#violet plunkett

[fandomlife-confessions]

[wafflesandd1ck]

Okay, long rant. Let's go!

Coming from the real world perspective of the child of recovering alcoholic mother.

Violet has every right to be pissed at her mom for how she grew up.

are her outlets healthy? No.

Did she have the right to humiliate her mother in front of thousands on her podcast? Absolutely not, that was a dick move.

Christy has canonically:

Drove drunk with her kids in the car.

Dealt drugs to pay her bills and invited addicts into her house, around her children.

Neglected her children to the point that Violet had to cook all of her little brothers meals, help him with homework, and showed up to parent teacher conferences to keep track of his grades. She was barely 15 and was raising her brother because Christy was too loaded to lift a finger.

Violet had to help nurse Christy through her drunk/hangover multiple times and would have to listen to her mom trauma dump in between puking.

Watched Christy divorce roscoes dad, Baxter, because she was too drunk to work on their marriage. Baxter would then trauma dump about the divorce to violet.

Countless times mentioned in the series where Violet talks about selling her stuff to bail Christy out of jail.

SHe lies to violet for years about who her father is and reveals in anger that no only is he abusive, but he's also dead. (He is not dead. Christy lied to make Violet stop looking for him)

Christy got so drunk that she forgot to pay rent on their apartment and had to make her kids help her "midnight dash" to skip paying the back due amount.

CONSTANTLY plays the high and mighty, "I'm better than you" card against violets decisions.

CONSTANTLY puts her AA friends on a much higher priority than her own kids!!

When the series starts, Violet is 16, and Christy has only been sober for 6 months to a year.

She's trying really hard to step back into that mom roll with violet, but violet has been playing mom and head of the house for almost 5 years at this point.

Speaking from my experience, I have gone through all of this. Raising your siblings and being the stand in adult because your parent just dosent want to be a parent, then suddenly one day says "okay I'm ready to parent now and you will listen to me and respect me and forget all of the trauma I WILLINGLY put you through because talking about it MAKES ME UNCOMFORTABLE. "

Knee jerk reaction is gonna be the biggest, fattest "FUCK. YOU."

You don't get to just step in and talk down to me when I've been doing YOUR jobs for years and RAISING your child.

You chose the alcohol. You chose to neglect us. You chose to be miserable and drink. You chose this. I didn't choose to pick up your slack. I had to step into that roll..and now you're telling me, "You're too young to talk back to me!"

So which is it?

I'm too young to talk back BUT old enough to bail you out of jail?

Either way, you're a shit selfish parent that traumatized me, directly and secondhand, because you just refused to be a damn parent and handle your shit.

Violet has EVERY right to be angry. Violet has ever right to go no contact with Christy. Violet has every right to talk about her experience with an addict parent and being forced to grow up to fast.

Violet has every right because SHE WAS A CHILD.

I don't understand this weird hatred twoards violet. She's a traumatized teenager with no sense of safety or security with the adults in her life.

Violet spirals for a long time:

Drugs and drinking every night

Cheating

Teenage pregnancy

Dating men waayy over her age limit. (19 and 30 if memory serves, she was sleeping with her college professor)

Clinging to any kind of affection or attention that men show her.

Suicidal ideation

Starting fights over nothing with the people she loves (in earlier seasons, she was doing this once per episode)

Moving in and out and in and out of her moms house, panicking at the first sign of conflict and running.

A lot of these traits can closely, if not directly, be tied to PTSD symptoms, and they don't stop, with violet character, until she goes NC with Christy and Bonnie.

Christy is shocked that violet wants nothing to do with her because "that was so long ago. I'm better now."

Ok and? The tree remembers what the axe forgets.

Christy feels entitled to violet forgiveness and wants to make her move on for HER OWN closure. Not because she actually cares about the damage she did to violet psyche.

Why should Violet thank Christy for giving her space? That's just honoring boundaries.

As for Bonnie. Christy is a massive hypocrite. She CONSTANTLY digs at Bonnie's shit parenting and how Bonnie's addictions ruined her life.

Constantly talks about Bonnie's massive parenting fuck ups for pity when she makes mistakes, the gambling arc for example, where christy literally gambles away the diamond earrings less then 24 hours after her friends and Bonnie, scrimped saved and fought to get for her?

Buuuttt.. When Violet does it, she's a stuck-up brat?

When Violet does it, she's just being dramatic and needs to move on?

Am I the only who’s so so fucking pissed at Violet for treating her mother like shit for things Christy did in the past and regrets it now? Christy tried so hard to make amends with Violet, even respecting Violet’s wishes and giving her space for a YEAR.

And how does Violet thank her? By making a podcast that humiliates Christy and brings up crap that happened in the past. Violet needs to move the fuck on and grow up, Christy is trying her best to change herself and grow.

It also pisses me off That Bonnie did nothing to defend Christy or tell Violet the past is the past and she needs to let it go. I know it’s a good thing she values her positive role in Violet’s life but she should use that position to talk to Violet about forgiving Christy and letting go of the toxic anger she hangs onto for ammo. 

[piperslovebot]

Violet: *finds out her dad was abusive to her mom*

Violet: I want to hear his side of the story.

[identity-library]

Mental Health (TV Shows)

A:

Alladin (1994)

Mechanicles (Low Vision)

B:

Big City Greens (2018)

Alice Green (Phobia - Snakes)

C:

Chicago Med (2015)

Jason Wheeler (Addiction - Alcohol/Drugs, Suicidal Ideation)

D:

Dead End: Paranormal Park (2022)

Barney Guttman (Abuse)

Norma Khan (Anxiety)

Dirty God (2019)

Jade (Abuse)

Doom Patrol (2019)

Kay Challis/Crazy Jane (Abuse, DID)

E:

Empire (2015)

Andre Lyon (Bipolar Disorder)

ER (1994)

John Carter (Addiction - Drugs)

Euphoria (2019)

Jules Vaughn (Depression)

F:

G:

Get Ed (2005)

Loogie (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

Glee (2009)

Emma Pillsbury (OCD)

Grey's Anatomy (2005)

Amelia Shepherd (Addiction - Drugs)

Andrew DeLuca (Bipolar Disorder)

Charlotte King (Addiction - Drugs)

Jo Wilson (Depression, PTSD)

Miranda Bailey (OCD)

Owen Hunt (PTSD)

Richard Webber (Addiction - Alcohol)

H:

Happy Tree Friends (1999)

Flippy (PTSD)

Petunia (OCD, Phobia - Germs)

Hazbin Hotel (2024)

Angel Dust (Addiction - Drugs)

House (2004)

Gregory House (Addiction - Drugs)

I:

Inside Job (2021)

Andre Lee (Addiction, Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

Reagan Ridley (Trauma)

J:

Jessica Jones (2015)

Jessica Jones (Addiction - Alcohol, PTSD)

K:

L:

Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003)

Clyde (Kleptomania)

M:

M*A*S*H (1972)

Benjamin-Frankling "Hawkeye" Pierce (Claustrophobia)

Mom (2013)

Bonnie Plunkett (Addiction - Alcohol/Drugs)

Christy Plunkett (Addiction - Alcohol/Gambling)

Marjorie Armstrong (Addiction - Alcohol)

Ray Stabler (Addiction - Drugs)

Regina Tompkins (Addiction - Drugs)

Moon Knight (2022)

Marc Spector/Moon Knight (Autistic, Dissociative Identity Disorder)

N:

NCIS: Los Angeles (2009)

Alex Kilbride (Addiction - Substances, Depression)

NCIS: New Orleans (2014)

Patton Plame (Addiction - Gambling)

New Amsterdam (2018)

Lauren Bloom (Addiction - Drugs)

New Girl (2011)

Ernie "Coach" Tagliaboo (Phobia - Boats)

Jessica Day (Claustrophobia, Phobia - Tight Spaces)

Winston Bishop (Panic Attacks)

O:

P:

Person of Interest (2011)

Harold Finch (Anxiety, PTSD)

Private Practice (2007)

Violet Turner (PTSD)

Q:

R:

Roswell, New Mexico (2019)

Alex Manes (Abuse, PTSD)

S:

Station 19 (2018)

Jack Gibson (PTSD)

Robert Sullivan (Addiction - Drugs)

Sean Beckett (Addiction - Alcohol)

Stumptown (2019)

Dex Parios (PTSD)

T:

The Healing Powers of Dude (2020)

Noah Ferris (Anxiety Disorder)

The Infinity Train (2019)

Simon Laurent (Abuse, NPD, PTSD)

The Lion Guard (2016)

Ono (Phobia - Bats)

The Magicians (2015)

Eliot Waugh (Abuse, Addiction - Alcohol)

The Prodigal Son (2019)

Malcolm Bright (Night Terrors, PTSD)

The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy (2024)

Dr. Klak (Anxiety)

The Simpsons (1989)

Abe Simpson || (Dementia, PTSD)

Artie Ziff (Narcissism)

Bart Simpson (PTSD)

Carl Carlson (Schizophrenia)

Clancy Bouvier (PTSD)

Gary Chalmers (Aerophobia, Anxiety, Borderline Personality Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder)

Gloria Prince (Kleptomania)

Homer Simpson (Kleptomania, PTSD)

Lisa Simpson (Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD)

Marge Simpson (OCD)

Ned Flanders (OCD)

Nigel (Anxiety)

Richard "Rich" Texan (OCD)

Seymour Skinner (PTSD)

Shauna Chalmers (Intermittent Explosive Disorder, ODD)

Snake Jailbird (Kleptomania)

Willie (Intermittent Explosive Disorder)

Total Drama (Franchise)

David "Dave" (Anxiety

Jay (Anxiety, Phobias)

Mickey (Anxiety, Phobias)

Mike (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

Sam (Addiction)

Shawn (Anxiety)

U:

V:

W:

X:

Y:

Z:

#:

9-1-1 (2018)

Robert "Bobby" Nash (Addiction - Alcohol)

Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz (Anxiety, PTSD)

Evan "Buck" Buckley (PTSD)

Christopher "Chris" Diaz (PTSD)

Maddie Buckley (Postpartum Depression, PTSD)

9-1-1: Lone Star (2020)

Judson "Judd" Ryder (Grief, PTSD)

Tyler Kennedy "TK" Strand (Addiction - Alcohol)

[elliesattlers]

@kathbigelow: I truly don't know how to get this into a message you can answer [grandma emoji] but, assuming someone else says TWW: FNL and... Mom lol.

