iama announces 2024-2025 season
IAMA Theatre Company will continue to cultivate new voices and create new, boundary-pushing work in 2024/2025 with our 17th anniversary “In Process” season: three comedies sure to surprise and provoke — a world premiere and two workshop productions — plus the company’s annual New Works Festival.
"In a time where the only constant is change, we find ourselves, as theater makers, ‘in process’," explains Artistic Director Stefanie Black. "We are excited to commit this next season to exploring what that means. Our 17th season will showcase IAMA’s development process, highlighting how a new play moves through our pipeline from an idea, to a reading, to a workshop, and finally, to a World Premiere production. With this new model, we invite our audiences into a space somewhere between the rehearsal room and opening night, where we can all be a part of what it means to develop a new play. We are committed to creating a strong pipeline for our artists. It’s a time to explore ‘laughing through the dark’."
SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 27, 2024
The Very Best People
World Premiere Production
Written by John Lavelle
Directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed
After the mysterious shooting of a disgraced NYPD detective, his two childhood friends set out on a mission for redemption on the south shore of Staten Island. Armed only with brotherhood, alternative truths, and ranch dressing, they plot to take down the deep state, one snowflake at a time. What's a little light kidnapping between friends? This new play has been with IAMA since inception: incubated in IAMA’s new play lab and moving up every step in the IAMA pipeline, from an intimate reading to the company’s annual New Works Festival, to this season’s full World Premiere production.
October 16 & OCTOBER 23, 2024
My Right Wing Uncle
special presentatioN
Written & Performed by Graham Sibley
Directed by Jeff Perry
Drawn from real-life interviews, a man discovers there’s more to his gun slinging, veteran, biker uncle than he ever expected. In this new work, Emmy® nominated actor Graham Sibley explores how generational understanding can lead to change. Directed by Jeff Perry, renowned actor and Co-Founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
December 5 - 15, 2024
7th Annual New Works Festival
With Support from the National Endowment for the arts
The seventh annual New Works Festival returns in December in a newly expanded version. Thanks to a generous award from the National Endowment for the Arts, this season will see the number of staged readings increased from six to eight, along with additional compensation to the artists and reduced ticket prices for the public. In addition to The Very Best People, plays previously staged as part of the series that have gone on to full IAMA productions include Mama Metal by Sigrid Gilmer, Smile by Melissa Jane Osborne, and Arrowhead by Catya McMullen.
February 13 - 24, 2025
Don’t Touch My Hair
WorKSHOP Production
Written by Douglas Lyons
Directed by Velani Dibba
Lifelong best friends Eemani and Jade decompress one afternoon over a good blunt. Unbeknownst to them, the blunt is laced with much more than weed — spiraling the duo into a hilarious hallucination that allows them to confront the oppressors of the past dead-on. IAMA first presented a virtual reading of Douglas Lyon’s play (under the title Invisible) in collaboration with New York City’s Queens Theatre’s Fly on the Wall series, part of IAMA’s ongoing tradition of partnering with like-minded companies to develop and produce new work.
May 22 - JuNE 2, 2025
TRAUMA PlAY
WoRKShop Production
Written by Abigail Miller
Directed by Diana Wyenn
When Britt Benson gets buzzy reviews for the premiere of her new play, her life begins spiraling out of control and into a meta-upon-meta s***storm. Newly famous, Britt finds the sexual assault she endured at age six suddenly publicized, scrutinized, and poked full of holes. Can she even trust her own memory? First given a staged reading by IAMA as part of last season’s New Works Festival, Abigail Miller’s darkly comic play is now set for a full-on workshop production.
