urban excavations

I lived thousands of hours in roving artistic communities that move from theater to reading room to cabaret venue in the course of 2019. By my rough count, during 2019 in New York City and elsewhere, I saw 300 ticketed and staged theatrical productions, 20 or so cabaret performances or panel discussions (smaller scale adventures), and too few film screenings. A few screeners (e.g. Judy, egad) augmented my film viewing, and streaming access brought additional films into my living room. I binged series such as Schitt’s Creek, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Mr. Robot; enjoyed re-viewings of entire series such as Mad Men, , Some of these offerings on the small screen I would put up against much of what I saw on area stages through the calendar year.

I look forward to much more of the same community engagement in 2020, and to writing stories already pitched and stories yet to be imagined.

January

• (1/2) Waiting for Godot (New Yiddish Rep | Theater at 14th Street Y)
• (1/3) Choir Boy (MTC | Friedman)
• (1/5) The Chekhov Project: Astrov’s Lounge (UTR | Joe’s Pub)
• (1/5) The Chekhov Project: I Am A Seagull (UTR | SVA Theatre)
• (1/5) Real (The Tank)
• (1/6) Blue Ridge (ATC | Linda Gross)
• (1/9) On Blueberry Hill (59E59)
• (1/10) Maestro (Ensemble for the Romantic Century | Duke on 42nd)
• (1/12) LaBute New Theatre Festival (St. Louis Actors Studio | Davenport)
• (1/13) Alone It Stands (59E59)
• (1/15) Trick or Treat (59E59)
• (1/16) Intelligence (NYTW | Next Door)
• (1/17) A Man for All Seasons (FPA | Theatre Row)
• (1/18) Awake (Barrow Group)
• (1/19) True West (Roundabout | American Airlines)
• (1/19) About Alice (Theatre for a New Audience)
• (1/20) Behind the Sheet (Ensemble Studio Theater)
• (1/22) The Mortality Machine (Wildrence)
• (1/23) The Convent (Weathervane+Rising Phoenix | A.R.T./New York)
• (1/24) God Said This (Primary Stages | Cherry Lane)
• (1/25) Eco Village (Theatre at St. Clement’s)
• (1/26) Eddie and Dave (ATC Stage 2)
• (1/26) The American Tradition (13th Street Repertory)
• (1/27) Red State Blue State (Minetta Lane)
• (1/29) Joan (HERE)

February

• (2/1) The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Abrons ArtsCenter)
• (2/2) My Fair Lady (LCT | Vivian Beaumont)
• (2/3) The Glen (Shetler Studios)
• (2/4) LPTW Oral History Vincentelli + Nottage (NYPL Bruno Walters Auditorium)
• (2/5) The Dance of Death (Classic Stage Company)
• (2/6) Mies Julie (Classic Stage Company)
• (2/7) The Shadow of a Gunman (Irish Rep)
• (2/8) The Light (Wilson | MCC)
• (2/10) State of the Union (Metropolitan Playhouse)
• (2/12) Switzerland (59E59)
• (2/13) The Ferryman (Jacobs, return visit)
• (2/14) The Price of Thomas Scott (Mint | Theatre Row)
• (2/15) Merrily We Roll Along (Pels | Roundabout)
• (2/16) Beaullah Rising (reading, NYPL George Bruce Branch)
• (2/17) Random Acts (TGB Mainstage)
• (2/18) Fiddler on the Roof (Stage 42)
• (2/20) Spaceman (Loading Dock Theatre | Wild Project)
• (2/21) Hurricane Diane (WP + New York Theatre Workshop)
• (2/22) Good Friday (Flea)
• (2/23) Sea Wall / A Life (Public)
• (2/24) By the Way Meet Vera Stark (Signature)
• (2/25) We are the Tigers (Theatre 80)
• (2/26) Bleach (637 Wilson Ave, Brooklyn)
• (2/27) Boesman and Lena (Signature)

