Sarah Benson News

The Signature Theatre production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and Residency 1 playwright Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award-winner Kamilah Forbes, recently celebrated opening night on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center. Check out photos from the evening below!

Blockchain Theater Project (BTP), founded by Sofia Alvarez and Nicola Korzenko, is a new theater company that empowers artists to produce the work they create, funded in part by cryptocurrency donations. Like Bitcoin and other blockchains, BTP eliminates the institutional gatekeeper, creating a peer-to-peer model of support where the next play to be produced will be nominated by the playwright of the current production. Alvarez's NYLON will start this chain.

Jeffrey Horowitz announces that TFANA will extend its current four-play season to five plays and present Soho Rep.'s production of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview, staged by Sarah Benson. Fairview will play June 2-30, 2019, on the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, TFANA's state-of-the-art home in the Brooklyn Cultural District. The return engagement marks the first opportunity for New York audiences to experience this bold, innovative work since its sold-out, thrice-extended world premiere at Soho Rep. Fairview is currently only on sale as part of TFANA's two-play subscription package of Fairview and Julius Caesar.

Ars Nova has announced the Ars Nova at Greenwich HouseWarming Party, a benefit performance of Freestyle Love Supreme with Lin-Manuel Miranda that will take place on Sunday, March 3, 6pm at Ars Nova at Greenwich House (27 Barrow Street, Manhattan). The HouseWarming Party will celebrate Ars Nova's expansion into the historic Greenwich House Theater and support the development of new artistic programs at two New York theaters: Ars Nova at Greenwich House and the Ars Nova Hub on 54th Street.

The 2017-2019 Lab Culminates with Free Presentations from Collaborative Partners Shayok Misha Chowdhury & Virginia Grise, Ann Marie Dorr & Paul Ketchum, Jen Goma & Kristine Haruna Lee, Raja Feather Kelly & Daaimah Mubashshir, and Julia Mounsey & Peter Mills Weiss

New Brooklyn Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to democratize the American theatre, has announced Raja Feather Kelly as its new Artistic Director. Kelly currently serves as the Founding Artistic Director of the dance-theatre-media company the feath3r theory, which has formally merged with New Brooklyn Theatre. He is the recipient of two Princess Grace Foundation Awards and most recently, the Breakout Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation and Dance Magazine's inaugural Harkness Promise Award. the feath3r theory shares the ethos of New Brooklyn Theatre in the mission to broaden space for unheard voices and repressed histories in theatre. Since 2009, the feath3r theory has been recognized as a unique cross-disciplinary theatre company that aims to challenge its audience and creators to interrogate and celebrate their shared relationship to human empathy and personal ethics as expressed in popular media.

The Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of fairview is disturbing. That's good. If you are white and liberal and experiencing mild to major discomfort by the end of the performance, that's even better.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of Fairview is now on stage! Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Sarah Benson, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, the world premiere production comes straight to Berkeley Rep from a critically acclaimed New York run. Previews began on Thursday, October 4 with regular run of the show opening on Thursday, October 11 and continuing through Sunday, November 4. Individual tickets begin at $30 ($15 if you're under 35) and can be purchased online at berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510 647-2949.

Go behind the scenes of Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of Fairview in the video below with the playwright and director as rhey reveal their thoughts on this unpredictable and critically acclaimed play.

Ars Nova, "one of the most adventurous Off-Broadway companies" (New York Times), under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan and Managing Director Renee Blinkwolt, will host Over/Under Unplugged, a free concert series following select Friday evening performances of Andrew R. Butler's Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of The Future. Concerts will feature performers from The Future and special guests performing unplugged and up close. They'll #playforchange with any donations dropped in their bucket going to select charities including the National Network of Abortion Funds, The Trevor Project, and The National Eating Disorders Association.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of Fairview. Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Sarah Benson, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, the world premiere production comes straight to Berkeley Rep from a critically acclaimed New York run. Previews began on Thursday, October 4 with regular run of the show opening on Thursday, October 11 and continuing through Sunday, November 4. Individual tickets begin at $30 ($15 if you're under 35) and can be purchased online at berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510 647-2949.

Soho Rep. announces its 2018-2019 season, with two world premieres that demonstrate the small but flexible space's 'indispensible' (New York Magazine) presence as 'a 70-seat house filled with big ideas' (Hilton Als, The New Yorker). Through singular and irreverent stylistic approaches, Kate Tarker's Thunderbodies,directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (October 16-November 18, 2018), and Christopher Chen's Passage, directed by Saheem Ali (April 23-May 26, 2019),interrogate the staggering ramifications of U.S and global imperialism.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents its annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 4, 5, and 6 at The Graduate Center, CUNY, The City University of New York, curated by Andrew Kircher in collaboration with Frank Hentschker.

Final casting for Berkeley Repertory Theatre's upcoming production of Fairview was announced today. Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed bySarah Benson, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, the world premiere production comes straight to Berkeley Rep from a critically acclaimed New York run. Previews begin on Thursday, October 4 with regular run of the show opening on Thursday, October 11 and continuing through Sunday, November 4. Individual tickets begin at $30 ($15 if you're under 35) and can be purchased online at berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510 647-2949.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents the annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 4, 5, and 6 at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). 

In response to overwhelming demand, Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) extends the world premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview, directed by Sarah Benson, a second time, through August 12. Beginning July 10, OBIE-winning performer and Elevator Repair Service company member April Matthis (Everyone's Fine with Virginia Woolf, Iowa at Playwrights Horizons) will replace Roslyn Ruff. Performances in this second extension, July 24 - August 12, are made possible by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation.

In response to popular demand, Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) extends the world premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview, directed by Sarah Benson, through July 22. In Fairview, the Frasier family (MaYaa Boateng, Charles Browning, Roslyn Ruff, and Heather Alicia Simms) is gearing up for Grandma's birthday, and Beverly needs this dinner to be perfect. But the silverware's wrong, the radio's on the fritz, her sister Jasmine is drinking, her husband Dayton isn't helping, her daughter Keisha is a typical teenager, and her brother Tyrone might not show up at all!

Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) today announced that actor Charles Browning will take over for Lance Coadie Williams in the world premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview, which Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson directs, and which the downtown Manhattan theater presents in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Due to unforeseen personal circumstances, Williams is unable to continue.The production now runs at Soho Rep. June 2 - July 8, with opening now set for Sunday, June 17. 

Ars Nova, 'one of the most adventurous Off-Broadway companies' (New York Times), under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan and Managing Director Renee Blinkwolt, is pleased to announce programming for its 2018-2019 season, which marks a rich expansion of the non-profit's unique role as both an exciting hub for new talent and a hands-on producer of genre-bending Off-Broadway productions.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), the first international institute devoted to the creation and academic study of ballet, today announced the 27 artists and scholars who will serve as CBA Fellows in the 2018-19 academic year. The group - which represents The Center's largest and most far-reaching cohort yet - features distinguished individuals in a range of disciplines, including scholar Cecile Feza Bushidi, lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker, choreographer Chase Brock, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer Pontus Lidberg, and scholar Janice Ross, among others.