On Feb. 11 Rebecca Luker, Alysha Umphress, Daniel Jenkins, Donald Webber Jr., Christy Altomare, Alex Boniello, Jacob Ming-Trent and Alexandra Socha participated in the reading of Afterland.
In the age of "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent," Afterland "takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows two eccentric, wayward tribes as they stake out their territory and attempt to create a new civilization and world order where none exists."
The musical features music and lyrics by Benjamin Velez and book and lyrics by Kathryn Hathaway. The pair began writing Afterland in 2011 and developed much of the early material in the BMI Workshop. In June 2014, the Yale Institute of Music Theater hosted a two-week developmental workshop and brought Mark Brokaw to the piece. Brokaw (Cinderella, The Lyons) directed the latest reading, which was held at The York Theatre in Manhattan as part of Velez and Hathaway's year-long residency through their NEO program.
The writing team met during their undergraduate years at Columbia University, where they co-wrote the 114th Annual Varsity Show — a task undertaken by the likes of Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Tom Kitt and Jeanine Tesori.
Hathaway's plays and musicals have been performed and developed at Ars Nova, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Flea Theater, New Dramatists, The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, The Prelude Festival, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Joe’s Pub, the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and the Yale Institute For Music Theater. Velez is a composer/lyricist in the Advanced BMI workshop. His work has been featured at NYMF, the NEO concert series, the Cutting Edge Composers series, the Yale Institute for Music Theater and, most recently, as part of the 4@15 series at the NYU Steinhart School. He is currently collaborating with John Leguizamo and David Kamp on the original musical Pain In The Aztec. *
Ruthie Fierberg is the Features Editor at Playbill.com. She has also written for Backstage, Parents and American Baby, including dozens of interviews with celeb moms and dads for parents.com. Follow her on Twitter at @RuthiesATrain.
