APAC – “Adventurous Theater in Astoria” – Launches 16th Season This Fall

If you’ve been reading WHA for a while now, you know we are big fans of the work that APAC does. In this upcoming season, their 16th, they will focus on social issues—homelessness, immigration, and race relations. Dev Bondarin, Artistic Director of APAC, tells us more:

“We have a thrilling line up as we enter our 16th season at Astoria Performing Arts Center, and all of the work shares the resonant theme of home. This season will see the world premiere of Christina Quintana’s Evensong and a reading of Katya Stanislavskaya’s new musical, Resident Alien. In addition, a revival of Raisin, a musical based on Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play, with a book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg, music by Judd Woldin, and lyrics by Robert Brittan will be produced. Through the lenses of homelessness, immigration, and racism, each piece explores the question ‘where is home?’ As we as a society, and as a nation, search for the answer to this question every day, I am energized to have this season join the conversation.”

Here are more details on their upcoming productions (big thanks to APAC staff for the descriptions and info):

EVENSONG

World Premiere by Christina Quintana, Directed by David Mendizábal
November 3-19, 2016
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm

Evensong traces the story of Teofilo “Teo” Aguilar, a young Mexican-American gay man and member of New York City’s working homeless population. A Texas transplant with big dreams, Teo works as a bank teller, goes on mediocre online dates, and searches for stability and human connection while navigating the tangled shelter system. Using structural elements of choral music and conventions of theatrical magic, Evensong is a tale of survival, growth, and faith in moments of loneliness and solitude.

A short version of Evensong was featured in INTAR’s American Nightcap Series in 2014. The full-length play was featured on HowlRound and the Latina/o Theatre Commons’ Presente: A Roll Call of New Latina/o Plays last summer. The fall production at Astoria Performing Arts Center marks the play’s world premiere.

RESIDENT ALIEN

A New Musical Reading. Book, music, and lyrics by Katya Stanislavskaya, Directed by Artistic Director Dev Bondarin
February 2017

Resident Alien is an original story of a family of three who are part of the third wave of Soviet and post-Soviet immigration to the U.S. in the 1990s. The family – a professor stuck in the past, a musician willing to adapt, and a teenager whose culture shock coincides with her coming-of-age – represents the full spectrum of the successes and failures of the immigrant experience. Resident Alien is about the personal choices every ‘alien’ faces in a new world – which parts of himself or herself to retain, and which to jettison in order to succeed.

Resident Alien has been developed at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, New York Theatre Barn, and the Dramatist Guild Fellowship. It received the 2015 Weston New Musical Award, with excerpts performed at the Weston Playhouse (VT) and New York City, and recorded by Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.

RAISIN

Book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg, based on Lorainne Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
Directed by Artistic Director Dev Bondarin, Music by Judd Woldin, Lyrics by Robert Brittan
May 4-27, 2017
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm

Raisin is a musical adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s revolutionary A Raisin in the Sun, and has a book co-written by her widower Robert Nemiroff. In segregated 1950s Chicago, Walter Lee Younger and his mother Lena fight over the spending of insurance money. He wants to start a business with friends, while she is eager to move the family out of the south side and into Clybourne Park. Pulsing with the musical beat of the city, Raisin depicts a black family’s struggle in the face of change.

Raisin won the 1974 Tony Award for Best Musical, a Grammy Award for Best Score, and a national tour followed. APAC’s production will be the first time the show has been fully produced in New York City since its initial Broadway run.

Raisin is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

APAC’s performances and programs take place within the Good Shepherd Church at 30-44 Crescent Street in Astoria. Their ticket prices are very reasonable, and it’s a great feeling to support local theater. Their work has been highly received – they’ve been nominated for 41 New York Innovative Theatre Awards, with 6 wins (including 3 for Outstanding Musical Production for Merrily We Roll Along, Allegro, Children of Eden, and Ragtime), as well as an Off-Off Broadway Theatre Review Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical (Is There Life After High School?). APAC was also the recipient of the 2012 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award. For more information on APAC, please visit www.apacny.org