THE WEST WING

my favorite female character: c.j. cregg is my mother, my child, and my moral guide my favorite male character: toby ziegler my favorite book/season/etc.: s3 but s4 is almost tied my favorite episode: 100,000 airplanes or evidence of things not seen my favorite cast member: janney my favorite ship: c.j./toby a character i'd die defending: i feel like people hate amy gardner? i would kill for amy gardner a character i just can't sympathize with: iiii don't like lord john marbury a character i grew to love: kate harper if we’re talking like throughout her arc on the show, donna moss in terms of a character i just never really gave a shit about until i rewatched in full last fall for the first time in a decade and genuinely /cared/ about her my anti-otp: i’ve shouted about this a bit recently in various places to various people and not to be dramatic but season 7 white house chief of staff c.j. cregg settling for danny concannon is truly character assassination levels of absurd. i’m not completely immune to some of their flirting early on and i don’t hate their cat & mouse routine around the shareef stuff in s4, NOR do i begrudge her the comfort fucking after leo dies however!!! the hot dog cart lunch fight in "institutional memory" should have been the END of it and the contrast in emotional heft and stakes between the scene at toby's apartment ("we had it good there for a while") and the scene at danny's ("i want to talk because i like the sound of your voice") is... embarrassing? we don't have TIME to get into the additional contributing mortifying layers of that c.j./toby scene ("it's not a gift, i need a drink"!!!!!) and debora cahn is obviously good @ writing, but yikes i hate it and s7 danny is very awful and c.j. deserved better than having a baby??? with him at age 50??? in california it's just not realistic dot gif.

MOM

my favorite female character: very genuinely love bonnie plunkett and the Acting that janney does on this dumb half-hour multicam is at times frankly stunning (and at other times just insane)! my favorite male character: there aren’t men on this show literally almost at all my favorite book/season/etc.: watched 6.5 seasons in 2 weeks so i have no idea but i feel like things started to gel around s4? my favorite episode: uhhhh the one where they drive to canada to get the maple syrup or the one where bonnie talks to dream jesus after alvin dies or the one where bonnie and tammy make amends to their foster mom, i cried at all of those my favorite cast member: other than the obvious, i love anna faris a lot my favorite ship: i do like bonnie and adam and i did cry when she gave him the dog and i also did cry when they got married at the bar a character i'd die defending: i'm not gonna die defending anyone on a cbs chuck lorre sitcom, but i will die defending my right to watch and love the cbs chuck lorre sitcom mom a character i just can't sympathize with: violet and roscoe are both insufferable a character i grew to love: jill! you were right! my anti-otp: christy/nate corddry, anyone/chef rudy, baxter/sara rue just in general being there

[nobleglassware]

How PTFE, FEP and PFA are different from one another?

 The most well-known and widely used fluoroplastics are PTFE, FEP, and PFA. But what exactly are their distinctions? Learn why fluoropolymers are so special, and which fluoroplastic is best suited to your purpose.

The properties of fluoroplastics:

Fluoropolymers have various distinct features that make them suitable for usage in a variety of applications, including medical, residential, electrical, & automotive.

Noble Glass Works is the leading manufacturer & supplier of PTFE Lined Sight Flow Indicators in Gujarat, India.

The properties of Fluoroplastics are as follows:

●  They can work at significantly high temperatures, ●  They have non-stick properties, ●  They have a low friction surface, ●  They are highly resistant to chemicals, solvents as well as electricity.

Different fluoroplastics have subtle variances, such as varied working temperatures, and are appropriate for various purposes. Fluoropolymers, when used correctly, can provide good economic and performance benefits.

Noble Glass Works is a respected PTFE Lined Ball Valves manufacturer in Gujarat.

1.  PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene):

Polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE, is the forefather of all fluoroplastics. PTFE, discovered by chemist Roy J. Plunkett in 1938, is the most uncommon fluoropolymer and has the best temperature, chemical resistance, and non-stick qualities.

In addition to the unique features of fluoroplastics, PTFE distinguishes itself by offering the following advantages:

● It gives the best price-performance ratio, ●  It can work continuously at 260°C + temperature which is considered to be the highest among any other fluoroplastics, ●  It is resistant to almost all chemicals, ●  It has significantly high non-stick properties that even if a gecko tries to get on, it would slip), ●  It is translucent in colour.

The fundamental disadvantage of PTFE is that it does not melt when heated, making it difficult to process. To mould, extrude, and fuse this fluoropolymer, very unusual procedures are required.

Because of its particular qualities, PTFE is perfect for electrical insulation and electronic component protection.

Noble Glass Works is an excellent and well-known PTFE lined ball valve manufacturer in India.

2.  FEP (Fluoroethylenepropylene):

The melt-processable form of PTFE is FEP (Fluoroethylenepropylene). FEP has qualities that are quite similar to PTFE, but it has a lower maximum operating temperature of +200°C. FEP, on the other hand, is more easily processed and may be welded and re-moulded into intricate profiles.

FEP has the following advantages in addition to the special features of fluoroplastics:

●  It has a high potential for welding as well as re-moulding, ●  It can nonchalantly operate under temperatures ranging from -200°C to +200°C and under cryogenic temperatures, FEP remains super flexible, ●  It is highly resistant to chemicals and Ultra-violet rays, ●  It is bio-compatible and clear in colour.

Because FEP heat shrink has a low shrink temperature, it can be safely shrunk over temperature-sensitive objects without causing injury. As a result, FEP is an excellent material for encapsulating delicate electrical components and instruments.

Noble Glass Works is one of the most popular and distinguished PTFE high pressure bellows manufacturers in India.

3.  PFA (Perfluoralkoxy):

Perfluoralkoxy, or PFA, is a high-temperature variant of FEP. PFA has similar qualities to FEP but, due to its lower melt viscosity than PTFE, may be employed at working temperatures of up to +260°C while remaining melt-processable.

In addition to the unique features of fluoropolymers, PFA distinguishes itself by offering the following advantages:

●  It can continuously work at 260°C+ temperature just as PTFE, ●  It has a high potential for welding as well as re-moulding, ●  It has good resistance to permeability, ●  It is highly resistant to chemicals even while working at high temperatures, ●  It is bio-compatible and has a clear colour.

PFA's primary disadvantage is that it is more expensive than PTFE and FEP.

PFA is appropriate for applications requiring a higher purity grade, superior chemical resistance, and a high working temperature. This fluoroplastic is commonly utilised in medical tubing, heat exchangers, semi-conductor baskets, pumps and fittings, valve liners, and valve liners.

[lievmultimuses1]

Who do you write for from the show mom

Hi nonnie i write: 

Bonnie Punkett

Christy Plunkett

Violet Plunkett

[356mission]

