y Theatre Presents
Yoga With Jillian
A Play by Lia Romeo
Directed by Andrew W. Smith
Performed by Michole Biancosino
59E59 Theatre: East to Edinburgh 2024
International Premiere: Edinburgh Fringe
World Premiere: The 8th Annual Women in Theatre Festival
Press:
"hilarious and surprisingly gut-wrenching"
- George Rennie, Lost in Theatreland
"a masterful performance"
- Holly O'Mahony, CULTUREWhisper
"gloriously funny"
- Randall David Cook, FringeReview
"a hilarious cleanse of the chakras"
- Greg Stewart, Theatre Weekly
One of the "Top 50 Shows to See at Edinburgh Fringe" in 2023
"Yoga with Jillian is as funny as it is cathartic, an honest and accurate representation of where many (most?) of us are right now. Work through the pain and go see it: it'll be good for you"
"Played with both comedic flair and genuine pathos, by Michole Biancosino"
"Promises to give your chuckle muscles a good workout."
"Quickly, we learn Jillian isn’t exactly the peaceful yogi who’s going to guide you through a gentle sun salutation."
"The play is funny."
"The show is about our strategies to cope with a world that seems to be getting more unhinged by the day."
- Jenn Jarecki, Vermont Public
"Teaching yoga at height of pandemic ripe for comedy in new Colorado Springs solo show"
In this immersive play, yoga teacher Jillian plans to take the audience through an amazing, incredible, fantastic, one hour yoga journey. But the past couple years have been tough, am I right? As Jillian tries to teach again in our changed world, the shiny, happy yoga teacher attempts to keep the class, and herself, from completely imploding.
Audiences - feel free to bring your mat or watch from your seat! Yoga is encouraged but never
required. We promise you've never seen a play like this before.
Yoga With Jillian was developed at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, VT, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington, VT, and at Pittsburgh City Theatre as part of Momentum Festival 2022, premiered at A.R.T./New York Theatres in June 2023 as part of Project Y's 8th Annual Women in Theatre Festival, and toured internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Women in Theatre Festival returns for its 8th year in its mission to broaden the opportunities for women in the entertainment industry. Featuring Yoga with Jillian, All Hands on Deck, the Hrosthwitha Project, and more.
For more information, click here to view the official WIT website.
The Middlebury College Mahaney Arts Center's New Directions Spring Arts Festival kicks off with the premiere of Momentary Exchange, an experimental theater event created by assistant professor Michole Biancosino and visiting artist Todd Anderson. Audience members influence the story in real time via prompts on their phones, taking a wild and ever-changing journey together.
Experience Momentary Exchange in New York City this summer as part of Project Y's 8th annual Women in Theatre Festival.
You are cordially invited to the second wedding of David and Katie. This confidently codependent couple will teach you how to love correctly through original music, exotic rituals, and a unity volcano.
This time it'll stick! For realz tho!
David and Katie Get Re-Married pairs David Carl (Trump Lear, The Tender Bar) and Katie Hartman (Netflix’s The Week Of, High Maintenance) in a slapdash wedding betwixt a star-crossed couple who has broken up and reunited more frequently than Spiderman has been rebooted. This dark comedy with original music features the worst couple in the world on the second happiest day of their lives after the first happiest day of their lives didn't work out.
September 9-24th
Written and performed by: David Carl and Katie Hartman
Directed by: Michole Biancosino
Music Direction by: Jody Shelton
Set Design by Chen-Wei Liao
Costume Design by Jake Poser
Produced by by Project Y Theatre, Louise H. Beard & Chashama
Tickets are available online at Regular Price: $25
Under 25 year old: $18
Door open at 7:30 PM and the Ceremony starts at 8 PM.
Our 7th Annual Women in Theatre Festival returns February 4th 2022.
For more information, click here to view the official WIT website.
A prototype festival of new hybrid works of theatre
June 18-July 3, 2021
TINY BARN is Project Y’s latest venture into breaking new ground in digital theatre by creating experimental, forward-thinking, post-pandemic performance for a transmedia experience.
12 New Commissions from 12 creators:
Amina Henry, Bixby Elliot, Nandita Shenoy, Kevin R. Free, Antu Yacob, Christopher Ulloth, Dana Yeaton, Paloma Sierra, Kaaron Briscoe, Daniel McCoy, and Jack Dentinger with BellWeather Collective.
