Awake in the Dark
Evenstar Productions presents Awake in the Dark based on Shira Nayman’s book with music by Ben Moore.
On her deathbed, a mother blurts out a street address in Heidelberg. The information comes as a surprise to the daughter, Christiane, in her thirties and living in NY. Christiane’s early childhood in wartime Germany is a haunting mélange of blurred memories. Within these memories, a strange secret echoes. Her mother was never willing to discuss the past; all Christiane knows is that her father, a German soldier, was killed in the early years of the war. Sensing that this address might reveal more, she returns to Heidelberg, which leads to a startling discovery.
This theater performance is based on Nayman's widely praised book, Awake in the Dark, described by The Atlantic Magazine as “A haunting excursion into the past…a literary page-turner with a classic O. Henry twist." The NY Times wrote, "The essential subject of Awake in the Dark is memory…like Chinese boxes: boxes within boxes within boxes." Newsday wrote, “beautiful and deftly plotted…like nothing out there,” and The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, “plotted in that perfect way that stops our breath even as our brain hums with pleasure at the inevitable, internal logic.” Original music is by Ben Moore, whom Opera News praised for "the easy tunefulness" and "romantic sweep" of his work, and The New York Times called “brilliant” and “gorgeously lyrical.”
Written by Shira Nayman
Music by Ben Moore
Starring Antoinette LaVecchia* & Juliana Sass*
Musicians: Jack Kessler (viola); Nathaniel LaNasa (piano); Todd Palmer (clarinet)
Directed by Maria Mileaf
Set Design by Neil Patel
Lighting Design by Matthew Richards
Costume Design by Katherine Roth
*Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association. An Equity approved showcase
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Shira Nayman (Author) is the author of five books: Awake in the Dark (Scribner), The Listener (Scribner), A Mind of Winter (Akashic Books) River (Guernica), and Shoreline (Guernica). She has published in magazines & journals, including The Atlantic, Georgia Review, New England Review. Recipient of three Australia Council for the Arts Literature grants, the Cape Branch award for Women Writers, & a MacDowell fellowship. Her work has been performed on NPR, at the Brooklyn Historical Society, at 1st UU Brooklyn, & as an invited Lincoln Center workshop. www.shiranayman.com
Ben Moore’s (Composer) music includes art song, opera, musical theater, cabaret, chamber music, choral music and comedy material. His work has been called “brilliant” and “gorgeously lyrical” by the New York Times, and Opera News has praised the “easy tunefulness” and “romantic sweep” of his songs. His work has been performed by Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Frederica von Stade, Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, Robert White, Nathan Gunn and Audra McDonald. https://www.mooreart.com/
Antoinette LaVecchia (Hilde) played the Elena Skate in the Russo Brothers upcoming The Electric State (2025 Netflix). Broadway: Torch Song, A View From The Bridge. Off-Broadway: Becomes A Woman (Mint Theatre), The Portuguese Kid (MTC), Two Point OH (59E59), Mamma Roma and How to be a Good Italian Daughter…( Cherry Lane), String of Pearls (Primary Stages), Kimberly Akimbo (MTC), Magic Hands Freddy (Soho Playhouse). Regional: The Rose Tattoo (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), The True (Capital Rep), Ah Wilderness (Hartford Stage), Project Dawn (People’s Light), The Blameless (The Old Globe), A Comedy of Tenors (McCarter Theatre & Cleveland Play House) I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti (TheaterWorks, George St. Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Asolo Rep), Electric Baby (Two River), The Laramie Project (TheaterWorks), Tough Titty (Williamstown) TV: Recurring role Mad About You reboot (Amazon Prime), Bull, The Deuce, FBI, Blindspot, L&O: SVU, Blue Bloods, The Sopranos Film: 31 Candles, Team Marco, Deliver Us From Evil, Delirious. Education: MFA Tisch/NYU, Moscow Art Theatre, Philippe Gaulier. Member: Dramatist Guild, Drama League Fellow. Awards: Fox Fellowship, The Anna Sosenko Grant, BroadwayWorld.com CT Best Actress Award, CT Critics Circle Award. She is a published playwright and has taught Acting & Theatre Games at NYU Tisch grad acting, The Actors Center Workshop Co., National Alliance of Acting Teachers, Tisch undergrad Florence program and many others.
Juliana Sass (Christiane) played Shelby in the world premiere of Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain at Studio Theater (nomination Helen Hayes Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play, winner Best Production & Best Ensemble). Erica Schmidt’s Mac Beth (Hunter Theater Project), Julius Caesar (Theater for a New Audience). Workshops: The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, The New Group, New York Stage & Film, Studio Theater. Film: A Call to Spy, Radium Girls, The Sisterhood of Night, Homing Instinct. BA in Comp Lit (Harvard). Representation: Aleen Keshishian and James Thompson at Lighthouse Management + Media.
