2013 Season Schedule

Welcome to the 29th Powerhouse Theater Season, June 21-July 28, 2013

A summer at Powerhouse is always full of surprises!

We’re thrilled to introduce our season – it has the wide variety of voices and perspectives that Powerhouse is known for.  Some of the artists are household names, and some are new to us. But to a person, they’re an exciting, vibrant group of story tellers. 

From New York City in the 1970s to the Blue Ridge Mountains after WWII, from a superhero’s secret hide-out to Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden, many of these stories are rooted in a specific time and place. That’s true of theater, too – we have to be present for it, to be in the same room with others to make it come alive.

Please note: All programs and artists subject to change.

Mainstage

In the Hallie Flanagan-Davis Powerhouse Theater

Downtown Race Riot

By Seth Zvi Rosenfeld
Directed by Scott Elliott

June 26 - July 7, 2013

There’s a riot on in Washington Square Park and a motley band of feckless, funny young men are spoiling for a fight. Against this backdrop of tribal loyalties and petty beefs, 18-year-old Pnut McPartland has to pick sides and hustle his family and his friends just to stay alive.  Seth Zvi Rosenfeld (The Flatted Fifth, Servy-n-Bernice 4ever; HBO’s How To Make it in America) and director Scott Elliott (Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh’s Ecstacy) bring us this electric portrait of a city and a boy in crisis.

When the Lights Went Out

By Mozhan Marno
Directed by Kate Whoriskey

July 17–28, 2013

On the night of the Northeast blackout of 2003, six New Yorkers connect through interwoven stories. In the darkness, two strangers fall in love during an epic walk across Manhattan; an older couple marooned in their apartment must finally grapple with their past; and a conflicted Iraqi immigrant makes her way across the Brooklyn Bridge chasing memories of her lost son and her homeland through the shadows. Mozhan Marnò will be joined for her playwriting debut by director Kate Whoriskey (world premieres of Ruined, The Piano Teacher, Fabulation).

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Martel Musicals

In the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film
All musicals will be presented as concert readings.

Bright Star

Music by Edie Brickell and Steve Martin
Lyrics by Edie Brickell
Book by Steve Martin
Based on an original story by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Directed by Walter Bobbie

July 12 - 14, 2013

Renowned actor/playwright/composer Steve Martin returns to Powerhouse alongside iconoclastic musician Edie Brickell and the Tony Award-winning director of Chicago and Venus in Fur to bring to life a stirring story set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, as an editor of a southern journal discovers a powerful truth about her past through the eyes of a young writer. Features a live score including songs from Brickell and Martin’s new album “Love Has Come for You.”

A Musical Inspired by the Brooklyn Hero Supply Company

Music and Lyrics by Peter Lerman
Book by Simon Rich
Based on Characters Created by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
Directed by Michael Mayer

July 26 - 28, 2013

Trey Swieskowski, an idealistic young Brooklynite, fantasizes about becoming a superhero. Meanwhile, Astrolass (AKA “Astroman’s daughter”) is desperate to pack in her cape and escape the burden of her father’s legacy.  When the two of them cross paths, they hatch a plan to change their lives forever. Director Michael Mayer (Side Man, American Idiot, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) returns to Powerhouse to develop this exciting new musical.

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Inside Look

In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

Found

Book by Hunter Bell & Lee Overtree
Music & Original Lyrics by Eli Bolin
Based on the Found books and magazines by Davy Rothbart
Additional Material Created in Collaboration with Story Pirates
Directed by Lee Overtree

July 12-14, 2013

Based on Davy Rothbart’s Found magazine, a new musical comedy about the things we’ve lost and the ways they bring us together.  Tony-nominated Hunter Bell [title of show] and Eli Bolin create the semiautobiographical account of Davy’s life and loves as he performs around the country and imagines the stories behind the discarded notes, diaries, love letters, lists, photographs -- all glimpses into someone else’s life.  Found explores not just the things, but the people we find in life and proves we all have stories worth telling.

Mother of Invention

By James Lecesne
Directed by Michael Wilson

July 19 - 21, 2013

When Dottie Rupp’s children come to move her into assisted living, they end up having to deal with more baggage than just her Samsonite.  As her memory fails and the truth about her life blurs, a mysterious stranger arrives and the Rupps face big questions: was Dottie more or less than they imagined her to be? How do we go on living after our own stories have disappeared?  And where do we look for new ones? A warm-hearted comedy from the Emmy-nominated writer of Further Tales of the City, Word of Mouth, and the film Trevor and director Michael Wilson (Broadway’s The Trip to Bountiful and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man).

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Readings Festivals

Free to the public. Reservations strongly recommended (845) 437-5599.

Readings Festivals

READINGS FESTIVAL 1

June 21–23, 2013

READINGS FESTIVAL 2

July 26–28, 2013

THE HAMILTON MIXTAPE by Lin-Manuel Miranda; IDYLLWILD by Patrick Burleigh; KINSHIP by Carey Perloff; PETTY HARBOUR by Martyna Majok; SWIMMERS by Rachel Bonds; YELLOW KINGDOM by Patricia Wettig

Plus additional projects to be announced.

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The Powerhouse Apprentice Company Performances

Soundpainting

Thursday July 4, 11, 18, 25 at 6pm

LOOK DON’T LOOK

A devised performance about how we pay attention, created for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center by Tomi Tsunoda with members of the Apprentice Company.  The performance is created in part through the language of Soundpainting, the multidisciplinary sign language used for live composition, created by Walter Thompson.

Part of Late Night at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Performances of the Classics

Free to the public with no reservations necessary

July 6 - July 23, 2012

Rain Location: Matthew’s Mug, College Center, Main Building

July 5-8 at 6:30pm
AGAMEMNON
By Aeschylus
Directed by Mark Lindberg

July 12-15 at 6:30pm
BLOOD WEDDING
By Federico Garcia Lorca
Directed by Emily Mendelsohn

July 19-22 at 6:30pm
AS YOU LIKE IT
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Drew Cortese

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