The challenge: write a 1-2 person play for a simultaneous in-person audience and online streaming audience.
In June 2021, a team of artists are gathered in a Tiny Barn, where we have dedicated ourselves to 3 weeks of creating, designing, collaborating, crafting, organizing, conceiving, developing, shaping, inventing, exploring, constructing, and producing these innovative hybrid world premieres.
Merging the Victorian era’s Toy Theater movement with today’s Digital Theater movement, this compact homage to the 1968 classic Charlton Heston/Rod Serling primate film is faithfully reimagined for the streaming-live stage.
“I can’t help thinking somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man.” – Colonel George Taylor, Astronaut
An astronaut crew crash-lands on an unfamiliar planet in the distant future and are soon enslaved by a society where grapes have evolved into speaking creatures with human-like intelligence.
That’s it. That’s the plot.
PLANET OF THE GRAPES LIVE
PERFORMED LIVE ON YOUR SCREEN
Created by Peter Michael Marino
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Music by Michael Harren
Photos by Mikiodo
Co-produced by Project Y Theatre Company
2020 has been a turbulent, transformational moment in our lives and in our art.
One of the most powerful tenets of theatre is its ability to enlighten and challenge social norms. We are pleased to offer new work this summer that explores our connections during a time of isolation. We had to cancel our 5th Annual Women in Theatre Festival due to the global pandemic, with our home base of NYC as one of the first epicenters of the virus. As we began to reimagine different ways our small company might still support the creation of new works by female-identifying playwrights, the entire world was embarking upon a widespread response to the longstanding, systemic racism that Black people in America continue to be subjected to. Project Y Theatre Company folks have joined in as individuals to unequivocally support, lending our bodies, funds, skills, and voices, to the Black Lives Matter movement. We intend to use our artistic platform as a producing entity to develop work in an environment that is dedicated to antiracist practices at every step of the artistic process.
Click below to see the projects that will come to fruition this summer, as a part of our LIVE ONLINE Women in Theatre 2020-2021.
Project Y Theatre Company presents the fourth annual Women in Theatre Festival, a festival of new work written and created by women, June 5-30 at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019). Tickets ($15-$27) will go on sale Friday, April 12 at www.witfestival.projectytheatre.com.
The Women in Theatre Festival seeks to broaden the opportunities for women in the entertainment industry by producing new work by women with more than 50% female representation of all artists involved. The 4th Annual Women in Theatre Festival will feature 10 separate productions including two fully staged World Premieres, commissioned specifically for the festival.
Project Y Theatre is thrilled to announce the 3rd Annual Women in Theatre (WiT) Festival. We will be presenting three premiere productions in June 2018 at IRT Theatre including: Truth/Dare by Tori Keenan-Zelt, What Happened That Night by Lia Romeo, and Project Y’s 1st children’s show, Cindy, by Amina Henry, an original adaptation of Cinderella.
From the team behind the downtown hit David Carl’s Celebrity One-Man Hamlet (formerly titled Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet) comes a new Shakespeare adaptation: Trump Lear.
Actor and impersonator, Carl David, is being held without bail for performing his Trump-inspired version of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Carl David is forced to perform his King Lear to an unseen online audience of one, as the President restlessly watches remotely from a live and public feed. The stakes are high: if Trump likes Carl and his show, Carl lives. If not, Carl dies. But how can Carl get through a show where he has created a Lear based on Trump himself without offending the audience?
For more information visit www.trumplear.com.
What do we turn to when faced with life’s limits?
Project Y Theatre experiments with the world premiere of LIFE by Charles Mee, a series of striking moments where characters must face the limits of love, security, and meaning.
directed by Joey Rizzolo
with Aya Aziz, Hilary Asare, Meg Bashwiner, Jill Beckman, Shelton Lindsay, Nessa Norich, and T
For more information visit lifebymee.com.
2 commissioned plays, 22 performances, 80 Artists, Over 1200 audience members.
June 1 – 24 at The A.R.T./New York Theatres
In an effort to broaden opportunities for women playwrights, Project Y Theatre Company has commissioned nine female playwrights in two separate productions, Great Again, an evening of plays by Crystal Skillman and Chiori Miyagawa, and The Hrosthvitha Project, 7 adaptations of the 10th century female-written play “Dulcitius” written by playwrights Caridad Svich, Pia Wilson, Julienne Hairston, Michole Biancosino, Lia Romeo, Stacie Lents, and Erin Mallon.
By LIA ROMEO
Directed by MICHOLE BIANCOSINO
with Ella Dershowitz, Midori Francis*, Dana Jacks*, Robby Clater*, Joachim Boyle,
Gus Birney, Thomas Muccioli, Aria Shahghasemi
March 3 – 26, 2016
In a world where we are all constantly connected to the Internet – and through the Internet to one another – why do we still feel so alone? CONNECTED examines love and friendship in the age of social media through a series of interrelated vignettes – a young girl’s most embarrassing moment goes viral; a high school student must choose between real life and role-playing games; two girls spend Saturday night endlessly searching for the “perfect party;” and a teacher is accidentally seduced by her student on an internet dating site.
CREATIVE TEAM
Andrew Smith (Producer/Co-Artistic Director)
Matthew Fick (Scenic Designer)
Ben Hagen (Lighting Designer)
Jessa-Raye Court (Costume Designer)
Amit Prakash (Sound Designer)
Allison Raynes* (Stage Manager)
Judy Bowman (Casting)
*denotes member of Actors’ Equity
Landmarks & TRANSformations puts the focus on individual LGBTQ lives in 2017 and creates – with the audience – new everyday queer rituals from the crazy concoction of tears, terror, laughter, and love that marks our era. 18 Artists collaborated on a production that was nominated for 4 NY Innovative Theatre Awards.
Project Y Theatre Company, in partnership with EAG’s Open Space Grant, presented “Landmarks & TRANSformations,” a new work of devised theatre created by an ensemble of LGBTQ artists, writers, performers, and activists, February 18, 19, 23, 24, & 25 2017, at the Episcopal Actors Guild, 1 East 29th Street, NYC.
This devised ensemble piece will take your through a quilt-like narrative of the landmark moments in queer lives through interlacing stories, monologues, dances, and art pieces. Featured writers/performers include Bixby Elliot (Founder, Brooklyn Generator), Jordan Sebastian Bonner (emerging trans playwright), Christopher G. Ulloth (Seven Devils Playwrights Conference), Elena Chang (Associate Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Theatre Communications Group), Kathleen Warnock (Playwright and Editor, Best Lesbian Erotica), Kevin R. Free (Playwright, Actor, Artistic Director of The Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival ), Philip Markle (“Baby Wants Candy,” Creator of the long-running Chicago and NYC hit, “Happy Karaoke Fun Time”), Jacob Perkins (Williamstown, current Ars Nova play group), Frank Wildermann (Actor and Yogi), Dan McCoy, Catya McCullen, Korde Arrington Tuttle (writer for CultureBot), Christina Pitter, Victor Cervantes, Jr., Alex Bender, Thomas Muccioli (Project Y’s “Connected”), David Caudle (“The Sunken Living Room” and Project Y’s “Downward Facing Debbie”) and more. There will be 18 total artists featured and the lineup will change nightly.
Nominated for New York Innovative Theatre Awards: Kathleen Warnock for Outstanding Short Play, Literary Associate Chris Ulloth for Outstanding Short Play; and Project Y Theatre Company for Outstanding Production of Performance Art.
A very exciting congratulations to Literary Associate Charlie O’Leary who won an IT Award for Outstanding Short Play for his play: Precious Body.
1st Annual WOMEN IN THEATRE FESTIVAL (WIT)
JUNE 2016 at Under St. Marks, ART/NY Studios (in Manhattan and Brooklyn)
JULY 2016 at Theatre Row, in the Studio Theatre
The Women In Theatre Festival (WIT) is a curated three-week festival of new plays and innovative performances by diverse women artists. Our lineup includes full productions, innovative theatre work, solo shows, online content and readings.
Women in Theatre Festival = 88 women (109 total artists), 80% of total artists involved (directors, actors, and technical positions inclusive) were women. Women represented 100% of playwrights/writers in the festival.
In a direct response to gender disparity in theatre leadership, casting, and production, the objective of WIT is to broaden the opportunities for women artists, engage with an audience who seek an indie theatre experience, and add to the canon of women playwrights writing roles for women actors. To this end, WIT is producing new works by women writers and lead artists, to be presented at the festival in an effort to achieve #GenderParity by going #BeyondParity in our programming.
