In the abandoned apartments of a suddenly vacant New York City, a group of survivors live a kind of idyll: they salvage, farm, cook, and wait for the species to come to a quiet end. This is someone’s utopia... and someone else's nightmare. What happens when we seize the narrative and question our role in the end of all things? Or question the end of all things at all?​​​

Directed by Jillian Jetton

Produced by Emily Abrams

Featuring: Brittany Bradford, Ugo Chukwu, Fernando Gonzalez, Melissa Hurst, Jon Norman Schneider, Colleen Werthmann, and Julyana Soelistyo

At the end of my utopias we'll gather to share a meal. We invite you to bring something to the table, something you'd be excited to find at a potluck. A family recipe or dish you've honed, a plate of brownies, a treat from your favorite vendor – doesn't matter, as long as this food brings you joy! If you decide to take us up on this invitation, please take note of any allergens – we'll have a way for you to label your food so it can be safely shared.

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CW: This show contains discussions of domestic violence.

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Set Consultant: Colleen Murray & Josh Barilla

Lighting Design: Vittoria Orlando

Sound Design: Caroline Eng

Costume Design: Colleen Werthmann 

Food Consultant: Cam Pileggi

Production Manager: Emily Abrams

Stage Manager: Sara Minesquero

ASM: Jane Domenghini

Intimacy & Fight Choreographer: Alex Taylor 

“Did Anne Frank ever acknowledge her white privilege?”

This question — asked and debated by real people in a massive 2022 twitter thread — is the inspiration behind Slam Frank.
 
Our musical satire imagines what happens when a progressive community theater company decides, you know what, maybe now is not the time for us to center these privileged, straight, white European Jews (who spent three years in an attic, hiding from Nazis).
 
And so, in an effort to make our world a better place, this heroic fictional theater troupe transforms Anne Frank’s true story into an intersectional, multiethnic, genderqueer, decolonized, anti-capitalist, hyper-empowering Afro-Latin hip-hop musical.
 
And you, the audience, have the privilege of witnessing it.

The Royal Pyrate is a site-specific new musical that reimagines the 300-year-old love story of the pirate Black Sam Bellamy and Mary Hallet, a woman so ahead of her time she was accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts.

Based on the real history of the Golden Age of Piracy, The Royal Pyrate is a 100 minute musical that blends sea shanty, roots rock, and pirate music brought to life on a the Waterfront Barge Museum ship.

The musical stars Maggie Lickani (Sunset Boulevard), Danny Hayward (Forbidden Broadway), Korie Lee Blossey (Aladdin, Cyclops: A Rock Opera), Lauren Molina (Sweeney Todd, Rock of Ages, The Skivvies) with additional performences by Jim Bertini, Charley Layton, Jason Landon Marcus, Charlie Bennet, Tais Szilagi, & Ellie Goodman.

The Royal Pyrate features an original score and lyrics by Jason Landon Marcus with a book by Chas LiBretto (Pulitzer Prize nominees for Cyclops: A Rock Opera). Directed by Emily Abrams (Mindplay, NYTW 2050 Fellow, Ars Nova’s Emerging Leadership Fellow)

Written by Gracie Gardner
Directed by Emily Abrams

In a New York City fencing club, two teenage warriors (Athena and Mary) are ready to battle as they train for the Junior Olympics.  From award-winning playwright Gracie Gardner comes a fierce coming-of-age comedy where two teenagers parry class, competition and power as they practice fencing and life.

Following critically acclaimed, sold-out engagements at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles and Arena Stage in Washington, DC, the smash-hit Mindplay  will enthrall audiences in New York City this December. Created and performed by Drama Desk Award-nominated mentalist Vinny DePonto (Charlatan), written by Vinny DePonto and Josh Koenigsberg, and directed by Andrew Neisler, Mindplay  invites audiences to an unforgettable, gasp-inducing experience in which your thoughts and memories play a leading role. Infused with intrigue and mystery, DePonto guides participants on a jaw-dropping, interactive journey as he reads minds while also revealing his own.

WRITER / DIRECTOR: Emily Abrams
FEATURING: Arnie Burton
Nate Miller
Major Curda
Cricket Brown
SOUND DESIGN: Ryan Gamblin
DRAMATURGE: Lex Derman

DESCRIPTION:
Angelica, a quiet 14 year old girl with a secret, goes away to Camp. While her shy tendencies land her on the bottom of the social totem-pole, her cousin Ryan courageously fends off bullies. When each of Angelica’s tormentors winds up dead, Angelica fears that her secret will be unveiled. Or, rather, untucked. 

This horror-comedy satirizes the classic killer-tranny trope, and asks the question, “Would you wanna be in a bathroom with HER?”
No. You wouldn’t.
Cuz she’s going to Slay you. 
No literally…
Like. You will be slain.

This show is satirizing the "killer-tranny" trope via comedy and horror. The piece centers harmful narratives and contorts them to show how  ridiculous they are. In the long tradition of feminist-horror, the murders are absurd but justified. Sinners always get their comeuppance. 

No one would accuse Clyde of having a soft heart: Sure she hires former convicts for the greasy kitchen of her truck-stop sandwich joint, but she knows what they owe her and holds that power tight. Her line cooks might be stuck, but their hopes haven’t flickered out yet, fed by tentative connections and a fierce competition to create the perfect sandwich. Pulitzer-Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s sweet and savory comedy trades in wonder, Wonder Bread, and the healing powers of food.

“English Only.” It’s 2008 in Karaj, Iran and four adult students are studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the key to their green card, medical school, family reunification. Playing out in awkward lessons of word games and mistranslation, English is both a comedy of miscommunication and a look at the ways speaking a new language can expand your world and change your voice. A hit in its 2021 New York premiere, Studio presents playwright Sanaz Toossi in her Washington, DC debut.

Emma is an actress. She also has an addiction, and it’s trying to kill her. In rehab, but not ready for recovery, Emma just wants to escape—through drugs, through performing, through anything that lets her make her own reality. David Muse directs his first production in the new Victor Shargai Theatre, a theatrical tour-de-force that evokes the vivid and disorienting world of intoxication and lies as Emma decides whether to fight for her recovery and the people, places, and things she’ll face there.

On the edge of the Wyoming wilderness, the last guests linger late into the night at a celebration for the new President of their conservative Catholic college. Reunited after seven years, the friends toss back whiskey and name-check Thomas Aquinas, Hannah Arendt, Steve Bannon, even Bojack Horseman, tracking their distance from each other and the people they thought they’d be by now. Will Arbery’s portrait of conservatives trying to make sense of where they—and their country—stand is an incisive yet personal look at the intelligence and despair of the Catholic right. 

Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado  
Music by Galt MacDermot  
Directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes  
Assistant Directed by Emily Abrams

Hair is the rock musical that started it all. This joyous rebellion proudly reclaims love as the heart of what it means to be American. Packed with music that is beautiful, irreverent, and deeply evocative, the quirky, all-inclusive vibe doesn’t shy away from poignant social commentary. This iconic musical and Grammy Award-winning score get an exuberant and resonant retelling in the hands of Broadway and Asolo Rep favorite Josh Rhodes. Unforgettable numbers like “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In),” “Aquarius,” “Good Morning Starshine,” and “Hair” will bring audiences to their feet!