The New School's College of Performing Arts Announces School of Drama 2024-2025 Highlights
The New School's College of Performing Arts – Mannes, Jazz, Drama
Announces School of Drama 2024-2025 Highlights
September 2024 – April 2025: Naked Angels 1st Mondays at The New School
September 30, December 9, February 3, March 17, and April 21 at 7:00pm
Free, No Advance Registration
October 31, November 1, November 2 at 7:30pm & November 2, 2024 at 2:00pm
World Premiere of The Ruminants
Written by Dipti Bramhandkar | Directed by Ana Margineanu
Bank Street Theater | 151 Bank St., NYC
Free, Registration Required
Monday, November 4, 2024 at 7:30pm: Guest Artist Series – Ping Chong and Company
The Glassbox Theater | 55 W. 13th St., NYC
Free, Registration Required
November 21, 22 and 23 at 7:30pm & November 23, 2024 at 2:00pm: Orestes
Written by Euripides | Translated by Anne Carson | Directed by Ashley Kelly Tata
Bank Street Theater | 151 Bank St., NYC
Free, Registration Required
April 25-26 & May 2-3: APEX Festival
Weekend 1: April 25-26 at 7:30pm; April 26 at 2:00pm
Weekend 2: May 2-3 at 7:30pm & May 3 at 2:00pm
Final program and venues to be announced
Information: www.newschool.edu/performing-arts
New York, NY – The College of Performing Arts – Mannes, Jazz, Drama, a progressive creative center at the heart of The New School, announces 2024-2025 highlights for the School of Drama. The School of Drama is the creative home to a dynamic group of actors, directors, writers, creative technologists, and multi-disciplinary theater artists. With a focus on authenticity of expression, the school’s curriculum confronts today's most pressing societal issues through the making of theater, film, and emerging media.
Season highlights for the School of Drama include the world premiere of The Ruminants from October 31-November 2; the premiere of a devised piece curated by the artistic leaders of Ping Chong and Company as part of the MFA Guest Artist Series on November 4; Euripides’ Orestes translated by Anne Carson from November 21-23; the APEX Festival on April 25-26 and May 2-3; and the ongoing Naked Angels 1st Mondays at The New School series running from September 2024 through April 2025.
From Thursday, October 31 through Saturday, November 2, the School of Drama presents the world premiere of The Ruminants at Bank Street Theater (151 Bank St.), directed by faculty member Ana Margineanu. Admission is free but registration is required. The Ruminants is a new play that explores protest, privilege, and the lasting effects of one's actions. With only weeks left in her senior year, Bekka wonders if she has done enough to impact animal rights at her university. As the president of Animal Rights Now (ARN), she has organized numerous protests, but nothing seems to change. Determined to leave her mark, she plans a bold action that no one can ignore. But what will the cost be for those who join her and the animals she tries to help? The Ruminants was developed as part of the 2023-2024 Farm Theater College Collaboration Project with three universities: Austin Peay State, Shenandoah, and Middle Tennessee State.
Each year, the School of Drama invites regionally, nationally, and internationally recognized guest artists to share their artistic, collaborative, and philosophical approaches to theater-making with students in its groundbreaking MFA in Contemporary Theatre and Performance program. This year marks the return of members of Ping Chong and Company (PCC), longtime collaborators with the School of Drama and the College of Performing Arts, on Monday, November 4 at 7:30pm at The Glassbox Theater (55 W. 13th St.). Admission is free but registration is required. Rooted in the company's mission to “create[s] theater and art that reveal beauty, invention, precision, and a commitment to social justice,” PCC engaged students in their “Undesirable Elements” series, an ongoing practice of creating interview-based theater works that explore culture, identity, and belonging in specific communities. This production – an original student-devised ensemble-based piece centered on creative producing and community-engaged practice – culminates PCC’s residency.
From Thursday, November 21 through Saturday, November 23 at Bank Street Theater (151 Bank St.), the School of Drama presents Euripides' Orestes. Admission is free but registration is required. In this exciting reimagining of Orestes, the poet, translator, and essayist Anne Carson gives birth to a wholly new experience of the classic Greek triumvirate of vengeance. Anne Carson’s watershed translation of a death-dance of vengeance and passion is not to be missed, combining contemporary language with the traditional structures and rhetoric of Greek tragedy. “I’m interested in having the chorus members step out from the chorus into any of the roles to focus on the communal in the performance of this work and explore the idea that any member of a community can be the protagonist of the narrative,” says Ashley Kelly Tata, director. “Ultimately, Orestes should serve what I think is so urgent about the piece right now: these are young people playing out the story of a history of violence that they have inherited from the generations before them.”
The APEX Festival is a collective, artistic activation of the Bank Street Theater and surrounding spaces by graduating MFA Contemporary Theatre and Performance students, which this year will take place on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26 and Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3. Eight distinct projects serve as each student's capstone offering as well as a public introduction to their work as it exists at this stage in their development. In celebration, the School of Drama invites audiences to experience a collection of performative artworks that push the boundaries of discipline and form. Anticipated performances include A TIME (June Seo); the starry-eyed (Lars Montanaro); Lacuna(e) (Catalina Cofone Polack); Unsay (Moira Zhang); Guanahani (Neka Knowles); Ernestine (Jasmine Kiah); Ameliaorated (Alina Burke); and Eros Without Love (working title, Anamaría Willars). Specific dates and times to be announced.