Projects include the NY Premiere of EM Lewis’ searing new play, “The Gun Show,” and Lia Romeo’s dark comedy, “Baby Boom,” two plays about guns and violence.
July 12-17, 2016
CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE as part of SHAKESPEARE 400 Celebration
For more info, click here.
October 21, 22, & 23, 2015
20 WRITERS. 9 NEW PLAYS. 3 WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTIONS.
The New York New Playwright Festival (NYNP) was created in 2011 with the focus on playwrights and development of new work. We wanted to break the endless cycle of readings that many plays get stuck in, by giving writers a chance to see their work up and on its feet before an audience in a review-free, supportive environment. It is the goal of NYNP to allow each piece in the festival the space to grow with and in front of an audience, by providing writers with the tools to mount a workshop production of their new play and “test it” with Project Y.
Maimed by Barry Levey
#ParityPlays by Project Y Playwrights Group
Work Friends by Sarah Bernstein
I Am Not I by Edward Einhorn
Sisterology by Julienne Hairston
Something Creative by Dano Madden
Helen Keller Visits Martha Graham’s Dance Studio by Stephen Kaplan
Exit Interview by Lia Romeo
Herd Immunity by Meron Langsner
Rear Ending by Erin Mallon
Landmarks & Transformations by Michole Biancosino, Kevin R Free, Bixby Elliot, Ken Greller, Jordan Sebastian Bonner, Vivian Aladren, Frank Wildermann, Cait Weisensee, Nikki Vega, Becky Krause, Charlie O’Leary, Kariya Tamber, and Amy Jackson Lewis.
Great plays with roles for people… who just happen to be women.
Parity Plays is a year-long series that features the work of playwrights writing for a more equal theatre by creating plays with casts of 50% (or more) Women.
The series addresses the documented gender disparity in theatre, by maintaining casts that include at least equal opportunities for female artists. By making gender equality in casting a theme, we will also be supporting the work of playwrights who are writing for a more equal theatre.
December 6, 2015 - HOOKMAN by Lauren Yee
November 30, 2015 - 40 OUNCES OF SAND a new play by Caridad Svich
July 19, 2015 - ABOVE WATER by Bob Clyman
June 14, 2015 - MAMA’S GONNA BUY YOU by Chisa Hutchinson
May 17, 2015 - COLCHESTER by Adam Szymkowicz
April 19, 2015 - THE SOONER CHILD by Allyson Currin
April 13, 2015 - THE GHOSTS OF LOTE BRAVO by Hilary Bettis
Project Y’s 2014 reading series focused on plays about science, technology, and human connection.
This series seeks to present plays by up and coming writers dealing with themes of science, technology, and their impact on and relationship to human connection. As theatre makers in the digital age, we’re looking for ways of further deepening our connection to our work, to our audiences, and to our community. The science and technological advances of the past 20 years have changed the nature of what defines our community, our audiences, and indeed the way we look at the world and approach our work.
December 14, 2014 - A WIRE IN WATER by Justin Warner
October 26, 2014 - OAKWOODS a new play by Dano Madden
September 7, 2014 - CONNECTED by Lia Romeo
June 22, 2014 - MAGELLANICA: A NEW AND ACCURATE MAP OF THE WORLD by EM Lewis
April 6, 2014 - In Search of…. SASQUATCH by Robert Kerr
January 26, 2014 - INFORMED CONSENT by Deborah Zoe Laufer
June 18- Aug 1, 2014 @ The Cell
“Incisive, provocative play…intimate and involving, thanks to a first-rate cast.” – Time Out New York Critics’ Pick
“The cast, under Douglas Hall’s direction, is uniformly strong…savvy and often sharply comic”- Talkin’ Broadway
Renee Calarco writes “with verve” – The New York Times
ABOUT THE PLAY
Mo and Brian are a picture-perfect DC couple: they’re smart, they’re witty, and they have a beautifully remodeled kitchen. But when Mo’s best friend Patti announces she’s found Jesus and is putting her own career on hold, Mo must take a closer look at the harder truths surrounding her own marriage. A comedy about relationships, faith, and the fine line between compromise and regret.
“The Religion Thing” was nominated for a Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play in 2013.
