Corkscrew Theater Festival will return for its third season this summer, showcasing brand-new work from some of the city's most exciting emerging artists. This year's lineup features four world premieres, four workshop productions, and four readings, presented in repertory in the East Village's Paradise Factory.
The 2019 Corkscrew Festival will run July 10–August 3.
The mainstage lineup will kick off with Elyse Pitock's Preexisting Conditions, directed by Alexis Wilcock. Pitting modern romance against a modern medical bill, the play sees a legal assistant seek the help of an unconventional, but pragmatic new initiative: a multicultural, intersectional, feminist matchmaking startup that connects singles in need of healthcare with professionals from the finance and tech industries. Julie Balefsky produces; performances begin July 11.
Next up is Sam Silbiger's Six Years Old, directed by Helen Handelman. Centered on Adalaide (a strong-headed six-year-old desperate to transform into her hero, Han Solo), the play offers a comic and poignant reflection on the wild fantasies and serious desires of childhood. Madeleine Goldsmith produces; performances begin July 15.
The third production will be A Play Titled After the Collective Noun for Female-Identifying Twentysomethings Living in New York City in the 2010s by Haleh Roshan, directed by Lauren Zeftel. Putting its own spin on stories about "girls" in any medium, the new play is a love letter to an unsung history of collective action and a battle cry for radically re-envisioning what it means to fight for change. Brandon Smithey produces; performances begin July 18.
Rounding out the lineup is Johnny G. Lloyd's Patience, directed by Velani Dibba. Through the story of Daniel, the world’s No. 1 ranked Klondike Solitaire player since age 20, the play paints a portrait of a young black man struggling to build a life, and the burden of being excellent in a field that only has room for one excellent person at a time. Jon Bleicher produces; performances begin July 24.
Expanding on last year's run, Corkscrew's lineup now includes workshop productions that will be presented in the company's second theatre: Corkscrew Downstairs. The workshop stagings are A Doll's House: A New Opera, written and composed by Grace Oberhofer, directed by Allison Benko, produced by Alexandra Cadena; Hootenanny Twelfth Night, adapted and directed by festival artistic director Tom Kapusta; Walt Whitman BodyJolt ™, written and directed by Alex Hare, based on the words of Walt Whitman with choreography by Katie Rose McLaughlin; Stone, written and created by Morgaine Gooding-Silverwood, and co-directed by Katherine Wilkinson.
The 2019 Corkscrew readings will be Mad by Jay Mazyck, which kicks off the festival July 10; and Through the Crack in the Closet Door, created and directed by Éamon Boylan; Notes from the Basement, written and composed by Kate Eberstadt; and Kill the Whale, written and composed by Daniel Emond.
Tickets start at $20; readings are free. For more information visit corkscrewfestival.org or call (347) 954–9125.
