Tag: Gina Femia

THE VIRTUOUS FALL OF THE GIRLS FROM OUR LADY OF SORROWS

SPICY WITCH PRODUCTIONS
PRESENTS
WORLD PREMIERE OF
THE VIRTUOUS FALL OF THE GIRLS FROM OUR LADY OF SORROWS
WRITTEN BY GINA FEMIA
DIRECTED BY BLAYZE TEICHER
IN REP WITH 
MEASURE FOR MEASURE 
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
ADAPTED & DIRECTED BY PHOEBE BROOKS 
 
Measure for Measure director, Phoebe Brooks
VIRTUOUS FALL OPENING MAY 21
MEASURE OPENING MAY 22
MAY 17-JUNE 1 @ THE FLEA THEATER
Spicy Witch Productions will present the World Premiere of The Virtuous Fall of the Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows written by Gina Femia (Princess Grace Award Finalist for The Mermaids’ Parade; The Kilroys List Honorable Mention for Annie and the Fat Man), directed by Blayze Teicher (Trainspotting Live; Mother Knows Best with New Light Theatre Project) in rep with an audacious cut of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, adapted and directed by Phoebe Brooks (Hamlet the Hip-Hopera at FringeNYC, 2015) at The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street New York, NY 10007), May 17-June 1. Performances for The Virtuous Fall of the Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows will be on Friday, May 17 at 7pm (press preview), Saturday, May 18 at 3pm (press preview), Tuesday, May 21 at 7pm (opening night), Thursday, May 23 at 7pm, Saturday, May 25 at 3pm, Tuesday, May 28 at 7pm, Thursday, May 30 at 7pm, and Saturday, June 1 at 7pm. Performances for Measure for Measure will be on Saturday, May 18 at 7pm (press preview), Sunday, May 19 at 3pm (press preview), Wednesday, May 22 at 7pm (opening night), Friday, May 24 at 7pm, Saturday, May 25 at 7pm, Wednesday, May 29 at 7pm, Friday, May 31 at 7pm, and Saturday, June 1 at 3pm. Tickets ($25 General; $40 Season Pass) are available at http://spicywitchproductions.com/ or by calling The Flea Box Office at 212-226-0051.
Spicy Witch Productions’ seventh season will explore the vital relationship between speech and power with William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in repertory with the World Premiere of The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows by 2019 Writer-in-Residence Gina Femia. In the wake of the political and cultural tumults women have endured this year, SWP’s season re-examines a frustratingly timeless question: even if you speak the truth, who will believe you?
The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows, inspired by Shakespeare’s famous problem play, is a hilarious exploration of teenage revolution in the face of petty authoritarianism. Set in a Catholic girls’ school, Gina Femia’s play recounts the ripple effects caused by one student’s decision to produce M4M2, a controversial sequel to Measure for Measure.
SWP’s fresh take on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure tells the story of women coming together to uncover a history of sexual harassment buried within the Justice System. This production explores sisterhood through a problematic classic and uncovers the zany humor at its core.
The two productions will share a cast which features Mia Canter (The Misanthrope with Underling Productions; Becky Shaw with SWP), Shavana Clarke (Wendall and Pan at The Tank; Basic Bitch…Resistance at The Pit Loft) Alia Guidry (One Day Like Thisat Main Stage Live; The Triune Brain with Amios), Ashil Lee (All One Forest with She Doth Persist; Lifetime Supply with Neon Caviar), Renita Lewis (Photo Play at Dixon Place), Sarah Rosengarten (Dandy Be Good in the Exponential Festival; Before the Orgy at NY Summerfest), and Pearl Shin (good friday at The Flea; Could This Meeting Have Been an Email with SWP). Blake Prentiss (Hamlet with Arclight Theatre) and Stephen Zuccaro (There’s No Here Here at Theater for the New City; Deadly Humor at Theater Row) will join the cast for Measure for Measure. The design team for the rep will include Lighting Design by Yi-Chung Chen (The Talmud with the Exponential Festival; Animal Magnetism with Mabou Mines), Set Design by Lindsay Genevieve Fuori(The Earth Room with Fresh Ink Theatre Co.; Die Fledermaus with MassOpera), Sound Design by Carsen Joenk (Ribbon About a Bomb with ECC; Restaurant in D Major with Two-Headed Rep), Props Design by Megan McQueeney (The Cunt/The Country Wife with SWP), and Costume Design by Noelle Quanci (stylist for The Food Network).
