When it rains, it pours. After an intermittently light summer, this fall list surges back with perhaps the longest world premiere listing we’ve yet compiled. If you’re producing a world premiere any time in the coming months (if you’re reading this, you’ve missed September), please let us know at at@tcg.org and rwkendt@tcg.org.
Midwest
Based on the Jonathan Eig book about the mid-20th-century development of birth control, Jessica Huang’s The Birth of the Pill, directed by Sandra Marquez, runs at Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre, which commissioned the play, Sept. 1-Oct. 1.
A new adaptation of The Secret of the Old Clock: A Nancy Drew Mystery by Jennifer and Savanah Hunter, directed by Patsy Miller, plays at the Studio Theatre at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Sept. 3-12.
Writer-performer Tania Richard has adapted her memoir of the same title into the solo show Black Girl From a White Suburb, in a production directed by J. Nicole Brooks at American Blues Theater in Chicago, Sept. 4-Oct. 4.
Corner of the Sky: The Music of Stephen Schwartz is Scott Coulter’s new anthology show celebrating the composer/lyricist of Godspell, Wicked, Working, and more. Directed by Vincent DeGeorge, it runs at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Sept. 5-27.
Trapezist Shana Carroll, best known as the co-founder and lead performer in the neo-circus troupe the 7 Fingers, has created a new autobiographical show with her troupe, The Attic: Things I’ve Seen While Lying on My Back, and it plays at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Sept. 5-Oct. 4.
Jeffrey Hatcher’s new adaptation of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur newsroom classic The Front Page opens Northlight Theatre’s new venue in Skokie, Illinois, Sept. 9-Oct. 18. Northlight artistic director BJ Jones directs.
Steady She Goes is Erica Berman’s new sea-shanty-soaked play, based on the true story of Mary Ann Brown Patten, who steered a clipper through a storm when all the men in her crew were incapacitated. Directed by Brian Cowing, it bows at Forward Theater Company in Madison, Wisconsin, Sept. 10-27.
Chicago’s Victory Gardens, returning with its first full production in years, presents Zayd Dorhn’s The Humanities, about cultural conflict at an elite American college. Directed by Eddie Torres, it runs Sept. 10-Oct. 4.
Eliza Bent’s new comedy Bonnie’s Last Flight, at Chicago’s Rivendell Theatre Ensemble Sept. 12-Oct. 17, follows a female airline pilot and her wacky co-workers. Devon de Mayo directs.
The ensemble of Chicago’s Otherworld Theatre has devised a new version of The Epic of Gilgamesh, and it’s not for the faint of heart: An extensive content advisory warns of (or promises?) “graphic slasher-style violence, gore, explicit body horror,” as well as “highly immersive and disorienting technical elements, including sudden loud noises, heavy radio static, high-frequency audio distortion, atmospheric jump scares, and intense, saturated strobe lighting effects.” Epic indeed. It runs Sept. 25-Nov. 1.
In Theresa Rebeck’s Talk, a TV news commentator gets more than they bargained for when a surprise guest joins them for a live broadcast. Directed by Mêlisa Annis, the play will premiere at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, which commissioned it, Sept. 26-Oc. 25.
Northeast
In L.B. Browne’s Safe House, a doomsday prepper father is confronted by his adult daughter. Directed by Benjamin Viertel, this split/decision production runs at Theatre Row in New York City, Sept. 2-13.
The Getaway Driver, Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston’s new drama, is based on the remarkable true story of Katherine Ann Power and Clare Schroeder, two women involved on either side of a fateful activist bank robbery in 1970. Directed by Curt Columbus, it kicks off a rolling world premiere at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, Sept. 3-Oct. 4. (Future runs are slated for Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October, and at Northern Stage in White River Junction, Vermont, next February.)
The sneaky double negative in the title of This Is Not Not a Drill is not even the most notable thing about this new play by Daria Miyeko Marinelli, which is styled as an audio-guided walking tour of New York City’s revolutionary history designed to empower audiences to resist creeping fascism now. Directed by Dominique Rider, this Playwrights Realm production kicks off at the Walker Loft, Sept. 4-Oct. 4.