March

• (3/1) Joanna Gleason (54 Below)
• (3/2) Imagining Madoff (59E59)
• (3/3) Looking for Leroy (New Federal Theatre |Castillo Theatre)
• (3/3) Daddy (New Group + Vineyard | Signature)
• (3/4) Death of a Driver (Urban Stages)
• (3/5) Superhero (Second Stage | Tony Kiser)
• (3/6) Alice by Heart (MCC | Newman Mills)
• (3/6) Actually We’re F**ked (Cherry Lane)
• (3/7) Surely Goodness and Mercy (Keen | Theatre Row)
• (3/8) A Jewish Joke (Lion | Theatre Row)
• (3/9) Kiss Me Kate (Roundabout | Studio 54) [R]
• (3/9) If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons)
• (3/10) The Cake (New York City Center I)
• (3/10) Fleabag (Soho Playhouse)
• (3/12) Hatef**k (WP | McGinn/Cazale)
• (3/13) After (59E59)
• (3/14) Juno and the Paycock (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (3/15) Recent Alien Abductions (Soho Rep)
• (3/16) Vilna (Theatre at St Clements)
• (3/16) The Mother (ATC | Linda Gross)
• (3/17) The B-Side (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (3/19) Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial)
• (3/20) Be More Chill (Lyceum)
• (3/20) Accidentally Brave (DR2)
• (3/21) La Casa de Bernarda Alba (Repertorio Espanol)
• (3/21) Perp (Barrow Group)
• (3/22) Nantucket Sleigh Ride (Lincoln Center Theater)
• (3/23) Smart Blonde (59E59)
• (3/23) Fiercely Independent (Soho Playhouse)
• (3/24) White Noise (Public)
• (3/24) Ain’t No Mo (Public)
• (3/25) LPTW Theatre Women Awards (Sheen Center)
• (3/26) Life Sucks (Wild Project)
• (3/27) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (Theater for a New Audience, Brooklyn)
• (3/28) Stand (reading, New Dramatists)
• (3/28) What the Constitution Means (Hayes)
• (3/29) The Lehman Trilogy (Park Avenue Armory)
• (3/30) The White Devil (Red Bull | Lucille Lortel)
• (3/30) The Cradle Will Rock (Class Stage Company)
• (3/31) Southern Promises (Flea)

April

• (4/2) King Lear (Cort)
• (4/3) Sincerely, Oscar (Acorn Theatre Row)
• (4/4) Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (Greenwich House)
• (4/5) Do You Feel Anger? (Vineyard)
• (4/6) El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escribe (Repertorio Espanol)
• (4/6) Miracle in Rwanda (Lion | Theatre Row)
• (4/7) Charlie’s Waiting (Parity Productions | Theatre Lab)
• (4/9) Oklahoma! (Circle in the Square)
• (4/11) Plano (Connelly)
• (4/13) 17 Border Crossings (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (4/13) Socrates (Public)
• (4/14) Exquisita Agonia (Repertorio Espanol)
• (4/16) Hadestown (Walter Kerr)
• (4/17) Burn This (Hudson)
• (4/17) The Pain of My Belligerence (Playwrights Horizons)
• (4/18) Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Booth)
• (4/19) Hillary and Clinton (Golden)
• (4/20) Ink (MTC | Friedman)
• (4/20) Tootsie (Marquis)
• (4/21) All My Sons (Roundabout | American Airlines)
• (4/22) Abingdon Square (WP, reading)
• (4/23) Beetlejuice (Winter Garden)
• (4/24) The Plough and the Stars (Irish Rep)
• (4/26) Killing Time (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (4/27) Caroline’s Kitchen (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (4/27) Then They Forgot About the Rest (INTAR)
• (4/28) The Bigot (Theatre at St. Clement’s)
• (4/28) Playing Hot (Theater 51)
• (4/29) Halston (Tribeca Film Festival | Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11)
• (4/30) Paul Swan is Dead and Gone (The Civilians | Torn Page)

May

• (5/1) Lockdown (Rattlestick)
• (5/2) The Brothers Paranormal (Theatre Row)
• (5/3) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Soho Playhouse)
• (5/4) Han Christian Anderson (The Duke on 42nd Street)
• (5/4) George Jean Nathan Award (Cornell Club)
• (5/4) BLKS (MCC)
• (5/5) Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain (59E59)
• (5/5) The Day I Became Black (Soho Playhouse)
• (5/7) The Ferryman (3rd visit, Jacobs)
• (5/8) Drama Desk nominees reception (The Green Room 42)
• (5/8) Original Sound (Cherry Lane)
• (5/10) Tempest (Public Theater Mobile Unit)
• (5/11) Fruiting Bodies (Ma-Yi | Theatre Row)
• (5/11) Happy Talk (The New Group | Signature)
• (5/12) God Shows Up (Actor’s Temple Theater)
• (5/12) safeword (American Theatre of Actors)
• (5/17) Mac Beth (Red Bull | Lucille Lortel)
• (5/18) Short Plays to Nourish the Mind & Soul (post show | George Bruce Branch NYPL)
• (5/19) Enter Laughing (York)
• (5/20) Spotlight Series: Women in Theatre Journalism (panel, Shubert Penthouse)
• (5/21) Proof of Love (Audible | Minetta Lane)
• (5/22) Passage (Soho Rep)
• (5/23) Feral (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (5/24) Octet (Signature)
• (5/25) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Broadhurst)
• (5/25) Curse of the Starving Class (Signature)
• (5/26) Something Clean (Roundabout | Black Box)
• (5/26) Continuity (MTC | New York City Center)
• (5/28) Posting Letters to the Moon (59E59)
• (5/29) The Pink Unicorn (Episcopal Actor’s Guild)
• (5/30) Little Women (Primary Stages | Cherry Lane)
• (5/31) Midnight Street (Theatre Row)

June

• (6/1) Nomad Hotel (ATC 2)
• (6/1) God of Marz (Barrow Group)
• (6/2) Drama Desk Awards Ceremony (Town Hall)
• (6/3) 75th Theatre World Awards (Neil Simon)
• (6/4) Public Servant (Theatre Breaking Through Barriers | Theatre row)
• (6/5) TONY Award Night (Coffee House Club)
• (6/6) Handbagged (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (6/7) The Secret Life of Bees (ATC | Linda Gross)
• (6/8) Long Lost (New York City Center)
• (6/8) Much Ado About Nothing (Public | Delacorte)
• (6/9) [Veil Widow Conspiracy] (NAATCO | Next Door at NYTW)
• (6/12) Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom (Irish Repertory)
• (6/12) Midnight Street (Theatre Row)
• (6/13) The Mountains Look Different (Mint | Theatre Row)
• (6/14) Julie Madly Deeply (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (6/15) Short Plays to Nourish the Mind & Soul (post show | George Bruce Branch NYPL)
• (6/15) The Great Novel (Flea)
• (6/17) Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson (A.R.T./New York)
• (6/17) Panel: Women in the Entertainment Industry
• (6/19) Toni Stone (Roundabout | Laura Pels)
• (6/21) Open (The Tank)
• (6/22) We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time (Public)
• (6/23) Square Go (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (6/25) Three Musketeers (Women in Theatre Festival | A.R.T./New York)
• (6/28) Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise (The Shed)
• (6/29) #DateMe (Westside)

July

• (7/4) Dog Man: The Musical (Lucille Lortel)
• (7/5) Camp Morning Wood (Peter Jay Sharp)
• (7/6) OSCAR at the Crown (3 Dollar Bill, Bushwick)
• (7/10) Reborning (Soho Rep)
• (7/12) Mojada (Public)
• (7/14) In the Penal Colony (NYTW Next Door)
• (7/14) A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons)
• (7/15) Harvardwood Presents Hollywood Legend Carroll Baker (The Lambs)
• (7/17) Unmaking Toulouse-Latrec (Madame X)
• (7/19) Two’s a Crowd (59E59)
• (7/20) Broadway Bounty Hunter (Greenwich House)
• (7/21) Measure for Measure (Acting Company | Duke on 42nd)
• (7/22) Native Son (Acting Company | Duke on 42nd
• (7/23) The Way She Spoke (Audible | Minetta Lane)
• (7/24) Moulin Rouge! (Hirschfeld)
• (7/24) Summer Shorts Series A (59E59)
• (7/25) The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center)
• (7/26) Little Gem (Irish Repertory)
• (7/27) Rinse, Repeat (Signature Center)
• (7/27) INSPIRED BY… A Conversation About the Classics that Spark the Playwrights of Today (MCC)
• (7/27) Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow (MCC)
• (7/28) A White Man’s Guide to Riker’s Island (Producer’s Club)
• (7/29-8/4) ATCA @ National Black Theater Festival (Winston-Salem, NC)
• (7/31) Women of Soul (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)

August

• (8/1) Reunion in Bartersville (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)
• (8/1) Soul Man (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)
• (8/2) Anne & Emmett (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)
• (8/2) Bricktop (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)
• (8/3) Mother to Mother (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)
• (8/4) Jelly’s Last Jam (National Black Theater Festival+ATCA)
• (8/5) Hannah Senesh (Museum of the Jewish Heritage)
• (8/6) Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees (Cherry Lane)
• (8/7) Bat Out of Hell (New York City Center)
• (8/8) Summer Shorts Series B (59E59)
• (8/9) Coriolanus (Delacorte)
• (8/10) Midsummer: A Banquet (Cafe Fae)
• (8/11) The Exes (Theatre Row)
• (8/11) Make Believe (Second Stage | Tony Kiser)
• (8/13) Sea Wall / A Life (Hudson)
• (8/14) Love Noël (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (8/16) Life Sucks (Theatre Row)
• (8/19) A Girl’s Guide to Moving On (reading, Ripley-Grier)
• (8/28) Eureka Day (Colt Coeur | Wild Project)
• (8/29) Tech Support (59E59)
• (8/30) Felix Starro (Ma-Yi | Theatre Row)
• (8/31) Betrayal (Jacobs)

September

• (9/3) Dust (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (9/5) L.O.V.E.R. (rental, Pershing Square Signature Center)
• (9/6) Fred Barton Broadway Band (Feinstein’s/54 Below)
• (9/7) The Cooping Theory 1969: An Immersive Paranormal Experience (RPM Underground)
• (9/8) Only Yesterday (59E59)
• (9/10) American Moor (Cherry Lane)
• (9/11) Wives (Playwrights Horizons | Peter Jay Sharp)
• (9/12) Sincerity Forever (Flea)
• (9/12) Bad Penny (Flea)
• (9/13) Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Saint John’s in the Village + Rattlestick)
• (9/14) Fern Hill (59E59)
• (9/20) Sunday (Atlantic Theater Company)
• (9/21) The Height of the Storm (MTC | Friedman)
• (9/21) Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP | McGinn/Cazale)
• (9/22) runboyrun + In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (9/23) Mothers (Playwright’s Realm | Duke on 42nd)
• (9/25) Caesar and Cleopatra (Gingold Theatrical Group |Theatre Row)
• (9/26) Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo (New World Stages)
• (9/27) Dublin Carol (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (9/28) (A)loft Modulation (the american vicarious | A.R.T./New York)
• (9/28) The Invention of Tragedy (Flea)
• (9/29) The Green Room (American Theatre of Actors)

