Director, producer, and actor, Maria Striar, joins The Actors Center on May 2 on Zoom for an intimate evening of conversation about her journey as an artist and her work at the forefront of developing new voices and artists for the stage as Founder and Artistic Director of beloved new play incubator Clubbed Thumb.
Company member Celia Keenan-Bolger stars in the world premiere of Mother Play on Broadway. Paul Vogel’s bitingly funny and unflinchingly honest new play is about the hold our family has over us and the surprises we find when we unpack the past. Under the direction of Tina Landau, Celia shares the stage with Jessica Lange and Jim Parsons as a dysfunctional, but moving, family. It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path. Blending flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful roller coaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family, and forgiveness. Now in previews, the production opens April 25 and runs through June 16 at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater.
Company member Ato Blankson-Wood plays Clifford Bradshaw in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway. With a cast that includes Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee and Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles, experience this groundbreaking musical from John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff like never before. Step inside the world of Berlin, where artists and performers, misfits and outsiders rule the night and the denizens of the Kit Kat Club have created a decadent sanctuary. Directed by Rebecca Frecknall and designed by Tom Scutt, the revival originally debuted on London’s West End, going on to win a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards. Currently in previews, the production opens April 21 at the August Wilson Theatre.
Company member Jeannette Bayardelle stars in Gun & Powder at Paper Mill Playhouse. The new musical is inspired by the true story of Mary and Martha Clarke, African American twin sisters who take extraordinary measures to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and save her home. In 1893 Texas, the Sisters Clarke—passing as white—embark on a remarkable Wild West adventure that examines race, family, and identity with two electrifying women who transformed from farm girls to outlaws to legends. Featuring book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri, music by Ross Baum, and direction by Stevie Walker-Webb, the production runs through May 5 in Millburn, NJ.
Company member Stephen McKinley Henderson stars in the new feature film Civil War from writer/director Alex Garland and A24. A journey across a dystopian future America, the film follows a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach D.C. before rebel factions descend upon the White House. Tough and unsettling by design, Civil War is a gripping close-up look at the violent uncertainty of life in a nation in crisis. Also starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, and Nick Offerman, the film is now showing in theaters. Watch the trailer. Also check out The Hollywood Reporter’s latest interview with Stephen.
Company members Jeff Hiller, Julian Elijah Martinez, and Chris Perfetti are in the news. Jeff Hiller was recently profiled in Texas Monthly: Jeff Hiller Is Living His Best Gay Christian Life. Julian Elijah Martinez was interviewed in The Urban Executive: Reclaiming the Sanctity of Artistry in the Age of Social Media Algorithms. And Chris Perfetti was profiled in the Los Angeles Times: For Abbott Elementary’s Chris Perfetti, tragic circumstances are comedy gold.
Members of The Actors Center have been nominated for 7 Lucille Lortel awards recognizing outstanding achievement Off-Broadway. The awards will be presented May 5. Paco Tolson (The Knight of the Burning Pestle), Santino Fontana (I Can Get It for You Wholesale), and Jeb Brown (Dead Outlaw) received nominations for leading actors. Both Plays for the Plague Year (with Leland Fowler) and Wet Brain (with Arturo Luíz Soria) received nominations for Best Play. Dead Outlaw (with Jeb Brown and Ken Marks) received a nomination for Best Musical and I Can Get It for You Wholesale (with Santino Fontana and Judy Kuhn) received a nomination for Best Revival. Congratulations to all!
Company member Judy Kuhn is in Unknown Soldier at Arena Stage, a sweeping, heartfelt tale about one woman’s journey to unearth the secrets buried in her family’s past. Written by Daniel Goldstein and the late Michael Friedman, and directed by Trip Cullman, the musical follows Ellen Rabinowitz, who discovers a mysterious photograph of a soldier tucked away in a box of keepsakes while cleaning out her grandmother’s home. Spanning three generations, the show unravels a delicate tangle of family lore, as Ellen chases the extraordinary story that unlocks her history—and charts her future. The production runs through May 5 in Washington, DC.