Lisa Sanaya Dring is the credited playwright of Public Record, but it sounds like a lot of creative hands are on this work, at New York City’s Public Theater Sept. 4-8, as it’s billed as “a live album—onstage,” featuring a cast of 100 culled from the theatre’s citywide Public Works program. Based on a concept by Dan Canham and Emily Lim, it also has music supervision by Michael Thurber, direction by Lim, and co-direction and choreography by Canham.
In Becoming Hamlet by Damon Horowitz, audiences are invited to do just what the title describes, collectively embodying and enacting Shakespeare’s drama from the mad prince’s POV. Directed by Sybille Bruun, it goes down at Five Angels Theater in New York City, Sept. 5-Oct. 3.
Three different Marys in three different eras raise pointed questions of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights in The Body of Mary: A Play in Three Acts (of God), written and directed by Kate Cappiello, in a GoodDottirs production that runs at New York City’s Gym at Judson, Sept. 8-Oct. 8.
In Somewhere, Virginia by John Harney, a former Congressional chief of staff gathers colleagues in a Virginia country house to settle old scores. Directed by Anna Rebek, it runs at New York City’s Theater for the New City, Sept. 8-12.
The Holes, a new play by Max Wolf Friedlich (JOB), is billed as a “dark comedy” set in a decaying bar in a rapidly gentrifying city in upstate New York. Executive-produced by Robert Pattinson’s production company, Icki Eneo Arlo, it’s directed by Michael Herwitz and runs at the Wild Project in New York City, Sept. 8-Oct. 18.
As its title suggests, Joseph P. Krawczyk’s’ The Diary of Ana Fernandez is inspired by The Diary of Anne Frank, drawing parallels between her story and that of a young undocumented girl and her father in a contemporary U.S. setting. Directed by Eddie Lew, it runs at the American Theatre of Actors in New York City, Sept. 9-19.
Roger Guenveur Smith mounts the latest in his series of bravura solo shows about major historical figures with In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, based in part on his own acquaintance with the celebrated painter, at New York Theatre Workshop in New York City, Sept. 9-Oct. 4.
Tackling another great American subject in what’s billed as “an unconventional love story,” the new musical Truly, Howard Hughes plays at New York City’s York Theatre Company, Sept. 9-Oct. 4. Its book is by Frank Evans, Jennifer Paulson-Lee, and James Scully, with lyrics by Evans and Chad Gorn, and music by Scully. Jennifer Paulson-Lee directs.
Producer/songwriter Al Tapper will appear on screen while a live cast performs an anthology/memoir of his career in After All These Years: The Musicals of Al Tapper, a new show conceived by Tapper and Tony Sportiello, and directed by Brian Childers. It runs the AMT Theater in New York City, Sept. 10-Oct. 8.
The Philly Fringe kicks off with an interactive installation from the Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Titled Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle, it takes place at a bespoke venue called the Hairport, Sept. 10-27. For more about the many offerings of Philadelphia’s annual citywide celebration of performance and visual art, go here.
Beyond the Stardust, billed as an “Afro-disco-space-punk-extravaganza of no-fucks-futurist-fabulousness,” features original songs, stunning visuals, and a host of aerialists, dancers, go-go boys, girls, and they/thems. Created by Niegel Smith & the Illustrious Blacks, it runs at the Flea in New York City, Sept. 10-Oct. 18.
An overprepared hiker and a not-so-prepared couple are forced to share a makeshift shelter in Stephen Sheffer’s Lean-To, a New Light Theater Project & Pendragon Theatre co-production at 59E59 in New York City, Sept. 10-Oct. 10. Direction is by Jesse Jou.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and the subsequent the decades of war, Art2Action presents 11Reflections: NYC, an evening built around a spoken-word multimedia piece by Andrea Assaf, with a number of other guest artists. It runs at New York City’s HERE, Sept. 11-12.
creation stories and all the important importants is Mfoniso Udofia’s new adult fable about a Black woman in midlife pulled between her many selves: child, future daughter, artist, possible mother. Directed by Tamilla Woodard, it’s at New York City’s Lincoln Center Theater, Sept. 15-Oct. 17.
