The New Group Off Stage features theatrical expressions in different media. This new venture develops and presents original projects at the intersection of art and social engagement, and explores the possibilities of cross-pollination among forms. Projects will be available as they are completed throughout the year. Release dates and streaming information will be announced in the future.

By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Scott Elliott

Beckett’s revolutionary vision of perpetual uncertainty, anxiety and loneliness is refracted through our current moment of perpetual uncertainty, anxiety and loneliness. Bringing together a roster of lauded artists from across the cultural spectrum, this experimental exploration of a storied play combines theatrical invention and innovative filmmaking. The New Group Off Stage’s Waiting for Godot is at once both a faithful realization of a classic work and an artistic expression of now.

This work features Ethan Hawke (Vladimir), John Leguizamo (Estragon), Wallace Shawn (Lucky), Tarik Trotter (Pozzo) and Drake Bradshaw (Boy).

Coming Up next from Off Stage…

Written & Directed by Donja R. Love
A multi-episode web series

Isolated in his childhood bedroom and connecting only through video messages, Marcus begins to lose touch with the people that most are important like his fiance and best friend. Will online hookups or couple’s therapy or even auditions offer any kind of way forward? Or can he even remember who he is anymore? Told through a series of video messages, I Need Space offers a frank and voyeuristic look into one man’s struggle with love, loss, and loneliness.

An audio play inspired by Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba
By Diane Exavier
Directed by Dominique Rider

It’s summer in Flatbush; streets are hot with protest, and the Abellard sisters are trapped in their mother’s house. In this aural exploration of private and public grief, Black women’s voices call out in a complex chorus of big frustrations and small joys in a moment where physical touch remains beyond reach.

A developing archive of the play’s experiments and iterations can be found at www.bernardasdaughters.club.

SIGN UP HERE for information on release dates, casting and more!

Future Off Stage Projects….

Written & Performed by John Epperson
Directed by Chloë Sevigny

Lypsinka, Goddess of Showbiz, finds herself once again in a state of limbo.  Will she be able to manage another interior crisis?  Only her hairdresser knows for sure.  Downtown legend Lypsinka – the surrealist stage creation of John Epperson – returns with this brand new work in a whole new medium.  New Group alum Chloë Sevigny steps into the director’s chair bringing her own instinctual depth and glamour to this singular work.

Written & Composed by Richard Thomas
Directed by Monet

In his signature outrageous, exuberant style, Richard Thomas follows The New Group bow of his Jerry Springer – The Opera with this series of one-person micro musicals based on real-life, almost unbelievable events, blending stand-up with show tunes. Singing Heads: the weird, the glamorous and the phenomenally ordinary.

Produced in collaboration with WalkRunFly Productions and Shariffa Ali
Written & Directed by Warren Adams
Music & Lyrics by Brandon Victor Dixon and Michael Olatuja;
Rap lyrics by Ronve’ O’Daniel
Poetry by Daniel J. Watts
With Brandon Victor Dixon and additional casting to be announced.

Six college friends pledged to each other to come together around a table every June 19^th to celebrate their bond.  In 2019 they come together for their nineteenth dinner.  A year later everything has changed.

Directed by Alexandra Shiva and Scott Elliott
Produced by Frank Marshall and John Ridley
An adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull by Thomas Bradshaw
Starring Edie Falco with additional casting to be announced

Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Shiva follows a group of New York theater folk, led by director Scott Elliott and actor Edie Falco, who, missing their work and each other so terribly, can’t help but turn their lives upside down in order to rehearse Thomas Bradshaw’s incredibly timely take on Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull – itself about people tortured by their dependence on art and career.  This meta mash-up of play and process tells the tale of this incredibly fraught but vibrant moment in time: the attempt to rebuild the beloved theater community, against all odds, and the portrayal of how necessary it is for survival of the human spirit.

And when New Group returns to the stage….

Book by John Ridley
Music and Lyrics by Tarik Trotter
Choreography by Bill T. Jones
Music Supervision, Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements by Daryl Waters
Directed by Scott Elliott
With John Clay III, Jennifer Damiano, Brandon Victor Dixon, Tamika Lawrence, Tracy Shayne, Theo Stockman, Tarik Trotter and Maimouna Youssef.

Black No More is a musical adaptation of George S. Schuyler’s satirical Harlem Renaissance-era novel.  It’s June 1928 in New York City, and Howard University graduate Dr. Junius Crookman promotes a mysterious machine that promises to remove the burden of race from any person of color by turning them white — Crookman’s plan to “solve the American race problem.”  Black No More is an examination of race, identity and the very nature of love. Originally announced and slated for Fall 2020.

More HERE.