The School of Drama also continues its dynamic partnership with Naked Angels, a prominent figure in New York City’s theater community. The esteemed 1st Mondays at The New School series, is a vital platform for emerging playwrights from Naked Angels’ Tuesdays@9 community to showcase their work and for School of Drama students to interact with and learn from these emerging talents, gain insights into the process of creating and workshopping new plays, and forge meaningful connections within the industry. The 1st Mondays at The New School series will run through the 2024-25 season and include in-person readings of full-length plays on December 9, February 3, March 17, and April 21.
“The diversity of works this season includes a new translation of classic Greek texts, a world premiere play that resonates deeply with and speaks to the present moment, collaborations with leading arts organizations in New York City, and a festival of new and exciting multidisciplinary works from our third-year MFA cohort,” says Jermaine Hill, Dean, School Of Drama and Associate Dean, College of Performing Arts. “These offerings demonstrate the depth and breadth of artistic exploration at the School of Drama and exemplify our commitment to being a destination that celebrates and epitomizes the best of student artistry in a variety of genres, mediums, and forms. We welcome you to join us for this bold and exciting production season.”
Established in the fall of 2015, the College brings together Mannes School of Music, the iconic 100-year-old conservatory; the legendary School of Jazz and Contemporary Music (SJCM); and the innovative and groundbreaking School of Drama. The College of Performing Arts creates opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, innovative education, and world-class performances, encouraging students to work across traditions to become a force of new artistry. With an enrollment of over 900 students taught by 630 full- and part-time faculty, the College presents approximately 750 performances each year, nearly all of which are free and open to the public, creating an incredible performing arts resource for New Yorkers and visitors alike.
Performances by students and faculty at the College of Performing Arts break new ground, pushing the boundaries of convention and reinventing traditional forms. Additional highlights for the College this season include (Un)Silent Film series presenting Tod Browning’s classic film Dracula with Philip Glass’s score performed by Orange Road Quartet, the Cuker and Stern Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence, with pianist and guest conductor Michael Riesman on October 25; the Namekawa-Davies Duo (Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies) in Pianographique featuring music by Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Steve Reich, with real-time visualizations by Cori O’Lan, on October 26; Mannes Opera’s double bill featuring one-act operas by David T. Little and Kamala Sankaram on November 8 and 9; performances by celebrated Mannes/School of Jazz Ensembles-in-Residence The Westerlies, Sandbox Percussion, and JACK Quartet throughout the season, including Sandbox Percussion’s world premiere of Michael Torke’s BLOOM on December 11; the New School Studio Orchestra performing Duke Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite on December 5; and multiple performances of the Mannes Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, including Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light to the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc with The New York Choral Society on November 1, the U.S. premiere of Augustus Hailstork’s Ndemera on December 9, and Sandbox Percussion in Viet Cuong’s percussion concerto Re(new)al paired with John Zorn’s violin concerto Contes de Fées performed by Stefan Jackiw on April 11. The New School Studio Orchestra presents the U.S. premiere of jazz great Carla Bley’s rarely heard landmark album Escalator Over the Hill on May 2.
For a complete overview of performances at The New School’s College of Performing Arts, read the 2024-2025 season press release here.
Performances at The New School’s College of Performing Arts are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Some events require advance registration. View the full calendar of performances at the College of Performing Arts – including Mannes School of Music, School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and School of Drama – for details on how to attend.
About The College of Performing Arts at The New School
The College of Performing Arts at The New School was formed in 2015 and draws together the Mannes School of Music, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture of creative excellence, the College of Performing Arts is a hub for vigorous training, cross-disciplinary collaboration, bold experimentation, innovative education, and world-class performances.
The 1,000 students at the College of Performing Arts are actors, performers, writers, improvisers, creative technologists, entrepreneurs, composers, arts managers, and multidisciplinary artists who believe in the transformative power of the arts. Students and faculty collaborate with colleagues across The New School in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design, to the social sciences, public policy, advocacy, and more.
The curriculum at the College of Performing Arts is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the changing arts and culture landscape. New degrees and coursework, like the new graduate degrees for Performer-Composers and Artist Entrepreneurs are designed to challenge highly skilled artists to experiment, innovate, and engage with the past, present, and future of their artforms. New York City’s Greenwich Village provides the backdrop for the College of Performing Arts, which is housed at Arnhold Hall on West 13th Street and the historic Westbeth Artists Community on Bank Street.
The School of Drama is the most recent incarnation of theater education at The New School that goes back to the programs once led by the Group Theater, Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop, and The Actor’s Studio, and is a creative home to a dynamic group of actors, directors, writers, creative technologists, and multi-disciplinary theater artists. With a focus on authenticity of expression, the school’s curriculum confronts today's most pressing societal issues through the making of theater, film, and emerging media. The School of Drama’s faculty is made up of award-winning actors, playwrights, and directors who bring a currency of professional experience, artistic training, and project-based learning into the classroom. The multidisciplinary MFA and BFA degree programs bring together rigor, creativity, and collaborative learning to create work marked by professionalism, imagination, and civic awareness. The school takes inspiration from the greats who walked its halls in the past, including Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Shelley Winters, and Vinnette Carroll, as well as more recent graduates, like Adrienne C. Moore, Bradley Cooper, Jordan E. Cooper, and Jason Kim.
Founded in 1919, The New School was established to advance academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. A century later, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The university welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and public programs that encourage open discourse and social engagement. Through our online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence.