New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that Aftermath, written by Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, and directed by Ms. Blank, will extend its run through Sunday, October 18. The play, which was originally scheduled to close Sunday, October 4, garnered rave reviews when it opened September 15.
Ben Brantley of The New York Times named Aftermath a critic's pick and called it "a smart and sobering documentary drama," and Mike Kuchwara of the Associated Press called it "a docudrama of the highest order...a heartbreaking piece of theatre." Superbly staged and beautifully acted," wrote Marilyn Stasio of Variety, and Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News said Aftermath is "graceful and gripping."
With Aftermath, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the award winning creators of The Exonerated, return to the genre of documentary theatre with a powerful exploration of the Iraq war from the perspective of everyday Iraqi citizens and how their lives changed forever the day the Americans arrived in their country.
In June of 2008, New York Theatre Workshop sent Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, to Jordan where they interviewed Iraqis who fled the chaos and violence that befell their country for the relative safety of Jordan. Following their visit to Amman, they crafted these conversations into Aftermath. The people whose stories are told include a dermatologist, a husband and wife team of cooks, an Imam, an Iraqi Christian young mother, a husband and wife theatre director and visual artist, and a pharmacist.
New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), now celebrating its 26th season, is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents three to five new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 45,000 audience members. Over the past 26 years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number. The 2002 remounting of Martha Clarke's seminal work Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Aftermath plays at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. The regular performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:00pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8:00pm, Saturday at 3:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. There will be a special student matinee on Wednesday, September 23 at 1pm and there is no matinee on Saturday, September 26. Tickets are $65 and may be purchased online at www.telecharge.com, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or by phoning Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200. For exact dates and times of performance, visit www.nytw.org.
Maintaining its commitment to making theatre accessible to all theatergoers, NYTW continues its CheapTix Sundays program in which all tickets for all Sunday evening performances at 7:00pm will cost $20. Tickets may be purchased in advance, payable in cash only, and are available in person only at the NYTW Box Office. And for all performances, student tickets cost $20, based on availability, and can be purchased in advance from the NYTW Box Office with valid student identification. The NYTW Box Office is open 1:00pm to 6:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
