Alan Ball, Martha Clarke, Jo Bonney et. al to Participate in New York Theatre Workshop’s 2006-2007 Season
New York Theatre Workshop has announced its full 2006-2007 season, which will include world premieres by Alan Ball and Martha Clarke, as well as works by Thaddeus Phillips and René Pollesch.
The season will begin with the New York premiere of ¡El Conquistador!, created by Thaddeus Phillips in collaboration with Tatiana and with Colombia’s leading TV actor and director, Victor Mallarino. The piece is described as “simultaneously a foreign film, theatre play, epic history, and telenovela.” Created on location in Bogotá, Colombia, it centers on Polonio, a peasant who flees his war-ravaged village to become a soap opera star. Performances will begin on September 20, and the show will open officially on October 3.
Next up, director/choreographer Martha Clarke — who previously presented her dance-theater piece Vienna: Lusthaus (revisited) at NYTW — will offer a world premiere with the working title Pirandello Project. This piece will use dance, live music, text, and visual imagery to retell four Luigi Pirandello stories featured in the Taviani Brothers’ renowned 1984 film Kaos. Performances will begin on November 10, and the opening date is set for December 4.
A new play by Alan Ball, creator of HBO’s Emmy Award-winning Six Feet Under, will begin performances on January 17 and will open in early February. Ball began his career as a playwright, penning such works as Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, The M Word, and Bachelor Holiday. In addition to Six Feet Under, his Hollywood career has included scripts for the TV shows Grace Under Fire and Cybill, and his Academy Award-winning screenplay for American Beauty. All That I Will Ever Be, Ball’s first play in more than 12 years, is about cultural imperialism and our eternal search for belonging as seen through the eyes of two young men in Los Angeles. Jo Bonney will direct the production.
The season will conclude with the American premiere of the acclaimed German writer/director René Pollesch’s 24 Hours Are Not a Day, which explores the consequences of globalization on our public and private lives. Performances will begin in April 2007.
For more information, visit www.nytw.org.
