October 03 - October 20, 2019
Downstairs | 66 East 4th Street (Basement Level)
Thursday to Saturday at 8PM; Sunday at 5PM
$30 Adult Tickets; $25 Student/Senior Tickets (+$1 Facility Fee)
Run Time: 90 Minutes (No Intermission)
View the Digital Program
World Premiere
Written by Paul David Young
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
The playwright's elderly, demented mother says he’s the bastard child of the family pediatrician. The surreal, seemingly scripted disclosure instantly rewrites his devoutly Christian, Southern upbringing. The tragicomedy incorporates Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and other family plays, such as Hamlet, Oedipus, Elektra, Well, and The Seagull.
Paul David Young (Faust 3, In the Summer Pavilion) won the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. Evan Yionoulis, an Obie winner, formerly Professor in the Practice of Acting and Directing at Yale School of Drama and Resident Director at Yale Repertory Theatre for twenty years and now Richard Rodgers Director of Drama at Juilliard, directs. Two-time Tony-winner Donald Holder designs the lighting. With: Richard Gallagher, Brian Hastert, Deborah Hedwall, and Jonathan Hogan. Find out more at www.allmyfathers.org
Press
"In the hilarious first half of Paul David Young’s new play, David (Richard Gallagher), a version of the playwright, pays a reluctant visit to his childhood home, in Kentucky. His monster of a mother, Regina (a spectacular Deborah Hedwall), announces, through the fog of her dementia, that David’s true biological father was his (now dead) pediatrician, Dr. Woodman (a perfectly doctorly Brian Hastert), and not her long-suffering husband, Bill (touchingly performed by Jonathan Hogan)."
—Rollo Romig, The New Yorker
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5-stars
"In All My Fathers, Paul David Young manages to weave material from thousands of years of literature’s unhappy families into his own story and make it all sound like one family, undeniably distinct and yet painfully familiar. All My Fathers is remarkable work and should not be missed."
"Amazingly, everything fits together cohesively to make a truly wonderful piece of theatre. In Evan Yionoulis’ capable hands, a script that could have been played as complete tragedy or as a mockery of the aging mind walks a fine balance that lets us laugh at absurdity of the situation but also see the genuine pain that it causes each character. Acting is stellar throughout, especially Deborah Hedwall’s Regina, who is both maddening and heartbreaking. Design elements are strong; in particular, Melissa Friedling’s excellent video design is complemented by Ao Li’s simple, versatile set.”
- Carrie Lee O’Dell, The Reviews Hub
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BWW Interview: Paul David Young on Reconciling the Past with ALL MY FATHERS
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“All My Fathers is a clever, circumspect examination of paternity and “how to find it,” ...Young’s humor is salient and sardonic. The actors are just terrific. Yionoulis’ direction reflects the balance needed to move from the dramatic beginning to the humorous, absurdist ending and the lovely reconciliation at the conclusion.”
- Carole Di Tosti, Theater Pizzazz
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"All My Fathers is a surprisingly nimble and funny fantasia on an issue that affects all of us, even if one's family life wasn't a textbook nightmare and one's forbears have been long correctly identified. Evan Yionoulis stages these games of identity charades with fluency, slipping between reality and fantasy with supple skill."
- David Barbour, Lighting & Sound America
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"Director Evan Yionoulis handles the potentially heavy material with a light touch, keeping her cast's heads above the flood of twists and turns, with Hedwall and Hogan turning in performances that are both hilarious and poignant. Young's text mirrors the emotional journey of his "protagonist," in that it goes through a lot of different feelings but hasn't come to terms with what it all means.”
-Regina Robbins, Theater is Easy
READ MORE
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“Then we have Mr. Young’s new play All My Fathers (RECOMMENDED), which has been stylishly directed by Evan Yionoulis at La MaMa. Mr. Young uses a number of tools in his shed to tell the “pseudo” autobiographical story of his relationship with his parents, specifically in light of a family secret (no spoilers here) that was divulged towards during the twilight of their lives. . . . The acting is very good across the board, especially Deborah Hedwall and Jonathan Hogan, who gamely play Mr. Young’s aging parents with agility and color."
READ MORE
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What’s Coming to Off-Broadway Fall 2019?