Gina Femia (Playwright) has written 30 full-length plays, which include Alond(r)a (Winner: Leah Ryan Prize; Runner-up, 2019 Yale Drama Prize), The Mermaids’ Parade (Semifinalist, The Relentless Award; Finalist, Princess Grace Award), Rebels ‘Til Death(Playwrights Horizons reading series), Annie and the Fat Man (Honorable Mention, The Kilroys), This Happened Once at the Romance Depot Off the I-87 in Westchester (Workshop, Youngblood), Super, or, How Clark Graves Learned to Fly (semi-finalist The O’Neill and The Princess Grace Award), For The Love Of (Pride Films & Plays, Theatre of NOTE), We Are A Masterpiece(Nominated Outstanding Original Full-length play, NYIT Awards) and The Violet Sisters (Great Plains Theatre Conference). Gina is a current member of Joust Theatre’s Writer’s Round Table and Project Y Writer’s Group. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a New York Madness Company Member, and has received residencies with P73’s Summer Residency, Powerhouse, NTI at the O’Neill, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Fresh Ground Pepper. MFA, Sarah Lawrence College (Lipkin Prize in Playwriting).  www.femiagina.com
Blayze Teicher (Director, The Virtuous Fall of the Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows) is a Brooklyn-based director who develops Queer, magical, and political stories for theatre and film. Recently, she served as the Resident Director of the Off-Broadway immersive show Trainspotting Live and is an Artistic Associate of The Parsnip Ship, a podcast series of new plays paired with live music. Credits include The Diplomats by Nelson Diaz-Marcano (Winner: Outstanding Direction, Fresh Fruit Festival, Downtown Urban Arts Festival), Charlie’s Waiting by Melisa Annis (UNDER St. Marks), How to Field Dress an Android (University Settlement), Mother Knows Best (New Light Theatre Project), Paper Towels by Nelson Diaz-Marcano (The Brick), and The Day the Sky Turned Black (United Solo Festival, co-directed by Elyzabeth Gorman). Development credits include Alexander Sage Oyen’s A Night Like This (F/54 Below), Andrew Rincón’s I Wanna Fuck Like Romeo and Juliet (The Parsnip Ship), Andrew Rincón’s You Got That Same Kind of Lonely (Amios), Grace Connolly’s The Escape (The Playwriting Collective), Ben Ferber’s I’m Very Online (The Dirty Blondes), and Gina Femia’s The Mermaids’ Parade (The Parsnip Ship). As a filmmaker, her work has screened at several festivals across the country, including Out on Film Atlanta and the Palm Springs LGBT Film Festival, and has been featured on Huffington Post, Broadway World TV, and Funny or Die. She directed the original series Interested In now streaming on Amazon Prime channel Dekkoo and guest directed for the hit-comedy series Tough Love. Currently, she’s the Producing Manager for the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Blayze has assisted for Portia Krieger (2ST Uptown, NYMF), Ilana Ransom Toeplitz, Carolyn Cantor, Lauren Keating, and Sarna Lapine. http://blayzeteicher.com/
Phoebe Brooks (Director, Measure for Measure) is a theater creature. For SWP she has directed Mary Stuart, COULD THIS MEETING HAVE BEEN AN EMAIL by Kristin Slaney, The Country Wife & Becky Shaw. Other directing credits include All One Forest by Joe Raik (She Doth Persist), Romeo & Juliet (Match:Lit) , Hamlet (ADK Shakes), Hamlet the Hip-Hopera by Tucker Delaney-Winn (FringeNYC, Fringe Fav ‘15), Marie Antoinette (HMTC/A) and Dance Telephone (Feast). Workshops: Isaac Allen Miller’s Big Bad Little Bad & Aleda Bliss’ Dottie Parker, He Murmured. Phoebe also serves as Programming Director for Spicy Witch Productions. www.phoebebrooks.com
Spicy Witch Productions explores gender and identity through the pairing of classical and contemporary plays in repertory. Dedicated to creating roles for women on and offstage, Spicy Witch aims to help close the gender gap in theater and to use the conversation between classical and contemporary text to initiate a dialogue and be a catalyst for social change. 
