Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Michael Friedman, Itamar Moses Set for Powerhouse Summer Season

New York Stage and Film and Vassar College have announced the line-up of their 2012 Powerhouse Theater season.

The Mainstage shows will include Abigail/1702, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and directed by David Esbjornson, to run June 27 – July 8. The play is set ten years after the events of The Crucible, as Abigail Williams is living under a new identity in Boston and haunted by her past. When a mysterious figure appears, she confronts Salem’s dark history head on and must atone for her role in it. Stephen Belber’s The Power of Duff will be presented July 18 -July 29. Peter DuBois will direct. In the play, Charles Duff, a news anchor in a mid-market backwater, has an unexpected spiritual awakening on live TV.

Martel Musical Workshops (concert readings of works-in-progress) will include an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude (June 29 – July 1) with book by Itamar Moses and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. The show is directed and conceived by Daniel Aukin. This is the story of black and white America in the 1970’s, of two boys, Dylan and Mingus, of impossibly joyful afternoons of games in the street and of living in a society that you don’t belong to. Murder Ballad by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash will be directed by Trip Cullman (July 27-29). A love triangle gone wrong, Murder Ballad centers on Sara, an Upper West Side mom who seems to have it all, but whose downtown past lingers enticingly and dangerously in front of her.

Inside Look Play Workshops (semi-staged workshops) will include Fires are Confusing (July 13-15), by Eva Anderson, Will Berson & Zach Helm. From Los Angeles company Teatro de Facto, this highly theatrical piece combines dramatic invention and journalistic research to tell the real-life story of Cameron Todd Willingham. Marcus Gardley’s The House That Will Not Stand will run July 20-22. After the mysterious death of her lover, Beartrice Albans imposes a period of mourning on her household, keeping her three daughters locked in the house to embroider linens. But when the summer heat intensifies, a handsome bachelor comes calling, and a familial secret is revealed, the foundation of Beartrice’s house is rocked to its core.

The Readings Festival will include 22 Seconds by Michele Low, Big Sky by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, and Good Bread Alley by April Yvette Thompson. Festival 1 runs June 22 -24.
Festival 2 (July 27-29) includes A Separate Peace by Warren Leight & Todd Almond, Jerome by Ron Lagomarsino, The Twenty-Seventh Man by Nathan Englander, The Untitled World’s Fair Play by the Debate Society, and While I Yet Live by Billy Porter.

Additional readings and full casting will be announced at a later date.