List of artists who have participated in exhibitions at 356 Mission: 2013 Laura Owens Math Bass Mike Bouchet Sarah Braman Sara Clendening Barry Johnston Kricket Lane Daniel McDonald Pentti Monkkonen Matt Paweski Jennifer Rochlin Colin Snapp Jessica Stockholder Oscar Tuazon Daniel Turner Amy Yao Eric Palgon Yshai Yudekovitz Nicholas Arehart Bridget Batch + Kevin Cooley Danielle Bustillo Joey Cannizzaro Jamie Hilder Meghan Gordon Becca Lieb Mindy Lu David Sikander Muenzer Bryne Rasmussen-Smith + Andrew Smith-Rasmussen Tatiana Vahan Sturtevant Shimon Minamikawa 2014 John Kaufman Scott Reeder Oliver Payne Yuki Kimura Alex Katz Michael Dopp, Calvin Marcus, and Isaac Resnikoff Trevor Shimizu Becca Albee Brody Albert and Kaeleen Wescoat-O'Neill Lilly Aldriedge Katie Aliprando Mark Allen Dewey Ambrosino Marie Angeletti Eika Aoshima Jonathan Apgar Cory Arcangel Jacinto Astiazaran Lisa Anne Auerbach John Baldessari Judie Bamber Ray Anthony Barrett Peter Barrickman Darcy Bartoletti Math Bass Stephen Berens Jennifer Berger Molly Berman Cindy Bernard Amy Bessone Lucas Blalock Seth Bogart Jennifer Bolande Joseph Bolstad Elba Bondaroff Marco Braunschweiler Brian Bress Brian Briggs and Laura Copelin Delia Brown Sally Bruno Edgar Bryan Elizabeth Bryant Jedediah Caesar Jedediah Caesar and Kate Costello (Extraterrestrial) Sarah Cain Kristin Calabrese Ingrid Calame Ross Caliendo Joshua Callaghan Brian Calvin Andrew Cannon Ben Carlson Jae Choi Milano Chow Donna Chung Jonathan Clarke Sara Clendening Justin Cole Kelly Marie Conder Matt Connors Vanessa Conte Alika Cooper Liz Craft Meg Cranston Cameron Crone CH Cummings Lila De Magalheas Dave Deany Michael Decker Gracie DeVito Michael Dopp Katie Douglass Lauren Dudko Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter Mari Eastman Brad Eberhard Clifford Eberly Shannon Ebner Benjamin Echeverria Ken Ehrlich Alyse Emdur Karl Erickson Ron Ewert Ann Faison Cayetano Ferrer Gabrielle Ferrer Luke Fischbeck Katy Fischer Morgan Fisher Jesse Fleming Maya Ford Simone Forti Brendan Fowler Magdalena Suarez Frimkess Erik Frydenborg Francesca Gabbiani and Eddie Ruscha Nikolas Gambaroff Kathryn Garcia John Geary Veronica Gelbaum Rashell George Laeh Glenn Samara Golden Piero Golia Sayre Gomez Hannah Greely Justin John Greene Cassandre M. Griffin Katie Grinnan Mark Grock Julian Gross Karin Gulbran Jamal Gunn Becker Karl Haendel Mark Hagen Rick Hager Kate Mosher Hall Kevin Hanley Justin Hansch Peter Harkawik Jenny Hart Jeff Hassay Michael Henry Hayden and Anthony Lepore Carol Hendrickson James Herman Nick Herman Roger Herman Marcus Herse Paul Heyer Ian Hokin Evan Holloway Violet Hopkins and Foxy Production Jonathan Horowitz Amy Howden-Chapman Joe Hoyt Melissa Huddleston Cannon Hudson Amy-Claire Huestis Raymie Iadevaia Mitsuko Ikeno Daniel Ingroff Charles Irvin Alex Israel James Iveson Johanna Jackson Dain Johnson Kathleen Johnson Barry Johnston Emily Joyce E'wao Kagoshima Stanya Kahn Glenn Kaino, Sadie Kaino, and Stella Kaino Raffi Kalenderian Sanya Kantarovsky Matt Keegan Michael John Kelly Sean Kennedy Julie Kirkpatrick Karen Kilimnik Tom Knechtel Keith Rocka Knittel Rebecca Kolsrud David Korty Greg Kozaki Max Krivitzky Cyril Kuhn Rosina Kuhn Andrew Kuo Shio Kusaka Joel Kyack Molly Larkey Elad Lassry Tom Lawson William Leavitt Ann Leese Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer Alex Lemke Julia Leonard Anthony Lepore Sharon Lockhart Nick Lowe Tim Lokiec Andrea Longacre-White Anaïs Lozano Christopher Lux Caleb Lyons Matt MacFarland Ashley Macomber Tobias Madison Becca Mann Josh Mannis Chloé Maratta Calvin Steele Marcus Frank Masi Max Maslansky Katie S. McCauley and Bradly D. Fischer Danny McDonald Ross McLain Alex Meadows Jason Meadows Mieko Meguro Dain Mergenthaler Matt Merkel Hess and Conrad Merkel Donato Mezzenga Dianna Molzan Pentti Monkkonen Rebecca Morris Jane Moseley Hanne Mugaas Joshua Nathanson Davida Nemeroff Ruby Neri Ryan O'Halloran Tara Jane O'Neil J.D. Olerud Silke Otto-Knapp Robin Paravecchio and Ignacio Genzon Michael Parker John Parot Jane Parshall Julia Paull Mary Pearson Andrew Hirsch Perlman Jon Pestoni Primo Pitino Todd Pleasants Megan Plunkett Monique Prieto Jon Pylypchuk Chadwick Rantanen Sarah Rara Josh Reames Isaac Resnikoff Michael Rey John Riepenhoff Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs Shelby Roberts Jennifer Rochlin Ry Rocklen Torbjorn Rodland Mark A. Rodriguez Alix Ross & Morgan Ritter Amanda Ross-Ho Amanda Ross-Ho and Erik Frydenborg with Jorge, Mother, and Bud Nancy Sandercock Melinda Sanders Aaron Sandnes Rachelle Sawatsky Asha Schechter Carolee Schneeman Max Schwartz Zach Schwartz John Seal David Benjamin Sherry Peter Shire Flannery Silva Alex Slade Ryan Sluggett Alexis Smith Barbara T. Smith Jen Smith Joe Sola Frances Stark Linda Stark Jason Starr A.L. Steiner LeRoy Stevens Kate Stewart Thaddeus Strode Ricky Swallow Jordyn Sweet Martine Syms Tara Tavi Paul Theriault Amanda Tollefson Beatrice Valenzuela Monique Van Genderen Sigrid Vejvi Mark Verabioff Laura Vitale Erika Vogt Amy Von Harrington Christine Wang Mary Weatherford Michael Webster Benjamin Weissman John Wesley Brica Wilcox Chris Wilder Elise Marie Wille Lisa Williamson Lena Wolek Nate Wolf Jonas Wood Suzanne Wright Aaron Wrinkle Wendy Yao Jason Yates Michael Zahn Bari Ziperstein Jesse Fleming Larry Sultan André-Pierre Arnal Pierre Buraglio Louis Cane Noël Dolla Daniel Dezeuze Christian Jaccard Jean-Michel Meurice Bernard Pagés Jean-Pierre Pincemin Patrick Saytour Claude Viallat 2015 Anna Helm Lisa Lapinski Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda Lisa Anne Auerbach Lucky deBellevue Rochelle Feinstein Dane Johnson Jane Kaplowitz Max Krivitzky Ann Leese Cary Leibowitz Paul McMahon Rob Pruitt Sam Roeck Ruth Root Jason Rosenberg Theo Rosenblum + Chelsea Seltzer Joe Scanlan Lena Wolek Sam Anderson Becca Albee Eric Wesley Ben Vida Katy Fischer Kerry Tribe Graham Lambkin Shahryar Nashat Seth Bogart Nancy Lupo and Molly McFadden Rebecca Morris Gary Indiana 2016 Susan Cianciolo Seth Price Wayne Koestenbaum Lutz Bacher Chris Domenick & Em Rooney Wu Tsang Maggie Lee Eric VVysokan John Seal 2017 Trisha Baga Brian Sharp David Reed Henning Bohl C-Brushammer COBRA Daisuke Fukunaga Naotaka Hiro Ken Kagami Veit Laurent Kurz Soshiro Matsubara Puppies Puppies Stephen G. Rhodes Trevor Shimizu Yosuke Takayama Yuji Agematsu Nancy Arlen Jeremy Anderson Hans Bellmer Bill Bollinger Lee Bontecou Robert Breer Dan Burkhart Cameron Nicolas Ceccaldi Magalie Comeau Tony Conrad Jay DeFeo Michaela Eichwald Agustin Fernandez Terry Fox Ilka Gedő Jean-Léon Gérôme Bill Hayden Matt Hoyt Steve Keister Mike Kelley William Leavitt Lee Lozano Robert Mallary Harold Mendez Henri Michaux Eric Orr Tom Rankin Deborah Remington John Singer Sargent Michael E. Smith Unica Zürn Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon

[newyorktheater]

October is always a busy month for theater in New York, but it’s gone up a notch this time. Below is a selection, organized chronologically by opening date.

On Broadway alone, eight shows are opening this month, an unusually high number, and they’re widely varied: two new plays by dramatists making their Broadway debuts (including one still in school) and two new plays by Pulitzer winning playwrights; a concert by David Byrnes; hip hop improv by the group co-founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda; a musical based on a young adult fantasy novel;  a Tennessee Williams revival starring Marisa Tomei. And that doesn’t even include the latest edition of “Forbidden Broadway,” which encompasses all of Broadway, but will be running (as usual) Off Broadway.

Also Off-Broadway Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, and Christian Borle are returning to New York — all in the same show, a revival of “Little Shop of Horrors.”  A new musical by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori is opening at the Public; Thomas Kail (the Hamilton director who is helming the improv show  on Broadway) is directing “The Wrong Man” starring Joshua Henry at MCC; Repertorio Espanol has adapted Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer winning novel for the stage.

Given what’s happening in the news, it shouldn’t be too surprising that there are two different versions of Macbeth opening this month, plus any number of plays about politics… and politicians — Brian Cox as LBJ and Harvey Fierstein as Rep. Bella Abzug.

The New York International Fringe Festival, which moved last year from August to October,  is in this second go-round in the new month seriously pared down to 40 shows (from the usual 200), but that’s still intimidating.

The Fringe shows are not the only out-there shows running in October. There is an immersive version of Sondheim’s “Into The Woods” and a show at BAM with a cast of 100 that has a runtime of 24 hours.

Each title below is linked to a relevant website.

Color key: Broadway: Red. Off Broadway: Purple, blue or black. Off Off Broadway: Green.Theater festival: Orange.Puppetry: Brown. Immersive: Magenta.

October 1

The Great Society (Vivian Beaumont)

A follow-up to Robert Schenkkan’s play “All The Way, this one follows President Lyndon B. Johnson (this time starring Brian Cox) during his presidency from his election until his resignation.

Dublin Carol (Irish Rep)

In this play by Conor McPherson, John Plunkett is haunted by memories of a shameful past and shattered life. On Christmas Eve, an unexpected visit from his estranged daughter, Mary, forces John to confront his demons and grapple with his chance at redemption.

October 2

Freestyle Love Supreme (Booth)

The hip-hop improv show co-founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda comes to Broadway

The New Englanders (MTC)

In Jeff Augustin’s play, Eisa wants to be the next Lauryn Hill and is struggling to break free of her sleepy New England town where she feels hopelessly trapped. Her fathers are being pulled in different directions of their own.

October 3

Fringe BYOV

The New York International Fringe Festival has been pared down from its first two decades. That still leaves 40 shows, but, unlike previous years, none have been adjudicated. Following the Edinburgh model, any company could put on a show. The BYOV means Bring Your Own Venue; the idea was to present theater in all five boroughs,  but only one of the six venues this year is outside Manhattan. Irondale in Brooklyn features four shows, including  Savana Glacial (pictured above) a dark comedy about a love triangle written by the most celebrated living contemporary Brazilian playwrights, Jô Bilac;  The Four of Us, a revival of the 2007 play by Itamar Moses (The Band’s Visit); and Update, by MAD LAB, an immersive performance-ritual using music, dance, theater, creative technology, and installation art

October 6

Slave Play (Golden)

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation — or so it initially seems, with three interracial couples engaging in sexual gamesmanship. My review of the play Off-Broadway

October 7

Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons)

Set in Wyoming a week after the deadly 2017 Charlottesville riot, the new play sees four young conservatives reunite for a backyard barbecue in Wyoming. Written by Will Arbery (“Plano”)

October 9

The Wrong Man (MCC)

With book, music and lyrics by Ross Golan, direction by Thomas Kail (Hamilton), this musical is set in Reno, Nevada, and tells the story of Duran (Joshua Henry), a man just scraping by who is framed for a murder he didn’t commit,

October 10

Linda Vista (Second Stage’s Hayes)

In Tracy Letts’ play, Wheeler is a 50-year-old divorcee in the throes of a mid-life spiral. Just out of his ex-wife’s garage and into a place of his own, Wheeler starts on a path toward self-discovery—navigating blind dates, old friends, and new love.

Terra Firma (Baruch)

Years after a conflict known as the Big War,  a tiny kingdom wrestles with the problems of running a nation

October 12

The Pout Pout Fish (New Victory)

A new musical based on the best-selling children’s book series. After everyone’s favorite frowny fishie tries to glimpse his reflection in Ms. Clam’s mystical pearl, both Pout-Pout and the pearl are suddenly swept out to sea!

The Unbrunch

Explore Wonderland on five floors of a building in “a secret location in Chelsea”

  October 15

The Rose Tattoo (Roundabout’s American Airlines)

Marisa Tomei stars in a revival of Tennessee Williams’ play about Serafina, a widow, who rekindles her desire for love, lust, and life in the arms of a fiery suitor

Soft Power (Public)

An odd and hilarious fever dream imagining an American musical as created by theatermakers in a future dominant Chinese society, created by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home; Violet; Caroline, or Change)

Scotland, PA (Roundabout’s Laura Pels)

A new musical adaptation of Billy Morrissette’s 2001 film riffing on Macbeth, set in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, involving the manager of a burger joint and his ambitious wife.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Repertorio Espanol)

Marco Antonio Rodríguez adapts the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Junot Diaz about Oscar, a naive “nerd” from New Jersey who has finally left the grips of his imposing Dominican mother and is attending his first semester of college at Rutgers with his rebellious sister.  He has big dreams, but feats he won’t get them because of the “fukú”—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations. In Spanish with English subtitles.

October 16

The Lightning Thief (Longacre)

Director Stephen Brackett (“A Strange Loop”) and book writer Joe Tracz bring Rick Riordan’s bestselling young-adult fantasy novel to Broadway. My review when it was Off-Broadway

  Forbidden Broadway The Next Generation (The Triad)

After a five year absence, Gerard Alessandrini is back, roasting everything you’ve seen on Broadway since the last edition of Forbidden Broadway.

Last Audience (New York Live Arts)

“A live laboratory for the communal work of conjuring…comprised of a set of unique scores written for each performance.” This is free with a RSVP, but you consent to being filmed. There is also a free public meal before each performance.

October 17

The Sound Inside (Studio 54)

Mary-Louise Parker stars in this play by Adam Rapp: A brilliant Ivy League professor, a mysterious student and a troubling favor.

Little Shop of Horrors (West Side Theater)

Seymour is a down-on-his-luck florist with a crush on his co-worker Audrey. When he discovers a mysterious – and voracious – plant, suddenly Seymour and Audrey are thrust into an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire human race. A revival hard to argue with, given that its cast includes Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, Christian Borle

Into the Woods 

Rooftop Musical Society immersive version of Sondheim’s fractured fairytale, unfolding on two floors of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “Audience members might find themselves having a drink at the tavern with the witch (who raps!), buying some bread (or sweets) from the Baker and his wife, helping Jack sell his cow for magic beans, trying on Cinderella’s gold slipper, or flirting with royalty.”

October 18

All Hallows Eve (Connolly)

A new horror musical using puppetry about twins bored with Halloween who are confronted by a demoness. Comic, bloody and “definitely not for young children.”

The Second Woman (BAM)

An only-at-BAM kind of show. Over a period of 24 hours, one woman and 100 men repeat the same scene 100 times, with different results. It’s inspired by Cassavetes’ meta-theatrical 1977 film Opening Night. Stay as little or as long as you want.

October 20

David Byrne’s American Utopia (Hudson)

A stage adaptation of David Byrne’s 2018 album

Games (Soho Playhouse)

Based on a true story and set in 1936, Berlin, where Jewish athlete Helene Mayer is selected for the Nazis’ Olympic Squad.

The Independents (The Theater Center)

Playwright Christopher Ward imagines the stormy relationship between young American artist Mary Cassatt and great French master Edgar Degas.

October 21

Power Strip (Lincoln Center) 

In this new play by Sylvia Khoury, Yasmin, a young Syrian refugee, spends her days tethered to an electric power strip in a Greek refugee camp, discovering that she must forget everything she values in order to survive.

October 22

For Colored Girls….(Public)

A revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enough,” an unlikely Tony-nominated  hit on Broadway in 1976 that Shange (who died last October) called a “choreopoem.” It tells the stories of seven black women using poetry, song, and movement.

Bella Bella (Manhattan Theater Club)

Harvey Fierstein stars as Bella Abzug in a solo-play he’s written set in 1976, on the eve of her bid to become New York State’s first female Senator,

Is This A Room? (Vineyard)

A play based on verbatim FBI transcripts of the interrogation of 25-year-old former Air Force linguist named Reality Winner. She surprised at her home by the FBI, interrogated, and then charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in U.S elections. Reality remains in jail with a record-breaking sentence.

October 23

What If They Went To Moscow (BAM)

Based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters,but experimental with audience reactions to two different media. Two audiences in different BAM theaters watch the live performance of the show — one on stage, the other as a film — and then switch at intermission.

October 26

Cole Porter at the York

Panama Hattie (York)

A revival of Cole Porter’s 1940’s hit, in which a brassy nightclub owner must bid for the approval of her fiancé’s family

October 27

Macbeth (CSC)

Corey Stoll and Nadia Bowers star in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

The Michaels (The Public)

Richard Nelson, best-known for his multi-part, low key, in real time family sagas The Apple Family plays and The Gabriels:Election Year in the Life of One Family, brings us another one. In the kitchen belonging Rose Michael, a celebrated choreographer, she and those around her cook dinner, rehearse modern dances, eat and talk — about art, death, family, dance, politics, and the state of America. The seven-member cast includes Nelson regulars Jay O. Sanders and Maryann Plunkett.

Monsoon Season (Rattlestick)

In this “brutally demented romantic comedy” by Lizzie Vieh, it’s monsoon season in Phoenix, Arizona, and recently separated couple Danny and Julia are spiraling into chaos.

October 28

Seared (MCC)

Theresa Rebeck’s play about a talented by temperamental chef who scores a big mention in the press for his signature scallops,  but, much to the frustration of his business partner, refuses to repeat himself for the masses. Cast includes Raul Esparza and Krysta Rodriguez

October 29

The Hope Hypothesis (Sheen)

A black comedy by Cat Miller about an immigrant from Syria and a law student who goes to get her green card and gets caught into the maze of immigration hysteria.

October 30

Hamnet (BAM)

Irish theater company Dead Centre, inspired by Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of 11, creates a play about a boy searching for his father

October 2019 New York Theater Openings October is always a busy month for theater in New York, but it's gone up a notch this time.

