THE HANGAR THEATRE AND DRAMA LEAGUE
ANNOUNCE GROUNDBREAKING FIRST ANNUAL FUTURENOW FESTIVAL
A PLAY FESTIVAL EMBRACING RISK-TAKING AND CATALYZING COLLABORATION
AMONG RISING ARTISTS, WITH TIMELY COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
AUGUST 11-13, 2022
FEATURED DIRECTORS INCLUDE
ANDREW COOPMAN, EMILY HARTFORD, AND LOGAN GABRIELLE SCHULMAN:
THE DRAMA LEAGUE 2022-23 FUTURENOW DIRECTING FELLOWS
FEATURING WORK FROM THE HANGAR LAB PERFORMANCE FELLOWS AND HANGAR THEATRE DESIGN FELLOWS
LINEUP, IN REPERTORY INCLUDES
ANTIGONICK BY SOPHOKLES / TRANSLATED BY ANNE CARSON, THE APOLLO OF BELLAC BY JEAN GIRAUDOUX, SUNDAY IN SODOM BY JORDAN TANNAHILL, AND A PARSIFAL BY SUSAN SONTAG
Ithaca, NY (June 28, 2022) - The Drama League (Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) and Hangar Theatre (Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky) jointly announced today the First Annual FutureNow Festival, a new iteration of the Hangar’s Wedge Series that centers directors, actors, and designers on the rise, presented by the Hangar Theatre. This inaugural year, the FutureNow Festival will feature the work of The Drama League 2022-23 FutureNow Directing Fellows Emily Hartford, Andrew Coopman, and Logan Gabrielle Schulman along with theatre workshops, artist receptions, and community discussions throughout the festival weekend, August 11-13.
Highlights of the festival include the regional premiere of Susan Sontag’s rarely produced play, A Parsifal paired with Jordan Tannahill’s Sunday in Sodom, a modernist reimagining of Jean Giraudoux’s Apollo of Bellac, and a devised staging of Anne Carson’s Antigonick.
Established in 1983, The Hangar Wedge Series has been the proving ground for some of the most innovative and dynamic theatre artists working today, including Lisa Peterson, Sam Gold, Rachel Chavkin, Pirronne Yousefzadeh, Kevin Moriarty, and Joe Calarco. For almost 40 years, The Wedge has produced provocative, cutting-edge theatre.
"After more than three decades of showcasing the finest new directors in America with our partners at the Hangar Theatre, I'm thrilled to be expanding this experience with the FutureNow Festival," said the Artistic Director of The Drama League in New York City, Gabriel Stelian-Shanks. "Andrew, Emily and Logan join an illustrious line of talents -- including acclaimed directors working on Broadway and Hollywood right now -- who began their journey in Ithaca. I can't wait for them to dazzle and delight audiences this August."
Hangar Theatre Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky is excited about the expansion and reimagining of the Wedge programming: “At a time when so much is changing in the world and in the American Theatre, we see the emergence of the FutureNow Festival as an opportunity to engage more meaningfully with our community,” Serotsky asserts. “We are thrilled to provide a space for nationally-recognized rising directors to discover and define their artistic identities while offering a unique, engaging, and highly accessible programming stream for Hangar audiences. Introducing free workshops for all ages into the mix connects the programming to the Hangar’s commitment to education and learning in a wonderful and organic way.”
The Artistic Mission of the FutureNow Festival is to provide a theatrical laboratory for artists experimenting with creative identity, artistic leadership, and art in relation to systems of power in our precarious time.
Groundbreaking in form and function by reimagining the relationship between artist and institution, this director-produced festival exists to embrace risk-taking in artmaking and to catalyze collaboration among rising directors, designers, and performers.
The FutureNow Festival will take place August 11-13, 2022, at the Hangar's Outdoor Performance space (801 Taughannock Blvd.). During the weekend festivities, Mx. Coopman, Ms. Hartford, and Mx. Schulman will present their productions, to be performed in repertory over the weekend. The directors will also facilitate creative workshops for audience members and the broader community. Festival programming will include receptions with the Hangar Lab Company Design Fellows: Samantha Mastrati (Scenic Design), Hannah S Wolland (Lighting Design), Johnna Presby (Costume Design), and Abby Coppock (Sound Design), along with Performance Fellows from the Lab Company. Additionally, the three directing fellows will host a Partnership Panel to platform community organizations doing significant work in Ithaca related to the content and themes of the artists’ works. Tickets will be general festival seating with a suggested donation of $10. Tickets will go on sale at the end of July.
