Esbjornson, Greif, Sher, et al. to Participate in NYTW Panel; Liberty City Added to NYTW Season

David Esbjornson, Michael Greif, Brian Kulick, Lisa Peterson, and Bartlett Sher will participate in a panel discussion as part of New York Theatre Workshop’s Public Program Series, which will honor the legacy of the New Directors Project, which nurtured emerging directors from 1983 to 1990. The event will take place at New York Theatre Workshop, Monday, November 5, at 7:30pm.

The evening will begin with a conversation between Jean Passanante, NYTW’s first Artistic Director and the New Directors Project’s creator, and director Liz Diamond, who participated in the inaugural group of New Directors in 1983-84. Afterwards, Diamond will moderate the panel with Esbjornson, Greif, Kulick, Peterson, and Sher. A video presentation of archival production photos will accompany the panel. The event is free and open to the public.

In related news, NYTW has announced a change in its 2007-2008 line-up. The previously announced production of Naomi Wallace’s Things of Dry Hours, to be directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson, will now open during the theater’s 2008-2009 season.

In its place will be Liberty City, written by Jessica Blank and April Yvette Thompson, performed by Thompson, and directed by Blank. It will run February 15-March 16, with an opening scheduled for March 4.

The solo show chronicles Thompson’s personal story in relation to Liberty City, a place where people of the African Diaspora have settled. The performance illuminates the lives of one family through the context of social, cultural, and political events.

Thompson’s stage credits include The Exonerated, The Antigone Project, Light Raise the Roof, and The Blacks, Medea, and Macbeth (the last two earning her AUDELCO nominations). Blank is the co-author of The Exonerated (with Erik Jensen), which won Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Fringe First, and Herald Angel Awards.

For more information, visit www.nytw.org.