Nazareth Hassan is a writer, director, musician, and performer. Performance and theater works include Bowl EP at The Vineyard Theater, Untitled (1-5) at The Shed (text published by 3 Hole Press), VANTABLACK at Theatretreffen Stückemarkt in Berlin, Security Theater at Judson Memorial Church, and Memory A at Museo Universitario del Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City. Their first interdisciplinary book, Slow Mania, will be published in 2025 by Futurepoem. In 2022-2023, they were the dramaturg at the Royal Court Theatre in London. They were a 2023–25 Jerome Hill artist fellow and the 2024-25 Tow Playwright in Residence at The Vineyard Theatre. www.nazarethhassan.com
Keenan Tyler Oliphant is a Theatre-maker and Director from Cape Town South Africa, whose work is in the lineage of the storytelling traditions of Southern Africa. Selected directing credits include Heather Christian's Terce: A Practical Breviary, Jeesun Choi’s To the Ends of the Earth (JACK), Ebru Nihan Celkan’s Will You Come with Me? (PlayCo), Vivian Barnes’ Intro to (EST), Jay Stull’s The Singularity Play (Harvard TDM). Associate Director Hadestown (Broadway); Gatsby (A.R.T); Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova 2022). He has developed work with Ars Nova, NYTW, Second Stage and The Vineyard Theatre. He is an alumni of the Drama League Fellowship 2021/2022 and Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship 2020/2021.
It takes grit, determination, self-awareness, and years of training to be an artist. But what does it take to be a genius? A scathing, intricately observed take on power and surrender, Nazareth Hassan's new play follows a company of dedicated actors, dancers, and performance artists as they lose themselves to the violent and beautiful will of a visionary.
Practice runs approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
Practice has received generous support from the Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation.
Cast
Opa Adeyemo
Maya Margarita
Karina Curet
Ronald Peet
Amandla Jahava
Susannah Perkins
Mark Junek
Omar Shafiuzzaman
Hayward Leach
Alex Wyse
Playwrights Horizons debut. Regional: First Deep Breath (Geffen Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Hartford Stage), Sojourners (Roundhouse). Juilliard.
Playwrights Horizons and Off-Broadway debut. Maya Margarita is a multi-disciplinary artist originally from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She’s mounted her own one-woman variety show spectacular, Stupid, But Cute, But Sexy And A Little Mysterious LIVE on Broadway! (that’s Broadway in Brooklyn, but manifesting!). Film & TV: POSE (FX), Harlem (Prime Video), New Amsterdam (NBC), Going Away (NewFest), Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. She’d like to thank her friends and family for their love and support!
From Caguas, Puerto Rico. Playwrights Horizons and Off Broadway debut. NYU Grad Acting: Queens, All’s Well That Ends Well, Learned Ladies Of Park Avenue and Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime. NYU Grad Acting/SUNY Purchase. @karinacuret
Playwrights Horizons debut. Select Off-Broadway: The Fires (Obie Award) (Soho Rep), “DADDY” (Vineyard, New Group), The World My Mamma Made (Clubbed Thumb). Select TV, Film: Apple TV+'s Bad Monkey; Netflix's Partner Track, I-Land; A24's Problemista. EST Member. 52nd St Project Devotee. Meditator and Marathoner. Emory and NYU Tisch.
Is a Kenyan-American artist based out of New York. She passionately creates and advocates for EDI stories from an EDI perspective for EDI people. Pilot credits: Peep Show (FX), DMZ (HBO), How to Make Love to a Black Woman (Showtime). Theater: Exception To The Rule (Roundabout) Spirit Of The People (Williamstown Theater Festival) Degrees from: fka Yale School of Drama ‘19, CalArts ‘16.
Broadway: Romeo + Juliet, Network. Off-Broadway: The Welkin (Atlantic), Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb/The Public), Mary Gets Hers (The Playwrights Realm), The Good John Proctor (The Connelly), Judgment Day (Park Avenue Armory), The Low Road (The Public), The Wolves (Lincoln Center/The Playwrights Realm), The Rape of the Sabine Women (The Playwrights Realm). TV: “The Politician” (Netflix), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime). BFA: NYU Tisch. Obie and Drama Desk awards. Proud affiliated artist of Clubbed Thumb.
Broadway: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, The Performers. Off-Broadway: The Hairy Ape (Park Avenue Armory) , Final Follies (Cherry Lane), Family Play (The New Ohio), Galileo (Classic Stage Company). Regional: A View From the Bridge (Long Wharf), Angels in America (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Frankenstein (Denver Center), The Forgotten Woman (Bay Street Playhouse), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Berkeley Rep). Television: American Rust, The Outs, Blindspot, Law and Order: SVU. Juilliard.
