The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) has announced seven new productions set to be staged at the Off-Broadway theatre in early 2025.
The center will ring in the new year with Tipi Tales From the Stoop, written and performed by Murielle Borst-Tarrant. Performances will run January 8-11, 2025, with Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and Steven Sapp directing. With the piece, Borst-Tarrant tells tales from her youth growing up in the only Native family of a Mafia-run Brooklyn neighborhood.
From January 16-18, Jaha Koo's Cuckoo will be staged in partnership with the Under the Radar Festival. Presented in English and Korean with English subtitles, the work journeys through two decades of Korean history, combining Koo's personal experiences with politics and reflections on happiness, economic crises, and mortality.
Urban Bush Women's Scat!...The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar will follow, running Feburary 5-8. The work will be conceived and directed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and co-choreographed by Zollar and Vincent E. Thomas. Through song, dance, and storytelling, the Urban Bush Women tell the powerful love story of two people making their way through the Great Migration, inspired by founder Zollar’s childhood in Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods. The show will feature original music composed by Craig Harris and dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks, with Cheri Stokes serving as assistant director and associate producer.
From February 27-March 2, PAC NYC and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain will co-present African Exodus. The piece depicts scenes of African history through a blend of music, language, and movement written and composed by Sbusiso Shozi, who will also serve as musical director. Nhlanhla Mahlangu will direct the work, which is performed in English and several African languages. African Exodus is an original production of the Centre for the Less Good Idea, produced in partnership with The Office performing arts + film.
Reginald Dwayne Betts' March Forth will be presented March 4. With the piece, Betts explores the experience and consequences of his incarceration, exactly 20 years after his release from prison on March 4, 2005. The solo performance is based on Betts' poetry collection Felon: An American Washi Tale. Elise Thoron will direct the performance, which will also include a post-show conversation.
MC Cebo will return to PAC NYC March 8 to host Motion/Matter: All Styles Dance Battle after the event's success in 2024. Dancers from NYC's club scene and beyond will face off in a dance competition, with a cash grand prize awarded to one winner by a panel of all-star judges.
The last of the newly announced productions is Malaise dans la civilisation (Civilization and Its Discontents), which will run March 13-22. With text by Étienne Lepage and direction by Lepage and Alix Dufresne, the piece will be presented in either English or French depending on the performance date, with subtitles in the alternate language provided. Malaise dans la civilisation follows four tourists who walk into a theatre with no regard for rules, triggering a series of ordinary accidents.
“It has been thrilling to welcome such a variety of artists into our building and to experience what PAC NYC can offer,” Artistic Director Bill Rauch said in a statement. “My team and I have been greatly moved by the collaborations we are creating with artists worldwide, including in this new deliciously distinct group of projects. We can’t wait to share this work with our audiences in the first months of 2025.”
“In PAC NYC's second year, we will continue to cultivate audiences that represent every corner of New York City and stay true to our mission to cultivate bonds between audiences and artists,” added Executive Director Khady Kamara Nunez. “We look forward to presenting these entertaining and engaging works, that represent a multiplicity of voices and stories.”
Tickets are now available to PAC NYC members and Citi cardholders, and sales will open to the general public November 22.
Visit PACNYC.org for more information.
