Megan Monaghan Rivas’ Three Musketeers: 1941

Project Y Theatre Company will present the World Premiere of Megan Monaghan Rivas’ Three Musketeers: 1941, co-directed by Michole Biancosino and Andrew W. Smith, as part of the fourth annual Women in Theatre Festival, June 5-29 at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019). Performances will be on Wednesday, June 5 at 7:30pm, Thursday, June 6 at 7:30pm, Saturday, June 8 at 2pm, Saturday, June 8 at 7:30pm, Sunday, June 9 at 2pm, Friday, June 14 at 7:30pm, Saturday, June 15 at 7:30pm, Sunday, June 16 at 2pm, Friday, June 21 at 7:30pm, Tuesday, June 25 at 7:30pm, Thursday, June 27 at 7:30pm, Friday, June 28 at 7:30pm, and Saturday, June 29 at 7:30pm. Tickets ($27) are available for advance purchase at https://witfestival.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

Inspired by characters from Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure novel, this new play is set in the occupied Paris of World War II. The Third Reich has hung every balcony in the City of Light with swastika banners and filled the streets with the tramp of goose-stepping boots. While the French police pander to Nazi occupiers, in a secret room five brave women struggle to keep hope alive for themselves and their fellow citizens. The arrival of two strangers sets off a chain of events that might just turn the tide in this thriller about what happens when a group of women take up the chant, “All for one, and one for all!”

The cast will include Ashley Bufkin (Pride and Prejudice with Pittsburgh Public Theater; Julius Caesar with Shakespeare’s Globe), Zack Calhoon (Water by the Spoonful with Premiere Stages; Dancing Lessons with Kitchen Theatre Company), Ella Dershowitz (Can You Forgive Her? With Vineyard Theater; Card and Gift with Clubbed Thumb), Helen Farmer (Fake with EST/Youngblood; Arms and the Man with Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), Christina Liang (Quack with Alley Theatre; In The Line with Project Y Theatre),Kate Margalite (The Empaths with Wellfleet Harbor Actors’ Theatre; Damn Yankees with Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera), Valentino Musumeci (“Daredevil” on Netflix), Javan Nelson (The Great God Brown with Target Margin; She She She with Hook & Eye Theatre), Essence Stiggers (Men I’m Not Married to with Santa Cruz Shakespeare), and Joleen Wilkinson (Bea Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table with Ars Nova; Song for a Future Generation with The Management) with Costume Design by Olivia V. Hern(Aquamarine in the Sam French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival; The Magic Flute with NYU Steinhart Opera), Set Design by Chen-Wei Liao (As One with Pittsburgh Opera; assistant designer on Downstairs at Primary Stages), Fight Chorography by Carlotta Summers (Assistant Fight Director on Therese Raquin on Broadway), Sound Design by Yiran Zhang(Wicked tour in China), and Lighting Design by Hallie Zieselman (Brecht on Brecht with Potomac Theatre Project/Atlantic Theater).

Megan Monaghan Rivas (Playwright) is a dramaturg, director, and playwright based in Pittsburgh, PA. She has been honored by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) with the international Elliott Hayes Prize in Dramaturgy. Megan has held artistic leadership positions at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City and The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and served as literary manager of South Coast Repertory Theatre, literary director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and director of new play development for Frontera @ Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, TX. She has freelanced with the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the New Harmony Project, the Geffen Playhouse, Quantum Theatre, Aurora Theatre, the Salt Lake Acting Company, TheatreSquared, Actors Express Theatre, and Horizon Theatre. She joined the faculty of the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. 

