New Work!

(this weekend, but also always)

I’m rushing this month’s blog post out to remind everyone about my very fun latest stage management collaboration, which you can catch onstage in Long Island City all weekend! But it also seemed a fitting time to reflect on a few reasons that I love to prioritize new and developing plays and musicals as a central focus of my work:

• New work projects tend to be especially collaborative and creative, with writers on the creative team actively experimenting with the final shape of the show. 

• These plays often continue to evolve throughout the rehearsal process, which adds an extra level of challenge but keeps everyone on their toes in an exciting way.

• It’s thrilling to work on shows that will be shared with an audience for the first time and experience fresh reactions to new material.

• While this absolutely also applies to my work with Expand the Canon, working on new plays is a tremendously fulfilling way to support new voices in theatre, improving representation and boosting our art form’s potential for igniting community and conversation. 

• When the stars align, it is the greatest joy to watch a new work project continue to evolve through subsequent productions and workshops (whether on the team or from the audience!).

Now Playing: Frizzled @ Culture Lab LIC, July 30 – Aug 2

And why the new work emphasis for this post? All weekend, you can catch us blasting off from Long Island City with the nostalgic and hilarious Frizzled from Forager Theatre Company! It’s been a delight to stage manage for this endlessly playful and creative room, and we very much look forward to welcoming audiences into this zany and heartfelt party of a show. (And if you caught 8min20sec last winter this one may sound familiar, as I’m back at our Culture Lab venue for another musical by the spectacularly talented Eliana Rubin.)

Frizzled: A Magic School Bus Musical Parody is a wild, nostalgic coming-of-age musical blasting the kids you know and love into outrageous and very grown-up scenarios with their favorite frizzy-haired teacher. Featuring a score packed with infectious hooks about getting older, partying it up, and wanting to kiss your best friend, this show is guaranteed to make you laugh. Join the kids from Walkerville High as they take one last ride on that big yellow bus!

(Intended for Audiences 18+)

Coming Soon: Podcast Releases

Ever wanted to hear more about what exactly we do on the Research Team for Expand the Canon? You’re in luck! For this fall’s edition of ETC’s This Is A Classic podcast, we’ve curated conversations between members of the team on a variety of topics. I am currently at work editing audio for these delightful chats between our researchers, and look forward to sharing them with our listeners over the coming months. In the meantime, you can check out our back catalogue of episodes spotlighting all of our ETC-featured plays, as well as hearing me and a few other researchers on last season's episode toasting our Expand the Canon rebrand.  

Ongoing: ETC Monologue Book

We are tremendously proud to have Expand the Canon’s first book out in the world and available for order, spotlighting incredible monologues from plays written by women and gender-expansive writers across history:

Fresh Old Monologues from New-to-You Classics!

Whether you’re an actor or an educator, this is the monologue book you need in your arsenal. With 110 options to refresh any actor's repertoire or expand the canon in the classroom, actors can stand out amongst the crowd in audition rooms and educators can show more students that the classic canon is and always has been for all of us.