Dark Nights at The New Group Presents Talking Taboos 11/6

In its continuing series Dark Nights, The New Group welcomes filmmaker Todd Solondz in conversation with playwright Thomas Bradshaw. This event takes place Sunday, November 6 at 4:00pm. Reservations required at seats@thenewgroup.org (space is limited). Suggested donation: $20. Free to subscribers of The New Group.

Dark Nights at The New Group offers unique programming and enlightened conversation to coincide with the company's mainstage productions. On November 6, provocative playwright Thomas Bradshaw (Burning, beginning previews Off-Broadway at The New Group on October 26) interviews controversial filmmaker Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Palindromes) on writing about subjects that others won't touch. As a writer and director, Todd Solondz is known for unflinching storytelling and graphic depictions of behaviors that somehow reveal the humanity beneath. Fellow New Jersey native Thomas Bradshaw, whose plays are similarly daring explorations, will discuss with Solondz his strategies for delving into the things no one wants to talk about.

Todd Solondz' films include Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes, Life During Wartime and Dark Horse, which recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Nominated for several Independent Spirit Awards (Best Screenplay - Life During Wartime, Best Director - Happiness, Best Director & Best Feature - Welcome to the Dollhouse), Solondz and his films have earned numerous accolades including a Golden Globe nomination (Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, Happiness) and the 1996 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Thomas Bradshaw's plays include Mary (The Goodman Theater); The Bereaved (Partial Comfort Productions, and subsequently produced at The State Theater of Bielefeld in Germany); Southern Promises (P.S. 122); Dawn (The Flea Theater); Job (The Wilma). He is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2010 Prince Charitable Trust Prize and a 2011 New Voices New York Fellowship from the Lark Play Development Center. Prophet, Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist, Cleansed, Purity, Dawn, and Southern Promises are published by Samuel French, Inc. A German translation of Dawn was presented at Theater Bielefeld and The National Theatre of Mannheim. Bradshaw is an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Northwestern University. He was featured as one of Time Out New York's ten playwrights to watch and Best Provocative Playwright by The Village Voice. He was the Playwright in Residence at The Soho Theatre in London.

Dark Nights at The New Group is a series of cultural conversations and readings designed to create a dialogue between artists and audience.

Dark Nights generally coincide with mainstage productions at The New Group, creating a forum for public conversation and enhancing the cultural landscape. Past events have featured luminaries such as F. Murray Abraham, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Eric Bogosian, Zoe Caldwell, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, Martha Plimpton, Hal Prince and Wallace Shawn. Dark Nights at The New Group collaborated with the 92nd Street Y for an event featuring Matthew Broderick and Kenneth Lonergan (The Starry Messenger), moderated by Leonard Lopate. Topics have ranged from gay adoption (in an event hosted by Rosie O'Donnell timed to The Kid) to an evening highlighting Sam Shepard's work (led by Ethan Hawke with music by the composers from A Lie of the Mind), to a panel on documentary theatre (featuring Marc Wolf performing Another American, his OBIE-winning play first produced at The New Group ten years ago).

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