Michole Biancosino (Director) is the Co-Founding Artistic Director of Project Y Theatre Company, where she has developed and directed new work in Washington, D.C. and New York City over the past 19 years. With Project Y, she has led various professional productions, as producer, director, and writer.  She devised and directed the world premiere of the NY Innovative Award-winning Landmarks & TRANSformations: a queer ritual piece in NYC. She is the co-creator and director of the long-running shows, Trump Lear and the award-winning, Gary Busey’s One Man Hamlet (as performed by David Carl), both of which received runs in various theatres including Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas, TX, and runs in Colorado and Florida. Both shows received co-productions in Edinburgh Fringe with the U.K.-based Richard Jordan Productions.  She directed the NY Innovative Theatre Award-winning NY Premiere of CONNECTED, by Lia Romeo, at 59E59 Theaters where it had record sales and attendance.  She also directed Addie Walsh’s That’s All I Got, at the United Solo Festival where it won an Award for “Best Variety Show.” In the past she has directed the World Premiere of Lee Blessing’s User’s Guide to Hell, featuring Bernard Madoff, at Atlantic Stage 2, the World Premiere musical LoveSick or THINGS THAT DON’T HAPPEN, plays by Lia Romeo, songs by Tony Biancosino, at 59E59 Theaters, nominated for 3 NYIT Awards including Best Production of a Musical, the critically acclaimed The Revival, by Samuel Brett Williams, at Theatre Row, nominated for 7 NYIT Awards, including Best Production of a Play and Outstanding Direction, and named The Advocate’s #2 show of 2010. Her production of Samuel Brett Williams’ Derby Day at Theatre Row’s The Clurman was named one of the Top 10 shows of 2011 by Paper Mag. Michole was the recipient of the prestigious SDC Gielgud Fellowship for classical directing and was featured as a Top Young Woman Artist in Nervy Girl Magazine. She holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University. This past year she collaborated with dancer, Christal Brown, and composer Matthew Taylor, to create a dance/theatre adaption of Toni Morrison’s Recitatif which funded as part of the Clifford Symposium at Middlebury College, where is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre. www.micholebiancosino.com

Andrew W. Smith (Director) is a professional Actor, Director, and Producer whose work has been seen throughout New York City, regionally, and internationally.  He is also the Co-Founding Artistic Director of award-winning Project Y Theatre Company in New York City. Selected regional acting work includes: Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Quantum Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Roundhouse Theatre, Potomac Theatre Project, Ars Nova, Studio Theatre, and Olney Center for the Arts. He toured with The National Players on their 50th anniversary as Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac. Filmwork includes Lucid, Shooting Script, Death of a Nation (Winner:  Best Short, IndieFest 2011; Best in Show, Best Shorts Competition 2011), Under-Ground. Andrew is currently an Assistant Professor of Acting at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. He also spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre at Middlebury College, Vermont, from which he also received his BA in theatre. He is also graduate of the MFA Acting program at the University of California, San Diego, from which he received the Teaching Excellence Award upon graduation. www.smithandrewwilliam.com

The Women in Theatre Festival seeks to broaden the opportunities for women in the entertainment industry by producing new work by women with more than 50% female representation of all artists involved. The 4th Annual Women in Theatre Festival will feature 10 separate productions including two fully staged World Premieres, commissioned specifically for the festival.

Founded in 1999, Project Y Theatre Company has been called the “smartest of the city’s theatre troupes,” by N.P.R. Project Y has had an unwavering presence in the New York Off-Off Broadway community and has been nominated for nine Innovative Theater Awards. Project Y has been the recipient of grants from NYSCA, ART/NY, The Nancy Quinn Fund, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the humanitarian Puffin Foundation. They have produced work which includes Trump Lear, Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet…, A User’s Guide to Hell featuring Bernard Madoff, Connected, Fubar and Great Again, at venues including 59E59, A.R.T./New York Theatres, HERE, Theatre Row Theaters and Edinburgh Fringe. They have produced and/or developed work by playwrights including Karl Gadjusek, Charles Mee, Lee Blessing, Sean Christopher Lewis, Antu Yacob, Johnna Adams, Tori Keenan-Zelt, Amina Henry, EM Lewis, Crystal Skillman, Lia Romeo, Chiori Miyagawa, Nimisha Ladva, and Erin Mallon. www.projectytheatre.org

The A.R.T./New York Theatres are a project of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York), which provide state-of-the-art, accessible venues at subsidized rental rates, plus free access to top-line technical equipment, so that the city’s small and emerging theatre companies can continue to experiment, grow, and produce new works. Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York is the leading service and advocacy organization for New York City’s 400+ nonprofit theatres, with a mission to assist member theatres in managing their companies effectively so that they may realize their rich artistic visions and serve their diverse audiences well. We accomplish this through a comprehensive roster of real estate, financial, educational, and community-building programs, as well as research, advocacy, and field-wide initiatives that seek to improve the long-term health and sustainability of the industry. Over the years, A.R.T./New York has received numerous honors, including an Obie Award, an Innovative Theatre Award, a New York City Mayor’s Award for Arts & Culture, and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. For more information, please visit www.art-newyork.org.