THE CAST
Curran Connor, Katharine McLeod, Danielle, O’Farrell, Jamie Geiger, and featuring Project Y Founding Co-Artistic Director, Andrew William Smith
THE DESIGN TEAM
Set Design by Kevin Judge. Lighting Design by Ben Hagen. Costume Design by Jessa-Raye Court. Sound Design by Amit Prakash. Stage Management by Adrian Pena. Properties Design by Sarah Dunivant.
January 28-February 1, 2015 at Access Theater (380 Broadway)
TechnoPlays, a two-part production of short plays written by members of the Project Y Playwrights Group. This original production of 11 short plays focuses on the themes of our last reading series: Science, Technology and Human Connection.
Featuring plays by Sean Pomposello, Lia Romeo (PY Literary Manager), Charlie O’Leary, Max Mondi, David Meyers, Dano Madden, Julienne Hairston, Christopher Ulloth, Grant MacDermott, Barry Levey and Bob Kerr.
Directors for the plays include Melissa Firlit, Christopher Randolph, Jeremy Gold Kronenberg, Matthew Jordan, Christian Amato, Jenny Leon, and Michole Biancosino (PY Founding Co-Artistic Director).
PART A (Wed 1/28 at 8pm; Fri 1/30 at 8pm; Sat 1/31 at 3pm)
Sex Robot, by Christopher Ulloth, directed by Jenny Leon
The Squizzinator, by Bob Kerr, directed by Melissa Firlit
REKIDK, by Charlie O’Leary, directed by Jenny Leon
Dinner, by Grant MacDermott, directed by Christopher Randolph
Third Ward Scandal, by Dano Madden, directed by Melissa Firlit
Word, by Max Mondi, directed by Christopher Randolph
PART B (Thurs 1/29 at 8pm; Sat 1/31 at 8pm; Sun 2/1 at 2pm)
#hashtag, by Julienne Hairston, directed by Michole Biancosino
GarageBand for Lovers, by Barry Levey, directed by Jeremy Gold Kronenberg
Motherly Love, by Lia Romeo, directed by Michole Biancosino
Solo Show, by David Meyers, directed by Matthew Jordan
Unlimited Nights, by Sean Pomposello, directed by Christian Amato
The Project Y Playwrights Group and this Production is made possible through the generosity of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The ART/NY Nancy Quinn Fund, and donations from our loyal Project Y patrons.
THE SERIES
2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s watershed treatise The Feminine Mystique, the book that launched second-wave feminism in this country. Accordingly, we are launching our yearly themed reading series around themes of women’s changing lives: ”Feminine Mystique: 50 years later” Reading Series features plays by and about women who challenge traditional notions of what it means to be a woman today, as we look back on our history.
THE PLAYS
Gather at the River written and directed by Laura Marks
The Feast of the Flying Cow…and Other Stories of War by Jeni Mahoney dir. by Jackson Gay
Playgrounds by Sarah Sander dir. by Suzanne Agins
Mexico by Hilary Bettis dir. Elena Araoz
That’s All I Got by Addie Walsh, dir. by Michole Biancosino
Works in Progress Short Plays, Poems, Prose and Monologues
Food inspires our senses and our hearts; it conjures up memories and can leave us craving for more. It can define who we are or what we become; it entertains and arouses us. Food is necessary to live and to life, and the perfect topic for our 2014 video series.
Our PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD Video Series included the following:
A User’s Guide to Hell, Featuring Bernard Madoff
By Pulitzer, Tony, and Olivier Award Nominee Lee Blessing
Directed by Michole Biancosino
September 5-28, 2013
at 16th Street Theatre (in Atlantic Stage 2 complex)
About the Play
In the time after his downfall, Bernie Madoff is taken on an entertaining tour of hell (New York City) by his blue collar guide, Verge. As Bernie encounters the inhabitants of hell, including many of the other “worst criminals in history,” he begins to learn the truth about life, death, and the special punishment he has earned. A User’s Guide to Hell, featuring Bernard Madoff examines how the most hated man in America might actually be a reflection of our most admired American values.
LoveSick or Things That Don’t Happen is an uproarious collection of modern love songs and stories on the most dreaded day of the year: Valentine’s Day. Amy gets dumped by Chuck right before prom. Susie and Stacy are bridesmaids and think the groom is gay. Brad and Doug have a bro-mantic moment in the elevator. Brian and Jessica wake up after a night only one of them remembers.
