WP Theater will welcome the return of in-person audiences for its 2021–2022 season, which launches August 2 with Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s Many Happy Returns.
Created by Robbie Saenz de Viteri and Barnes, the new dance piece will change with each performance and combine language and movement to reflect on pandemic minds and celebrate the first steps moving forward as we explore who we want to be now. The cast will be led by the two creators with Indah Walsh, Mykel Marai Nairne, and Flannery Gregg. The theatre will play to limited-capacity audiences, with proof of vaccination required for purchase and entry.
Welcome Home, or Ten Tiny Snapshots of WP, conceived and created by WP Associate Artistic Director Rebecca Martinez with sound design and editing by Christopher Darbassie, will follow September 20–October 2. The audio tour will allow up to four audience members at a time to explore what makes them feel at home in WP’s Upper West Side theatre, including spaces not typically accessible to the public—backstage areas, dressing rooms, and the stage itself. Expect voices and stories from artists at the core of WP's work, including excerpts from Founder Julia Miles.
In a co-production with the Vineyard Theatre, WP will present sandblasted, written by Charly Evon Simpson (Behind the Sheet), February 3-March 13, 2022. Directed by Summer L. Williams, the play concerns Angela and Odessa, whose journey begins when they stumble upon a wellness maven named Adah. Originally slated as part of WP Theater’s 2020 Pipeline Festival, sandblasted will make its world premiere as part of the Vineyard's newly announced season.
The WP Theater 2022 Pipeline Festival, showcasing five new plays from the next generation of women+ theatremakers, will take place March 25–April 23. The Festival is written, directed, and produced by Iyvon Edebiri, B.J. Evans, Gethsemane Herron-Coward, Chika Ike, Nambi E. Kelley, Kristin Leahey, Haruna Lee, Zizi Majid, Ayana Parker Morrison, Daaimah Mubashshir, Sophiyaa Nayar, Machel Ross, Cynthia J. Tong, and Katherine Wilkinson.
WP will also continue its partnership with viBe Theater Experience, which provides girls, young women, and nonbinary youth of color in New York City with free artistic leadership and academic opportunities. An initiative called viBe Pages to Stages will pair young writers and designers with WP theatre professionals to mentor their creation of new plays. The mentorship will culminate in a presentation of new work with details to be announced.
“After a year of pivoting, learning, and growth, we feel so excited to dive back into making work in space, bringing all the lessons that the past 18 months have taught us into the season ahead,” says Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty.
Now in its 44th season, WP Theater is the nation’s oldest and largest theatre company dedicated to developing, producing, and promoting the work of women+ at every stage of their careers. COVID-19 safety protocols for sandblasted, the Pipeline Festival, and the viBe Pages to Stages presentations will be announced closer to the events.
For more information visit WPTheater.org.
