New York Theatre Workshop

LIBERTY CITY

Written by Jessica Blank and April Yvette Thompson
Directed by Jessica Blank
Performed by April Yvette Thompson

Scenic Design – Antje Ellermann
Costume Consultant – Mattie Ullrich
Lighting Design – David Lander
Sound Design – Jane Shaw
Video Design – Tal Yarden
Associate Video Design – Keith Skretch

Company biographies
Liberty City production history

Libertycityplay.com
Aprilyvettethompson.com

Facility address:
79 East 4th Street, located between Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village.

Prices:
Single tickets, $45.00 each.

CheapTix Sundays, $20.00 (all tickets for all Sunday evening performances at 7:00pm; tickets are available in advance and must be purchased in person, with cash only at the NYTW box office).

Student tickets, $20.00 (tickets are available in advance and must be purchased in person with valid student ID at the NYTW box office.
Limit one ticket per ID).

Description:
Liberty City: a place where people of the African Diaspora have settled; where urban and island cultures rub up against each other, and the site of Miami's infamous 1980 riots. Enter April Yvette Thompson--a child of children of the 60's, the daughter of a Bahamian and Cuban father and an African American mother: free thinkers, young radicals and movement people. As the hope of the 60's and 70's gave way to the disillusionment and disintegration of the 80's, April's family struggled to survive and stay together. Part history, part imagination, Liberty City is her personal story that illuminates the lives of one family through the context of social, cultural, and political events.

Dates:
First preview, Friday, February 15; opening night, Tuesday, March 4; final performance, Sunday, March 16, 2008.

Performance schedule:
Tuesday at 7:00pm; Wednesday – Friday at 8:00pm; Saturday at 3:00pm and 8:00pm; Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.

Exceptions:
There is no matinee on Saturday, Feb 16; Sunday, Feb 17;
Saturday, March 1

There will be a performance on Monday, March 3 at 8pm

AfterWords (audience discussion):
Tuesday, February 19; Tuesday Feb 26; and Wednesday, March 12

Running time:
90 minutes

April Yvette Thompson

(Left to right) Jessica Blank, April Yvette Thompson,
Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin, April Silver

Public Program
NYTW, Rehearsal Studio
(83 E. 4th Street, third floor)

Tuesday, January 29th at 7pm
A panel discussion exploring the social and political conditions that fueled the 1980 Miami riots and the larger picture of black activism in the latter half of the twentieth century will feature Jessica Blank, co-author and director of Liberty City; April Yvette Thompson, co author and performer of Liberty City; Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies and Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University; and, April Silver, a social entrepreneur, community leader, and writer who founded Akila Worksongs, a Brooklyn-based organization that provides consulting services to artists and activists.

Listen to a recording of the discussion

AfterWords recording from Tuesday Feb. 19th.

AfterWords recording from Tuesday Feb. 26th.

About the artists:
April Yvette Thompson’s film and television credits include Accidental Husband (dir. Griffin Dunne); Doris & Bernard, “The Exonerated” (dir. Bob Balaban); “Third Watch,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “The Dave Chappelle Show.” Her theatre credits include The Exonerated; the world premiere of Tanya Barfield & Lynn Nottage's The Antigone Project; the world premiere of Kia Corthron's Light Raise the Roof at NYTW; the world premiere of Zakiyyah Alexander's SICK??? at SPF; The Rivals, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor with The Acting Company; Medea, Macbeth (both AUDELCO nominations), King Lear, The Blacks at The Classical Theatre of Harlem; 365 Plays/365 Days at NYTW and the Public Theater; the world premiere of Seret Scott's Second Line, Wine in the Wilderness (Seattle Footlights Award); A Raisin in the Sun at Hartford Stage; and the world premiere of Kia Corthron's The Venus De Milo is Armed at ASF.

Jessica Blank is an actor, writer and director. Film credits include The Namesake (dir. Mira Nair), The Exonerated, Undermind, You’re Nobody Till Somebody Kills You (prod. Spike Lee), On the Road With Judas (Sundance 2007). Television credits include “The Bronx is Burning,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Rescue Me,” “Guiding Light,” “One Life to Live.” With Erik Jensen, she is author of The Exonerated, a play based on their interviews with 40 exonerated death row inmates, which won Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Fringe First, and Herald Angel Awards, and was made into a movie for Court TV. Her first novel, Almost Home, is forthcoming in fall 2007; she and Mr. Jensen are currently adapting it for the screen. Living Justice, their book on the making of The Exonerated, was published in 2005. Jessica’s writing has appeared in journals including The Believer, The Dramatist, and Theatre History Studies. She is co-Artistic Director of The Fire Dept Theater Company.