This Valentine’s Day show of quirky love songs and hilarious plays is for anyone who ever has been, will be, or wants to be in love.
59E59 Theaters – February 3-25, 2012
Musical Director: Jon Spurney
Lighting: Joe Skowronski
Set Design: Kevin Judge
Lighting Design: Ben Hagen
Costumes: Emily DeAngelis
Stage Management: Lizzy Lee
Casting: Judy Bowman
Alex is a photographer known for taking her subjects back through the tragedies they lived in their past. Prisons and war are her subjects secrets and her style is one of re-living. When she meets a former child soldier now living in Maryland her ethics and safety are brought into question as her artistic style is met with a trauma she may not be ready for.
In 2011, we posted a challenge on our blog to write a short script 60 seconds in length that was “SIGHT specific” – about an event witnessed and/or experienced and “SITE specific” – set in a specific NYC location. Over the course of a year, we cast and shot all the following scripts:
Guggenheim by Catherine Weingarten
No Drama by Benjamin Adair Murphy
Columbus Circle by Leah Benavides
FEATURING: Joe Basile, Dan Patrick Brady, Carmen Gill, Julie Jesneck, Andrew William Smith, and Addie Walsh
Michole Biancosino (Director), Joe Varca (Editor), Rommel Garcia (Camera), Chris Kolmar and Tony Biancosino (Associate Producers)
The HOLY COW! Reading Series is a bi-monthly reading of plays about religion, faith, and life after death. How do we see the possibility of life after death today? What does it mean to be a person of faith? How does belief in an afterlife inform everyday actions and emotions? How does religion really effect the way human begins treat each other? How does a person of one faith live in our shared world of many beliefs? How does a person spend their lifetime if they believe they are moving towards an afterlife?
The HOLY COW! Reading Series explores the nature of what it means to believe in something in our modern world.
March 2012: A User’s Guide to Hell: Featuring Bernard Madoff by Lee Blessing
May 2012: The Town of No One by Tariq Hamami
July 2012: The Religion Thing by Renee Calarco
September 2012: This Lingering Life by Chiori Miyagawa
Downward Facing Debbie by David Caudle
Project Y Launches Its Inaugural New York New Playwright Festival
3 new plays by 3 new playwrights
From October 10th-16th, Project Y Theatre Company will be presenting their first ever New York New Playwright Festival at the Access Theatre located at 380 Broadway @ White Street in New York City.
About the Plays
HOW. WHAT. NOW. by Michael Warner
Directed by Campbell Scott
Featuring: Michael Warner
Lights by Joe R. Skowronski
Sound by Amit Prakash
Projection Design by Shawn Boyle
Assistant Projection Design by Kim Dowd
Stage Manage Lizzy Lee
Gidion’s Knot by Johnna Adams
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Assistant Director Leah Benvanides
Featuring: Amy Lynn Stewart and Lisa Velten-Smith
Lights by Joe R. Skowronski
Sound by Amit Prakash
Stage Manager Lizzy Lee
I’m From Driftwood
Edited by Nathan Manske
Adapted for the stage by Joe Basile, Jeffrey James Keyes, and Luke Harlan
Directed by Luke Harlan
Featuring: Joe Basile, Philip Callen, Julia Christgau, Raquel Cion, Sanam Erfani, Eddie Guttierez, Harrison Hill, Lea Robinson
Lights by Joe R. Skowronski
Stage Manager Lizzy Lee
The idea for the Racey Plays Reading Series comes from our interest in and fascination with race and racism and more specifically how race effects the way we see other people and ourselves. We wanted to share the voices of others artists who are trying to explore the intricacies of race and culture in their work. Ultimately, these are plays about identity, about what it means to be a human being living in a skin, a culture, an ethnicity, or a language that just doesn’t quite fit the majority mold.
A World Premiere written by Samuel Brett Williams.
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Produced in The Lion at TheatreRow Studios on 42nd Street
Featuring: Trent Dawson, Raymond McAnally, David Darrow, and Aidan Sullivan.
A Harvard educated son of a Southern Baptist preacher returns to his Arkansas hometown to rebuild his father’s congregation. Under pressure to grow the congregation to compete with neighboring mega-Churches, the young Pastor seizes an opportunity to cleanse a mysterious stranger of his homosexuality, becoming an overnight evangelical superstar. But at what cost?
