Created by TEDDY BERGMAN, SAM CHANSE & AMINA HENRY • Written by SAM CHANSE & AMINA HENRY • Directed & Developed by TEDDY BERGMAN • Featuring ALEXIS FLOYD, LEE HUBILLA & RUIBO QIAN
ORIGINALLY PERFORMED LIVE & IN PERSON:
OCTOBER 7 – 23, 2021
STREAMING ON ARS NOVA SUPRA:
OCTOBER 25 – NOVEMBER 6, 2021
From a year in letters to a moment in time, experience the in-person culmination of P.S. Since November 2020, P.S. has delivered intimate storytelling directly into the hands of audiences, as they’ve received letters between two characters corresponding in real-time as the world changed all around us. Now, Ona and Bea’s story concludes in a unique multimedia theatrical event that begins in your home and ends on our stage.
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What COVID-19 safety protocols are in place for the in-person performance of this show?
To best protect everyone present and in accordance with NYC mandates and the latest CDC guidance, Ars Nova will require all audience members and staff to provide proof of full-vaccination and to wear masks for all on-site performances and events at this time. For full details, please check out our Health & Safety FAQ page.
Where is this show taking place?
Performances of P.S. will take place at Ars Nova@ Greenwich House, located on 27 Barrow Street, New York, NY, 10014.
A note on accessibility
P.S. is wheelchair accessible. Please note that there are designated wheelchair accessible seat locations as most other seating for this production is only accessible via stairs. If you have any questions or specific access needs you would like to share with us prior to your visit, contact cbarker@arsnovanyc.com, for additional seating options and other information.
A note on content advisories
Ars Nova is uncensored. We have chosen to provide content advisories — to the best of our ability — to inform audiences when shows contain racial violence, racist language, sexual violence or nudity. We provide information about this type of content in advance, based on our Core Values, so that each audience member can make an informed decision about if and how they’d like to engage with that content. We welcome artists to share additional information about their shows based on their own core values.
P.S.
Created by TEDDY BERGMAN, SAM CHANSE & AMINA HENRY
Written by SAM CHANSE & AMINA HENRY
Directed & Developed by TEDDY BERGMAN
LOCATION:
The Hub | 511 West 54th Street
SCHEDULE:
October 7 – 23, 2021
Performances October 7 – 23:
Monday – Saturday @ 7 & 8:30 PM
Saturdays @ 2 & 3:30 PM
Approx Runtime: 45 Minutes
Letters Material Design & Scenic Design dots
Costume Design Devario D. Simmons
Lighting Design Reza Behjat
Sound Design Christopher Darbassie
Video Designer
Movement Consultant Sunny Hitt
Stage Manager Devin Fletcher
Assistant Stage Manager Kalen Sierra Hughes
Casting The Telsey Office/ Destiny Lilly CSA
Alexis Floyd (Young Ona) Film/TV: Inventing Anna (created by Shonda Rhimes, Netflix, series regular, 2022), The Bold Type (Freeform, recurring), Life’s Poison (dir. Malcolm D. Lee). Off-Broadway: If Sand Were Stone (Theatre Row, dir. Tyler Thomas); Mitad Del Mundo (LaMama Theatre, dir. Danya Taymor). Education: BFA in Musical Theater from Carnegie Mellon University; Rhodolphi International Theatre Lab in Bulgaria; Cleveland Institute of Music; Cleveland School of Ballet. Original music available on all streaming platforms. Ife. @alexisgfloyd
Photo Credit: Ellie Gravitte
Lee Hubilla (Young Bea) Recent credits include FBI: Most Wanted, Law & Order: SVU and Dash & Lily. She’s grateful for the guidance of her teachers, especially Heidi Marshall and Katie Flahive. Lee’s also a screenwriter currently in the inaugural class of the Giant Leap Accelerator Program.
