Closet fantasia by Obie Award winner Rick Burkhardt makes world premiere.
March 16 - April 7 at Next Door at NYTW
Next Door at NYTW will present the World Premiere of DINNER WITH GEORGETTE by Obie Award winner Rick Burkhardt (Three Pianos). Directed by Ellie Heyman, previews begin March 16 with opening set for Friday, March 23.
DINNER WITH GEORGETTE begins as a farce and evolves into a fantasia on the subject of the closet. Balti and Jaker are gay 20-year-olds enjoying romantic and sexual possibilities on their college campus. When Jaker asks Balti to pretend to be straight during Jaker's Grandmother's campus visit, a chasm opens and Balti finds himself traveling back in time. As Balti sorts through the national history that binds him to Grandma's homophobia, he meets a yarn-spinning rattlesnake, a Korean-American war child, and the founders of the first gay bar in Las Vegas. When he attempts to return to the comforts of modern-day gay life, he finds that time works differently inside the closet than outside, and his love with Jaker may be irretrievable.
DINNER WITH GEORGETTE stars Kennedy Kanagawa (NAATCO’s Falsettoland), Ben Langhorst (Pipeline’s Clown Bar & Beardo), Jermaine Golden, Jessie Shelton (Rachel Chavkin’s Hadestown at NYTW / Futurity at SoHo Rep), Gianna Masi, Beth Griffith, and Brian Kim. The production team includes James Fluhr (set), Mary Ellen Stebbins (lighting), Katja Andreiev (costumes), Russell Maclin (production manager), Krishna Istha (production stage manager), Jenn Haltman (casting director), Rachel Birnbaum (producer), and Bob Kalas (producer).
Rick Burkhardt is an Obie-award-winning playwright, composer, director, and performer whose original music theater pieces have been performed in over 40 US cities, as well as in Australia, Europe, Taiwan, Canada, and Mexico. He studied Music Composition (PhD 2006) at the University of California, San Diego and playwriting (MFA 2016) at Brown University with Erik Ehn. His plays, including Three Pianos, Conversation Storm, Storm Still and The Climb Up Mount Chimborazo, have been produced by organizations including New York Theatre Workshop, American Repertory Theater, P.S. 122, and LaMama, as well as numerous US and international festivals. As a songwriter, he has shared stages with artists including Pete Seeger, Indigo Girls, Holly Near, and Utah Phillips, and his original songs have been featured on radio programs like NPR’s “Morning Edition” and Pacifica’s “Democracy Now.” As a playwright and composer, he has collaborated with theater-makers including Lisa D’Amour, Anne Washburn, Erin Courtney, Kristin Kosmas, Dave Malloy, Sylvan Oswald, and Rachel Chavkin.
Ellie Heyman is a New York based director and the Director in Residence at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. Recent credits include: Jason Craig & Dave Malloy’s Beardo (Drama Desk Award nomination, Pipeline Theater); Erin Markey’s Boner Killer (Under the Radar/The Public Theater); Becca Blackwell’s They, Themself and Schmerm (Under the Radar/The Public Theater); Adrienne Truscott’s THIS (Bessie Award nomination for Outstanding Production; NYLA); Dane Terry’s Jupiter’s Lifeless Moons (P.S. 122/COIL), Fusiform Gyrus (Talking Band); and The Traveling Imaginary, an internationally touring theatrical rock show with Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel) rated a “Top 5 Show of the Year” by NPR. Her narrative podcast The Orbiting Human Circus (Of the Air) (Night Vale Presents) was rated #1 on Apple Podcasts and downloaded over 4 million times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and Boston University, a Drama League Alumni, and a Time Warner Directing Fellow at the WP Theater. ellieheyman.com.
DINNER WITH GEORGETTE runs March 16 – April 7, Wednesday – Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 4pm, with an additional performance Monday, March 19 at 7:30pm. (Please note: March 28 is at 8:30pm.) Next Door at NYTW is located at 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery – closest train is the F at Second Avenue. Tickets are $35 general admission. To purchase tickets, call 212-460-5475 or visit www.nytw.org.