Also featuring: Vienna Hall, Emily Seale Jones, Jerry Marchese, Rita Miklusyte, Claudia de Latour, Catherine Lidstone, Saffron Wayman, Corey Markowitz, Kara Davidson, Gillian Riley, Jenn Machover
Selected as Advocate Magazine’s #2 Show of 2010
Nominated for seven Innovative Theatre Awards with two wins for Best Actor in a Featured Role (David Darrow) and Best Set Design (Kevin Judge).
“This is one of the best cast assemble for an Off-Off Broadway show in a long time, perfectly directed by Michole Biancosino…it’s certain to win over fans of good theater.” – NY press
“What a perfect play for these times…an enormous tale and fortunate to have a cracker jack cast that is ready, willing, and more than able.” – NY Theatre Guide
Lights by Ben Hagen
Sets by Kevin Judge
Costumes by Emily Pepper
Sound Design by Amit Prakash
Stage Manager Patrick Clayton
Fights by Mike Rossmy
Casting by Judy Bowman Casting
Press by Karen Greco PR
Marketing by Joe Basile
Graphics by IdeaBeast Design
Kick Ass Plays by Bad Ass Women Reading Series was a bi-monthly series running the entire year of 2010 featuring new plays in development by New York City women playwrights. Writers included Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project), Callie Kimball, Karen Zippler, and Lia Romeo.
“So many women… so little time…”
“There were so many plays sitting in my “Kickass Plays” folder, and I realized most of them were by totally amazing women writers at the start of their playwright careers. We created our first reading series in order to jump start our development of new work by these many talented and prolific women playwrights. This series supported and celebrated the badass women who write unconventional plays with strong, women characters. After each one (all held in bars) the audience would grab a drink and hang out and talk to the writer and actors – thus organically the uniquely informal tone of these “half social/half theatre” events was solidified.
– Artistic Director Michole Biancosino
A world premiere by Karl Gajdusek (Showtime’s DEAD LIKE ME)
Directed by Larissa Kokernot
Produced as a part of the America’s Off Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters
San Francisco in the late 90’s: the Internet, new tailored drugs, raves, and bikram yoga. When all the freedom and fun come up against a random act of violence, things become totally FUBAR.
Mary and David live in a small apartment crammed full of the boxes her abused mother left behind, while outside in the streets of San Francisco people self-actualize like crazy. When Mary herself is the victim of a random act of violence, their protected world is ripped open. Meanwhile, Richard is a benevolent drug dealer writing a book while Sylvia uses the internet to lead a double hyper-sexualized existence.
Cast: Lisa Velten Smith, Stephanie Szostak, Jerry Richardson, Ryan McCarthy, and Dan Patrick Brady
Set Design: Kevin Judge
Light Design: Ben Hagen
Costume Design: Emily Pepper
Asst Costume Designer: Melanie Swersey
Video Design: Shawn Boyle
Sound Design: Amit Prakash
Production Management: Chris Rinaldi
Stage Management: John Nehlich
Assistant SM: Nicole Rizzo
Fight Choreography by Adam Alexander
Asst Fight Choreographer: Helen McTernan
Casting by Judy Bowman Casting
Photography by Felix Photography
Below are the five winners of Project Y Theatre Company’s Monologue Contest from May 2010. The Top 5 videos were shown at Project Y’s 2nd Annual Fundraiser Party in New York City.
Curated by Project Y
Three nights of experimental theatre featuring live theatre, music, video, and live art creation by Ben Premeaux. Project Y opens their doors to all the actors, directors, designers, and creative types with whom we have always wanted to work, but just haven’t had the chance. A Showcase series of the hottest talent at the city’s newest theatre space.
Produced at the H Street Playhouse
By Judith Thompson
Directed by Michole Biancosino
A suicidal young man gets a message from a talking dog: “Save your father to save yourself!” Thus begins the comical and absurd journey of a desperate man trying to save his dying father so that he might regain a sense of his own place in the world. When he joins forces with a teenage psychic, life starts to look a little brighter, until a visit from his sex-obsessed mother and her latest boy toy stirs up old feelings that threaten to push him and his father over the edge.
“Director Michole Biancosino keeps the whole thing moving at the required speed– which is to say, like a freight train. Still, amid the play’s gyrations, she finds a throughline of poignancy that rests, ultimately, in Casey’s character and his romantic quest for reunion with the only woman he ever loved.”