In a much-anticipated follow-up to their epic Initiative, writer Else Went and director Emma Rose Went bring Degenerates—touted as a dark comedy about the fatalism of young men and boys—to Playwrights Horizons in New York City, Sept. 16-Oct. 11.
Rebecca Chace’s Obit, billed as a “post-apocalyptic female revenge thriller,” tells the story of an advance obituary writer whose interview with with an aging college president has personal stakes. Directed by Will Steinberger, it runs at New York City’s Theater for the New City, Sept. 17-Oct. 4.
In Adrienne Dawes’s Teen Dad, going up at Trenton, New Jersey’s Passage Theatre, Sept. 18-Oct. 11, a precocious emo-goth teen tries to engineer a surprise reunion for her mother and birth father, with darkly comic results. It’s directed by C. Ryanne Domingues & Richard Bradford.
Ana Gasteyer’s commitment to the bit promises to reach new heights with September L. Davis: The Apology Tour, in which her delusional Broadway diva character will attempt to “do the work.” A Boundary Road Productions joint, it runs for a limited time at Studio Seaview in New York City, Sept. 20-Oct. 5.
A trans woman in rural Pennsylvania breaks out of her routine life with her dad when a newcomer comes to town in DJ Hills’s Horsegirl & Cowdaddy, directed by Adil Mansoor, at Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, Sept. 22-Oct. 4. (A co-production with NYC’s Soho Rep, it runs there in March.)
Myth, billed as Broken Box Mime’s first evening-length work, bows at the Brooklyn space JACK Sept. 25-Oct. 18. Directed by Becky Baumwoll, it’s set on a foreign planet where a pair of unlikely lovers make a life-changing discovery.
Ryan J. Haddad’s Good Time Charlie, playing at New York City’s Public Theater Sept. 24-Oct. 18, is billed as a “a multigenerational story of gay men growing up, falling in love, and cherishing the arts.” It’s directed by Danny Sharron.
Don Mays’s drama Same Difference stages a confrontation between a Harlem gang leader and a gay man with AIDS in early 1990s Providence, Rhode Island, and his play is bowing in the same town, at Wilbury Theatre Group, Sept. 24-Oct. 18. Mays also directs.
In Anon – a tempest at our kitchen table, the newest play from Anne Washburn, a pride flag in a Texas suburb causes a stir, and a reckoning. It’s directed by Anne Kauffman and runs at MCC Theatre in New York City, Sept. 25-Nov. 1.
In In Plain Sight by Michael McKeever, two men who’ve been a couple for years consider, and reconsider, getting married. Directed by Joe Brancato, it’s up at Penguin Rep Theater in Stony Point, New York, Sept. 25-Oct. 18.
Upstate New York journalist Ken Tingley has adapted his memoir about a small-town paper facing the internet age into the play The Last American Newspaper, at Capital Repertory Company in Albany, New York, Sept. 25-Oct. 17.
A London teen seeks her missing brother in some dark internet corners in Melis Aker’s Fish, which runs Sept. 26-Oct. 25 at New York City’s Signature Theatre, in a co-production of WP Theater and Signature Theatre and New Light Theater Project.
New York City Children’s Theatre commissioned Woody Guthrie’s Songs to Grow On, a new theatre-for-the-very-young show with a script by Frank Ruiz and direction by Susanna Brock, to tour the city’s five boroughs Sept. 26-Nov. 8.
South
No, it’s not about who you think: Garbo: El artista que salvó al mundo tells the true World War II story of the Spanish double agent Juan Pujol García, who was given the nickname “Garbo.” Written by Gustavo Ott, with original music by Koki Lortkipanidze, it is directed by Carlos Celdrán and runs Washington, D.C.’s GALA Hispanic Theatre, Sept. 3-27.
