(NEW YORK, NY) -- Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Sarah Stern and Douglas Aibel are pleased to announce the company’s upcoming 41st Season which will include two full productions. The season will begin with the world premiere of Scene Partners by John J. Caswell Jr. (Wet Brain), Vineyard Theatre’s 2020-21 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award winner, directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), starring two-time Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway, Happy Days) and the New York City premiere of Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy by Sarah Gancher (Hundred Days, Richard Rodgers Award), directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder). Both productions will open at Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street).
The Vineyard's 2023-2024 Artists-in-Residence include Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Mara Nelson-Greenberg, Nazareth Hassan, and a.k. payne. The recipients of The Vineyard’s 2023-2024 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Colman Domingo Award and Susan Stroman Directing Award residencies will be announced later this fall.
Artistic Director Sarah Stern says, "We are excited to bring audiences two extraordinary shows this season, written by two of the most gifted and original playwrights in the theatre. John J. Caswell, Jr. was a resident artist at the Vineyard as the recipient of our Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and when he gave us his first draft of Scene Partners, we knew instantly that we had to bring it to the stage. It's a wildly imaginative and deeply felt tale of a woman determined to pursue her dreams in Hollywood, and it will open our season in the fall, directed by the visionary Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin. We are thrilled that the incomparable two-time Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest, whose work we have long admired, will make her Vineyard debut in the role. Sarah Gancher's brilliant Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy is set in Russia in the lead up to the 2016 U.S. election. Acclaimed in its digital version, it is a deeply relevant play for our current moment and we can't wait for audiences to experience it on stage this winter under the inspired direction of Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak. In the spring, we will bring audiences closer to the artistic process that is at the heart of what we do, sharing works in progress by our 2023-24 resident artists including Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Mara Nelson-Greenberg, Nazareth Hassan, a.k. payne, and more. In a tough time for theatres across the country post-pandemic, we have scaled back the number of shows in our current season, but not their ambition. This is a season that embodies the power and possibility of theatre and we truly can't wait to get underway."
Managing Director Suzanne Appel adds, “Our mission to push the boundaries of what theatre can be and do is more relevant than ever at this moment. As our field as a whole considers what it must do to reinvent itself, to welcome new audiences, and to bring those back into our artistic homes who have yet to return post-pandemic, our season artists are ready to deliver unique, bold new work in Union Square, which can’t be missed. Our members will have first access to these productions, and receive total flexibility on the best seats at the best price. They will also be invited behind the scenes this spring to explore our new work in development, thereby sharing in the journey of creation with our artists.”
Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy will be produced by special arrangement with Dori Berinstein. The play was originally produced by Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York: Elizabeth Williamson, Artistic Director and Christopher Mannelli, Executive Director. The World Premiere of Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy was produced virtually by TheaterWorks Hartford and TheatreSquared in October 2020.
Artistic Director Douglas Aibel will be on sabbatical for the 2023-2024 season.
2023-2024 Season Passes: Become a member with a 2023-2024 Season Pass to ensure great access to all Vineyard Theatre productions for a fraction of the full ticket price. Purchase a pass and use your tickets whenever you choose. Season Passes are now on sale for The Vineyard’s 2023-2024 season. Two-show packages start at just $90. Theatre Artist and Under 40 membership are only $40. All memberships ensure the earliest access to tickets.Vineyard Theatre Members may begin booking their seats to Scene Partners by John J. Caswell, Jr. today, Monday, August 21 at 1pm. To purchase and additional information regarding packages please visit https://vineyardtheatre.org/memberships/ or call the box office at 212-353-0303.
Vineyard Theatre 2023-24 Season
Scene Partners by John J. Caswell, Jr.; Directed by Rachel Chavkin; Starring Dianne Wiest. Previews begin October 26, 2023; Opening November 12, 2023; Running through December 3, 2023. Winter, 1985. 75-year-old Meryl ditches ice-cold Milwaukee for sunny Los Angeles, hell-bent on becoming a movie star. She’s got big dreams, a little money, and a whole lot of nerve. But will the world ever know her for who she really is? Starring two-time Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest as Meryl, and directed by Tony Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), John J. Caswell, Jr.’s (Wet Brain; Vineyard's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award) Scene Partners is a wildly theatrical, hilarious and genre-twisting gallop through the experience of a woman reborn.
Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy by Sarah Gancher; Directed by Darko Tresnjak; In Association with Dori Berinstein/Dramatic Forces. Previews begin January 25, 2024; Opening February 8, 2024; Running through March 3, 2024. Steve likes Masha; Masha likes Nikolai; and Egor just wants to win a microwave. It’s another day at the office for the workers of St. Petersburg’s infamous (real-life) Internet Research Agency, whose job is manipulating social media to advance Russia’s agenda at home and abroad. Set in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, office comedy meets political satire in Sarah Gancher’s (Hundred Days, Richard Rodgers Award) shape-shifting examination of the power, seduction, and danger of a good story. A New York Times Critic’s Pick in its acclaimed online version, the NYC stage premiere is directed by Tony Award® winner Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder).
Under the artistic leadership of Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern, Vineyard Theatre develops and produces new plays and musicals that push the boundaries of what theatre can be and do. For nearly 40 years, The Vineyard has nurtured a community of fearless theatre makers whose work has expanded the form, the field, and the larger culture. Vineyard Theatre has transferred eleven shows to Broadway, seven directly after their acclaimed Vineyard premieres: Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. and Tina Satter’s Is This A Room (both New York Times Best Theatre of 2021); Paula Vogel’s Indecent; Nicky Silver’s The Lyons; Kander, Ebb and Thompson’s The Scottsboro Boys; Bell and Bowen’s [title of show]; and Avenue Q by Marx, Lopez and Whitty (Tony Award, Best Musical). In recent years, four additional shows launched at The Vineyard have been revived in their first Broadway productions: Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive; Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar And Grill; Becky Mode’s Fully Committed; and Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Three Tall Women.
From their home in NYC’s Union Square, The Vineyard develops and premieres new plays and musicals which go on to be seen around the country and the world. Recently, Jeremy O. Harris’ play “Daddy” (2019) received its London premiere at the Almeida; Ngozi Anyanwu’s Good Grief (2018) and David Cale’s Harry Clarke (2017) were recorded by Audible; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria (2014), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, transferred to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre; Paula Vogel’s Tony Award-winning Indecent (2016) aired on PBS’s “Great Performances” and was one of the most-produced plays nationwide in 2019; and Colman Domingo’s Dot (2016) is being adapted into an AMC series. The Vineyard’s first major digital work, Lessons in Survival, was named one of the top theatrical experiences of 2020 by the New York Times and has been viewed by audiences in more than 40 countries.
The Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Susan Stroman Directing Award, and Colman Domingo Award provide residencies to early-career artists and our education programs serve over 700 New York City public high school students annually, culminating in Developing Artists’ REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival. The Roth-Vogel New Play Commission is awarded annually to a mid- to late-career playwright to create and develop a new play with The Vineyard. Our work and artists have been honored with numerous awards including Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards, and the company is proud to be the recipient of special Drama Desk, Obie, and Lucille Lortel Awards for artistic excellence and support of artists.
Vineyard Theatre’s leadership includes Artistic Directors Sarah Stern and Douglas Aibel (on sabbatical 23-24) and Managing Director Suzanne Appel.
