The Proverbial Loons

Musical Comedy Improv at Castillo

Fridays and Saturdays  August 4, 10, 11,17, 18; September 15, 22
(and selected Saturdays September to December)

Musical Improv Comedy on most Saturday evenings throughout the season!
Meet the Proverbial Loons, Castillo's new comedy improv troupe. Veterans of New York's and Castillo's stages, come together with some new faces to create new material each night. Audience members can volunteer and watch their lives transformed into a zany musical! Or just watch and enjoy the show. It's gonna be ridiculous – and wonderfully entertaining.

BUY TICKETS

The Learning Play of Rabbi Levi-Yitzhok, Son of Sara, of Berditchev

By Dan Friedman  Directed by Moshe Yasur
October 21 - November 20, 2011

According to legend, when the great Hasidic Rabbi Levi-Yitzhok of Berditchev died in 1809, he refused to enter heaven unless God first agreed to end poverty and suffering on earth. A century later, four Jewish men fleeing the pogroms of Europe meet on a ship bound for America. When they recall oft-told stories of Rabbi Yitzhok, conflict and humor follow in this play with music that asks the question, "What is the responsibility of the Jew?"

Puberty Rites

A co-production of Castillo and the New Federal Theatre
October 27 - November 20, 2011

Two teenage girls, one Black and the other white, attempt to navigate the turbulence of growing up female in America. The contrasting outcomes bear grim witness to the continuing legacy of racism in America.

Annual Castillo Theatre Gala: Women Onstage

Performing Fred Newman: A Tribute Marathon of Plays

7 PM Friday, January 27 through 9 PM Saturday, January 28, 2012

Join a 26-hour performance celebration of the life and theatre work of Fred Newman. Newman, who passed away in July 2011, was the Castillo Theatre's artistic director for 16 years. Professional actors and directors will share the stage with community members, as most — if not all — of Newman's 44 politically-engaged plays will be read. Potluck snacks will keep the actors and audience well-fed.

The marathon is FREE, seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Saturday, March 3, 2012
Boys and Girls High School, 1700 Fulton Street (at Stuyvesant Ave.)

and

Saturday, March 31, 2012
Prospect Heights High School, 887 Classon Ave. (between Union & President)

Young people between the ages of 5 and 25 compete for the opportunity to advance to the Citywide Finale Show at the end of the year.

Contact April Rochon for details at 212-356-8447 or arochon@allstars.org.

Saturday, April 21, 2012
Bread and Roses High School at Sutton Educational Complex
6 Edgecombe Avenue (at the corner of 135th St. and St. Nicholas Ave.)

Admittance: $5 per person

Young people between the ages of 5 and 25 compete for the opportunity to advance to the Citywide Finale Show at the end of the year.

Contact April Rochon for details at 212-356-8447 or arochon@allstars.org.

Saturday, March 31 1:30 - 5 PM and Selected Saturdays throughout the year

Act 1: Get on the bus! Join fellow adventurers as we travel to the longest-running performance in New York City. Young people of the All Stars Talent Show Network are building positive Hip Hop theatre in their neighborhoods. Join them as they grow and develop themselves and their communities. Act 2: Come see the talent in all of us – and help give the All Stars Project Award for Community Spirit to our wonderful young performers! A unique NY experience.

Contact Brigid Mitchell at 212-356-8424 for details of the next Back to School trip.

Sally and Tom (The American Way)

February 17 - March 25, 2012
EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND THROUGH MAY 6
By Fred Newman  Directed by Gabrielle L. Kurlander

It's 1789, and teenage Sally Hemings returns from Paris with the soon-to-be president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. She is in love with him... and she is his slave. With beautiful music by Grammy-winning songwriter Annie Roboff, this dramatic musical follows Sally and Tom's love affair over a quarter-century, as it becomes a scandal in the press, produces five children, and confronts Sally with the privileges of her life and the injustices of slavery. As avant-garde as it is entertaining, Sally and Tom (The American Way) reveals the inhuman compromise our Founding Fathers made at America's birth, the legacy of which remains with us today.

Court-Martial at Fort Devens

A co-production with Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM March 8 - April 1, 2012

Written by Jeffrey Sweet
Directed by Mary Beth Easley

Based on a true story, this play documents the strike of black WACs (Women's Army Corps) during World War II. The women joined the Army to be trained as nurses, only to be relegated to cleaning toilets, mopping floors and doing laundry. When they are court-martialed for refusing to follow orders during wartime, they fight a pioneering battle for racial equality in the segregated U.S. military.

Julius Caesar

April 20 - 29, 2012

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Craig Pattison

Patriotism, friendship, honor, betrayal, murder. The fascinating, nuanced and ever-timely account of the 44 BC murder of Julius Caesar and its aftermath is being brought to life by Youth Onstage! The young actors dive into the sounds and rhythms of Shakespeare, finding meaning through a playful exploration of the text.

Otto Rene Castillo Awards for Political Theatre

The Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre were established in 1998 to recognize and support theatre companies and artists the world over engaged in creating political theatre, using their stages and talents to make positive and humane social, political, moral, philosophical and aesthetic statements.

For more information, please contact Diane Stiles at 212 - 356 - 8412.

Children of Killers

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2 PM September 21 - October 28, 2012

Fifteen years after the genocide in Rwanda, many of the mass murderers are being released from prison and are returning to their villages. Their teenage children, who grew up without them, must now come to terms with their fathers' legacies. Will they carry on the heritage of hate or will they resist the weight of that history? This Castillo production will be the play's American premiere. Emily Mendelsohn will direct.

Katori Hall's play The Mountaintop won an Olivier Award for best new play in 2010 and was performed to sold-out houses on Broadway this past fall by Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.