Zell Miller III’s And She Was Loved also marks the debut of a new theatre company, Black Rose Theater ATX. Inspired by the loss of Miller’s mother and a longtime theatre mentor, the play blends Peter Pan with hip-hop theatre and jazz aesthetics. It runs at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, Texas, Sept. 3-12.
fire work by Mary Glen Fredrick is billed as “a new dystopian comedy blazing with revolution.” Directed by Bonnie Cullum, it runs at the VORTEX in Austin, Texas, Sept. 6-26.
In Steve Yockey’s comedy Venus, a first date between two women gets dark and twisted. Reggie D. White directs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., Sept. 9-Oct. 4.
Writer/director Carey Perloff has adapted Sophocles’s tragic trilogy into a single evening with Oedipus: King/Colonus, for a run at PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Sept. 9-27.
Billed as a work examining America’s legacies of building and belonging on the occasion of its 250th birthday, Step Afrika!’s The Fruits of Our Labor, created in conversation with Jakari Sherman, Conrad R. Kelly II, and Vusi Mdoyi, run at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage, Sept. 10-Nov. 1.
Gabe McKinley’s Reykjavik86 tells the story of the historic Reagan-Gorbachev summit of 1986, in which the eradication of nuclear weapons was seriously on the table. Jaime Castañeda directs at Dallas Theater Center, Sept. 11-27.
In Stephen Spotswood’s Where Dead Women Go to Dance, a woman revives a dead friend with an old family recipe—or does she? Directed by Lauren Patton Villegas, this Theatre Prometheus production runs at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, Sept. 25-Oct. 17.
West
Married couples gather to scatter a friend’s ashes, only to be divided about how to move forward past their grief, in Cricket Daniel’s Spreading Joy, which runs at Bend, Oregon’s Cascades Theatrical Company, Sept. 4-20. It’s co-directed by Richard Choate & Whitney Garner.
Los Angeles’s young audience-oriented 24th Street Theatre commissioned Olivier-winning British playwright Mike Kenny to write Winter’s Bench, in which an old woman attempts to communicate with a tree. Debbie Devine directs the run, Sept. 5-25.
In the new pop musical Wild Child, two troubled teens bond at a wilderness therapy retreat. With book & lyrics by Dan Marshall and music by Julianne Wick Davis, this production by the Breathe Project runs at Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, California, Sept. 9-Oct. 4. John Simpkins directs.
Kicking off a rolling world premiere at San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre is Lisa B. Thompson’s African Stew, about the culture clash between the families of an African American woman and a Nigerian man who intend to marry. Directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, it runs Sept. 10-27. (It is also slated for Austin, Texas’s Ground Floor Theatre next February.)
Kutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles, billed as the “first Tlingit opera in history,” tells the story of an under-explored 19th-century war that was waged in Alaska. It runs at Juneau’s Perseverance Theatre, in a partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute, Sept. 11-20. Music is by Edward Littlefield, libretto by Vera Starbard, and direction by Madeline Sayet.
A Brooklyn birding group is riven by a dispute over a rare species sighting in Mat Smart’s comic drama A Black-Billed Cuckoo, which runs at La Jolla Playhouse in California, Sept. 15-Oct. 11. Shelley Butler directs.
In Janine Nabers’s The Peterson Show, five former child stars reunite as the legacy of their TV dad is torched by scandal. Directed by Michelle Bossy, it runs at Echo Theatre Company in Los Angeles, Sept. 19-Oct. 26.
For San Francisco’s Shotgun Players, Chuck Mee and Erika Chong Schuch have co-created The Fall Show, in which an older couple’s romance is rocked by memories and movement. The show runs Sept. 26-Oct. 25.
Billed as “a mythic drama spanning centuries,” Crone Creed follows a medieval woman who finds herself reborn in the American frontier in the 1800s. Written by Josh Epstein, Casey Morgan, and T. Theresa Scarino, with direction by Marc Morgenstern, this Theater4All production runs at El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, California, Sept. 30-Oct. 17.
