Ars Nova 2022-23 Season to Feature World Premiere Commissions Hound Dog and (Pray)
You can decide what you will pay for any performance in Ars Nova's upcoming season. This is part of the new "What's Ars Is Yours: Name Your Price" ticket initiative from the company, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2022-23.
That season begins on October 6 with Melis Aker's Hound Dog, which is set to make its world premiere at the company's downtown space, Greenwich House, until November 5. Commissioned by Ars Nova and co-produced with PlayCo, this play features music by Aker and the Lazours.
According to press material, "a young musician returns from abroad to her hometown of Ankara, Turkey to look after her widowed father. Forced to reckon with the family and community she left behind, an investigation into her grieving parent's strange pilgrimage to Graceland unravels into a sonic mirage of memory packed with humor, nostalgia, and the love we cultivate across generations." Machel Ross directs, and "Name Your Price" tickets are currently on sale.
From March 9 through April 16, 2023, Ars Nova will present another world premiere commission at Greenwich House: (Pray) is a new choreopoem by nicHi douglas created in collaboration with S T A R R Busby, JJJJJerome Ellis, and Tariq Al-Saber.
According to a press description, (Pray) is "a celebration and a reckoning…[it] dives into the beautifully complex relationship between Black womxn and their spirituality. Following the form of a Sunday Baptist Church service while transporting us to an isolated ancestral forest, this sacred offering creates a communal space to heal and inspire the Black feminine divine." It is being co-produced with National Black Theatre.
Ars Nova is the company behind last season's off-Broadway hot ticket, Oratorio for Living Things. In previous seasons, the company has also produced Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future (which is planning a return engagement in 2022-23) and KPOP, which will bow on Broadway starting October 13.
