Roundabout to present new works by Lindsey Ferrentino, Anna Ziegler & Sanaz Toossi Off-Broadway

Roundabout Theatre Company announces a world premiere and two New York premieres as part of its upcoming 2020-2021 Off-Broadway season at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre.

Roundabout Theatre Company has now revealed details for three new productions by three female playwrights as part of its forthcoming 2020-2021 Off-Broadway season at the Harold & Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre.

Roundabout Artistic Director/CEO Todd Haimes commented: "The development of new plays has become a core part of Roundabout's mission, and in the 2020-21 season, we're featuring three wildly varied looks at life in America today. I can't wait for audiences to hear what these three women have to say."

At the Laura Pels Theatre, the season kicks off in fall 2020 with the New York premiere of The Year to Come, written by Lindsey Ferrentino and directed by Justin Martin.

Synopsis: "It's New Year's Eve again, and the various backgrounds and perspectives of this American family somehow clash even more than they did last year. And the year before. And the year before. But all gathered in their backyard swimming pool, they are safe from the world they fight about... or so they hope. This epic and scintillating new play weaves Decembers into decades in search of what rips — and mends — the seams of a nation."

The world premiere of The Year to Come was staged at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in December 2018. Lindsey Ferrentino's previous Off-Broadway credits include Amy and the Orphans and Ugly Lies the Bone (also for Roundabout) and This Flat Earth at Playwrights Horizons.

In winter 2021 at the Laura Pels Theatre, Roundabout continues the season with the New York premiere of Anna Ziegler's The Wanderers, directed by Barry Edelstein.

Synopsis: "Orthodox Jews Esther and Schmuli are newly married, and their future is written in the laws of the Torah. Secular Jew Abe is a famous novelist who believes he can write his own future...until an unexpected email from a movie star puts his marriage to the test and threatens to prove him wrong. This New York premiere play ripples across cultures, challenging two very different couples with the same question: Can we be happy with what we have while we have it?"

The Wanderers was originally commissioned, developed and produced at The Old Globe in San Diego. Anna Ziegler's previous Off-Broadway ventures include The Last Match (for Roundabout), Actually (for Manhattan Theatre Club), and A Delicate Ship (for The Playwrights Realm).

Finally, the first Roundabout Underground production of the 2020-2021 Off-Broadway season will be the world premiere of English, written by Sanaz Toossi, who makes her New York debut. Performances will begin at the Black Box Theatre in fall 2020.

Synopsis: "Two words set in motion playwright Sanaz Toossi's intricate and profound New York debut: "English Only." This is the mantra that rules one classroom in Iran, where four adult students are preparing for the TOEFL — the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Chasing fluency through a maze of word games, listening exercises, and show-and-tell sessions, they hope that one day, English will make them whole. But it might be splitting them each in half."

Exact dates, casting and additional creative team information for all three productions will be announced in the coming months.

Roundabout's current Off-Broadway season is still to present the world premieres of 72 Miles to Go... by Hillary Bettis and ...what the end will be by Jiréh Breon Holder at the Laura Pels Theatre, as well as Daniel Zaitchik's world premiere musical Darling Grenadine and the world premiere play Exception to the Rule, written by Dave Harris, at the Black Box Theatre.