The Abrons Arts Center has unveiled its 2018–2019 season, which celebrates the 125th anniversary of Henry Street Settlement—established in 1893 to provide New York City's underserved with social services, healthcare, and art programs. The upcoming season, which features 26 events spanning theatre, music, visual arts, and dance, will examine the role the arts have played in both reflecting and challenging the social and political norms of our times, and the evolution of the Lower East Side and beyond.
Abrons' theatrical programming features eight productions, including the return of two critically acclaimed shows. The first, Oneofus' pantomime, Jack & the Beanstalk, will return to celebrate the holiday season with new songs and added twists. Written by disabled actor and writer Mat Fraser and directed by feminist artist Julie Atlas Muz, the family-friendly Jack & the Beanstalk will play December 14–30.
The second returning production will be Fabrice Melquiot's Pollock, about the relationship between married artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Jim Fletcher and Birgit Huppuch, who starred in the February staging, will return to play the artistic duo in this production from Compagnie l’heliotrope, directed by Paul Desveaux and co-presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York and Abrons. Performances will run January 4–6, 2019.
In February, Abrons will present Korde Arrington Tuttle’s the journey between, a theatrical investigation of the relationship between Space Exploration and the Middle Passage of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (February 14-23); followed by Okwui Okpokwasili's first work for families, titled Adaku’s Revolt, which follows one young black girl’s revolt against normative standards of beauty (March 14–24).
Last seen at Abrons with Julia Jarcho’s The Terrifying, Minor Theater will premiere Pathetic next June. The show weaves contemporary idiom with newly translated sections of Phèdre, to present Racine’s tragedy in the style of a teen drama a la Heathers. Set in the U.S. Southwest, and centered on a group of kids trying to survive high school, the show is written and directed by Jarcho. Performances will run June 5–23.
The theatrical programming also includes Trusty Sidekick Theater Company’s Gumshoe, a performance for children and families inspired by the legacy of Henry Street Settlement founder Lillian Wald (September 28–October 7); Big Dance Theater's one-act play Antigonick (November 14-17); and a new performance work by composer, comedian, and performance artist Morgan Bassichis that draws on Henry Street Settlement’s archives, Jewish folktales, and music to explore Zionism and its discontents (April 11-13).
For the complete lineup visit AbronsArtsCenter.org.