Richard Gallagher, Jonathan Hogan, and More to Star in All My Fathers
World Premiere of Paul David Young’s All My Fathers Finds Its Cast
La MaMa Presents Paul David Young's ALL MY FATHERS
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[Adrienne Kennedy’s] “He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box,” … has been directed with haunting lyricism by Evan Yionoulis for Theater for a New Audience.... Occupying a mere 45 minutes of stage time (Ms. Kennedy’s favorite dramatic form is the short fugue), it nonetheless seems to stretch and bend through generations of conflict.
- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“Between its uncompromising, blistering rage and its condemnatory rhetorical stance, the play [Paul David Young’s Faust 3: The Turd Coming, or The Fart of the Deal] has many echoes of Biblical prophecy. . . . With its trove of references and dizzying wordplay, it is an impressive feat of rhetoric...”
- John Sherer, Hyperallergic
"Kentucky Cantata [by Paul David Young] is a masterful work that is likely to stay with you for a long time after the final bows...devastating...brilliantly composed."
- Howard Miller, “Talkin’ Broadway – Kentucky Cantata” Theatre Review
(selected by Miller as one of the 13 best Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway in 2015)
Special Events
After the Thursday, October 17th Performances
Dr. Sam Gandy will discuss his work on neuro-degeneration and Alzheimer’s Disease
Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is also Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health and NFL Neurological Care, and the incumbent of the Mount Sinai Endowed Chair in Alzheimer’s Research. He is also an Attending Neurologist at the James J Peters VA Medical Center. Dr. Gandy is a member of the Faculty of 1000 Biology and an Associate Editor of the journals Molecular Neurodegeneration and Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders. Dr. Gandy has written more than 250 original papers, chapters and reviews on Alzheimer’s disease, and he has received continuous NIH funding for his research since 1986. Dr Gandy has also pioneered the use of brain imaging to confirm during life the diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in retired athletes and Veterans. Dr Gandy is currently designing clinical trials with new drug and cell-based therapies that will soon be tested in Alzheimer’s and CTE.
Creative Team
Cast:
Richard Gallagher*, Brian Hastert*, Deborah Hedwall*, Jonathan Hogan*
Lighting Design by Donald Holder
Set Design by Ao Li
Costume Design by Teresa Snider-Stein
Video and Sound Design by Melissa Friedling
Stage Manager: Christine J. Colonna
Assistant Lighting Designer: Zachary Brienz
Assistant Costume Designer: Sara Vandenheuvel
Assistant Director: Heather Arnson
Sound and Projections Programmer: Käri Bertoon
Wardrobe Master: Emily Pisarra
Light Board Operator: David Bonilla
Special Thanks
Brooklyn College Department of Theatre
Darren Deverna, PRG Lighting
Actors members of AEA*
About the Artists
Evan Yionoulis (Director) is an award-winning director who has helmed new plays and classics in New York and across the country. She has enjoyed collaborations with major American playwrights, including Adrienne Kennedy (the critically acclaimed productions of He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, world premiere, and Ohio State Murders, Lortel Award for Best Revival, Theatre for a New Audience) and Richard Greenberg (the premieres and New York productions of The Violet Hour, Biltmore Theatre, Broadway; Everett Beekin, Lincoln Center Theatre; and Three Days of Rain, Manhattan Theatre Club, Obie Award for direction). In her twenty years as a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, she directed Richard II, Cymbeline, The Master Builder, George F. Walker’s Heaven, Brecht’s Galileo, Gozzi’s The King Stag (which she adapted with composer Mike Yionoulis and Catherine Sheehy), Caryl Churchill’s Owners, Guillermo Calderon’s Kiss, and numerous other productions. Credits include work at the Mark Taper Forum, Huntington, NY Shakespeare Festival, the Vineyard, Cherry Lane, 2econd Stage, American Music Theatre Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown, Denver Center, Portland Stage, PlayMakers Rep, and many others. She directed SEVEN, a documentary theatre piece about extraordinary women from across the globe who work for human rights, in New York, Boston, Washington, Aspen, London, Deauville, and New Delhi. She serves on the Executive Board of SDC, the labor union representing stage directors and choreographers as Secretary, and is a Princess Grace Foundation Awards recipient. She is the Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division at the Juilliard School. http://evanyionoulis.com/wp/evan-yionoulis-theatre-director/
Paul David Young (Playwright) Young's 2017 Trump satire, Faust 3: The Turd Coming, or The Fart of the Deal, performed by four clowns at Judson Church, was featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Time Out New York, Village Voice (“Voice Choice”), The Wall Street Journal, and Hyperallergic. Upstage Downstage picked his play Kentucky Cantata, at HERE in New York, as one of the top 13 plays of Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway for 2015. Erik Haagensen of Backstage selected his In the Summer Pavilion in NYCFringe and at 59e59 Theaters as a “Critic’s Pick.” His No One But You won the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and was a finalist for the Kendeda Fellowship. His one-act Aporia was a finalist for the Kennedy Center’s John Cauble Short Play Award. His translations, with Carl Weber, of Heiner Müller’s Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome and Macbeth were published as Heiner Müller: After Shakespeare. A contributing editor at PAJ (MIT Press), he writes regularly for Hyperallergic. His book newARTtheatre: Evolutions of the Performance Aesthetic, about visual artists appropriating theatre, was issued by PAJ in 2014. He has had residencies at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace, Millay Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Summer Conference. LMCC awarded him a five-month Process Space residency on Governors Island for 2015, where he conceived and performed Curtain Wall Part 3: An Immersive Landscape Theater Performance of Christopher Marlowe’s Hero and Leander, in which he swam across New York Harbor.
