Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced its 2016-17 season and the line-up for its F*ck~ng Good Plays Festival, a week-long series of free staged readings featuring Edie Falco, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and Keith Randolph Smith, among others.
The season will begin September 10 with a staged reading of Draw the Circle, written and performed by queer playwright and performer Deen. With direction by Chay Yew, the play follows a Muslim immigrant family who must come to terms with a child who is transitioning from one gender to another. The play will be the first in a series of free readings as part of Rattlestick’s F*ck~ng Good Plays Festival. Falco is tapped to star in the presentation of We Are Among Us September 11, written and directed by Stephen Belber. The festival will continue through September 17.
The downtown theatre will present three mainstage productions in 2017. The first will be a co-production with Page 73: Basil Kreimendahl's Orange Julius directed by Dustin Wills. Orange Julius tells the story of Nut, whose father Julius is a Vietnam vet. “As Julius suffers the toxic effects of Agent Orange, Nut worries their time together may run out before they can embrace something essential about their relationship,” state production notes. “Nut leaps through time and memory, tracing the complex intimacy between father and child when the child is transgender, fighting for a mutual recognition before it's too late.“ Previews will begin January 11, with an opening slated for January 22.
Next spring, Rattlestick will stage an Amoralists' production of Ken Urban's dark comedy, Nibbler. The story follows Adam and his gang of friends during the summer of 1992 in Medford, N.J. “When the fivesome encounter a mysterious visitor from another world, their lives are forever changed,” state production notes. Nibbler will run from February 23- March 19.
Rattlestick’s third production of the season will be Martin Zimmerman's Seven Spots on the Sun presented in partnership with The Sol Project, and directed by Weyni Mengesha. Zimmerman was inspired to write Seven Spots on the Sun after he went to Argentina in 2007 and interviewed family members of people who were disappeared by the junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Performances are scheduled to begin in May.
All the mainstage plays and the F*ck~ng Good Plays Festival will take place at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, located at 224 Waverly Place in New York. For reservations to the festival e-mail [email protected] or call (212) 627 2556, or visit rattlestick.org. The F*ck~ng Good Plays Festival is supported by Peter Emch.
