The mission of Playwrights Theater is to "explore the work of great theater artists to help in the development of new work."
THE PLAYWRIGHTS OPERA
The Playwrights Opera is the musical wing of Playwrights Theater of New York (PTNY), the founding mission of which is "to explore the work of great artists to help develop new work." For twenty years this has been done through the presentation of the plays of Nobel Prize-winning dramatist Eugene O’Neill and musical performances of new work inspired by those plays. Playwrights Opera also seeks to adapt the work of other theatrical masters in music.
CURRENT PROJECTS
The Steel Miller's Daughter: Love in a Changing Climate
A fresh take on Schubert's immortal song cycle as set against the backdrop of Climate Change. In the settling of the steel belt of Pennsylvania, a steel mill worker faces the revenge of nature as he pursues his ideal. Featuring Natalie Tyson-Multhaup.
Jimmy Tomorrow
A musical adaptation of O'Neill's Tomorrow, a 1916 short story on which O'Neill would later base The Iceman Cometh.
Lohengrin at Nuremberg
An adaptation of the Wagner opera, Lohengrin. In it, a voice teacher who has survived the holocaust confronts her memories of being mistakenly tried at Nuremberg. Just as Elsa is falsely accused in Lohengrin, the accused woman finds a savior in a stranger.
ONGOING
The Eugene O’Neill Ragtime Revue
This musical primer on the early life of Eugene O’Neill interweaves his poetry and letters with songs heard in his plays to walk audiences through his journey to becoming a playwright. The Revue has been performed at Yale University, New York University and Columbia University as well as at The Players Club in 2017. The piece has been performed by Steve Ross (B’way: Present Laughter), KT Sullivan (B’Way: Gentlemen Prefer Blonds) and Kristoffer Polaha (TV: Mad Men).
PAST PROJECTS
Before and After Breakfast
Soprano Patricia Coffin performed this pairing of Eugene O’Neill’s one person, one-act play and the operatic adaptation of it with a score by Tom Pasatieri with a libretto by Frank Corsaro. Before and After Breakfast was presented at The Juilliard School, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Off-Broadway at the NYC Provincetown Playhouse.The Passion of Jesus Christopher
Based on actual events, this telling of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion set in the 1970's is experienced through the eyes of an addict hallucinating that he is Christ on the last night of his life before his own crucifixion by haters.
Carmencita
Propser Miramee’s novella, Carmen, provides the narrative of this pocket-sized version of Bizet’s Carmen, which is based on the literary work. Selections from the opera are coupled with excerpts from the novella to offer an especially graphic portrait of the author’s gypsy.“Dialogues”
In this treatment of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, excerpts from the journals of the nuns who were killed in El Salvador in 1980 were integrated into the opera about nuns who died in the French revolution. It featured Cathy Curtin (Orange is the New Black) as Sister Jean Donovan in this performance presented at a convent on Washington Square.
Faust
This adaptation of Gounod’s Faust presents opera excerpts in the context of a play about an opera company in which a soprano sells her soul to the devil in exchange for the leading role of Marguerite. Featured Pierre Vallet.
A Soldier’s Tale
Actors usually perform Stravinsky’s musical story. In this play adaptation, Juilliard musicians acted out the story in a performance at Alice Tully Hall.