Acting Out presents Kid Stuff
Stories told by formerly incarcerated men and woman that share the joys and sorrows, hopes, and heartbreaks of their childhoods.
Thursday, December 14 at 7 PM
Friday, December 15 at 7 PM
Saturday, December 16 at 7 PM
Sunday, December 17 at 3 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
This performance is made possible with funding from the India Blake Foundation.
Conch Shell Productions presents CSP New Works Fest
CSP NEW WORKS SERIES is a 2-Day celebration of the voices of Caribbean Diaspora voices of Conch Shell Productions Artist Collective. Each workshop reading will be followed by a moderated Q&A led by Conch Shell Productions’ resident dramaturg Jasmeene Francois.
Friday, December 8 at 7 PM
Saturday, December 9 at 2 PM & 6 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
Reading: The Kind Killer by Achiro P. Olwoch
Nata is a widow who survived the war after being abducted by the man who killed her husband. The Kind Killer weaves together this story of surviving the war in Northern Uganda with the process of making the African delicacy, odii.
Saturday, October 14 at 7 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
This presentation has been made possible through a collaboration with HB residency artist Kayhan Irani and her project to foster exchange between artists supported through the Artistic Freedom Initiative and the artists at HB Studio.
Let Freedom Ring! Music and Voices of the March for Civil Rights, Then & Now
In the Great Hall where Lincoln spoke and the NAACP was born, Let Freedom Ring! Music and Voices of the March for Civil Rights, Then and Now will honor the sixtieth anniversary of the March on Washington, with an evening of song, dance, and oratory that address the way our society confronts discrimination, inequality, and oppression.
Thursday, September 21 at 7:30 PM
at Great Hall at Cooper Union
In partnership with The Village Trip and National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
HB Resident Artists, Ashley Olive Teague & Jayne McLendon presents Recovery
Project RECOVERY brings communities in recovery (from injury, addiction, trauma, grief and so on) together in the creation of an interdisciplinary performance combining video, interactive theater, meditation, and a museum installation to raise awareness, build community, and create spaces for healing.
Sunday, July 9 at 7 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
The Real Poems by Robert McQueen
From inside the lockdowns of 2020, Robert McQueen sat at his kitchen table and wrote about his experiences as a young queer man, living between New York City and Vancouver during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s. The Real Poems is at once spoken witness to the joy of youth and a memorial to the lives of colleagues, lovers and friends lost.
Monday, June 26 at 7 PM
Tuesday, June 27 at 2 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
Written & Performed by Robert McQueen
Composition & Arrangement by Laura Burton
Directed by Andrew Kushnir
Dramaturgy by Damien Atkins
HB Resident Artists, Kate Fuglei, Ken LaZebnick, & Leslie Steinweiss presents In the Blink of an Eye
On October 22nd, 1966, in a Nebraska cornfield, a pheasant flew. Shots were fired. In the blink of an eye, one life was shattered, and a family was forever changed. A musical memoir, IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE is the journey of a family’s unique cycle of violence, and a young girl’s struggle to imagine another way of life.
Writer Kate Fuglei traces how the gunshot that forever damaged her brother Kent rippled throughout her family and her life. Composer Leslie Steinweiss’s songs lift the experience through crisis into redemption. The creators of In The Blink Of An Eye hope to bring Kent Fuglei’s story alive, and to excavate and heal the ghosts of the past.
Sunday, June 18 at 3 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
Written & Performed by Kate Fuglei
Music by Leslie Steinweiss
Directed by Ken LaZebnick
Cellist, Mary Wooten
Lighting Design by Dalia Sevilla
HB Resident Artist, Maria Cominis presents Women of Zalongo
Generations of family secrets and trauma erupt, leading four generations of Greek women to draw upon the courage of their ancestors whose historical defiant act of bravery help them break their silence.
Friday, June 9 at 7 PM
Saturday, June 10 at 2 PM & 7 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
Written by Maria Cominis
Directed by Kari Hayter
Featuring Amanda Zarr, Lenora Eve, Grace Gremel, Anna Giannotis*, Hannah Sulak, Efi Kitsanta, Carol Rosenfeld*, Gabbie Adner, Demetri Bonaros*, Gina D’Acciaro*, and Daria Good
Lighting Design by Scott Borowka
Sound Design by Charles Glaudini
Music Arranger by John Glaudini
Choreographer by Dr. Elleni Koulos
Stage Manager, Vasiliki Ioannou
HB Resident Artist, Deirdre MacNamara presents Archipelago
ARCHIPELAGO takes place at the Fire Island beach house of a long term couple, sophisticated writer Patrick and his sweet natured peace-loving partner Glenn as they prepare for their traditional birthday weekend celebration. With them are their oldest friends, old hippie Michael and sharp tongue rage-a-(and alco)-holic Harper, all bonded from their days as activists in ACT UP. Throwing a wrench into the weekend is an unexpected rainstorm. Oh,and Harper’s ex arriving uninvited…with his much younger new girlfriend in tow.
As the afternoon progresses, amidst the barbs, memories, stings and arrows, new stabs, old jabs, ARCHIPELAGO asks, do old scars ever heal? Do we want them to? Why do we let these people into our lives? And what would we do without them? As the gets fuzzier, both the vision and the horizon, maybe the only clarity left is love.
Friday, May 19 at 7 PM
Saturday, May 20 at 3 PM & 7 PM
Sunday, May 21 at 3 PM & 7 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
Written by Deirdre MacNamara
Directed by Maurice J. Moran
Featuring, Brian W. Seibert, Deirdre MacNamara, Michael Edmund, Michkey Abbate, Pete Morris, and Kristin Cantwell
Technical Director, Chris O’Neil
HB Resident Artist, Matt Butler presents Reckless Son
RECKLESS SON is the narrative of a nation’s lost boys. Told in episodic fashion, Butler recounts the story of how his concert at the Albany County Jail ignited a passion that set him off on an odyssey like road legends Jack Kerouac and Woody Guthrie.
Monday, April 24 at 7 PM
at HB Playwrights Theatre
Written & Performed by Matt Butler
Directed by Richard Hoehler
This program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and many generous supporters.