Three weeks, one building, 67 new pieces. Emerging Artists Theatre's Spark Theatre Festival NYC is back at The 28th Street Theatre from October 5 to 25, with the largest lineup the twice-yearly festival has programmed.
The slate mixes new plays, solo shows, storytelling and dance from emerging and established artists. Emerging Artists Theatre has been developing new work in New York for more than 30 years, and Spark is where much of it gets its first audience.
There are 34 short and full-length plays. Among them: Leslie Bramm's Lady Macbeth and Her Therapist, in which a medieval therapist takes Lady Macbeth on as a client; Kai Farr's Conditioning, about two trans men who meet lifting weights; and Hailey Irwin's Get Through, which follows four queer teenage girls at a California skatepark after an environmental collapse.
Nine solo shows include Max Sharam's Mezzo Cuckoo: Diva Gone Dada, about an out-of-work opera singer haunted by one song; Camryn Graves's Distortion, about a young ballet dancer living with body dysmorphia and anxiety; and Josie Whittlesey's RED, in which a woman says goodbye to her father in a maximum-security prison.
Dance takes 23 slots, including Sharon Simmons-Wright's The Other Side of Hate and Atomi from contemporary company Kafra Collective.
The company follows it straight away with a new event in the same room: the first Spark Musical Theatre Festival NYC, November 2–22, with 32 short and full-length musicals in development.
The 28th Street Theatre is at 15 West 28th Street. Schedules and tickets are on the Emerging Artists Theatre website.
