The Time Travelers Club Manhattan Division

Theater for the New City, New York City

A play by Barbara Kahn

February 23 – March 12, 2023

Thursday, Friday, Saturday @ 8:00PM, Sunday @ 3:00 PM

Running Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes including intermission

Tickets $15, Seniors/Students $12

Theater for the New City

155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Streets)

CINO THEATER

Time perception changed for many during two years of isolation as online communication replaced attendance at the theater. I was inspired by the (temporary) change in my lifestyle to research and write The Time Travelers Club, Manhattan Division, my 26th production at Theater for the New City.

Time travel has long been a subject in popular culture. My play sends a woman named Dolly from the present on a journey to 1870 Greenwich Village. An equipment malfunction leaves her stranded in the past, where she encounters real-life characters while attempting to find her way home. Poet Emma Lazarus was at the beginning of her prestigious career. Composer Georgina Schuyler was a descendant of Alexander Hamilton and early Dutch settlers. The nature of the close friendship of these unmarried women from disparate backgrounds leaves room for speculation. Famous actress Charlotte Cushman and her “wife” sculptor Emma Stebbins stopped in New York en route to Boston where Charlotte sought treatment for breast cancer. Sarah Smith was a widowed African American school teacher who boarded in a building on 13th Street—a building that survives but is threatened with demolition in today’s rush to gentrify our historic neighborhoods. When Dolly fails to return home, her wife Alice attempts to rescue her and bring them both ‘back to the future.’

The play is my gentle homage to my favorite movie—“The Wizard of Oz.”

The Present

Alice, Arianne Banda.

Dahlia, called Dolly. Alice’s wife. Jamie Coffey

John. A clerk. JC Augustin

A reporter. Selear Duke.

The Past (1870)

Emma Lazarus, Nikki Monson

Georgina Schuyler, Jenna Levere

Sarah Smith, Rebekah Wilson

Charlotte Cushman, Steph Van Vlack

Emma Stebbins, Charlotte Cushman’s ‘wife.’ Isa Goldberg

Barbara Kahn (Playwright/Director)

Mark Marcante (Set Designer)

Alexander Bartenieff (Lighting Designer)

Lytza Colon (Set Decorator and Prop Designer)

Billy Little (Costume Designer)

Joy Linscheid (Sound Designer and Board Operator)

Selear Duke (Stage Manager)

Joe Bly (Photographer and Videographer)

Virginia Asman (Graphics Designer)

As of September 26th, 2022, we are no longer requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for our audience upon entry.