Word up, man! A plethora of playwrights takes on our ever-evolving language in The Urban Dictionary Plays, which kicks off 2012 for Ars Nova. Twelve writers in all, each one attempting to re-define the “short play” by taking on a term from urbandictionary.com is the gist of the evening. The Urban Dictionary Plays is this year’s incarnation of Ars Nova’s annual Play Group production—past installments have included The Wit Plays, The Wikipedia Plays, and Missed Connections, NYC. They got it goin’ on, y’all, now through February 11. www.arsnovanyc.com.
‘LADY’S’ NIGHT
Fortunately, no season seems to go by in New York without a production of an Edward Albee play somewhere—either a new work or a new production of an older play—and that’s fine with me, seeing as the brilliant, legendary Mr. Albee remains one of our greatest living dramatists. Now Signature Theatre will present the playwright’s late 1970’s drama The Lady From Dubuque, as the inaugural production in The End Stage Theatre at the company’s new home Signature Center (see last week’s Inside Ink for details.) In the play, a late-night game of Twenty Questions at Sam and Jo’s apartment is mysteriously followed by the arrival of an unexpected guest and her enigmatic companion. David Esbjornson directs a stellar cast headed by the great Jane Alexander, and including Michael Hayden, Peter Francis James, Laila Robins and Thomas Jay Ryan, among others. Performances begin February 14, and continue through March 25. www.signaturetheatre.org.
YOUR MaMa
Imagine your relationship with your mother set to music and lyrics. (Perhaps some of you already have.) You, My Mother is a chamber opera project in two parts, an elusive investigation into the ever-shifting relationships between mothers and their adult children. Created by composers Brendan Connelly and Rick Burkhardt and playwrights Karinne Keithley Syers and Kristen Kosmas, You, My Mother gets its World Premiere from the Obie-winning performance group Two-Headed Calf from February 9-20 at—appropriately enough—La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre as part of La MaMa’s 50th Anniversary season. Brooke O’Hara is the director and the music is performed by Yarn/Wire + Strings. Check it out at www.TwoHeadedCalf.org.
EXECUTIVE SWEET?
La MaMa is rocking its 50th Anniversary season this month. You could spend all of February seeing things down there! In Erosion: A Fable, a homeless woman and a mid-level office exec begin selling dirt on the street together, and calling it Love. But their best intentions take them far from where anyone would have guessed once the Dirt/Love craze goes global. A story of corporate competition, environmental catastrophe, and personal transformation, Erosion: A Fable is a production of Loom Ensemble, plying their signature palette of athletic dances, intricate vocal compositions and traditional storytelling to stage this provocative theater piece (whose dialogue echoes Occupy Wall Street.) The company members make up the collective authors of the piece, of course; Tomi Tsunoda is the director. Performances take place at La MaMa’s The Club from February 17-29. www.LoomEnsemble.com
BALCONY SEATS
Humor, poetry and costume parties combine in Maya Macdonald’s Leave The Balcony Open, a hopeful and funny new play about learning how to live with loss. The playwright’s dramatis personae here include May, who is standing in the way of control; June, who is trying to hold out; Jon, who really wants a hug, and Silent Gen, who is still looking up at that broken window… Set on a rural college campus where proximity to death defines your social status (!), four soon-to-be-graduates party, scream and learn how to move on. Balcony is a presentation of New Feet Productions, and features among its cast Heidi Armbruster, Jerzy Gwiazdowski, Betsy Hogg, Julie Kline, Jared McGuire and Mary Rasmussen, under Jessica Bauman’s direction. Performances take place at 3LD Art & Technology Center, (where, I’m pretty sure, there’s no balcony.) Performances take place now through February 26. leavethebalconyopen.com
AROUND TOWN
Actor/writer Mike Daisey turns his sharp wit to America’s most mysterious technology icon in The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a tale of pride, beauty, lust and industrial design. The show, which played to packed houses at The Public Theater for a limited engagement last fall, has just returned to The Public for a limited engagement. If you missed it earlier, catch it this time around. www.publictheater.org... Another theatrical multi-tasker, performer/arranger/songwriter/conductor Fred Barton, returns to the Metropolitan Room on Sunday, February 12, in Fred Barton Presents—And Thinks You’re Gonna Love It! Classic theater music, with a little swing on the side. And who among us isn’t gonna love it? 212-206-0440