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HANGAR THEATRE AND THE WEDGE LAB PRESENTS
FUTURENOW FESTIVAL 2022
FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS
ANTIGONICK
By Sophokles, A New Translation by Anne Carson
Directed by 2022 Drama League FutureNow Directing Fellow Emily Hartford
Anne Carson’s ANTIGONICK is a modern translation of this nearly 2,500-year-old tragedy. A young woman grows up amidst trauma, incest, exile. As she steps into adulthood, her brothers kill each other in a fight over the throne. Her uncle—seizing power—deems one brother’s body “illegal” and bars burial rites, on pain of death. This is where we meet Antigone. In Hartford's staging, grief and rage mix with absurd humor, acerbic wit, and uncanny imagery to unleash the scream for humanization and resistance that connects our current world with that of Antigone.
EMILY HARTFORD (she/her) is a New York City-based director, creator, artistic leader, performer, puppet designer, and proud Creative Partner of Flux Theatre Ensemble. With Flux, she is one of three Lead Creators and co-director/writer on Our Options Have Changed, an immersive and interactive phone-based experience. Directing credits include Operating Systems, Rizing, #SpeakUp: The Street Harassment Plays, Breathe Free (Flux); The Battles, a New Musical (The Battles LLC/Gym at Judson); Implied Consent (Badass Lady Productions/Access). Assisting: Salvage, Jane the Plain (Flux). Emily is an Associate Member of SDC, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and a Drama League Directing Fellow. She is also a generator of devised / collaboratively-created theater, including the full-length Metra: A Climate Revolution Play with Songs (with Ned Hartford), and will direct Metra’s world premiere with Flux Theatre Ensemble at Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan (Fall 2022). Her first short film, Type A, premiered at the Woods Hole Film Festival in 2021, and has appeared in festivals across the country. EmilyHartford.com
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THE APOLLO OF BELLAC
By Jean Giraudoux, Translated by Maurice Valency
Directed by 2022 Drama League FutureNow Directing Fellow Andrew Coopman
Jean Giraudoux’s THE APOLLO OF BELLAC is the story of Agnes, the French everywoman, who’s just looking for a job at the International Bureau of Inventions. However, after the chauvinist clerk refuses to let her see the Vice President, a mysterious human enters the office and teaches her the secret to controlling men — just call them “Handsome.” With Coopman’s vision helming the production, what ensues from this divine discovery is a comedic, queer tour de force exploring gender, the traditional ideals of beauty and breaking out of the boxes we are forced to occupy — and leads Agnes all the way to the President.
ANDREW COOPMAN (they/he) is a genderqueer director, choreographer, and playwright of Middle Eastern/European descent. Andrew’s work has been seen on stages in Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, New York City, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Credits include: Head Over Heels (Lakewood Playhouse), Bryony Lavery’s Frozen: A Play (UW Cabaret
Theater), The Convent Of Pleasure (Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble), I & You (Burien Actor’s Theater), Love & Information (online), The Wizard of Oz (Tacoma Little Theater), Little Women (Seattle Musical Theater), Into the Woods (Studio East), Once Upon a Mattress (Snoqualmie Falls Forest Theatre), Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Edmonds Driftwood Players), James and the Giant Peach (Village Theatre), Wilde Tales (Seattle Opera), and Sunflower Sisters (premiere, Eclectic Theater). MFA: University of Washington. Andrew is a proud SDC and AGMA member, and a Drama League Directing Fellow. AndrewCoopman.com
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SUNDAY IN SODOM | A PARSIFAL
By Jordan Tannahill | By Susan Sontag
Directed by 2022 Drama League FutureNow Directing Fellow Logan Gabrielle Schulman
Creating an explosive double-header of plays by Jordan Tannahill and Susan Sontag, Schulman builds a devastating juxtaposition setting the human toll of American military intervention in their crosshairs. SUNDAY IN SODOM explores Edith’s last day on earth before her home village of Sodom is destroyed by a US bombardment, and A PARSIFAL begins as SUNDAY IN SODOM ends, depicting the surreal story of Parsifal, an American soldier coming to terms with his humanity, depravity, and complicity. This pairing poses the question: in the face of cycles of grief, do we grow, bend, or break?