Playwrights Horizons Debut. Off-Broadway: Elyria (World Premiere) (Atlantic Theater Company). Regional: Henry V, Love’s Labor’s Lost (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). TV: Law & Order (NBC), The Equalizer (CBS). Training: The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Playwrights Horizons and Off-Broadway debut. Leach has developed work with Roundabout, NYTW, Vineyard, Page 73, Clubbed Thumb, and more. TV/Film: The Terror (AMC, upcoming), Elsbeth (CBS), Love Life (HBOMax), Tom Swift (The CW), Sneakerella (Disney+) Education: Juilliard (MFA) Brown (BA).
Playwrights Horizons debut. Select credits include: Broadway: Good Night Oscar, Waitress, Spring Awakening, Lysistrata Jones. Tour: Wicked. Off-Broadway: Ride the Cyclone, Bare, Triassic Parq. TV: “Elsbeth,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "The Other Two," "Iron Fist," "Masters of Sex," "NCIS: LA," “The Bold and the Beautiful," "Switched at Birth," "Modern Family,” "Bored to Death.” As a writer and/or director: Cellino v. Barnes, Summoning Sylvia, “Indoor Boys," Picking Up Speed, Regina Comet, Actual Nobodies (upcoming.) BFA: BU.
Creative Team
Afsoon Pajoufar
Scenic DesignerBrenda Abbandandolo
Costume DesignerKaren Boyer
Costume DesignerMasha Tsimring
Lighting DesignerTei Blow
Sound DesignerCamden Gonzales
MovementKeenan Tyler Oliphant
MovementRocío Mendez
Fight and Intimacy CoordinatorMatt Carlin
PropsSarah Jordan
Hair DesignGenevieve Ortiz
Production Stage ManagerBrenda Abbandandolo (Costume Designer, she/her). Playwrights Horizons debut. Vineyard Theatre: Scene Partners. Broadway: Mary Jane, The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window (2023 Hewes Design Award). Off Broadway: The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window (BAM), Camp Siegfried (Second Stage), A Case for the Existence Of God and Octet (Signature), Russian Troll Farm (Virtual: Obie Award), Moby Dick (A.R.T), Continuity (MTC), Enemy Of The People (The Guthrie), I’ll Get You Back Again (Roundhouse), The Team’s Mission Drift (National Theatre, London), Film/TV: Easy’s Waltz, Quiz Lady, Coda (Academy Award, Best Picture), An American Pickle, The Disaster Artist, “Saturday Night Live” (Associate CD). MFA: NYU.
Keenan Tyler Oliphant is a Theatre-maker and Director from Cape Town South Africa, whose work is in the lineage of the storytelling traditions of Southern Africa. Selected directing credits include Heather Christian's Terce: A Practical Breviary, Jeesun Choi’s To the Ends of the Earth (JACK), Ebru Nihan Celkan’s Will You Come with Me? (PlayCo), Vivian Barnes’ Intro to (EST), Jay Stull’s The Singularity Play (Harvard TDM). Associate Director Hadestown (Broadway); Gatsby (A.R.T); Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova 2022). He has developed work with Ars Nova, NYTW, Second Stage and The Vineyard Theatre. He is an alumni of the Drama League Fellowship 2021/2022 and Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship 2020/2021.
Matt Carlin (Props). Playwrights: Magnificent Bird / Book of Travelers, Staff Meal, Teeth, Stereophonic, Wet Brain, Regretfully, So the Birds Are, The Trees, Catch as Catch Can, Downstate, Wish You Were Here. Select Off-Broadway credits include Buena Vista Social Club, A Simulacrum (Atlantic), The Comeuppance (Signature), american (tele)visions (NYTW) and Lessons in Survival: 1971 (Vineyard). Matt also works as a props artisan and his work has been seen on Broadway in Back to the Future: The Musical and The Thanksgiving Play. He received his B.F.A. from Pace University.
Age Recommendation: Due to adult language and subject matter, this play is best suited for ages 16+. For a description of topics and sensory experiences that audiences may find distressing or inaccessible in advance of attending Practice, 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 Access Needs Form or email audienceservices@phnyc.org.
Hassan’s writing is full of wicked humor.
Hassan is taking the reins, the ruins, of this language, American English, and making new language.
BEST THEATER of 2024! In Keenan Tyler Oliphant’s richly welcoming staging, transcendence was for everyone, of any faith or none.
