NEWS

upcoming…

Production: Tour begins September 11, 2020 | Mainstage Spring 2021

THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL by L M Feldman
directed by Larissa Lury

American Shakespeare Center | Blackfriars Playhouse | 10 S. Market Street, Staunton, VA

A gender-nonconforming 18th-century herb woman tries to carve out a larger sense of space…and becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Her name was Jeanne Baret, and nearly everything we know about her life comes from the journals of the men who knew her. An epic tale of historical fiction about our country's present moment, THRIVE OR WHAT YOU WILL blends the style and language of our past & present in order to interrogate the nature of "discovery" and its legacy, of (mis)categorizing the world, of species and survival, of status and privilege, of gender and identity, and of the subjective nature of both history and self.

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Workshop: April 4-9 | Public Reading: Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 7pm [CURRENTLY POSTPONED}

we walk along the christmas bridge by Matthew Paul Olmos; music by April Guthrie
directed by Larissa Lury

New Dramatists | 424 W 44th Street, New York, NY

we walk along the christmas bridge is play with music about two families in an undisclosed town in contemporary United States that is divided by race and class; both sides will do anything to protect themselves after a bridge connecting the affluent and poor sides of town is shut down due to escalating tensions.

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Invited Reading: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 7pm [CURRENTLY POSTPONED]

THE JONBENET GAME by Tori Keenan-Zelt
directed by Larissa Lury

New Georges' "The Room" | 520 8th Avenue, New York, NY

When Molly and Rae were 12, they were best friends. They shared secrets and fantasies, and when no one else was around, they would play The JonBenet Game together. Eventually, they grew up and grew apart. But now they're back in each other's orbit as Rae befriends Molly's 12-year-old daughter, Hazel. It's a play about murder fandom and rope and the friendship between a 35-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl.

We’ve been holding mini-workshops with actors over the course of the month, as Tori drafts the play, and we’ll be reading the first full draft around the table on 3/24.

in the works…

In addition to the projects with invited or public sharings coming up or just past, there are several plays Larissa has been helping to develop over the past few years, which she would love to find the right home for.  Here are a handful of them…

THREE GIRLS NEVER LEARNT THE WAY HOME by Matthew Paul Olmos
Three high school girls are bused into a neighboring affluent town as part of a controversial school integration program. However, a mysterious encounter sends a panic through both towns. The first play in a new cycle about the unbalanced education system in the United States.

THE GRAND ILLUSION SHOW by Emily Dendinger
In 1896 New York, Adelaide is a recent widow. Her husband was the famous magician, Alexander Herrmann, and now she – his long-time assistant – wants the rights to perform his illusions herself. The trouble is no woman has ever performed this kind of magic before. To prove she’s qualified to carry on her husband’s legacy, Adelaide will perform the most dangerous trick of all: the infamous Bullet Catch. Based on a true story, The Grand Illusion Show mixes Adelaide’s story with real illusions as it examines the limitations of the glass-ceilings we’ve broken, and those we’re still working to shatter.

LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG CITY by Emily Dendinger
Margo has everything — great marriage, flourishing career, adoring husband– until she is given the devastating news – her unborn baby has a hole in its head. Suddenly faced with the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy, Margo decides the best way to cope with her grief is by entering a pageant where women compete to be crowned Little House on the Prairie’s Laura Ingalls Wilder.

THE BELL SISTERS by Emily Dendinger
A southern gothic about three sisters caring for an aging mother who was once a force in the women’s movement and now lives with dementia, a male grad-student interloper, and the question of who owns the mother's legacy and who has the right to tell her story.

just past…

First full table read: January 13, 2020 at 1pm
THE MERCURY 13 [working title] by L M Feldman; co-created with Larissa Lury
Ensemble Studio Theatre | 545 W 52nd Street, New York, NY
A commission from EST and The Sloan Foundation, THE MERCURY 13 [working title] is a play combining historical transcript with fictional scenes and movement. With a cast of 13 women+, the play blows open the story of outstanding pilots, who were aspiring astronauts in the early years of the human space flight program. Through a re-framed look backward, the play asks a question aimed at progress: what does it take (as a woman, as a queer, as a lower-class citizen, as a person of color, as a human being) to get off the ground in this country?