[gossipnetwork-blog]

Anna Faris & Allison Janney Can Hardly Believe That Mom Is Turning 100

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/anna-faris-allison-janney-can-hardly-believe-that-mom-is-turning-100/

Anna Faris & Allison Janney Can Hardly Believe That Mom Is Turning 100

It may routinely rank in the top 20 TV shows week after week, but as Mom hits 100 episodes, its stars Anna Faris and Allison Janney are still marveling at the fact that the show ever made it this far.

Ahead of the CBS’ comedy’s big milestone episode, airing Thursday, Feb. 1, E! News caught up with the dynamic duo as they celebrated the occasion, and the funny ladies made it clear that they never really thought this day would come.

“100 episodes! It’s an extraordinary milestone for us because every year, we hope and pray that we get renewed for another season,” Janney told us on the red carpet. “Every season, it was a nail-biter for us.”

CBS

“The first season, I was terrified about getting picked up, so I was like, ‘Hey, what are our chances? I don’t understand this world. Do we get any clues? Do we get any hints,'” Faris, whose performance as recovering alcoholic Christy Plunkett marked her first foray into series regular television, admitted. “[One of our producers] was like, ‘I’m going to be talking to you at season five.'”

As TV legend Chuck Lorre, who co-created the series alongside Gemma Baker and Eddie Gorodetsky, told us, despite his many years at the helm of successful sitcoms, he didn’t approach Mom with any certainty that it would see this day. “You’re just trying to make the best show you can at the moment. And then the next week, you try and make that one the best show you can do at that time,” he explained. “And then you look up and five years have gone by and you’ve made a hundred of them.”

Over the course of the past five seasons, Mom has morphed from a sorta-family comedy centered around Faris’ Christy as she navigated being a single mom to daughter Violet (Sadie Calvano) and son Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal) as she embraced her recovery and welcomed her estranged mother Bonnie (Janney), who’s a recovering addict herself, back into her life into a richer exploration of recovery and female friendship, as Christy’s family was phased out and Mimi Kennedy, Beth Hall and Jaime Pressly became series regulars as Bonnie and Christy’s AA pals Marjorie, Wendy and Jill, respectively. The dedication to the subject matter—and willingness to get dark when necessary—as well as the current cast comprised of women of a certain age has earned the show praise in recent years, and it’s also what’s kept its stars excited about coming to work 100 episodes later.

“I’m so thrilled because it’s one of my favorite jobs. There’s nothing better to me, as an actor, than having a steady job. Getting to show up to work every day with people you love to work with,” Janney gushed. “I couldn’t be prouder of what the show tackles and [am] so happy that we’re celebrating this moment tonight.”

When asked about her favorite things about the job, Faris started with some praise for her two-time Emmy Award-winning (for this role) co-star. “My co-star, Allison Janney. I love her so much. I’m so lucky I get to work with her,” she said. “And also this group of incredibly talented women. We have the most brilliant writers. I love performing live. It’s terrifying, I feel my whole body start to shake before we’re about to go.”

As for what Janney loves about her TV daughter, she admitted it was Faris’ willingness to take the lead. “She’d probably say something diferent than me, but for me it’s her heart and her generosity and her kindness and her work ethic,” she told us. “I like that she leads and gives speeches to the crew. I love that she’s leader and I’m just there like, ‘How can I help you, my queen?'”

For more from the trio, including what Lorre thought when his leading ladies came in to read for the pilot, be sure to check out the video above!

Mom airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.

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[christinaepilzauthor-blog]

George William Russell (AE) - Writer, Painter, Philosopher, Social Activist

by Arthur Russell

 George William Russell was born in the rural townland of Drumgor, near the town of Lurgan, Co Armagh, Northern Ireland on April 10th 1867 to Thomas Elias Russell and Mary (nee Armstrong). He was baptized in the nearby Shankill church. He was the youngest of three children; a brother Thomas Samuel who was 3 years older and sister Mary Elizabeth, who was one year older. When he was 11 years old, the family moved to Dublin to allow father Thomas to take up a new job in a brewery. George was sent to the Metropolitan School of Art where he befriended the principal teacher's son, William Butler Yeats, who was destined to become the brightest light of the Irish Literary revival as well as a future Nobel prize winner for literature.

When George was 17, the Russell family was dealt a severe blow with the death of his sister Mary Elizabeth. The poignant poem "A Memory" gives indication of how her death affected him, and was an early indication of his writing talent.

You remember dear together 


Two children you and I 


Sat once in the Autumn weather

Watching the Autumn sky

There was someone around us straying 


The whole of the long day through 


Who seemed to say, "I am playing 


At hide and seek with you"

And one thing after another

Was whispered out of the air

How God was a great big brother

Whose home is everywhere

His light like a smile comes glancing

Through the cool winds as they pass

From the flowers in heaven dancing

To the stars that shine in the grass

The heart of the wise was beating

Sweet sweet in our hearts that day

And many a thought came fleeting

And fancies solemn and gay

We were grave in our ways divining 


How childhood was taking wings 


And the wonderful world was shining 


With vast eternal things.

His Cooperative Work

After leaving Art School, where he developed his painting skills, but obviously not enough to consider taking up painting as a full time profession capable of giving him an income, he went to work in his father's employer's brewery. Later he became a clerk in Pim's drapery store in Dublin, where he was earning 60 pounds sterling per annum by the time he resigned to join the budding Irish Cooperative and Credit Union movements at the invitation of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) founder, Sir Horace Plunkett.  His first job with IAOS was as Banks Organiser, but his writing ability soon saw him contributing to and then editing the Society's magazine The Irish Homestead which later merged with The Irish Statesman. He had a strong social sense and threw himself wholeheartedly into the development of the Cooperative movement as a means of supporting the economic development and market integration of emergent small holder proprietors that the various Land Purchase Acts were creating all over Ireland at the time. His cooperative work brought him to every part of Ireland, most of which still had searing and recent memories of famine and eviction which were seen as outcomes of the centuries old landlord system of land ownership in Ireland.

He edited the IAOS publication until 1930, which provided him with an outlet to display his writing talents as well as giving him a facility to mix the practical with the visionary (the vision and the dream). His boyhood experience as the son of a small holder farming community in Armagh helped him to provide well grounded technical advice to his farmer readers, at the same time giving him opportunity to outline philosophical thoughts on what the social and political future for his rural readers might be. He was sought after as a speaker lecturer not only in Ireland, but also in the United Kingdom and pre and post Depression era United States of the 1920's and 1930's.  

After his death in England in 1935, his body was returned to Dublin and lay in state for a day in Plunkett House, headquarters of IAOS, before it was brought to Mount Jerome cemetery for burial.

His Literary Work

Cover of AE's first publication (1894) Drawing by the author

His first book of poems, Homeward: Songs by the Way, published in 1894, established George William Russell as one of the leading lights of the Irish Literary Revival. His friend W B Yeats considered this little book as one of the most important literary offerings of the day.

The Origin of His Pseudonym "AE"

As his literary reputation grew he adopted the pseudonym "AE", derived from the word Aeon. This is a gnostic term used to describe the first created being. The story is told that his printer had difficulty deciphering Russell's handwriting and could only discern the first two letters of the 4 letter word in his manuscript. When asked to clarify the remaining two letters of the word, Russell decided not to add to what had already been composited by the printer and thereafter used AE to sign off on all subsequent offerings.  His mystic disposition had earlier caused him to join the small Theosophist movement in Dublin for several years, but he left after the death of its founder, Madame Blavatsky. While living there he met his future wife, Violet North and married her in 1897. The couple lived for some time in Coulson Avenue where they were neighbours to Maude Gonne and Count and Countess Markiewicz.

He was an active member and contributor to the Irish Literary Society, which was founded by his friend W B Yeats and others. The early moving force for the literary movement was the writings of Standish O'Grady who looked at Ireland's romantic past for inspiration. On reading O'Grady, Russell was moved to write "one suddenly feels ancient memories rushing at him and knows he was born in a royal house - it was the memory of race which rose up within me."

His Theatrical Work

Yeats and Russell shared a passion for the theatre and together they formed the National Theatre Company, later called the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Yeats was President, Russell Vice-President and among the Committee members were Maud Gonne and the Gaelic language scholar and later first President of the Republic of Ireland, Douglas Hyde. Russell's play Deirdre is credited to have been the spark that set the Irish dramatic movement alight. Not only did he write the play, he also designed the costumes in its first production. His brilliant but eccentric personality contributed mightily to the evolving Irish literary revival, which is popularly referred to as the "Celtic twilight".

His Paintings:

Bathers - by AE (exhibited in 1904)

Russell had a talent for painting, which he followed during his life, mainly for his own recreation "whenever words failed him". There is a respectable gallery of his works which would lead one to question how good and enduring his painting legacy would be if he had invested more time and effort into that side of his output. We will never know. Suffice it to say, his paintings have a significant market and are well regarded by many.

The Irish Times newspaper, on the occasion of the centenary of the first exhibition of his paintings in 1904 at which he sold an amazing 68 paintings – many to the noted New York art collector, John Tobin; suggested it is high time for another exhibition to create awareness and appreciation of AE's art.    