-The Washington Post
Produced at the Studio Theatre
Cast: Michael John Casey, Jon Townsen, Tara Giordano, Lindsay Allen, and Jason Lemire
A World Premiere written by Paul Donnelly, Richard Kirkwood, Chris Stezin, Andy Mitton, and Dana Yeaton
Directed by David Snider
One composer. Two Dancers. Five new plays. Ten men in unique relationships.
Using a cast of two men, original live music and texts, new choreography and wild imagination, Sinking UP! explores the nature of male relationships.
Produced at the H Street Playhouse
Cast: Sam Elmore, Peter Schmitz, and live music by Glen Olif.
By Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley.
Directed by Richard Romagnoli
The story of three broken hearts, two best friends, and one dead dog.
Aldo Scalicki helps his best friend Huey regain his lost strength by getting back together with his terrifying ex-wife. Shots are fired and promises broken in this heart-breaking and heart-mending comedy.
“Project Y regularly crosses up expectations in everything except its high production quality…a romp to be reckoned with-audience involving, vivid, rambunctious, and alternately hilarious and affecting.” -The Washington City Paper
“This is funny business, and it doesn’t miss a punchline….[a] fun house of love…a tenderness to all the raw hearts on display, and quips are delivered with sensitivity to the overall mood.” -The Washington Post
Produced with the Studio Theatre
Cast: Eric Sutton, Suzanne Richard, Peter Makrauer, Caroline Kellogg, and Michole Biancosino.
By Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin
Directed by Sam Elmore
19 Poems. 19 pieces of Visual Art. Each inspired by a single poem. Performed by 6 Actors in this fusion of dance, theatre, and visual art, in the Signal 66 Art Gallery.
“A bravura ensemble…It’s riveting: raw and polished, stylized and real all at once. None of this would work without Sam Elmore’s athletic, fluid direction and his fresh unselfconscious ensemble. And in the end, having taken the audience through ignition, tenderness, indifference, hostility, redemption, and love, the cast is laughing, and the audience is laughing with it, through tears.”
-The Washington CityPaper
Produced at Signal 66 Art Gallery
Cast: Jay Dunne, Colby DiSarro, Tricia Brooks, Kevin Price, Mark Rubin, Yasmin Tuazon.
By Judith Thompson
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Set in a run down town Canadian town, The Crackwalker focuses on the everyday happenings of Theresa, a mentally disabled woman with a reputation for promiscuity, and Alan, the sensitive, confused romantic who falls in love with her. Their lives take a turn for the worse when Theresa gives birth to a baby she is incapable of caring for, and Alan has trouble holding a job and being the sole ‘adult’ in the family.
“passion, noise, and thunder…the writing, acting, and directing offer an unflinching look at the dark and violent realities of the lives of marginalized people….frightening and sympathetic”
-The Washington Blade
“Credit the director and the cast for finding so much humor-and humanity-amid so much grit….[they] strike the balance effectively between moments of comedy and poignancy.”
-The Washington Post
Produced at the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC)
Cast: Tyson Lien, Andrew Smith, Suzanne Richard, Krista Welter, Gbenga Akinnagbe
By Tony Award winner David Rabe.
Directed by Michole Biancosino.
Set in the streets, apartments, and go-go clubs of 1968 Philadelphia, In the Boom Boom Room focuses on Chrissy, a young dancer working as a go-go girl until she can break into the world of “real” dancing. A dreamer, Chrissy begins her journey as a girl trying to become an adult, but struggles making the most trivial decisions. In a whirl of 1960s music, dance, and dreams, the play takes us through the life of a hopelessly romantic young woman determined to make it big.
“Project Y invigorates it with enough raw energy and promising talent to hold your attention from start to finish…[Director Michole Biancosino] locks onto the script’s two strengths — twisted humor and theatrical construction — and makes the show into a wonderful sort of absurdist odyssey….Much like the entire production, the costumes have a cohesive and shrewd sensibility that is sometimes lacking at bigger and richer theaters.”
-The Washington Post
Produced at the Studio Theatre
Cast: Sarah Nelson, Dan Via, Grady Weatherford, Diane Cooper, Kate Debelack, Sam Elmore, Yasmin Tuazon, Deepa Gupta, Jay Dunne, Caitlin McAndrews, and Scott McCormick.
