DREAMING BIGGER
As we return to former programming, we’ve chosen not to simply get back to where we were, but to grow. A part of that is dreaming bigger. Dreaming beyond what we’ve paid artists in the past. Dreaming beyond our capacity to produce one Main Stage per season. Dreaming beyond the number of times we get to connect with our community. Dreaming beyond where we engage our community. As we enter our new permanent space in Long Island City, we look forward to building with you. Come dream with us.
5X5 DRAMA SERIES
Our unabashed love letter to New York City. Two exes in Queens, finding family in Brooklyn, cousins shooting a film in The Bronx, a job interview on Staten Island, friends memorializing a beloved bar in Manhattan. Join us as we celebrate our great city through these beautiful new short plays.
The series was founded in 2016 to bring great new plays beyond the footlights and into nontraditional spaces like breweries, rooftops, and taverns to provide an immersive and unique audience experience. This year, due to limited capacities at venues due to COVID restrictions, touring wasn’t possible. So we commissioned playwrights to write 5 borough-specific short plays. Fulfilling one of our core beliefs to make theatre more accessible to all, tickets are available on a suggested donation basis.
EDIE SAVES THE BIRDS
Theatre East brings Stephanie Fagan’s new play, Edie Saves the Birds, to the stage.
13-year-old Edie, daughter of a single mom, granddaughter of an ailing grandfather, wakes up each day singularly focused on one thing - saving the birds. Her methods are bold, unorthodox, occasionally illegal, and often futile. Never deterred, Edie dedicates every moment to her cause - that is, until she encounters a new and unexpected distraction. Kyle plays baseball. Kyle is popular. Kyle spoke to Edie for more than 30 seconds. Is this friendship? Could there be more to life than crashing town council meetings and passing out homemade buttons? Probably not...but maybe.
Running April 1-23 in Theatre East’s new home in Long Island City.
NEW VISONS, NEW VOICES
Theatre East is honored to again be partnering with SMU’s Division of Theatre, this time to produce full-length original plays in the 27th annual New Visions, New Voices festival. Student playwrights and actors will work with professional actors and directors to present staged readings of new works by young writers in SMU’s theatre program. The festival is a launching pad for emerging talent; NVNV alumni currently write for streaming platforms, television, film, podcasts, video games, and, of course, theatre, as well as act and direct in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, and the Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex. Register using the links below. Performances will also be live-streamed on the Theatre East Facebook page.
Sunday, May 1 at 5:30 CST