Off-Broadway NewsWP Theater Reveals 2018–2019 SeasonThe Off-Broadway theatre, under Lisa McNulty's leadership, unveils its upcoming lineup of world premieres and new programming.
By
Olivia Clement
September 13, 2018
Lauren Gunderson, May Adrales, Leigh Silverman, and Rehana Lew Mirza
WP Theater has unveiled its 2018–2019 season, set to kick off in October with the world premiere of Lauren Gunderson's solo play Natural Shocks. The lineup includes an additional world premiere, a co-production with New York Theatre Workshop, and a 40th anniversary reading series featuring staged readings of works by Anna Deavere Smith, Emily Mann, Lynn Nottage, Tanya Barfield, and María Irene Fornes, among others.
Kicking off the season October 28 will be Natural Shocks, a darkly comic solo play about a woman trapped in her basement as a tornado approaches. May Adrales (Vietgone at MTC) will direct, with casting still to be announced. Performances will run through November 25 at WP Theater.
In the new year, WP will present its first of a two-play collaboration with New York Theatre Workshop, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Madeleine George's Hurricane Diane, directed by Leigh Silverman. The play, about a permaculture gardener "dripping with butch charm," is billed as an evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change. Performances will run February 6–March 10, 2019, at NYTW.
The following month, WP teams up with Colt Coeur, in association with Abingdon Theatre Company, for the world premiere of Hatefuck by Rehana Lew Mirza. Billed as a "thornily clever antidote to a 'meet-cute' romance," the play follows the collision—and attraction—between Layla, a literature professor, and Imran, a novelist she has accused of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. The production will be directed by WP Lab alum and Colt Coeur Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt, for a run scheduled March 3–31 at WP Theater.
Colt Coeur will also return for a second year of the Parity Plays Festival, which will celebrate new work by female and trans playwrights and directors. Dates still to be announced.
WP Theater will also introduce the WP Fortieth Anniversary Reading Series, a new annual series featuring plays from the company’s celebrated 40-year history, directed by recent alums of the WP Theater Directors Lab. The plays are Chain by Cleage, Aye Aye Aye I'm Integrated by Deavere Smith, Abingdon Square and excerpts by Fornés, Still Life by Mann, The Exact Center Of The Universe by Joan Vail Thorne, and The Antigone Project by Barfield, Karen Hartman, Chiori Miyagawa, Nottage, and Caridad Svich. Dates and directors will be announced at a later date
In addition, WP will continue its Domestic Partner Program with theatre companies Trans Lab, Hypokrit Theatre Company, and Lesser America.
For more information on the upcoming season visit WPtheater.org.
The Fred Ebb Award recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting, by a songwriter or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success.