LOGAN GABRIELLE SCHULMAN (they/them) is a proud queer and Jewish visual + performance artist, director, cultural educator, and activist. Their work has been presented by DopoLavoro Teatrale (Toronto), Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (Phila), Hangar Theatre (NY), Walnut Street Theater (Phila), the Sarasota Art Museum (FL), Asolo Repertory Theatre (FL), Renegade Theater (NYC), the Chautauqua Institution (NY), Urbanite Theatre (FL), Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (FL), and Vox Populi (Phila), as well as various outdoor spaces, among others. Schulman has performance-works in the permanent collections of the Ringling College of Art Library’s Special Collections (FL) and the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin (TX). Their written work has been commissioned by the Walnut Street Theatre and Reconstructing Judaism’s Ritualwell, and featured on the 2020 Kilroys List. Their practice has been supported through grants and residencies from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Chautauqua Institution, Florida Humanities Council, Directors Gathering, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Old City Jewish Arts Center, and the Directors Lab. Most recently, Logan served as an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at New College of Florida, and is currently producing a new performance work as a resident artist at the Greensboro Contemporary Jewish Museum and in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania Library’s Early American Judaica Digital Humanities Collection. Schulman received their training from the Stella Adler Studio, Headlong Performance Institute, and their Bachelors with Honors in Performance and Religion from the New College of Florida. LoganSchulman.net
FUTURENOW FESTIVAL DAILY REPERTORY SCHEDULE
Thursday, August 12
Antigonick at 5:30PM
Artist Meet and Greet & Picnic
The Apollo of Bellac at 8:00PM
Sunday in Sodom & A Parsifal at 10:00PM
Friday, August 13
Partnership Panel w/ [INSERT PARTNERSHIP ORGANIZATION] at 5:00PM
Sunday in Sodom & A Parsifal at 5:30PM
Artist Meet and Greet & Picnic
Antigonick at 8:00PM
The Apollo of Bellac at 10:00PM
Saturday, August 14
The Apollo of Bellac at 5:30PM
Artist Meet and Greet & Picnic
Sunday in Sodom & A Parsifal at 8:00PM
Antigonick at 10:00PM
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FUTURENOW FESTIVAL is made possible by the generosity of our current supporters and donors, including the Hangar’s Partner in Community: CFCU Community Credit Union; the Hangar’s Partner in Education: Cornell University; and the Hangar’s Associate Partner in Education: BorgWarner.
Hangar Theater and The Drama League have been in partnership since 1989 with the intention of providing emerging stage directors with meaningful experiences both as directors and artistic leaders. The FutureNow Directing Fellowship is for rising stage directors to practice their craft and explore directorial leadership. While in residence at the Hangar Theatre, the Fellows each direct a KIDDSTUFF Series Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) production, and direct and produce what is now the FutureNow Festival, which they have pitched and conceived of themselves, in collaboration with Hangar artistic leadership. At TheaterWorksUSA, the Fellows remount a repertory production for TYA audiences that will tour nationally for the season. FutureNow Directing Fellowships offer production experience, career development, mentorship, and intimate access to the processes of major theatrical institutions.
During FutureNow Festival, Mx. Coopman, Ms. Hartford, and Mx. Schulman will join the ranks of the illustrious 350+ alumni of The Drama League Directors Project, including Tony® Award winners Christopher Ashley (Come From Away), Rebecca Taichman (Indecent), Sam Gold (Fun Home), Diane Paulus (Waitress), Michael Mayer (Head Over Heels), Pam MacKinnon (The Parisian Woman), John Rando (On The Town), Moritz von Steulpnagel (Bernhardt/Hamlet), Alex Timbers (Beetlejuice), and Mark Brokaw (Heisenberg), to name only a few.
The Drama League Directors Project, since its founding in 1984, has grown to become the preeminent development program for early and mid-career theater directors, providing talented young artists with career-transforming experiences in the professional theater. The program provides opportunities for young directors to present their work to the professional community. In addition, the program augments a network of professionals to whom new directors can turn for counsel, support, and employment, that helps to accelerate the process through which new directors gain acceptance within the professional community, bringing their unique skills and vision into the working life of the American theater. The Drama League Directors Project also maintains an active support network for its alumni.
The alumni of The Drama League Directors Project, which now number over 350, can be found working in all aspects of the entertainment profession. ‘Drama League Directors’ are directing on Broadway, Off-Broadway, at regional theaters across the country, and in film and television. They are the artistic directors and associates at 58 regional theaters. Others hold prominent positions throughout the industry as producers, writers, agents and administrators, and many are educating the next generation of directors at some of our finest professional training programs. Their directing work has been honored with Tony, Emmy, Obie, Peabody, Drama Desk, GLAAD, Drama League, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics, Evening Standard, Lucille Lortel, Bessie, Princess Grace, Garland, Drama-Logue, Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Elliot Norton, and Joseph Jefferson Awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. They have literally shaped the future of the American theater, with the praise of critics and audiences alike.
The Drama League of New York, since 1916, has been at the forefront of the American Theatre community, providing talent, audiences, and prosperous support. It is one of the nation’s oldest continuously-operating, not-for-profit arts advocacy and education organizations. Through its programs, initiatives and events, The Drama League indelibly transforms the lives of artists and audiences by harnessing the unique social and creative dynamism of theatre. Its nationally-renowned, award-winning efforts have two vital goals: To train and nurture the artists of tomorrow and to deepen and strengthen the audience experience.
For Additional Information, please visit https://hangartheatre.org.
