FIRE THROWS

A contemporary Antigone challenges her past, re-examining her own story of sacrifice through the kaleidoscopic frenzy of a fever dream. Through video projection, live music, and Balinese dance-inspired staging, FIRE THROWS explodes the themes within this classic story to produce a cutting-edge meditation on desire, drive, and what’s at stake in breaking the rules.

Adapted from Sophocles’ Antigone 
Written and directed by Rachel Dickstein 
Original score composed by Jewlia Eisenberg 
Performed live by Charming Hostess

Created in collaboration with the ensemble: Erica Berg, Laura Butler, Kiebpoli Calnek, John Campion, Kimiye Corwin, Juliana Francis-Kelly, Kyle Leland, Paula McGonagle, Leajato Robinson, Jorge Rubio, and Caesar Samayoa. 

May 4-26, 2007 at the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster Street

“Visually stunning ....Invoking the multidisciplinary ritualism of ancient Greek drama, Dickstein combines sculptural dance and live gamelan music with projected video to envelop 3LDʼs stage with ravishing imagery and sound....with a few scraps of fabric, stark lighting and a rigorous ensemble, Dickstein clearly has all she needs to create visual poetry.”—Time Out

AND SUDDENLY A KISS, THERE ON THE BACK OF MY NECK

AND SUDDENLY A KISS... is an original, site specific movement-theatre work about gender, nature, and the memories that define us. Set in a garden surrounded by 150 year old trees, "And suddenly a kiss..." is an immersive performance and installation that travels through wooded garden "rooms," with headsets and augmented reality glasses providing the audience with an intimately translated audio-visual score.  With the surreal soundscape of a Janet Cardiff piece and the lush choreography of a Pina Bausch dance, this new multi-channel memory book offers a guided tour of the hidden forests of one woman's life. 

Created with Susan Zeeman Rogers and commissioned by People’s Light & Theatre and Longwood Gardens. With Estelle Parsons, Paula McGonagle, Grant Neale, LeeAnne Hutchison and others.

To premiere 2014/2015.  

BETROTHED

Written and directed by Rachel Dickstein 

Original score composed by Vijay Iyer

Set Design by Susan Zeeman Rogers 
Costume Design by Oana Botez-Ban 
Lighting Design by Nicole Pearce

Based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri’sThe Treatment of Bibi Haldar, Chekhov’s fableBetrothed, and S. Ansky’s folktale The Dybbuk.

Inspired by Indian Kathak folk dance, Marc Chagall, and wedding ceremonies from South Asian and Western cultures, the play offers a unique look inside three women’s struggle between marriage and personal independence, to explore what is one of the most controversial ceremonies of our time.

Created in collaboration with the ensemble: Laura Butler, Lula Graves, Daniel Irizarry, Ryan Justesen, Mahira Kakkar, Derek Lucci, Paula McGonagle, Gita Reddy, Alok Tewari

Produced by Catherine Ward 
Production Manager/TD Gary Levinson 
Production Stage Manager Joanna Leigh Jacobson 
Assistant Set and Prop design by Emily Rebholz 
Press Representation: Richard Kornberg & Associates

Betrothed has been developed with the generous support of Meet the Composer, the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Pufffin Foundation, the Nancy Quinn Fund of A.R.T./ New York, the New York State Council on the Arts – a State Agency, the Dramatists Guild Fund, the Katherine Dalglish Foundation, the Emanuel and Jette Metzger Philanthropic Fund and private donations.

May 4-26, 2007 at the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster Street

Betrothed was first presented in a workshop production at the Soho Think Tank’s Ice Factory 2006. 

THE WORLD IS ROUND

THE WORLD IS ROUND

Premiering April 17-30 at BAM! 

Written & Directed By: Rachel Dickstein

Music and Lyrics: Heather Christian

Based on Gertrude Stein's The World is Round

Music performed live by: Heather Christian and the Arbornauts

Set Design: Mimi Lien

Lighting Design: Jiyoun Chang

Costume Design: Ilona Somogyi

Sound Design: Jane Shaw                           

Projection Design: Hannah Wasileski 

Created in collaboration with the ensemble: Blake DeLong, Hannah Heller, Grace McLean, Kristen Sieh. 

THE WORLD IS ROUND is a thrilling new folk fable based on a children’s book by Gertrude Stein. Stepping inside the dreams, desires, and drive of Rose, the piece tracks a young girl on a quest to climb a mountain. Through a rocking live original score, aerial choreography, and immersive video design, The World is Round transports us to the joys and fears childhood and the arduous path towards becoming a woman of ambition.

A staged workshop was produced at the JCC in Manhattan during December of 2012.

INNOCENTS

Conceived and directed by Rachel Dickstein, adapted by Ms. Dickstein with Emily Morse

Original Music and Sound by Katie Down 
Set Design by Susan Zeeman Rogers 
Lighting Design by Tyler Micoleau 
Costume Design by Ilona Somogyi 
Dramaturgy by Emily Morse

Lily Bart’s search for wealth, power, and independence in turn-of-the-century New York society turns tragic when she gets ensnared in a tangled web of deception, revenge and missed opportunities.  Based on Edith Wharton’s classic THE HOUSE OF MIRTH and produced on the novel’s 100th anniversary. 

Developed in collaboration with the ensemble: Margot Ebling, LeeAnne Hutchison, Paula McGonagle, Grant Neale, Christopher Oden, Andy Paris, and Jill A. Samuels

World premiere: January-February 2005 at the Ohio Theatre, New York City. Developed at Voice and Vision’s ENVISION retreat, the Clark Studio at Lincoln Center, La MaMa ETC. and Pace University/ Drama League Cite Read program. 

“Ms. Dickstein artfully draws the audience into a mesmerizing mood piece composed of seamless vignettes . . . . . ravishing moments . . . stunning visuals . . . pure visual entertainment. . . . Dickstein is a maverick illusionist.” 
- Phoebe Hoban, The New York Times

THE SECRET OF STEEP RAVINES

Conceived and directed by Rachel Dickstein, developed with and written by Barbara Wiechmann

Set Design by Sarah Edkins
Lighting Design  by Tyler Micoleau
Costume Design by Ilona Somogyi
Sound and Music By Katie Down
Dramaturgy by Emily Morse

An old house full of secrets. A girl hungry with curiousity. Through the keyhole, we watch as her imagination unleashes a fury of dreams and questions, creating a surreal carnival that entrances and betrays.  A visceral new theatre work driven by powerful physicality and vivid imagery.

Developed in collaboration with the ensemble: Victoria Boomsma, Genna Brocone, Dion Doulis, Patrick Lacey, Erika Latta, David Natale, Julia Prud’homme, and Kameron Steele

World premiere: Performance Space 122, New York City. Developed in workshop at the Ohio Theatre, the Clark Studio Theatre at Lincoln Center, the Ko Festival of Performance, and New Georges. (All Gallery images from PS 122 premiere.)

The Secret of Steep Ravines” is a dark, dreamlike return to the spirit of the Great Depression . . . an evocative visit to a place in the past that exists in the imagination.”
- Robin Eisgrau, offoffoff.com

SEPTIMUS AND CLARISSA

SEPTIMUS AND CLARISSA takes audiences on a timely and harrowing ride inside the minds of a shell-shocked World War I veteran and an upper-class housewife forced to face her deepest fears. This visceral exploration of Woolf’s groundbreaking novel dives deep into the tensions of post-WWI London to expose the darkness that lurks beneath the fragile surface of peace.

Created in collaboration with the ensemble: Craig Baldwin, LeeAnne Hutchison, Paula McGonagle, Ellen McLaughlin, Tom Nelis, Henry Stram, Susan Pellegrino, Tommy Schrider, and Miriam Silverman.

Set and properties Susan Zeeman Rogers
Costumes Oana Botez-Ban
Lighting Keith Parham
Sound Jane Shaw

Extended run at Baruch Center for Performing Arts September 7th-October 8th, 2011. 

“Thrilling and richly theatrical… Septimus and Clarissa” finds hypnotic poetry in the ordinary, the solemn, the rapturous and just about everything in between.” – The New York Times

THE HOLY MOTHER OF HADLEY NEW YORK

Written by Barbara Wiechmann
Directed by Rachel Dickstein

Set Design by Sarah Edkins
Lighting Design by Lenore Doxsee
Costume Design by Katherine Hampton
Original Music and Sound by Katie Down
Dramaturgy by Emily Morse

A dark, lyrical, funny new play about community, motherhood, and the investments we make in belief. Agnes La Voie suffers a nervous breakdown in the small upstate town of Hadley, then claims she’s been healed by a visitation from the Holy Mother.

World premiere: Ohio Theatre, September 2001. Produced by New Georges in association with Ripe Time.

 "When the miracle does come, it creates a delicious tension that engulfs the audience as much as the actors, right until its nearly perfect resolution.”
– Theatremania.com

THE PALACE AT 4 AM

Adapted and directed by Rachel Dickstein

Lighting Design by Jeff Croiter
Set and Costume Design by the director

Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd,” and Sophie Calle’s “Suite Venitienne.”

World premiere at HERE Arts Center, American Living Room Festival. Developed at New York Theatre Workshop (1997).