Russell the Social Activist

He was destined to live through troubled times in Ireland and much change. The first two decades of the 20th century were the final years of the British Empire in Ireland and ushered in the formative years of the new Irish Free State that emerged in the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1919-1921. It was never in Russell's nature to be a mere bystander or spectator in the movements of his times, and he engaged fully in trying to formulate what kind of Ireland would face into the last century of the millennium. As a visionary, poet, painter, author, journalist, economist and (finally) an agricultural expert he had views aplenty and was never slow to express them with great articulation and conviction.

He was involved in the general strike of 1913 and took part in a mass meeting in Albert Hall London in support of the Dublin strikers, where he shared the platform with George Bernard Shaw and suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. He was an Irish Nationalist, but as a committed pacifist he deplored the violence of the Nationalist inspired Dublin Rebellion in Easter 1916. This did not stop him from organising a subscription for the widow of one of the executed leaders, James Connolly, who he had befriended during the 1913 strike; both men having shared views on how to deal with the exploitative attitude of many employers of the time.

The following lines written by Russell indicates something of the dilemma he and many pacifist nationalists of the day felt. He could admire the idealism of those who followed Patrick Pearse in taking up the gun in pursuit of nationalist ideals, but like many others he had serious issues with bloodletting as a means to achieve them.    

"And yet my spirit rose in pride

Refashioning in burnished gold

The images of those who died

Or were shut up in penal cell

Here's to you Pearse, your dream, not mine

And yet the thought- for this you fell

Has turned life's water into wine".

(from To the memory of some I knew who are dead and loved Ireland  - 1917)

He was conscious his adherence to non main stream views and opinions at a time when the extremes on both sides of the political divide were in clear ascendancy, drew sharp criticism from many, but he remained stoically unapologetic for his pacifism through that most turbulent period of Irish history.

On Behalf of Some Irishmen Not Followers of Tradition

They call us aliens we are told 


Because our wayward visions stray 


From that dim banner they unfold 


The dreams of worn out yesterday.

We hold the Ireland of the heart 


More than the land our eyes have seen 


And love the goal for which we start 


More than the tale of what has been.

No blazoned banner we unfold 


One charge alone we give to youth 


Against the sceptred myth to hold 


The golden heresy of truth.

His Relationship With the Newly Independent Irish State

George William Russell was disappointed that Irish independence was painfully slow in bringing the cultural and social flowering for which he yearned. He was of the opinion that the emerging rather puritanical state with its narrow vision, of which censorship of arts and writing was one of its most potent instruments, effectively blocked intellectual and artistic freedom as it tried to establish the new nation during the 1920s and 30s. He was particularly critical of the excessive influence the Catholic Hierarchy had manage to establish over the emergent body politic. It was his discomfort with this, along with the death of his wife a year earlier that caused him to leave Ireland in the aftermath of the 1932 Eucharistic Congress which was held in Dublin and which he considered a potent demonstration of over pervasive clerical power.

He moved to Bournemouth in England where he died in 1935.

His Support to Young Writers and Artists

During his years in Dublin, his company was much sought after and his home in Rathgar Avenue, Dublin became a meeting place for those interested in the Arts and Economics. He paid special attention to young talent, which he did all in his power to groom and encourage.

He was an endless source of support and advice to emerging writers. He first met James Joyce in 1902 and encouraged him to hone his craft as a writer. He once loaned him money, which Joyce acknowledged pithily with a written "AEIOU".

One of his lesser known acts was to support the American writer Pamela Lyndon Travers, the future author of Mary Poppins (published 1934) at a time when her interest in myths brought her into contact with both Yeats and himself in 1924. AE encouraged her to write and even published some of her writings in The Irish Statesman.

Simone Tery the French writer in L'ile des Bards wrote about him:

"Do you want to know about providence, the origin of the universe, the end of the universe? 
Go to AE. 


Do you want to know about Gaelic literature? 
Go to AE. 


Do you want to know about the Celtic soul? 
Go to AE. 


Do you want to know about Irish History? 
Go to AE. 


Do you want to know about the export of eggs? 
Go to AE. 


Do you want to know how to run society? 
Go to AE. 


If you find life insipid - 
Go to AE. 


If you need a friend - 
Go to AE.

These lines from a contemporary are a fitting accolade for one of Ireland's not so well known writers who played a vital role in what is now known as the Celtic revival.

Author's Note – While I had always been aware of George William Russell, otherwise known as AE, with whom I share a surname: I was not so aware of any family connection with him until very recently, when a distant cousin with interest in genealogy put focus on a lady called Frances Mary McGee, whose mother was a daughter of our common great grandfather. This lady married the brother of George William (AE), and while his surname was also Russell, Thomas Elias was not directly related to "our" Russells. (At least we need to go much further back to find any blood linkage). This information about Frances Mary caused me to remember conversations in my own family about a distant cousin called Fanny (short for Frances) McGee, second cousin to my father who had married into a family associated with artists and poets. Who else could it have been?

It was a personal Eureka moment, as I share some of AE's interests (though not necessarily his unique talent) for reading, writing, (I really know little about painting!) As well I share a strong belief in the positive role of self-help cooperative endeavor for solving problems facing Agriculture in feeding today's World's burgeoning population.

Arthur Russell is the Author of Morgallion, a novel set in medieval Ireland during the Invasion of Ireland in 1314 by the Scottish army led by Edward deBruce, the last crowned King of Ireland. It tells the story of Cormac MacLochlainn, a young man from the Gaelic crannóg community of Moynagh and how he, his family and his dreams endured and survived that turbulent period of history. Morgallion was awarded the indieBRAG Medallion and is available in paperback and e-book form.

Further information from s.arthur.russell@gmail.com

Hat Tip To: English Historical Fiction Authors

[thestagthatlovedthewolf]

I'm so glad they are bringing back Violet next episode!! I like the direction the show took but I still wonder about what's going on with the kids

[teevee-obsessed]

Let’s talk about... Mom

I don’t really know how to start this post, so of course I’m gonna jump right in.

My title refers to the CBS television show Mom, and their latest episode - 2x17 - where Violet introduces her much-older boyfriend, Gregory, to Christy and Bonnie.

Now, before I actually get into te serious nature of waht I want to talk about - let’s just say - props to Sadie Calvano’s fucking sensational efforts in this episode. I cannot deal with the fact she’s 19 in real life.

Anyway, I’m focusing on the last scene, where Violet talks about how it’s ‘realistic’ to think a ‘marriage is doomed from the start’, and how ‘she’s no longer a problem for [Christy and Bonnie]’.

And it;s just so messed up, that a 19 year old girl thinks like that, but unfortunately, it’s also not that uncommon.

Violet has been through a lot more than most: having an alcoholic mother (and grandmother), no father figure, taking care of herself and her little brother at a young age, pregnant at 18 (?), giving away a baby. And that’s play a massive part in the type of person she’s become: she’s certainly not like some people who I’ve met, hopeful of falling in love, and getting that dream life - she’s jaded, and seems like she’s searching for safety, but under the impression it won’t last forever.

I’ll tell you why I’m talking about this, because as depressing as it is, to see someone so young, completely void of the type of hope which is meant to be apart of us. 

Because that’s today’s reality.

I don’t know if it ever was, because I’m only seventeen, but I could probably count on one hand out of all the people I’ve ever met who are genuinely optimistic about their future. Hell, I’m not someone I can count.

Because, regardless of what people say, it’s different now. This generation is raised in a world of social media, where we wake up, and awful things keep happening, but not only that, but there are always a minority who reveal themselves in this time, as, not people who empathise or get it, but those who make inappropriate jokes or try to draw attention away from things that need it.

I’ve not been through anything Violet has been through, but I’ve had my own issues, and they’ve definitely shaped me into someone who certainly is more realistic than idealistic.

[imaginaryhat]

[newyorktheater]

Novenas for a Lost Hospital

Peter Dinklage, Cyrano

The Second Woman, a 24-hour play at BAM

Playwright Stephen Adly Gurigis

Cole Porter at the York

Tony Kushner at the Public

Samuel D. Hunter

Mfoniso Udofia

Ntoszke Shange

Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway. There are revivals of Tony Kushner’s first play, and Ntozake Shange’s best known “choreopoem,” new musicals with books by David Henry Hwang and Enda Walsh, a wild new 24-hour play, and a modern rewrite of Medea starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. There are new plays by Harvey Fierstein, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Lucas Hnath Samuel D. Hunter, Martyna Majok, Richard Nelson, Jack Thorne (of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”), Mfoniso Udofia, and Meow Meow.

Like Broadway, Off-Broadway has its share of stars — among them this season, Peter Dinklage, Raúl Esparza, Jonathan Groff, Judith Ivey… and every star on Broadway, in caricature, thanks to the return of Forbidden Broadway. Unlike Broadway, Off-Broadway doesn’t come neatly packaged. (See my Broadway 2019-2020 Preview Guide.) Instead of 41 theaters within a few blocks of one another, there are hundreds of Off-Broadway theaters and theater companies spread out throughout the city.

So how to sort it all out?

The shows I just mentioned are being presented by the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop,  Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and some of the  other theaters that have proven reliable season after season, presenting shows I’ve consistently found satisfying, or at least worthwhile.

That is why, below, I present the Off-Broadway Fall season largely by grouping the shows together with the theater that’s presenting or producing them. I order the list of theaters more or less according to my preference for them (determined by such factors as their recent track record, the promise of the new season, and by the overall experience I’ve had with the theater as theatergoer and critic.) There is an added advantage to looking at the Off-Broadway season this way: Most of these theaters offer memberships or subscriptions. (Keep in mind this preview just lists the first half of their 2019-2020 seasons. I’ll put together a Spring preview in January..)

After my favorite theaters, I list some individual shows from other venues that look particularly intriguing.

Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.

(The asterisk *, explained more fully at the bottom, indicates the four theatrical empires that are both on and Off Broadway. Listed here are only their Off-Broadway offerings. Again, go to my Broadway preview guide for the rest)

I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially curious, and at least hopeful. (I’ll only know if I was right to be interested once I see them.)

THE PUBLIC THEATER

425 Lafayette Street and in Central Park. Twitter: @PublicTheaterNY

From A Chorus Line to  Hamilton, the Public has served as a kind of feeder theater for Broadway (Seawall/A Life and Girl From The North Country this season alone) but the downtown empire that Joe Papp created half a century ago is not successful because of its commercial aspirations, but largely in spite of them.  It often takes artistic risks that many institutions its size avoid.

Hercules

This staging of a 1997 Disney cartoon was the latest of the Public Works’ “pageants” involving hundreds of amateur performers who belong to community partner organizations from all five boroughs. My review.

Soft Power

An odd and hilarious fever dream imagining an American musical as created by theatermakexs in a future dominant Chinese society, created by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home; Violet; Caroline, or Change)

For Colored Girls

October 8 – November 24. Opens October 22nd.

A revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enough,” an unlikely Tony-nominated  hit on Broadway in 1976 that Shange (who died last October) called a “choreopoem.” It tells the stories of seven black women using poetry, song, and movement.

The Michaels

October 19 – November 17. Opens October 27

Richard Nelson, best-known for his multi-part, low key, in real time family sagas The Apple Family plays and The Gabriels:Election Year in the Life of One Family, brings us another one. In the kitchen belonging Rose Michael, a celebrated choreographer, she and those around her cook dinner, rehearse modern dances, eat and talk — about art, death, family, dance, politics, and the state of America. The seven-member cast includes Nelson regulars Jay O. Sanders and Maryann Plunkett.

√ A Bright Room Called Day

October 29 – December 8

A revival of this 1985 play by Tony Kushner, which was his first, and which he partially rewrites. Agnes, an actress in Weimar Germany, and her cadre of passionate, progressive friends, are torn between protest, escape, and survival as the world they knew crumbles around them. Her story is interrupted by an American woman enraged by the cruelty of the Reagan administration, and a new character, facing the once unthinkable rise of authoritarianism in modern America.

  BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC

Three buildings in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, including BAM Harvey at 651 Fulton St. Twitter: @BAM_Brooklyn

BAM dates back to 1861, but for decades now it has been known for its avant-garde offerings in dance, music, opera, film, and, yes, theater, primarily in its  Next Wave Festival  presented annually in the Fall.  The theater pieces — some are too sui generis to be called plays or musicals — have consisted largely of imports from Europe, and have short runs (sometimes just a day or two.) I list BAM high up this year because it’s under a new artistic director David Binder (indeed the first head of BAM with that title.) Binder is both a Tony-winning Broadway producer (a dozen shows starting with the 2004 revival of “Raisin in the Sun”) and an adventurous impresario — the original as well as the Broadway producer of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” and producer of festivals featuring such groundbreaking theater artists as Anna Deavere Smith and Taylor Mac.

Swan Lake

October 15-20

Ireland’s Michael Keegan-Dolan deconstructs the classic love story between a prince and a female who’s a swan by day and a human by night.

The Second Woman

October 18

An only-at-BAM kind of show. Over a period of 24 hours, one woman and 100 men preform repeat the same scene 100 times, with different results. It’s inspired by Cassavetes’ meta-theatrical 1977 film Opening Night. Stay as little or as long as you want.

What If They Went To Moscow

Oct 23-27

Based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters,but experimental with audience reactions to two different media. Two audiences in different BAM theaters watch the live performance of the show — one on stage, the other as a film — and then switch at intermission.

√ Hamnet

October 30 – November 3

Irish theater company Dead Centre, inspired by Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of 11, creates a play about a boy searching for his father

User Not Found

Nov 6-16

A site-specific work that invites you to be a voyeur, and asks the question: What happens to your digital life after you’re gone?

The End of Eddy

Nov 14-21

A stage adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Édouard Louis, written when he was 21 years old, about being bullied for being gay. Part of a series of events celebrating Édouard Louis in collaboration with St. Ann’s Warehouse (See below.)

Barber Shop Chronicles

Dec 3 – 8

Nigerian-British playwright Inua Ellams weaves a rich tapestry of unfiltered stories about father-son relationships and black masculinity, set to an Afrobeat score, and set in barbershops in six different cities (none of them in the U.S.)

In Many Hands

Dec 11 – 15

Exploring our relationship to touch, New Zealand-bred artist Kate McIntosh does away with the stage and performers, convening a small group of spectators for an intimate shared adventure through the particularities and nuances of our tactile sense

A Very Meow Meow Holiday Show

Dec 12-14

Using satire and music, the performer known as Meow Meow meditates on the perils, pleasures, and actual point of the season

√ Medea

Jan 12 – Feb 23

(Technically not in the Fall season, but hard to omit) Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale star in writer-director Simon Stone’s rewrite of the Euripides tragedy.

LINCOLN CENTER THEATER*

@LCTheater

The shows at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway venues are inexpensive (especially at the Claire Tow theater, where initial-run tickets cost $20) and often rewarding. I’m hoping that someday they will be literally more inviting to independent New York theater critics. The two offerings this Fall look especially exciting.

Power Strip

October 5 – November 17. Opens October 21.

In this new play by Sylvia Khoury, Yasmin, a young Syrian refugee, spends her days tethered to an electric power strip in a Greek refugee camp, discovering that she must forget everything she values in order to survive.

√Greater Clements

November 14 to January 19. Opens December 9.

Samuel D. Hunter’s new play takes place in the fictional town of Greater Clements, Idaho, a mining community where properties are being purchased by wealthy out-of-state people, forcing out lifelong residents. Judith Ivey portray Maggie, ready to shut down her family-run Mine Tour and Museum, when an old friend pays a visit. Although I’ve never been to Idaho,  I’ve liked every Hunter play I’ve ever seen, from Whale to Lewiston/Clarkston.

NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP

79 East 4th Street. Twitter: @NYTW79

NYTW has gotten much attention this past year for presenting three shows that (eventually) moved to Broadway, Heidi Schreck’s “What The Constitution Means To Me,” the multi-Tony winning  “Hadestown”  and now “Slave Play” — quite a roll.

In the new season, there are no dates listed yet for all but the first two of their 2019-2010 shows

Runboyrun & In Old Age

September 4, 2019—October 13, 2019

The latest two chapters from Mfoniso Udofia nine-part saga, The Ufot Cycle, about a Nigerian-American family.  (Sojourners and Her Portmanteau from the cycle were seen at NYTW in 2017). The two dramas are performed as a single evening of work,

Sing Street

The same team that turned the movie “Once” into a beloved musical have now hope the reaction will be the same for their new musical based on a movie. With a book by Enda Walsh, “Sing Street” takes us to Dublin in 1985 and focuses on 16-year-old Conor and his schoolmates, who turn to music to escape troubles at home and impress a mysterious girl. Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) will direct.

Endlings

On the Korean island of Man-Jae, three elderly haenyeos—sea women—spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood. Across the globe on the island of Manhattan, a Korean-Canadian playwright, twice an immigrant, spends her days wrestling with the expectation that she write “authentic” stories about her identity.

Sanctuary City

What are we willing to sacrifice for somebody we love?  This is a new play by Martyna Majok, Putlizer winning playwright of “Cost of Living.,” who in such dramas as Ironbound and “queens” has given a voice to the new immigrant.  NYTW has put this play on its schedule twice before. Let’s hope it’ll be ready this time, though surely not until the Spring.

  PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

416 W. 42nd St. Twitter: @PHNYC

Annie Baker’s “The Flick” is one of six plays that originated at Playwrights Horizons that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The theater offers new plays and musicals that are consistently worthwhile, in an environment that feels dedicated both to the theater artists and the theatergoers.

Wives

Opens September 16

From the brawny castles of 16th Century France, to the rugged plains of 1960s Idaho, to the strapping fortresses of 1920s India, all hail the remarkable stories of Great Men! — and their whiny, witchy, vapid, veng

Heroes of the Fourth Turning

September 13 – October 27

Set in Wyoming a week after the deadly 2017 Charlottesville riot, the new play sees four young conservatives reunite for a backyard barbecue in Wyoming. Written by Will Arbery (“Plano”)

The Thin Place

“November 22” (dates unclear)

Lucas Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, c

  ATLANTIC THEATER

Cofounded in 1985 by David Mamet and William H. Macy, this theater entered in a whole new realm of achievement in my eyes with the acclaimed musical The Band’s Visit

Sunday

A new play by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 & 2), directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Friends gather for a book group, anxious to prove their intellectual worth, but that anxiety gets the better of any actual discussion as emotional truths come pouring out

√ Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven

November 14- December 22

Stephen Adly Guirgis (“Between Riverside and  Crazy“)  explores the harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking inner workings of a women’s halfway house in New York City, helmed by John Ortiz (LAByrinth Artistic Director) in his off-Broadway directing debut.

MCC THEATER

 Twitter: @mcctheater

They moved from downtown to midtown, but I don’t hold that against them.

  The Wrong Man

September 18 – October 27

With book, music and lyrics by Ross Golan, direction by Thomas Kail (Hamilton), this musical is set in Reno, Nevada, and tells the story of Duran, a man just scraping by who is framed for a murder he didn’t commit,

September 18 – October 27

Seared

October 3 – November 10

Theresa Rebeck’s play about a talented by temperamental chef who scores a big mention in the press for his signature scallops,  but, much to the frustration of his business partner, refuses to repeat himself for the masses. Cast includes Raul Esparza and Krysta Rodriguez

PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Although the Armory has been presenting theater for a decade, it only became must-see for me in the last few years, thanks to. A Room in India,  The Damned and The Lehman Trilogy (which is transferring this season to Broadway.). The theater they present is largely European, cutting-edge, often hybrids, and they require patience and a willingness to be lost. They also just have a handful of shows per season. But, offered in the vast expanse of the Armory’s Drill Hall, these aren’t just shows; they’re events. This year, for the first time, they have commissioned a play “from the ground up.”

Antigone

September 25 – October 6

Acclaimed director Satoshi Miyagi creates a new vision of Sophocles’s fabled mythology through the prism of Japanese culture: Noh Theater, Indonesian shadow play, and Buddhist philosophy.

Black Artists Retreat

October 11th and 12th

Bridging the gap between fine art and social activism, Theaster Gates hosts his renowned Black Artists Retreat for the first time outside of Chicago

Judgment Day

December 5 – January 11

Directed by Richard Jones (Hairy Ape) and adapted by Chris Shinn (“‘four”)  rom Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play, this productions marks the Armory’s first theatrical commission “from the ground-up” It explores morality and guilt in a small town.

  ST. ANN’s WAREHOUSE

Although it primarily presents avant-garde European exports,  this Brooklyn theater climbed up in my preference thanks to Taylor Mac’s homegrown   24-Decade History of Popular Music   and then “Oklahoma!” which transferred to Broadway.

History of Violence

November 13 – December 1

A German-language stage adaptation of Édouard Louis’s autobiographical novel about a traumatic event that began in desire. Louis is also the basis for BAM’s The End of Eddy.

Keep

December 4 -19

British storyteller and comedian Daniel Kitson’s latest solo piece

    OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Forbidden Broadway The Next Generation (The Triad)

September 18 – November 30

After a five year absence, Gerard Alessandrini is back, roasting everything you’ve seen on Broadway since the last edition of Forbidden Broadway.

Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes

√ Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)

September 5- October 13. Opens September 19

A play by Cusi Cram starring Kathleen Chalfant that serves as an homage to the women nurses over the 161 year history of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, which was at the epicenter of a cholera epidemic in the 19th century and the AIDS epidemic a century and a half later. The show features a prologue, in which theatergoers visit the garden of St. Johns in the Village, in the sight of the hospital site, now turned into condominiums, and an epilogue visiting he NYC AIDS Memorial Park.

Cyrano (The New Group at Daryl Roth)

October 11 – November 24

Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) stars in this musical version of Edmond Rostand’s  tale of unrequited love and ghostwritten letters,

Little Shop of Horrors (West Side Theater)

A revival hard to argue given that its cast includes Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, Christian Borle,

A Celebration of Cole Porter (York Theater)

September 28 to November 3

Eleven performances each of “Fifty Million Frenchmen ,” The Decline and Fall of the Whole World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter” and “Panama Hattie”

√Bella Bella (Manhattan Theater Club)

October 21 – December 1. Opens October 22.

Harvey Fierstein stars as Bella Abzug in a solo-play he’s written set in 1976, on the eve of her bid to become New York State’s first female Senator,

Scotland, PA (Roundabout)

September 14 to December 8

A new musical adaptation of Billy Morrissette’s 2001 film riffing on Macbeth, set in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, involving the manager of a burger joint and his ambitious wife.

Other companies and theaters worth checking out:

Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company

Mint Theater

Mayi Theater Company

National Black Theatre

  There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:

Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre

*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway

*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and starting this season, Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide

What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?

Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.

There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)

 The Flea

Labyrinth Theater

 LaMaMa ETC.

New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.

Monthly Calendar of Openings

Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)

What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-

Some might argue there is little distinction anymore between Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially in a season when so many downtown darlings are moving to Broadway, such as Taylor Mac,Tarell Alvin McCraney, Dominique Morisseau, Anais Mitchell (See Spring 2019 Broadway Preview Guide: A Season of Theater Geniuses Making Their Broadway Debuts)  

Yet, Off-Broadway remains less expensive  and, frankly, potentially more rewarding. It’s also more sprawling — not quite possible to present all the riches of a season in a single post.

I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially excited or intrigued. (I’ll only know if my excitement was justified once I see them.)

Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.

(Also check out my monthly calendar of openings)

a surreal errand. “He gets mixed up with a giant lobster, Roman Polanski, a pornography ring, Walt Disney, stranded children, a murder, and Jorge Luis Borges…”

ROUNDABOUT* LAURA PELS

The empire that is now Roundabout includes three Broadway theaters, and that’s where most of the attention is focused, mostly on star-studded revivals, especially musicals.  But its fourth building houses two Off-Broadway theaters (one of them a tiny “Black Box” theater.) It is in its Off-Broadway facility that Stephen Karam’s The Humans originated, which went on to Broadway and Tony love. The Roundabout’s “Underground” series discovers new playwriting talent, with tickets priced at $35.

Merrily We Roll Along

January 12 – April 7. Opens February 19.

Fiasco Theater reimagines Stephen Sondheim’s musical about a trio of showbiz friends who fall apart and come together over 20 years, going backwards in time.

Something Clean

May 4 – June 30. Opens May 30.

Playwright Selina Fillinger’s new drama slips into the jagged cracks of a sex crime’s aftermath—the guilt, the grief, and the ways we grapple with the unthinkable.

√ Toni Stone

May 23 – August 11. Opens June 20

Uzo Adubi stars as the first woman to go pro in the Negro Leagues, in this play by Lydia Diamond directed by Pam McKinnon, based on a true story.

MANHATTAN THEATER CLUB*

This looks like a good lineup, but It’s hard to embrace a theater completely when you don’t get to see many of its plays.

The Cake

February 12 – March 31. Opens March 5

In what sounds like a recent Supreme Court case, Debra Jo Rupp portrays a baker in North Carolina who refuses to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The difference — one of the brides is the daughter of a dear friend, now deceased. The play is by Bekah Brunstetter (who writes for the TV series This Is Us.)

Continuity

May 7 – June 9. Opens May 21

Though the description doesn’t tell us very much —  a comedy “in six takes where storytelling and science collide…” — it is written by Beth Wohl (playwright of the odd but satisfying Small Mouth Sounds) and directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).

Long Lost

May 14 – June 30.  Opens June 4.

A play by Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) directed by Daniel Sullivan. “When troubled Billy appears out-of-the-blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office, he soon tries to re-insert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. What does Billy really want?”

  SECOND STAGE*

This 40-year-old theater has became the fourth “non-profit” to produce theater both on and Off Broadway.

Superhero

January 31 – March 24.Opens February 28.

A musical, with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and a book by John Logan (Red), about “a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and an unexpected hero…”

Dying City

“Begins May 2019”

Christopher Shinn’s play is set in a spare Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. Dying City explores the human fallout of global events, including the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the interwoven stories of three characters

  OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish moves to Stage 42, opening February 21st.

Alice By Heart (MCC). January 30 to March 10. Opens February 26 Two friends who escape in the cherished story of Alice in Wonderland during the London Blitz of World War II. The musical is by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the team that came up with Spring Awakening.

Fleabag (Soho Playhouse) February 28 – April 7 The play by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that inspired the BBC television series currently being shown on Amazon Prime.

Daddy (Vineyard/New Group at Signature) February 12- March 24. Opens March 5. In the second Off-Broadway play by Jeremy O. Harris (who gained some notoriety with his Slave Play in the fall), Alan Cumming plays Andre, an older white art collector who befriends Franklin, young black artist on the verge of his first show. Their bond creates a battle of wills with Franklin’s mother.

Diary of One Who Disappeared (BAM) April 4-6 In 1917, Czech composer Leoš Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle called Diary of One Who Disappeared, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Janáček’s opera.

Octet (Signature) April 30 – June 9 Dave Malloy, composer and conceiver of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812, is not through experimenting.  His new musical is scored for an  a cappella chamber choir and explores high-tech addiction, his libretto inspired by Internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts and Sufi poetry.

  Other companies and theaters worth checking out:

Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company

Mint Theater

Mayi Theater Company

There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:

Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre

*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway

*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide

What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?

Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.

There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)

 The Flea

Labyrinth Theater

 LaMaMa ETC.

New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.

Monthly Calendar of Openings

Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)

What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-

Off Broadway Fall 2019 Preview Guide Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway.