Francesca D'Uva is a composer and comedian living in Brooklyn. She has a background in electronic music and studied composition at Peabody Institute in Baltimore. In her performance, she alternates between improvised storytelling and meticulously crafted mini-musicals where she plays all the characters. Her musical act-outs use abrupt tonal shifts and dramatic tropes to take the audience on a chaotic and strange journey inside her mind. She has performed all around New York City and at venues like MoMA PS1, MOCA and Ars Nova. Francesca was the 2022 Performance AIRspace Resident at Abrons Arts Center, culminating in her solo show, This Is My Favorite Song.
Sam Max is an American stage director, writer, and filmmaker working in the U.S. and Germany. Recently Sam was invited to be a Guest Director at Deutsches Theater Berlin, where they premiered their fourth play, The Holes (DE: Wüste) on the German acting ensemble. The production was described as “a virtuoso chamber piece," “strongly played,” and “surprising,” and the show will continue to play in the theater’s repertory through the next season. Referred to as new “theater [anarchism],” Sam’s work for stage was acquired in 2021 by Suhrkamp Theater Verlag, one of Europe’s leading publishing houses of fine literature. Internationally their work has been showcased at Under the Radar Festival (New York), Abrons Arts Center (New York), Theatertreffen-Stückemarkt (Berlin), DAGESH Transitions Festival (Vienna), and Goethe-Institut Beijing. As a writer, Sam’s accolades include the Chesley-Bumbalo Playwriting Award, the Lotos Award in the Arts and Sciences, and an Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award. They are also a current resident playwright of New Dramatists. As a film director, Sam is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” 2022. Their “formally assured and chillingly acted” debut short film Chaperone (2022) held its world premiere at Sundance, and was deemed one of IndieWire’s “10 Must-See Shorts” of the festival that year (Filmmaker). It subsequently received a Jury Special Mention for Best U.S. Short at Palm Springs, won the Horizon Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at 24fps, and was shortlisted for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
In a world transformed by loss, Francesca D’Uva still manages to find humor…everywhere. An experimental fusion of stand-up and original pop anthems, This Is My Favorite Song is a musical fever dream about sex, grief, nannying, and Shakira.
This Is My Favorite Song runs approximately 80 minutes with no intermission
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About the Creative Team
Sam Max
Production DesignerZack Lobel
Lighting DesignerCeleste Yim
DramaturgMatt Carlin
PropsSiena Yusi
Production Stage ManagerZack Lobel (Lighting Designer, he/him) is a lighting and video designer working across theaters, museums, and nightclubs. Playwrights Horizons debut. Lobel’s designs have been featured at the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, HERE Arts, among others. He is a resident video designer at the historic Webster Hall, and the lighting director for Omari Wiles’ Bessie award-winning dance company. Current: Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum (Lighting Team). @zacklobel
Celeste Yim is a writer from Toronto, Canada. They are currently a writer for Saturday Night Live. Celeste was a 2021 Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow and the 2019 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Canadian Women Artists’ Award for Playwriting. Celeste received their MFA in Playwriting from Tisch at NYU.
Siena Yusi (Production Stage Manager, she/her) is delighted to be working with Playwrights Horizons as a proud alumnus of Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU Tisch. Playwrights Horizons debut. Siena is an NYC-based stage manager who is passionate about supporting the creation of imaginative and intentional live performance. Specializing in new play development, Siena has collaborated with institutions such as The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, The Play Company, Waterwell, KGM Theatricals, and PAC NYC, among others. Proud AEA member.
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This Is My Favorite Song is “an EMOTIONAL PINBALL MACHINE, seeming to invite laughter and tears”
— Anna Grace Lee, New York Times
“Comedian and songwriter Francesca D’Uva is the one-man band of Brooklyn comedy, if one-man bands had sneakily powerful emotional through-lines and killer stand-up instincts.”
“BEST NEW UP-AND-COMING COMEDIAN TO WATCH.” – New York Magazine
For a description of topics and sensory experiences that audiences may find distressing in advance of attending This is My Favorite Song, please click here to read our Content Transparency Statement. If you have any additional questions about content, age-appropriateness, or stage effects (such as strobe lights) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please utilize our Audience Services Form or email audienceservices@phnyc.org.