October

• (10/1) Round Table (Fault Line Theatre | 59E59)
• (10/2) Kingfisher’s Catch Fire (Irish Rep)
• (10/2) The Great Society (Lincoln Center Theatre | Vivian Beaumont)
• (10/3) An Important Conversation with Rachel Maddow (book tour | Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center)
• (10/4) Slave Play (Golden)
• (10/5) The Glass Menagerie (Wild Project)
• (10/6) Linda Vista (Hayes)
• (10/6) Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons)
• (10/7) Henry Hewes Design Awards (Palm West Restaurant)
• (10/7) Houses on the Moon Gala (The Cutting Room)
• (10/8) The New Englanders (New York City Center)
• (10/9) Terra Firma (Baruch Performing Arts Center)
• (10/10) Georgia Mertching is Dead (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (10/11) Notes on My Mothers Decline (The Play Company | New York Theatre Workshop Next Door)
• (10/12) The White Chip (Arizona Theatre Company @ 59E59)
• (10/12) The Lightning Thief (Longacre)
• (10/13) Little Shop of Horrors (Westside)
• (10/16) The Sound Inside (Roundabout | Studio 54)
• (10/16) Is This A Room (Vineyard)
• (10/17) Julie Andrews Reflects on Her Life (The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center)
• (10/18) Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation (Triad)
• (10/19) Only Human (Theatre at St Clements)
• (10/19) Scotland, PA (Roundabout | Laura Pels)
• (10/20) Soft Power (Public)
• (10/21) Fear (Lucille Lortel)
• (10/22) Molly Sweeney (Theatre Row)
• (10/23) Nothing Gold Can Stand (Partial Comfort | A.R.T./New York)
• (10/24-27) ATCA-IATC convening (Chicago)
• (10/28) Bars and Measures (Urban Stages)
• (10/29) The Seance Machine (The Tank)
• (10/30) Bella Bella (Manhattan Theatre Club | New York City Center)
• (10/31) for colored girls who considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (Public)

November

• (11/1) The Wrong Man (MCC | Newman Mills)
• (11/2) Tina (Lunt-Fontanne)
• (11/3) The Michaels (Public)
• (11/4) Dr. Ride’s American Beach House (Ars Nova | Greenwich House)
• (11/5) A Woman of the World (59E59)
• (11/7) The Black History Museum…According to the Unite States of America (Smoke + MIrrors | HERE)
• (11/8) Macbeth (Classic Stage Company)
• (11/9) Seared (MCC)
• (11/10) Monsoon Season (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
• (11/12) Cyrano (Daryl Roth)
• (11/13) Reparations (Billie Holiday Theater)
• (11/13) Broadbend, Arkansas (Transport Group | Duke on 42nd Street)
• (11/14) Fur (Boundless Theatre | New York Theatre Workshop Next Door)
• (11/15) Pumpgirl (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (11/16) Fires in the Mirror (Signature)
• (11/17) Einstein’s Dream (Prospect | 59E59)
• (11/17) A Christmas Carol (Lyceum)
• (11/21) Duet for Three (reading)
• (11/22) all the women who thought they were mad (Soho Rep)
• (11/23) One Discordant Violin (59E59)
• (11/23) The Underlying Chris (Second Stage | Tony Kiser Theater)
• (11/24) A Bright Room Called Day (Public)
• (11/25) The Half-Life of Marie Curie (Audible | Minetta Lane)
• (11/26) The Young Man From Atlanta (Signature)
• (11/27) The Inheritance Parts I and II (Barrymore)
• (11/30) Fefu and her Friends (Theatre for a New Audience)

December

• (12/1) Everything is Super Great (59E59)
• (12/1) Measure for Measure (Public | Mobile Unit)
• (12/2) MsTRIAL (New World Stages)
• (12/3) One November Yankee (59E59)
• (12/4) The Crucible (Bedlam | Connelly)
• (12/5) The Gospel of John (Sheen Center)
• (12/6) one in two (New Group | Signature)
• (12/7) Harry Townsend’s Last Stand (New York City Center)
• (12/8) Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (Atlantic Theater Company | Linda Gross)
• (12/11) The Sorceress (NYTF | Museum of Jewish Heritage)
• (12/11) Anything Can Happen in the Theater (York)
• (12/12) London Assurance (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (12/13) Sing Street (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (12/14) The Thin Place (Playwrights Horizons | Peter Jay Sharp)
• (12/15) Greater Clements (LCT | Mitzi Newhouse)
• (12/16) Judgment Day (Park Avenue Armory)
• (12/17) Latina Christmas Special (Soho Playhouse)
• (12/18) Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst)
• (12/19) A Marriage of Two Modernisms (NYPL-PA | Bruno Walter)
• (12/20) Paddington Gets in a Jam (DR2)
• (12/21) Knives Out (screening, Landmark 57)
• (12/24) It’s a Wonderful Life (screening, IFC Center)
• (12/26) Bombshell (screening, AMC Lincoln Square)
• (12/30) Little Women (screening, Landmark, 57)

© Martha Wade Steketee (December 31, 2019)