Photo Credit: Justin Clynes
Ruibo Qian (Adult Ona) Credits include Becky Nurse of Salem (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Fucking A (Signature Theatre), Bull in a China Shop (LCT3), The Great Leap (American Conservatory Theatre), Tiger Style! (Alliance Theatre, Huntington Theatre) and Water by the Spoonful (The Old Globe). Film and television credits include Black Mirror, Manchester By the Sea, Mozart in the Jungle, EVIL, New Amsterdam, Broad City, The Good Fight. MFA NYU Graduate Acting Program. BFA Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. ruiboqian.com
Photo Credit: Casey Killoran
Teddy Bergman (Creator/Director) is a Drama Desk nominated director, producer and actor. With Woodshed Collective, he co-conceived and directed productions including the critically acclaimed Empire Travel Agency and the Broadway bound musical KPOP (Lortel for Outstanding Musical, Ars Nova co-pro). Directing includes work at The Public, NYTW, MTC, Ars Nova, Ma-Yi, Williamstown, NYSF and more. He is currently developing new work for Emursive and recently directed pop duo’s Tegan and Sara’s last tour. Acting work includes the Tony Winning play Peter And The Starcatcher (OBC)), the Amazon series Good Girls Revolt and more.
Photo Credit: Bryan Bedder
Sam Chanse’s (Creator/Playwright) plays include Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play); Trigger; Fruiting Bodies; and What You Are Now. Her work has been developed and/or produced with the Lark, the Civilians, Magic Theatre, Ma-Yi, Cherry Lane, Leviathan Lab, Ars Nova and Ensemble Studio Theater/Sloan Project, and is published by Kaya Press (Lydia’s Funeral Video) and TCG (The Kilroys List). She is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a Lark Venturous Fellow (for Trigger), and was a fellow with Cherry Lane Mentor Project (The Opportunities of Extinction) and Playwrights Realm (The Other Instinct). She has also received residencies at MacDowell, Sundance Theatre Institute, Djerassi and SPACE at Ryder Farm. She is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and an alum of Ars Nova’s Play Group, Civilians R&D Group and the Lark’s New York Stage & Film Vassar Retreat. She has taught writing and playwriting courses at Columbia University, NYU, University of Rochester and elsewhere. For some years, she served as artistic director of Kearny Street Workshop. She is currently based in Brooklyn.
Amina Henry’s (Creator/Playwright) recent productions include The Animals, Ducklings, Hunter John and Jane and The Johnsons at JACK (Brooklyn, NY), Bully (SUNY Purchase, Clubbed Thumb WinterWorks, and elsewhere), The Great Novel (New Light Theater) and Troy (HERO Theatre). Her work has been produced, presented at, and/or developed by: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The New Group, Ars Nova, Page 73, The Flea, National Black Theatre, HERO Theater, Project Y Theatre, Dixon Place and other venues. She is a New Georges Affiliate Artist and 2018-2019 Audrey grant recipient. She is a recipient of the 2020 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Sarah Verdone Award for her play The Great Novel.
Christopher Darbassie (Sound Design) is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist. Select Sound Credits: Fly Away (Petzel Gallery), Chicken & Biscuits (Queens Theater), Black Exhibition (The Bushwick Starr), MTA Radio Plays (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), The Hole (New Ohio Theater), Neptune (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Museum). Chris has also served as assistant to designers Twi McCallum, Dan Kluger and Lee Kinney at Playwrights Horizons, Theater for a New Audience, The Atlantic and Long Wharf. Wingspace 2019-2020 Sound Design Fellow. darbassiedesign.com
Photo Credit – Self
Devario D. Simmons (Costume Designer) Broadway: Thoughts of a Colored Man; Off-Broadway: TUMACHO, Between the Bars and P.S. Additionally, Simmons has had the pleasure of working regionally at: The Long Wharf Theatre, Jean’s Playhouse, Syracuse Stage and Baltimore Center Stage. Other credits include three seasons of AMC’s television show TURN, the 2nd National Touring production of In the Heights and two seasons of PBS television series Mercy Street. @devariosimmonsdesigns
Photo credit – Self
dots (Letters Material Design & Scenic Design) is a design collective based in New York City specializing in designing environments for narratives, experiences and performances. Hailing from Colombia, South Africa and Japan, we are Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, Andrew Moerdyk & Kimie Nishikawa . We approach every project with diversity of thought and burning curiosity and, above all, we believe in the value of the whole being greater than the sum of its individual parts. Designbydots.com