Company member Leland Fowler is in Sally & Tom, written by Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, now playing at The Public Theater. The edgy dramedy celebrates the craft of theater while taking a hard look at history. The off-off-off-Broadway theater troupe Good Company is putting on a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Writer Luce is cast as Sally; her romantic partner, and the play’s director, Mike, is cast as Tom — what could possibly go wrong? This funny, ferocious new work is about art, politics, and the contradictions that make all of us. The production runs through May 12.
Maria-Christina Oliveras appears on Blue Bloods, Season 14, Episode 6, “Shadowland” CBS/Paramount+
Sean Carvajal appears on Blue Bloods, Season 14, Episode 5, “Bad Faith” on CBS/Paramount+
Ethan Dubin appears on the debut season of Fallout in Episode 3, “The Head” on Amazon Prime
Angel Desai appears on the debut season of Fallout in Episodes 6 and 7 on Amazon Prime
Pernell Walker appears on Ripley, Episode 1, “I A Hard Man To Find” on Netflix
Caroline Aaron appears in three episodes on Season 3 of Ghosts on CBS/Paramount+
Company member Annie Torsiglieri takes her solo show A-Train to the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, California in April. Told with humor, insight and a few choice expletives, this courageous play, based on a true story, follows a family as they learn to accept the unexpected and live in the moment, meeting the joys and hardships of raising a child with autism. Since its premiere at the 2017 NYC United Solo Festival where it was awarded Best Production, Annie has been invited to perform the show at theaters across the country. Directed by Risa Brainin, this revised and updated iteration of the play includes new narrative threads and two new songs by composer Brad Carroll. The production runs through April 28.
Company member Yadira Correa is in All My Sons, directed by Melia Bensussen at Hartford Stage. Written by Arthur Miller, the play brings us into the Keller’s backyard, where a neighborhood is forced to reckon with buried truths. The fallout exposes the fault lines beneath their lives, leading to the unravelling of a family. After 75 years, this timely revival still packs a strong emotional punch and reveals as much about the cost of the American dream today as it did when it first premiered. Currently in previews, the production opens April 21 and runs through May 5 in Hartford, CT.
Company member Vivienne Benesch directs the world premiere of The Game, a new play by Bekah Brunstetter at Playmakers Repertory Company. The story follows Alyssa and Homer, who are feeling disconnected in their marriage—all due to the massively engrossing online game that’s wreaking havoc on the lives of couples everywhere. When she puts together a support group for other women in a similar situation, the game enters a new level where all’s fair in love and war. The hilarious and heartfelt production, which brings technology and community together in the most unexpected ways, runs through April 28 in Chapel Hill, NC.
Company members Santino Fontana and Jacob Ming-Trent appear in Red Bull Theater’s 20th Anniversary Festival readings this month. Santino Fontana is in Aphra Behn’s The Rover, April 26-27, and Or What She Will by Liz Duffy Adams on May 6. He will also be interviewed in a live recording of the podcast Person Place Thing on April 18. Jacob Ming-Trent is in The Tempest, directed by Jesse Berger on April 29. He also shares his own solo show How Shakespeare Saved My Life on April 15. The readings are at the Sheen Center.
Company member Helen Coxe is in Las Borinqueñas, a new play written by Nelson Diaz-Marcano, directed by Rebecca Aparicio, and presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in collaboration with the Latinx Playwrights Circle & Boundless Theatre Company. It’s the 1950’s in Puerto Rico and María, Fernanda, Yolanda, Rosa, and Chavela are fighting to live full lives in a changing country with crushing societal rules for women. In the United States, Dr. Gregory Pincus is on the verge of perfecting a miracle that could give them freedom—if only he could find test subjects to participate in preliminary trials. It is the story of the birth control pill and the women who risked everything for the chance to live free. The production runs through April 28.