Woodie King Jr’s New Federal Theatre kicks off its 44th season with “The Ed Bullins Project” – two revivals from his “Twentieth Century Cycle of Plays” – In The Wine Time and The Fabulous Miss Marie.
Bullins, winner of the prestigious NY Drama Critics’ Circle Award and OBIE Award for The Taking of Miss Janie, has greatly influenced American theatre, especially Black theatre. His work, characterized by disdain for ineffective political rhetoric as a substitute for action, most often examines the lives of Black people in the inner city. In 1968, Clive Barnes, writing in the New York Times called Bullins “a welcome addition to the ranks of New York playwrights.” Four years later, Barnes added “Bullins writes the way Charlie Parker played: It is all so easy and effortless. It sounds improvised, and yet it doesn’t sound improvised, simply because it is the improvisation of formality.” Today, Bullins is regarded as a seminal force in the American theater.
In The Wine Time is directed by Mansoor Najee-ullah and will play Oct. 25-Nov. 24 at Casillo Theater, 543 West 42nd St., NYC.
Coming this Spring rare revival of The Fabulous Miss Marie, directed by Woodie King, Jr., opens April 17th at the Castillo Theater. The season will also feature two world premiers: Every Day a Vistory by Richard Abrons, directed by Margarett Perry (Nov. 1st – Dec. 14th) at the Clurman Theater on Theater Row. Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington by Clare Coss, directed by Gabrielle L. Kurlander, opens Jan. 30, 2014 at the Castillo Theater featuring Kathleen Chalfant and Peter Jay Fernandez.
For more information, please visit www.newfederaltheatre.com or call NFT at 212-353-1176.
