SEASON
2022
2023
Rattlestick’s major programming includes the world premiere production of The Gett by Liba Vaynberg, a co-commission with Rattlestick and Congregation Beth Elohim; Amani by a.k. payne, produced in partnership with the renowned National Black Theatre; and the 4th Annual Global Forms Theater Festival, a celebration showcasing and supporting the works of immigrant theater artists living and working in the United States. Additionally, Rattlestick announces the new Lab@Rattlestick - a program designed to develop the work of fellows and commissioned artists while inviting audiences into the theater-making process. Excerpts of some of these new works will be presented at the fall Season Jam, hosted by Rattlestick Alumni Playwright/Actor Jesse Eisenberg.
MAINSTAGE
THE GETT
Written by Liba Vaynberg
Directed by Daniella Topol
November/December 2022
World Premiere, co-commissioned by Brooklyn Jews, Congregation Beth Elohim, and Rattlestick Theater.
The Gett is a tale of the dirty and the divine, drawing on everything from the Torah to bad sex. It’s about the tacky menorah in your lobby behind the Christmas tree and the lover whose phone number you can’t forget and that voicemail from your mother you haven't listened to yet. As sacred as it is profane, this is a play about recreating a self. Herself.
AMANI
Written by a.k. payne
Directed by Josiah Davis
February/March 2023
Produced in partnership with The National Black Theatre
Amani grows up building a rocket ship with her father, who vows to make it to outer space: where his child can breathe easy, where there are no gangs to take his first love’s life, nor prisons to take Black boys’ best years. As Amani moves into adulthood, she seeks her voice and her own dreams. Will Amani make it to the moon?
GLOBAL FORMS THEATER FESTIVAL
GLOBAL FORMS THEATER FESTIVAL
June 2023
June 2023
Global Forms is a one-of-its-kind annual theater festival presented in partnership with New York Theatre Salon dedicated to uplifting the work of international and immigrant theater artists living in the United States. In 2022 we presented four in-person productions of new plays and musicals, as well as talkbacks, online workshops, and community conversations. The festival was formed in 2020, and since then has featured the work of over 150 artists from over 50 countries. Applications for Global Forms will be open in January 2023, and the festival will take place in June 2023. Learn more here.
The new Lab@Ratlestick is designed to lay groundwork for the rigorous development of plays in our pipeline while opening the theater-making process to our audiences. Rattlestick currently has a number of projects in commission and we are excited to be dedicating significant resources during the 2022-23 year to preparing these works for production through public readings, workshops, and other artist-led events
THE LAB@RATTLESTICK
WORKS IN COMMISSION
Arturo Luís Soria
Commissioned Playwright through an Individual Artist grant from the New York State Council on the Arts
Stacey Rose
Commissioned with the support of The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation
Rhiana Yazzie
In partnership with Long Wharf Theater
Basil Kreimendahl
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence
VAN LIER NEW VOICES FELLOWSHIP
With the support of The New York Community Trust and the Jerome Foundation, the Van Lier New Voices Fellowship was rehomed from the Lark Play Development Center to Rattlestick after its closure. This fellowship provides substantial support to two playwrights of color under 30 each year. Fellows receive a living stipend, an artistic fund to support career development, mentorship with a veteran playwright, workshops and readings of their work, and participation in Rattlestick’s artistic communities and programming.
Applications for the 2023-2024 Fellowship will open in May 2023.
May Treuhaft-Ali
Minghao Tu
THEBES: A NEW MUSICAL
Written and Composed by Emma Hathaway Sway,
Katie Hathaway, and Solon Snider Sway
Directed by Danilo Gambini
Music Direction by Andrea Grody
In development
In January 2023 we will host a reading of this exciting new musical in development.
Thebes is an underground nightclub whose stage is haunted each night by the ghosts of its messy royal family: Laius, Oedipus, Jocasta, Polynices, Eteocles and now, most recently, Antigone. When Antigone's sister, and only living heir to the Theban throne, Ismene, learns that there might be a way out of this cycle of love and destruction, she's forced to make a decision: embrace her role in a tragic history or try to write something new.
To learn about our other offerings, including Ongoing Programs Open Play and Global Gab, visit our Artistic Programs page.