http://www.pauldavidyoung.com
Richard Gallagher (David) Credits include Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, 1984, The Front Page, The Lyons, The Importance of Being Earnest, Other NY credits include: The Pearl (Major Barbara), WP Theater, Lark Theatre, 59E59 Theaters. Selected regional credits include: Actors Theatre of Louisville (Angels in America parts 1 & 2), McCarter Theatre, Studio Theatre (Tribes), Baltimore Centerstage, Yale Repertory Theatre and The Norman Conquests at Northern Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival (directed by Evan Yionoulis) and Weston Playhouse. Film: Naked Singularity (with John Boyega & Olivia Cooke), El Camino (with Elisabeth Moss). TV: Recurring roles in Orange Is the New Black and Turn: Washington’s Spies. Other television: Blacklist, Quantico, Chicago P.D., Person of Interest, Blue Bloods, Law & Order, As the World Turns, Looking for Kathleen, Wallflowers. MFA, Yale School of Drama.
Brian Hastert (Dr. Woodman) Recent stage credits include the New York premier of Tectonic Theatre Project’s Uncommon Sense, Of Good Stock (Manhattan Theatre Company), Mission Drift (The National Theatre, London), A Future Perfect (SpeakEasy, World Premier), The Ragged Claws (Cherry Lane), as well readings/workshops at New Dramatists, The Lark, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Dixon Place, The Working Theatre, The Living Theatre, Terra Nova, and others. TV: Happy!, The Deuce, The Good Wife, Allegiance, Flesh and Bone, I love You… But I Lied, The Vampire Leland (pilot). Film: Walk With Me (upcoming). Radio: Twelve Years (BBC4). Brian is a founding member of The TEAM, a Brooklyn-based theater ensemble under the artistic directorship of Tony award-winning director Rachel Chavkin. With The TEAM, Brian has helped create seven original works and created roles in Particularly in the Heartland and Mission Drift which was recently voted one of the 50 best plays of the 21st century by The Guardian. As an educator, Brian was the founding head of Pace University’s BFA program in Acting for Film, Television, Voice Overs, and Commercials where he oversaw the creation of a new path for training actors and preparing them for a career in a world of digital media. MFA: Yale School of Drama. Similar information with better pictures can be found at brianhastert.com.
Deborah Hedwall (Regina) has been acting and teaching in New York for over 30 years. She has created many new roles in original Off Broadway productions; Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies at MTC for which she received an OBIE and Drama Desk Nomination, Savage in Limbo by John Patrick Shanley, Extremities by William Mastrosimone, Amulets Against The Dragon Forces by Paul Zindel at Circle Rep, Blind Date by Horton Foote at Ensemble studio Theater, Fall To Earth, directed by Joe Brancato at 59 East 59, Why We have a Body at The Women’s Project directed by Evan Yionoulis. Regionally she has worked at The Actor’s Theater of Louisville, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference, The Arena Stage, The New Play Festival at Sundance, The Long Wharf Theater, Yale Repertory, and Baltimore Center Stage where she appeared in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf directed by Ethan McSweeny. Since then she has worked at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor in Men’s Lives (directed by Harris Yulin), at Barrington Stage in Breaking the Code (directed by Joe Calarco), and at Hartford Stage in Christopher Shinn’s new play An Opening in Time (directed by Oliver Butler). Film and Television credits include Netflix’s Jessica Jones, Homeland, HBO’s Barry Levinson’s You Don’t Know Jack with Al Pacino, The West Wing, Law & Order, The Big C, Delocated, and Vera Farmiga’s Higher Ground, and to be released AFTER YANG directed by Kogonada. For two seasons Deborah played the mother in the Emmy Award winning series I’ll Fly Away. Hedwall has maintained an acting studio in New York for over 25 years.
Jonathan Hogan (Bill) On Broadway he appeared in Comedians, Otherwise Engaged, Fifth of July, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, As Is (Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Best Actor), Burn This, Taking Steps, and The Homecoming. Among the many plays he appeared in as a member of Circle Rep since 1973 were Lanford Wilson’s The Hot l Baltimore, The Mound Builders, and Balm in Gilead (in collaboration with Steppenwolf – Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble). Other performances Off Broadway include Wilson’s Book of Days, Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney, London Wall, Samuel D. Hunter’s Pocatello (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor), Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold Onto Me Darling (Lucille Lortel Award nominee for Outstanding Featured Actor) and Hindle Wakes. Regionally he has performed at the Dorset Theatre Festival, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, Merrimack Repertory, Long Wharf, McCarter, The La Jolla Playhouse, Repertory Co. of St. Louis, George St. Playhouse, and Hartford Stage. Films and TV include In Country, The House On Carroll Street, A Fish In The Bathtub, Revolution #9, several Movies of the Week, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, all the Law & Orders, House of Cards, The Looming Tower, and Woody Allen’s yet to be released A Rainy Day in New York. Mr. Hogan is a graduate of The Goodman Theatre and School of Drama.
Donald Holder (Lighting Designer) Broadway: Tootsie, Kiss Me Kate, Straight White Men, My Fair Lady, Anastasia, Oslo, M Butterfly, She Loves Me, Fiddler On The Roof, The King and I, On The Twentieth Century, The Bridges Of Madison County, Golden Boy, Spiderman- Turn Off The Dark, Ragtime, Movin’ Out, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and many others. He has designed fifty eight Broadway productions, is the recipient of two Tony awards (The Lion King and South Pacific) and thirteen Tony nominations. Opera: Porgy Rigoletto for the Berlin Staatsoper, Porgy and Bess, Otello, ‘wo Boys, The Magic Flute, Samson et Delilah at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Carmen for the Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera, many others. Television/Film: Recent projects include Smash Seasons one and two (NBC Dreamworks), Oceans Eight (Warner Brothers Pictures). Mr. Holder is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and the University of Maine, and Head of Lighting Design at Rutgers University.
Ao Li (Set Designer) is a set designer and visual artist who has worked internationally. His designs include: Scraps (Flea Theatre), Real (The Tank), As You Like It (Columbia University), Waiting for Godot (Alfred University), Lucretia (Cantata Profana), Where is My Maple Town (Theatre Row), Kiss (Yale Repertory Theatre), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Yale School of Drama), Titus Andronicus (Iseman Theatre), Yale Cabaret credits include: The Apple Tree, Xander Xyst, Dragon:1 and The Styx Songs. His work in Shanghai include: Cao Zhi (Academy Theatre), Blind (Shanghai International Arts Festival), Everything in the Garden (Duanjun Theatre) among others. Ao associate designed Soft Power (The Public Theatre), The Orphan of Zhao at Beijing Poly Theater and assisted on productions including Judgement Day (Park Avenue Armory), The Twilight Zone (West End), Tamerlano (Frankfurt Opera), Le Nozze Di Figaro (Theatre Des Champs-Elysses) and Scenes From Court Life (Yale Repertory Theater) etc. His artwork has received three solo exhibitions including Expression, 2009 and Childhood. He holds an MFA in Set Design from Yale School of Drama and a BFA in Stage Design from Shanghai Theatre Academy. He is the co-founder and former president of the Intercultural Performance Studio in Shanghai. He is the winner of Donald and Zorca Oenslager Travel Fellowship Award in Design, Richard Harrison Senie Scholarship and Donald M. Oenslager Scholarship in Stage Design. http://aoliarts.com/about