Previous reps include The White Wife Series: Shakespeare’s Othello and Paula Vogel’s Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief in 2013, Un-Rom Com: Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw in 2014, The Cuntry Wife: William Wycherley’s The Country Wife and Elle Anhorn’s (SWP 2015 Writer-in-Residence) The Cunt in 2015, Tragislasher Season: Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy and Annette Storckman’s (SWP 2016 WIR) Bonesetter: A Tragislasher in 2016, Reigning Women: Friedrich Schiller’s Mary Stuart and Kristin Slaney’s (SWP 2017 WIR) COULD THIS MEETING HAVE BEEN AN EMAIL in 2017, and Dream Season: Life Is But a Dream (a new translation of Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s La vida es sueño by Shawn Morgenlander) and Iris Dauterman’s (SWP 2018 WIR) Merrily, Merrily in 2018.
SWP’s 2019 season is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by LMCC.
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Project Y Theatre Company Presents The 4th Annual Women In Theatre Festival

PROJECT Y THEATRE COMPANY
PRESENTS THE
4TH ANNUAL WOMEN IN THEATRE FESTIVAL
Playwright Gina Femia Photo credit: Jody Christopherson
JUNE 5-30 @ A.R.T./NEW YORK THEATRES
Project Y Theatre Company will present the fourth annual Women in Theatre Festival, a festival of new work written and created by women, June 5-30 at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019). Tickets ($15-$27) are available for advance purchase at https://witfestival.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006.
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.
Three Musketeers: 1941
A commissioned World Premiere by Megan Monaghan Rivas
Co-Directed by Michole Biancosino & Andrew W. Smith
June 5-29 
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!”
Sleeping Beauty
A commissioned World Premiere by Amina Henry
June 22-30, Saturdays & Sundays @ 12pm & 3pm (only 1 show on Sunday, June 30 at 12pm)
You know the old story: A beautiful princess (what’s her name?) is pricked by a spindle and cursed to sleep until awakened by the kiss of a prince (of course). This new take on a classic fairytale features a prince who prefers baking to waking sleeping beauties and a princess who likes fighting with swords rather than sitting pretty. Prince Rocky and his sister, Princess Jewel, set out on a quest to save the sleeping Princess Rosamond together. Along the way they battle fire birds, trick a troll and meet other famous fairytale siblings. In Amina Henry’s feminist remaking of Sleeping Beauty, the power of love is tested and the bonds of friendship prove stronger than magic. With music, dancing, and singing. For all ages – but especially for 6-13-year old’s and their families.
Argument Sessions
Written & Directed by Ilana Becker
Friday, June 7, Tuesday, June 11 & Wednesday, June 19 @ 7:30pm
Argument Sessions, weaves a verbatim US Supreme Court argument transcript with variety theatre, stripping away the austerity of the court room and evoking a party where bare-bones spectacle, individual incitement, and nonpartisan empathy can meet and mingle.
The Hrosthwitha Project
Adaptations of Calimachus
Written by Eliza Bent, Susan Bradbeer, Antu Yacob, Laura Pittenger, Kaaron Briscoe Minefee & Kelley Nicole Girod
Sunday, June 16 & Saturday, June 22 @ 7:30pm
Aimed at reclaiming and celebrating the history of women in theatre, these plays are commissioned adaptations of a play by the first woman playwright, 10th century abbess, Hrosthwitha of Gandersham. This is part of a 5-year project to adapt all 6 of these historical plays and bring more awareness to this unknown female writer who deserves a place in theatre history.
Fall Risk
Written by Dana Jacks, Directed by Michael Padden
Wednesday, June 12 @ 7:30pm
Imagine waking up to start your day, but instead finding yourself in Intensive Care, monitors beeping, body broken and mind desperate for answers. Sounds like the prelude to a nightmare – until you learn it’s real. Fall Risk is about the risks we take every day of our lives and the people who show up for us when we need them the most. Dana will follow the show with an excerpt from her newest work in progress!
Rise/Fall
Written and Directed by Sheila Bandyopadhyay
Wednesday, June 26 @ 7:30pm
Set in the near distant future on an environmentally ravaged earth, Rise/Fall reinvents the classic tale of “Leda and the Swan” as a living meditation on art, celebrity culture and the universal human need for connection. Rise/Fall is a dystopian art rock fantasy combining movement, music, text and media. www.sheilabnyc.com/risefall
The Violet Sisters
A reading of the play by Gina Femia
Sunday, June 23 @ 7:30pm
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Pam comes home to Brooklyn to attend her father’s funeral. When she arrives, she is greeted by an angry sister, a dilapidated house and a past that she can’t escape. Despite all of her best intentions, the conversation quickly turns tense and the two sisters are forced to deal with all that they have let slip away, all the words that have been left unsaid for years. The Violet Sisters is a play about forgiving when you cannot bring yourself to forget.
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.
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