The New Group announce new season

The New Group announce have announced three plays for its upcoming 2011-12 season, which will feature Erika Sheffer's Russian Transport, Thomas Bradshaw's Burning, and David Rabe's An Early History of Fire.

The plays will be presented in the following season order:
Casting announcements and specific dates for each production will be forthcoming.

Russian Transport
by Erika Sheffer
Directed by Scott Elliott
Cast: tba
Date: tba.

Synopsis: Set in the Russian-Jewish enclave of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Russian Transport is a tale of an immigrant couple, their two assimilated teenagers and the fierce and fiery upheaval they experience when sexy, mysterious Uncle Boris from the old country comes to stay with them for his shot at the American dream.

Russian Transport marks the Off-Broadway debut of playwright Erika Sheffer. Her other plays include 'The Drowning Side' and short pieces 'Engaging Dynamic Guest Experience,' 'Likes to Scratch' and 'Something in Your Stomach.' Sheffer's work has received readings at Naked Angels, Primary Stages, The Woodshed Collective and Personal Space Theatrics in association with The Actors Studio.

Burning
By Thomas Bradshaw
Director: Scott Elliott
Cast: tba.
Dates: tba

Synopsis: In intersecting stories spanning two eras, a contemporary Black painter who hides his race goes to Germany for a show, only to find that the gallery owner has misinterpreted his work. And in the '80s a homeless teenager comes to New York to become an actor and is taken in by two gay men, who are themselves producing a new play.

Thomas Bradshaw's recent plays include' Mary' (The Goodman Theater); 'The Bereaved' (Partial Comfort Productions, and subsequently produced at The State Theater of Bielefeld in Germany); 'Southern Promises' (P.S. 122), 'Dawn' (The Flea Theater) and 'Job' (The Wilma). He is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2010 Prince Charitable Trust Prize, and a 2011 New Voices New York Fellowship from the Lark Play Development Center.

An Early History of Fire
By David Rabe
Director: Jo Bonney
Cast: tba, Dates: tba

Synopsis:In a Midwestern town, Danny's world is defined by friendship and loyalty. But the bigger world is encroaching, in the form of Karen, back from college in the east, alluring and unsettling because of what she now knows. Still, Danny can't escape the grip of his immigrant father, who is mourning a vanished world of lost prestige and clinging to his only son.

David Rabe's first play in New York in 1971 was 'The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel.' This was quickly followed by 'Sticks and Bones,' 'The Orphan,' 'In the Boom Boom Room' and 'Streamers,' all produced by Joseph Papp. 'Hurlyburly' came later, as did 'Those the River Keeps,' 'A Question of Mercy,' 'The Dog Problem' and 'The Black Monk' adapted from Chekov.

Jo Bonney's directorial credits include: Lynn Nottage's 'By the Way, Meet Vera Stark' (Second Stage); 'Break of Noon' (MCC), Culture Clash's 'American Night' (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Darci Picoult's 'Lil's 90th' (Long Wharf Theatre); Suzan-Lori Parks' 'Father Comes Home from the War' (Public Theatre Lab); Naomi Wallace's 'The Hard Weather Boating Party' (The Humana Festival) and 'Fever Chart' (Public Theatre Lab).