Urban Stages’ Solo Play Series is in celebration of our 40th anniversary! Throughout the spring, our stage will be dedicated to spotlighting as many playwrights and new plays as possible. In this curated selection of plays, we bring you rich intimate stories and illuminate the talents of writers and performers.
Free Admission. RSVPs are recommended but not required. Walk-ups are welcomed as long as there is room. Urban Stages Theater opens 30 minutes before ShowTime.
June 24, 2024 | 7pm
Beyond Ken Dryden
By Oren Safdie. Directed by Padraic Lillis.
Starring Max Katz.
"Fantastic! So well-written by Oren Safdie and an outstanding job by actor Max Katz." -Stu Cowan, Montreal Gazette.
A solo show about a boy’s idolization of his sports hero Ken Dryden and the Montreal Canadiens as his own family and the province of Quebec are coming apart.
The 1970s were a wonderful though tumultuous time to be growing up in Montréal. The rise of Separatism and the coming to power of the Parti Québécois led to thousands of Montrealers migrating south on the 401 to Toronto; Jean Drapeau’s Olympics in 1976 nearly bankrupted the city; and the era of disco, free-love and counter-culture revolutions, combined with more women entering the workforce and easier access to divorce, challenged the traditional family like never before.
For Safdie, the decade saw his parents break up and get back together again half a dozen times before parting ways for good. Through it all, Ken Dryden and the Montreal Canadiens remained steadfast in his life; connecting the city and lifting his and everyone’s spirits by winning six Stanley Cups in nine years.
Melissa Rickard (sound designer). Kinya Elenbarger (Artwork)
-
Private Jokes, Public Places was an off-Broadway/London hit, which sent shockwaves through the architecture community. (The Wall Street Journal named it as one of the top ten new plays of the decade.) The Last Word ran off-Broadway and starred Emmy Award Winner Daniel J. Travanti. Other New York productions include West Bank, UK, Jews & Jesus, False Solution, The Bilbao Effect and La Compagnie, which he developed into a 1/2-hour pilot for CBS. (5 of his productions were NY Times Critic’s Pick) Oren scripted the films You Can Thank Me Later starring Ellen Burstyn; the Israeli film Bittersweet; and The Man Who Saved the Internet with A Sunflower. Oren teaches Playwriting at St. Olaf College, and is an Associate Artist at Infinithéâtre. Upcoming projects include plays, Survival of the Unfit (Great Barrington Public Theatre; July, ‘24), The Architecture Plays (Hillside Theatre; May, ‘25), and the film, Lunch Hour (directed by Larry Guterman; filming in July, ’24.)
June 26, 2024 | 7pm
No History
by and starring Reynaldo Piniella
No History is a solo theater piece about Arturo Schomburg, a man who crossed oceans in a quest to preserve our history. This diasporic journey will fill us up with cornbread before transporting us to the frontlines of the fight for Cuban and Puerto Rican independence, the streets of New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, and back to the kitchen where it all began. We will experience the music of the Caribbean, the joy of eating soul food for the first time, the poetry of Harlem and rediscover San Juan Hill, the community that was uprooted to build Lincoln Center. With guest appearances from Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes and W. E. B. DuBois, this coming of age story will make us celebrate our shared history and inspire us to save our grandmother's recipes.
-
Reynaldo Piniella is an actor, writer, activist and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. In 2021, he was in the acting company of two Broadway shows at the same time – Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. His Off-Broadway acting credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, the Public, the Working Theater, TFANA and Rattlestick, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf, the O'Neill, Cleveland Playhouse, NY Stage & Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and Actors Theatre of Louisville and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco. TV credits include Reservation Dogs, Sneaky Pete, Law & Order: SVU, The Carrie Diaries, Flesh & Bone, Blue Bloods, Greenleaf, Louie, NYC 22, Us & Them and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Film: “Madeline’s Madeline” (Sundance Film Fest, Showtime), “Shadows” (HBO Max) and “Broken City” (20th Century FOX.) As a playwright, his work has been commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage and has been produced by Ars Nova, San Diego Rep, Single Carrot Theater, the Lee Strasberg Institute at NYU Tisch, the Center at West Park, Harlem9, the 24 Hour Plays and Pioneer Theatre Guild. His plays have been developed by the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Folger Theatre, National Black Theater, the Lark, the Billie Holiday Theatre, Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective, HB Studio and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Initiative. He received the Thomas Barbour award for Playwriting for his play Black Doves. He is a current faculty member at NYU Tisch and AMDA and has taught theater at Rikers Island Correctional Facility and with members of the NYPD. He has received fellowships from TCG, NALAC, Weeksville Heritage Center and the All Stars Project. He is an alum of All for One Theater’s Solo Collective, the Civilians’ R&D Group, New Victory Theater’s LabWorks and was an artist-in-residence at Abingdon Theatre Company and Culture Lab LIC. @ReynaldoRey
Previous Solo Plays
March 26, 2024 | 7pm
RHAPSODY IN BLACK by Leland Gantt
Straddling the color line, not at home in any hue, a young man struggling with what it means to be black discovers what it means to be a man. ‘Rhapsody in Black’ explores Leland’s personal journey to understand and eventually transcend racism in America. We follow his life story from an underprivileged childhood in the ghettos of McKeesport, Pennsylvania to teenage experiments with crime and drugs to scholastic achievement and an acting career that lands adult LeLand in situations where he is virtually the only African-American in the room.
-
LeLand Gantt (writer and performer of RHAPSODY IN BLACK) LeLand self-produced RHAPSODY at the United Solo Festival in 2014, earning a “Best Storyteller” award for himself and a “Best Director” award for Estelle. Since then LeLand has toured RHAPSODY nationally and internationally, using it’s “Prismatic reflections on blackness” to ignite and expand conversations about race and identity. A veteran of the stage, Mr. Gantt highlights playing both Iago and Othello, creating the roles of Benny the Jet in Keith Glovers’s IN WALKS ED, and Tempest Landry in Walter Mosley’s THE FALL OF HEAVEN (both world premiers at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park) and most recently, playing Pontius Pilot in Stephen Adly Guirgus’ LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT at La Mama, ETC. Other regional credits include: TWO TRAINS RUNNING and RADIO GOLF (Syracuse Stage); GEM OF THE OCEAN (Arena Stage), JITNEY and SEVEN GUITARS (Pittsburgh Public Theater), and IN WALKS ED (Longwharf Theater). Off-Broadway/Broadway: RHAPSODY IN BLACK (The WorkShop Theater), SLIPPERY WHEN WET (La Mama), ANOTHER MAN’S POISON (Peter Jay Sharpe Theater), Marion McClinton’s POLICE BOYS; Oyamo's KILLA DILLA and LET ME LIVE (Drama Desk and Audelco award nominee - Featured Actor), and the revival of MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM (u/s Rock Dutton). Film and Television credits include: Another Year Together, Miracle at St. Anna, Requiem for a Dream, Malcolm X, Presumed Innocent, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, JAG and HBO's The Affair.
March 27, 2024 | 7pm
MAISIE by Darrill Rosen
Darrill and his wife are trying to conceive. On his journey to understand his terror and take his place in the line of fathers, Darrill communes with his ancestry and demons and guides, all existing in a world of trauma, survival, music, love and artistry. A Staged Reading directed by Barbara Rubin.
-
Darrill was born, raised and educated in Johannesburg, South Africa. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Patricia Lawrence Award for excellence). Film includes Onur Tukel’s Richard’s Wedding; The Misogynists; Applesauce; Catfight and Sam Neave’s First Person Singular; Cry Funny Happy; Almost in Love. Theatre highlights: Switchtrack (dir Yael Farber/Sundance Theatre Lab), Raisin in the Sun (dir Marion McClinton/Baltimore Center Stage) and Bulrusher (dir, Leah Gardiner/ Urban Stages). He recorded the role of Tom Loxley in Sherwood [opposite Joseph Fiennes], an animated series for YouTube.
March 28, 2024 | 7pm
Black and Blue by Reynaldo Piniella
Black and Blue is a solo show about a Black boy living in a society that doesn’t like it when our Black men show vulnerability, and this sensitive boy learns to bottle up his feelings and internalize his trauma. Over time, his hot pink shirts turn to faded black and his playlist turns from 90s boy bands to the gangsta rap of the early 2000’s. But at the end of this dark tunnel is a light that will lead us back to the path of joy, liberation, and freedom. Like the Backstreet Boys album, our biracial boy realizes it’s ok to be Black and feel Blue.
-
Reynaldo Piniella is an actor, writer, activist and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. In 2021, he was in the acting company of two Broadway shows at the same time – Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. His Off-Broadway acting credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, the Public, the Working Theater, TFANA and Rattlestick, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf, the O'Neill, Cleveland Playhouse, NY Stage & Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and Actors Theatre of Louisville and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco. TV credits include Reservation Dogs, Sneaky Pete, Law & Order: SVU, The Carrie Diaries, Flesh & Bone, Blue Bloods, Greenleaf, Louie, NYC 22, Us & Them and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Film: “Madeline’s Madeline” (Sundance Film Fest, Showtime), “Shadows” (HBO Max) and “Broken City” (20th Century FOX.) As a playwright, his work has been commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage and has been produced by Ars Nova, San Diego Rep, Single Carrot Theater, the Lee Strasberg Institute at NYU Tisch, the Center at West Park, Harlem9, the 24 Hour Plays and Pioneer Theatre Guild. His plays have been developed by the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Folger Theatre, National Black Theater, the Lark, the Billie Holiday Theatre, Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective, HB Studio and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Initiative. He received the Thomas Barbour award for Playwriting for his play Black Doves. He is a current faculty member at NYU Tisch and AMDA and has taught theater at Rikers Island Correctional Facility and with members of the NYPD. He has received fellowships from TCG, NALAC, Weeksville Heritage Center and the All Stars Project. He is an alum of All for One Theater’s Solo Collective, the Civilians’ R&D Group, New Victory Theater’s LabWorks and was an artist-in-residence at Abingdon Theatre Company and Culture Lab LIC. @ReynaldoRey