Transport Group and terraNOVA Collective Present DARK NIGHTS: HIGHS & FAMILY TIES, 11/12

Transport Group, the Drama Desk and OBIE award-winning theatre company, and terraNOVA Collective, creator of the longest-running solo performance festival in NYC, the soloNOVA Arts Festival, will collaborate to produce Dark Nights: Highs & Family Ties during the second dark night of Transport Group's run of House For Sale tonight, November 12th at 7:00pm at The Duke on 42nd Street. Dark Nights: Highs & Family Ties will feature two of soloNOVA's highest acclaimed shows: Empanada for a Dream, written & performed by Juan Francisco Villa, directed by Alex Levy, and When Thoughts Attack, written & performed by Kelly Kinsella, directed by Padraic Lillis.

Empanada For A Dream is a haunting love song to the Lower East Side. Juan Francisco Villa's return to the neighborhood of his childhood is a dangerous and hilarious tale about growing up by getting out. Empanada For A Dream was originally produced by Ballybeg Inc. at the Barrow Group Theatre before being presented by terraNOVA Collective in their 9th annual soloNOVA Arts Festival. It was presented at Yo Solo Festival in Chicago by Teatro Vista and Collaboraction. The show will play through November 18 at LATC in Los Angeles.

When Thoughts Attack is about a woman who walks into a restaurant to order lunch and immediately gets caught up in a whirlpool of anxiety. Salmon or chicken? Genetics or environment? Armed with a bottle of sedatives and a good sense of humor, she goes to battle with her mind.

terraNOVA presented Empanada For A Dream and When Thoughts Attack as part of the 9th
Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival in 2012, and says: "We're delighted to collaborate with Transport Group in presenting two of our best soloNOVA alumni at The Duke."

Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, and Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that stages new works and re-imagined revivals by American writers. Their visually progressive productions of emotionally classic stories explore the challenges of relationships and identity in America. Transport Group is the winner of a special Drama Desk Award for its "breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions." Transport Group presented its premiere production in 2002: Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which featured older actors in the roles of Emily and George and a twelve-year-old girl as the Stage Manager. Its second production, Requiem for William, an evening of seven seldom produced plays by William Inge, that featured a cast of 26 as well as original songs, premiered in 2003. In 2004 the company presented the first New York revival of Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite, which received rave reviews, played to sold-out houses, and earned two Drama Desk Award nominations including Outstanding Revival of a Musical. Other productions include the world premiere of the musical The Audience, which featured a cast of 46 actors and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations, including Outstanding Musical; Normal, a new musical about a mother's battle to save her daughter from anorexia; cul-de-sac, a new play by Tony Award nominee John Cariani; the first New York revival of Tad Mosel's Pulitzer Prize play, All the Way Home; the 50th anniversary, OBIEwinning production of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; the world premiere musicals Crossing Brooklyn, Marcy in the Galaxy, and Being Audrey, and the first New York revival of Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead. Both First Lady Suite and Bury the Dead were filmed for the New York Performing Arts Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at Lincoln Center. In 2010 Transport Group presented a sold-out, extended engagement of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, which received an OBIE Award and was nominated for five 2010 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Play-the most for an off-Broadway play. Transport Group's productions of See Rock City and Other Destinations by Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias, and Hello Again by Michael John LaChiusa combined for eleven 2011 Drama Desk Award nominations and one win. Transport Group's production of Lysistrata Jones, by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, opened to rave reviews, played to sold-out houses, and transferred to Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre. The company's most recent productions include a critically acclaimed run of The Patsy and Jonas at The Duke on 42nd Street, starring OBIE winner David
Greenspan, Michael John LaChiusa's world premiere musical, Queen of the Mist starring Mary Testa, and Jonathan Franzen's House For Sale, adapted for the stage and directed by Daniel Fish, which opens on October 24th at The Duke on 42nd Street. For more information about Transport Group, visit www.transportgroup.org.

More Articles by This Author...