Dutch Kills presents the New York premiere of a new drama set at a My Little Pony role playing group.
November 4 - December 4, 2021 at wild project
"Subtly chilling... A timely allegory of identity and belonging, Meyer’s story about a group of lonely outcasts reminds us that acceptance and community can indeed be magical—but sometimes magic can be dark." -- Carey Purcell, Time Out New York
Critic's Pick. "THE ANTELOPE PARTY crafts a clever little awakening for (its characters), and anyone who shares their belief that there is safety in numbers." -- Juan A. Ramírez, The New York Times
"A wild ride...THE ANTELOPE PARTY is a timely hot take on unity, community, and cosplay-in-a-play." -- Derek McCracken, BroadwayWorld
"You've got to admire the skill with which Meyer spins his unlikely premise into a blackly comic psychological thriller that eerily mirrors this country's tribalized state... As depiction of social breakdown in miniature, The Antelope Party feels eerily on target." -- David Barbour, Lighting&Sound America
"A brilliantly satirical parable which is uncannily prescient in today’s political climate." -- Christopher Caz, TheaterScene.net
After an acclaimed premiere in Chicago, Dutch Kills Theater (Temping, The Sister, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies) will present the New York Premiere of 2018 Weissberger Award for Playwrighting nominee THE ANTELOPE PARTY by Eric John Meyer. It is directed by 2017 Lucille Lortel Award winner Jess Chayes (HOME/SICK, Half Moon Bay) with dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie (What the Constitution Means to Me, Grand Horizons, Hillary and Clinton, A Doll’s House Part 2). Previews were originally scheduled to begin March 19, 2020 at The Wild Project, but after a 19-month pandemic delay, previews will now begin November 4, 2021. Opening is slated for November 10.
In THE ANTELOPE PARTY five friends gather weekly to revel in their love of the children's cartoon My Little Pony. But they soon find themselves caught between their innocent Brony role playing game and an increasingly dangerous outside world that keeps changing the rules. Eric John Meyer's comic drama wrestles with the importance of community and the dangers of our need to belong.
THE ANTELOPE PARTY will star Will Dagger (NYT Critic's Pick Among the Dead with Ma-Yi -- pictured above), Quinn Franzen (Threesome at 59E59), Lindsley Howard (Ed Iskander’s The Mysteries at The Flea), Anna Ishida (Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage), Edward Mawere (The New Group's one in two by Donja R. Love), and Caitlin Morris (Minor Character at The Public's Under the Radar). The production will feature sets by Yu-Hsuan Chen (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Nomad Motel), lighting by Cha See (What To Send Up When It Goes Down), sound by Asa Wember (Seagullmachine), costumes by Kate Fry (Burn This on Broadway), fight direction by Alex J. Gould (Agnes at 59E59) and props by Brian Bernhard (Leap and the Net Will Appear).
THE ANTELOPE PARTY is now available from Broadway Play Publishing and selections from the play are featured in the 2019 editions of both The Best Women's Monologues and The Best Men's Monologues from Applause.
Jess Chayes is the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at Northern Stage as well as a founding co-artistic director of The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed ten original productions. Recent directing includes: Intelligence (Dutch Kills), Latter Days and The Providence of Neighboring Bodies (Dutch Kills), Half Moon Bay (Lesser America), I Will Look Forward to this Later (The Assembly), Primal Play (New Georges), The Bachelors (Williamstown Theater Festival), The Sister (Dutch Kills), The Netflix Plays (Ars Nova), and HOME/SICK (The Assembly, NY Times Critic’s Pick). Jess is a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect, a co-founder of New Georges Jam artists' lab, and alum of the New Georges Audrey Residency, The Civilians R&D Group and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Associate Directing credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (Broadway and New World Stages) and Misery. Jess is the recipient of the 2017 Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and the 2019 Collaboration Award from the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.
Eric John Meyer’s plays have been developed or presented by Playwrights Horizons, Theater Wit, The Lark, Clubbed Thumb, Vineyard Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Flea, Dutch Kills Theater Company, and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, among others. His play The Antelope Party was nominated for the 2018 Weissberger Award and is available from Broadway Play Publishing. Eric was recently in Moscow and Saint Petersburg developing a Russian translation of The Antelope Party as part of The Lark's Russia/U.S. Playwright Exchange. His new play The Wheel of Fortune (a theory of change), a Playwright Horizons commission, was recently developed at PH in a workshop directed by Carolyn Cantor. Eric has been a resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Drop, Forge and Tool, and Lark Playwrights Week. With Jean Ann Douglass, Eric is co-founder of Human Head Performance Group, known for performing original works inside Budget rental trucks.
Since 2011, Dutch Kills (Alley Scott, Artistic Director and Allison Raynes, Managing Director) has been committed to developing and producing new plays by the most exciting emerging theater artists in New York and beyond. Dutch Kills full productions include Wolf 359's Temping a At The Wild Project, Selkie by Krista Knight at The Wild Project, Solitary by Duane Cooper and Blake Habermann at Edinburgh Fringe, Intelligence at Next Door at NYTW, Latter Days by Ben Beckley at Ars Nova and The Providence of Neighboring Bodies by Jean Ann Douglass at Ars Nova and Edinburgh Fringe, The Sister by Eric John Meyer at the 4th Street Theater and Paradise in Edinburgh, and In Quietness by Anna Moench at Walkerspace, among others. The company has produced dozens of developmental workshops and readings including works by Kate Benson, Alexandra Silber, and Erin Mallon. The company will present KlaxAlterian Sequester by Ben Beckley and Asa Wember at Edinburgh Fringe in August 2021. For more info visit www.dutchkillstheater.com..
THE ANTELOPE PARTY runs November 4 - December 4. Performances are Tuesday – Friday at 8pm; Saturday & Sunday at 3pm & 8pm. (Note: No performances November 23 – 26.) The wild project is located at 195 E. 3rd Street between Aves A & B. Tickets are $20 - $55 at www.theantelope.party.