Stage Managed by Anna Rock

Featuring: Lily Balsen, Brittany Bellizeare, Kim Blanck, Danielle Davenport, Annie Fang, Jenna Horton, Erin Markey, Andrea Negrete, Diana Oh Sabrina Profitt, Kristen Sieh, Anya Wheelan-Smith, and Akyiaa Wilson

Production: November 8 – December 15, 2019
THE THANKSGIVING PLAY by Larissa FastHorse
Directed by Larissa Lury

Urbanite Theatre | 1487 2nd Street, Sarasota, FL

Scenic Design by Frank Chavez
Lighting Design by Joseph P. Oshry
Costume Design by Dee Sullivan
Sound Design by Rew Tippin
Master Carpententry by Gene Alcorn
Prop Design by Steve Patmagrian
Fight Choreography by Diego Villada
Videography by India Marie Paul
Scenic Charge Karle Murdock

Stage Managed by Nick Catanzaro

Featuring: Clare Lopez, Eric Leonard, Genevieve Simon, and Paul Michael Thomson

https://www.urbanitetheatre.com/thethanksgivingplay

Retreat: August 5-11, 2019
THE MERCURY 13 on Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB Retreat!
L M Feldman and I got to research, daydream, share thoughts about and experiment with ideas for THE MERCURY 13 [working title], while wandering wooded paths, doing handstands on the grass, chopping fire wood, and getting to know a group of generous, smart, and generally wonderful humans and their equally exciting works of art.

https://freshgroundpeppernyc.com/brb-resident-program/

Here’s what L Feldman wrote about it in the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/theater/summer-residency-playwrights-theater.html

Workshop: July 18-23, 2019
Staged Reading: July 23 at 7:30pm
three girls never learnt the way home by Matthew Paul Olmos
Directed by Larissa Lury

Dorset Theatre Festival | 104 Cheney Rd, Dorset, VT
Three high school girls are bused into a neighboring affluent town as part of a controversial school integration program. However, a mysterious encounter sends a panic through both towns. The first play in a new cycle about the unbalanced education system in the United States.

Sound Supervised by Ted Carraro

Stage Managed by Ben Pfister

Featuring: Andrea Negrete, Toni Lachelle-Pollitt, Heather Velazquez, and Jennifer Dorr White

Production: April 25-May 5, 2019
My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Directed by Larissa Lury

American Southwest Theatre Company at New Mexico State University | Las Cruces, NM

Music Direction by Christa Fredrickson
Choreography by Monique Foster
Scenic Design by Tressa Lynette Smith
Costume Design by Maggie Jane Simpson
Lighting Design by James Padilla
Sound Design by Jim Wilkinson
Dialect Coaching by Alice Carruth

Stage Managed by Karina Ortega

Featuring: Sammi Armstrong, Bryan Bernard, Micaela Bernal, Brandon Brown, Calvin Chervinko, Yamilex Holguin, Brianna Horvath, Jenna Ivey, Loren Jackson, Jessica Jimenez, Cheyenne Kimmick, Quinton Kriner, Adam Logan, Isaac Lucero, Peyton Matthews, Riley Merritt, Kamryn Neill, Francesca Perez-Wright, Nicole Ritter, Ginger Scarborough, Alexus Tafoya, and Melis Derya White

Production Excerpt: April 12, 2019
YURI
a part-fact, mostly imagined tale of the first human orbit
written and created by Larissa Lury, originally in collaboration with contributor Krista Knight and performers Caitlin Goldie, Zach Martens, Jiehae Park, Taylor Shurte, and Jared Warner

Las Cruces Space Festival | Rio Grande Theater | 211 Main Street, Las Cruces, NM

Excerpt re-staged with co-director Xodia Choate and performed by ensemble: Imani Caldwell, Nick Check, Heather Hosford, and Riley Merritt

Lighting by Topher Lininger

Stage Managed by Émilie Rasmussen

LIPSTICK LOBOTOMY imagines a friendship between JFK’s little sister Rosemary Kennedy and the playwright’s great aunt Ginny at an exclusive high-end sanitarium for women in the fall of 1941. The women undergo the peculiar cutting-edge treatments on offer by a society desperate to find the cure for womanhood. When Rosemary is selected by the famous surgeon Dr. Walter Jackson Freeman II for an exciting new procedure, Ginny will do everything in her power to take control of her own future.

Stage Managed by Hiu Ching Pun

Featuring: June Ballinger, Cindy De La Cruz, Eric Harper, Katie Kopajtic, Allison Posner, and Reynaldo Piniella

Production: March 13-23, 2019
THREE GIRLS NEVER LEARNT THE WAY HOME by Matthew Paul Olmos
Directed by Larissa Lury

Cherry Lane Theatre (Mentor Project) | 38 Commerce Street, NYC

Scenic Design by Susan Zeeman Rogers
Costume Design by Melissa Ng
Lighting Design by Sarah Johnston
Sound Design by Fan Zhang
Stage Managed by Suzi Bonnot
Assistant Stage Managed by Arielle Goldstein

Featuring: Jennifer Dorr White, Andrea Negrete, Toni Lachelle Pollitt, and Carmen Zilles