(NEW YORK, NY) -- The New Group has announced complete casting and dates for the company’s 2022-23 Season opener: Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, by Will Arbery and directed by Danya Taymor. The New York premiere of this play about climate and change will feature Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Jeb Kreager, Ken Leung, and Rachel Sachnoff. The production runs October 26 to December 18 at The Pershing Square Signature Center in the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre (480 West 42nd Street).
In Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, Will Arbery (Corsicana, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Heroes of the Fourth Turning) confronts humanity’s deepest fears with surreal humor, warmth, and the fortitude of municipal public servants. Winters keep getting worse in Evanston, IL where salt truck drivers Peter and Basil battle the ice and snow and pass the time with jokes and stories. But what’s with this creeping sense of dread? Is it because their boss Maiworm has noble visions of new green technology that would make their jobs obsolete? Or is there a more terrifying warning calling out from under these roads? At least they have each other, right?
Directed by Danya Taymor, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing features Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Ruined, Mary Seacole), Jeb Kreager (HBO’s Mare of Easttown, Heroes of the Fourth Turning), Ken Leung (HBO’s Industry, Lost) and Rachel Sachnoff (Evanston Salt Costs Climbing at White Heron Theatre). The play will have Scenic Design by Matt Saunders; Costume Design by Sarafina Bush; Lighting Design by Isabella Byrd; Sound Design by Mikaal Sulaiman; Voice and Text Coaching by Gigi Buffington; and Casting by Judy Henderson, CSA. The Production Stage Manager is Rachel Denise April and the Assistant Stage Manager is Stephen Varnado.
The New Group is introducing a new membership model in the 2022-23 season to replace conventional subscriptions. For a one-time fee, members will have access to discounted tickets, priority sales, no service or exchange fees, and additional benefits. Memberships, single tickets, and additional season info, along with complete performance schedule and accessibility performances, are available at www.thenewgroup.org.
The New Group’s 2022-23 season will continue in Winter 2023 with playwright Thomas Bradshaw returning to The New Group with the world premiere, The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, directed by Scott Elliott. The season concludes in Spring 2023 with Bernarda’s Daughters, by Diane Exavier and directed by Dominique Rider, a co-production with National Black Theatre. The season will also feature the world premiere from The New Group Off Stage of Lypsinka: Toxic Femininity, a new film written and performed by John Epperson and directed by Chloë Sevigny.
Will Arbery (Playwright) is a playwright from Texas and Wyoming and seven sisters. His play Corsicana had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in the summer of 2022 in a production directed by Sam Gold. His play Heroes of the Fourth Turning premiered at Playwrights Horizons in Fall 2019 and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of numerous awards, including the 2020 Obie Award for Playwriting, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play and the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award. Arbery also won the Whiting Award for Drama in 2020. In addition to Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, Heroes of the Fourth Turning and Corsicana, Will’s other plays include: Plano (Clubbed Thumb), You Hateful Things (NYTW Dartmouth Residency), and Wheelchair (3 Hole Press). He’s currently under commission from Playwrights Horizons, MTC, and Audible. He’s a member/alum of New Dramatists, The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Page 73’s Interstate 73, Colt Coeur, Youngblood, and Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group. His plays have been developed at Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, NYTW, The Vineyard, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Cape Cod Theater Project, The New Group, EST/Youngblood, The Bushwick Starr, Alliance/Kendeda, and Tofte Lake Center. In television, he is a writer on HBO's Succession.
Danya Taymor (Director) is an Obie-award winning New York-based director. Recent direction includes the Broadway production of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's Pass Over at the August Wilson Theater. Other recent work: Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Lortel Outstanding Play), Samuel Beckett's ENDGAME (Gate, Dublin), Jeremy O. Harris' "DADDY" (Almeida, London and New Group/Vineyard), Korde Arrington Tuttle's Graveyard Shift (Goodman Theater), Pass Over, Familiar (Steppenwolf), Martyna Majok's Queens (Lincoln Center Theater), Justin Kuritzkes’ The Sensuality Party (The New Group), Susan Soon-He Stanton’s Cygnus (Women’s Project), Brian Watkins’ Wyoming (Lesser America) and My Daughters Keeps Our Hammer (The Flea), and Sarah Gancher’s The Place We Built (The Flea). Her production of Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over was filmed in collaboration with Spike Lee and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Awards and fellowships include the Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity from Lincoln Center, Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Direction, Time Warner Directing Fellowship at Women's Project, 2050 fellowship at New York Theatre Workshop, Van Lier Directing Fellowship; Gates Foundation Grant, Rough Draft Residency at the Drama League and the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Upcoming work includes: The Outsiders at La Jolla Playhouse (Book by Adam Rapp, Music & Lyrics by Jamestown Revival and Justin Levine).
The Pershing Square Signature Center is the permanent home of Signature Theatre, a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature’s three distinct playwrights’ residencies and foster a cultural community. The Center is a major contributor to New York City’s cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a studio theatre, rehearsal studio, a bookstore, and the Signature Cafe + Bar, and is open to the public from noon-midnight Tuesdays–Sundays. For more information on renting the Center, please visit www.signaturetheatre.org/rentals.
The New Group (Scott Elliott, Founding Artistic Director; Adam Bernstein, Executive Director) is an award-winning, artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theatre. The organization’s New Group/New Works play and musical development program champions original works by emerging and established authors. The New Group Off Stage celebrates work at the intersection of art, multimedia, and social engagement by showcasing some of today’s most compelling storytellers through web series, films, audio plays and more. The New Group also operates a variety of theater education programs from teen acting ensembles to college access programs, and a college-level acting studio in collaboration with Long Island University-Brooklyn. The company was most recently represented by The New Group Off Stage digital series i need space created by Donja R. Love; and on stage by Wallace Shawn’s The Fever with Lili Taylor in a co-production with Audible Theater and the world premiere of the new musical Black No More by John Ridley and Tariq Trotter.
Memberships and single tickets are currently on sale at www.thenewgroup.org.
PHOTOS BY Monique Carboni