Jack Kessler (Viola) is a Master of Music student, Yale School of Music, studying with Ettore Causa. A National YoungArts Foundation finalist and performed on NPR’s From The Top with Jeremy Denk at Dartmouth College. Jack has studied at The Perlman Music Program, Ashkenasi-Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar, the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Verbier Festival Academy, and the Fontainebleau American Conservatory. At Curtis, he was the Chamber Music Coordinator alongside his mentor Steven Tenenbom. They organized a concert in the spring of 2023 to honor composers who perished in the Holocaust.
Nathaniel LaNasa (Piano) partners with singers, dancers, and ensembles. He has been praised for his “stormy lyricism” (New York Times), and for his “poise and elegance” (Feast of Music). Credits include “Intimate Apparel,” Ricky Ian Gordon’s new two-piano opera at the Lincoln Center Theater. Premieres include works by Nate Wooley, Matthew Ricketts, Molly Joyce, Shawn Jaeger, and Dimitri Tymoczko. Nate curates NYFOS Next at the Rubin Museum. Credits include Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, and (le) PoissonRouge; the Musée d’Orsay (Paris), Wigmore Hall (London),and Burning Man (Black Rock City). Nathaniel-lanasa.com
Todd Palmer (Clarinet) is a three-time Grammy nominee, has appeared as soloist with many orchestras including those of Houston, Atlanta, St. Paul, Cincinnati,Montréal, BBC Scotland. Recitals: Weill Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Kennedy Center, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. A winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, grand prize winner in the Ima Hogg Young Artist Auditions. Collaborations with the St. Lawrence, Brentano, Borromeo, Jupiter, Chiara, Lark, and Pacifica string quartets; and with sopranos Kathleen Battle, Renée Fleming, Elizabeth Futral, Heidi Grant Murphy, Dawn Upshaw. He has worked with composers Osvaldo Golijov, Thomas Adès, David Bruce, Ricky Ian Gordon, Christopher Rouse, Mason Bates, Ned Rorem, and George Tsontakis. Broadway credits include EvSouth Pacific, TheKing & I, Les Misérables, Sunset Boulevard, My Fair Lady, & Sweeney Todd.
Maria Mileaf (Director) is a NY based director whose directing credits include Jessica Dickey’s The Rembrandt at TheaterWorks Hartford; Kwame Kwei Armah's Let There Be Love at Penguin Rep; Lee Blessings’ Body of Water and Sharon Washington’s Feeding the Dragon at Primary Stages; Vijay Tendulkar’s Sakharam Binder for the Play Company; Neena Beber’s Hard Feelings for WP Theatre/New Georges; Oren Safdie’s Gratitude at Urban Stages; Courtney Baron’s Here I Lie for Summer Shorts @ 59E59; Alexandra Gersten-Vasillaros’ The Argument at The Vineyard; Joanna Murray-Smith’s Ninety at New York Stage and Film; Nash’s The Rainmaker at The Old Globe; Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Story at the Philadelphia Theatre Company where Mileaf won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction; Lucy Prebble’s Sugar Syndrome, John Belluso’s A Nervous Smile and Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Wendy Wasserstein’s Third at The Geffen. On the West End, Maria directed Glen Berger’s Underneath the Lintel.
Neil Patel’s (Set Design) work has been seen in film, television, commercials, Broadway, international opera as well as the Venice Biennale. Current projects: Laurence Fishburne’s How They Do It In The Movies at the PAC NYC, Antoine Fuqua’s King Shaka (CBS/Showtime) and David Byrne’s Theater of the Mind (Denver Center for Performing Arts/Arbutus). Notable film and television projects include Dickinson for AppleTV+ (Peabody Award), Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin for HBO MAX, Some Velvet Morning (TriBeCa Film Festival) for TriBeca Films, In Treatment for HBO (Peabody Award), Dil Dhadakne Do and Little Boxes (TriBeCa Film Festival) for Netflix. Commercial and music video work includes The Receipt (AICP Shortlist) directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen and the acclaimed Twenty One Pilots-Livestream Experience directed by Jason Zada. Exhibition designs include Space for Construction, VAC Foundation at the Palazzo Zattere, 2017 Venice Biennale. Neil has twice been honored with an OBIE award for Sustained Excellence, won the Helen Hayes Award and has been nominated many times for Hewes, Lortel and Drama Desk Awards. He is a graduate of Yale College and studied scenography at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.
Evenstar Productions is a film and theater production company founded by Elizabeth Cuthrell and David Urrutia. Films include Jesus’ Son, Meek’s Cutoff (both selected for NY Times Top 10 Films of the Year), The Same Storm, the recent Sundance-winner I’ll Be Your Mirror, The Sisterhood of Night, and Vara A Blessing. Festivals include the Venice, Telluride, Sundance, London, Busan, and New York Film Festivals, and the films have won numerous awards including The Little Golden Lion, Special Jury Award, Ecumenical, Signis, and Best Actor awards. Theater credits include Denis Johnson’s Des Moines and Shoppers Carried By Escalators Into the Flames, Roger Rees’ What You Will, **** the Play, Walt and Emily, and the Tony-nominated Farinelli and the King.
Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/awake-in-the-dark-tickets-1021798224997