Reza Behjat (Lighting Design) is a visual storyteller with a primary focus on lighting design for theater, dance, and installation projects. When he is not in a theater, you will probably find him doing street photography on the streets of New York where he thinks of it as another stage to find unique characters with dramatic stories to be told. His works have been shown on off-Broadway and regional theaters across the United States such as the Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Atlantic Theater (2022), Playwrights Horizons (2022), Art New York Theaters, NYLA, The Guthrie Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Playmakers Rep., Alabama Shakespeare, long wharf theater, Geva Theater Center, etc. Reza is the winner of the prestigious award of The Knight of Illumination for Nina Simone: Four Women in 2019. Reza resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Sunny Hitt (Movement Consultant) is a choreographer, movement director, performer and teacher. She serves as Associate Director/Choreographer for UNTITLED DANCESHOWPARTYTHING (Virgin Voyages), co-choreographer for SOFT POWER by David Henry Hwang, and has appeared in THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (Actors Theatre of Louisville), THE TEMPEST (The Public Theater) and JUNE RITES!!, a dance theater piece by Lee Sunday Evans (Governors Island). Sunny currently teaches at The New School. sunnyhitt.com
Devin Fletcher (Production Stage Manager) is a stage manager, producer and administrator based in New York City and the coast of Maine. Her last show in the city as the pandemic began was with Ars Nova, and it feels like home to finally be back. Credits include: Lincoln Center Education, Joe’s Pub at The Public, La MaMa ETC, Two River Theater, American Repertory Theater, The Assembly, Trusty Sidekick, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wildrence, Camden International Film Festival. Education: Emerson College.
Kalen Sierra Hughes (Assistant Stage Manager) (she/her) is a director and stage manager based in NYC. Kalen holds a degree in Directing and Stage Management from Marymount Manhattan College. Recent stage management credits include: The Who’s Tommy (MMC) and Witch, Please (the PIT). Recent directing credits include: Green Day’s American Idiot (MMC) and The Jellyfish Play (The Queerantine Readings). Kalen hopes to continue work in genre-bending pieces of theatre and projects motivated by intersectionality and social justice.
THE TELSEY OFFICE (Casting) With offices in both New York and Los Angeles, The Telsey Office casts for theater, film, television and commercials. The Telsey Office is dedicated to creating safe, equitable and anti-racist spaces through collaboration, artistry, heart, accountability and advocacy.
Here you can access the exchanges between Ona and Bea that have spanned over the course of the last year, voiced by P.S. playwrights SAM CHANSE and AMINA HENRY. You can listen to the letters in audio form, view scans of the handwritten letters and attachments, or read the transcripts for the letters.
Bea writes Ona from her cafe in Moody, Oregon, reflecting on heartbreak, a changing world and her world-famous vegan blueberry muffins.
Ona replies from NYC and delves into the changing tides of social justice, her less than ideal living situation and how her work has evolved over the course of the pandemic.
Bea shares the mood in Moody on the day Joe Biden was declared president and yearns for feelings of camaraderie. Plus she includes a special gift.
Ona explores how art reflects life in her new project and shares her recollection of November 7th (with the evidence to back it up).
Responding to Bea’s radical honesty, Ona ponders her own purpose and authenticity. She recalls a grim dream and reckons with her current roommate situation.
Bea relays more about farm life, the process of disconnecting from the outside world and how, despite a new sense of freedom, she feels stuck.
Ona writes from her new digs and shares news of an art project that’s weighing down on her. She embraces Bea’s life changes while assuring her to check-in with her own values.
Bea meets Judy, a dog seeking refuge, and describes the freedom that comes with relinquishing control and choice. Financial problems at the Natural Cafe make her question if she should return home.
Ona reflects on the events in Atlanta a few weeks prior and shares ideas for her installation, all while developing fond relationships with her new roommates. She reveals more concern for Bea’s situation at the farm.
Bea’s animal companion goes missing and developments at the farm leave her in a highly conflicted state.
Bea leaves a voice message for Ona from a payphone with urgent news. Ona calls back to make sure she’s ok, urging them to meet once they’re both back in Moody.
Ona writes back after returning from Moody to check in on Bea. She shares an unsettling incident at the Natural Cafe and recalls a memorable night they shared as teens at the Safeway.
Bea recollects her visit to Moody and makes an important decision.
