Men On Boats
- Written by Jaclyn Backhaus
- Directed by Will Davis
Jaclyn Backhaus is a playwright, cofounder of Fresh Ground Pepper, and new member of The Kilroys. Her plays include Men On Boats (New York Times Critics’ Pick, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, published by Dramatists Play Service), India Pale Ale (Manhattan Theatre Club, recipient of the 2018 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play), You Across From Me (co-written with three other writers for the Humana Festival), Folk Wandering (book writer and co-lyricist with 11 composers, Pipeline Theatre Company), and You On the Moors Now (Theater Reconstruction Ensemble), among others. She was the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Clubbed Thumb and she is currently in residence at Lincoln Center. Backhaus holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch, where she now teaches. She hails from Phoenix, Arizona, and currently resides in Ridgewood, Queens with her husband, director Andrew Scoville and their son Ernie.
(Updated Mar 2019)
Will Davis is a director and choreographer focused on physically adventurous new work and the newly appointed artistic director of American Theater Company. Recent projects include Evita (Olney Theatre Center), Men On Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus (Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks), Orange Julius by Basil Kreimendahl, Mike Iveson’s Sorry Robot (PS122’s COIL Festival), and Colossal by Andrew Hinderaker (Mixed Blood Theatre and Olney Theatre Center, Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction). Davis has developed, directed, and performed his work with NYTW, Clubbed Thumb, New Museum, Olney Theatre Center, Alliance Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Fusebox Festival, New Harmony Project, Orchard Project, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Performance Studies International at Stanford University, and the Kennedy Center. He is an alum of the Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, the NYTW 2050 Directing Fellowship, and the BAX (Brooklyn Art Exchange) artist in residence program. He holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from DePaul University and an MFA in Directing from UT Austin.
Men On Boats was originally produced by Clubbed Thumb at the Wild Project in June 2015 as part of the theater’s annual Summerworks festival. Clubbed Thumb is the inaugural participant in Playwrights Horizons' Company Residency program; this return engagement is an outgrowth of this strong partnership between them.
Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men On Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River. This thrilling and widely acclaimed new play by Jaclyn Backhaus returns this summer for a limited engagement at Playwrights Horizons.
Featuring
Jocelyn Bioh
Hannah Cabell
Danielle Davenport
Danaya Esperanza
Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Birgit Huppuch
Elizabeth Kenny
Layla Khosh
Kelly McAndrew
Kristen Sieh
Jocelyn Bioh is a writer/performer from New York City. She was last seen in the Tony Award-winning play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Other credits include An Octoroon (Soho Rep.), Bootycandy (Wilma Theater), SEED (Classical Theater of Harlem), and Neighbors (The Public). Her plays include Nollywood Dreams (Kilroys List 2015), School Girls, and the musical The Ladykiller’s Love Story (with music/lyrics by CeeLo Green).
Broadway: The Father (MTC), A Man for All Seasons (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Men On Boats (Clubbed Thumb), Grounded (Page 73, Drama Desk nom.), 3C (Rattlestick), Compulsion (The Public), Zero Hour (13P), Pumpgirl (MTC). Regional: world premieres of The Moors (Yale Rep), Marie Antoinette (A.R.T., Yale Rep), Compulsion (Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep; BACCA nom.), and In the Next Room... (Berkeley Rep, BACCA nomination). TV: “The Path,” “Mr. Robot,” “Happyish,” “The Leftovers,” “Law & Order: CI.”
New York credits: Men On Boats (Clubbed Thumb); An Octoroon (Theatre for a New Audience); Neighbors, All’s Well That Ends Well (The Public); Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR); Be the Death of Me (The Civilians). Workshops and readings with Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, The Lark, MCC, Playwrights Realm, Hartford Stage, and others. Television: “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Master of None” (Netflix), “Boardwalk Empire” (HBO). A proud alumna of Barnard College, Columbia University.
Danaya Esperanza is excited to be making her Playwrights Horizons debut and to be working with Clubbed Thumb again on this wondrous play! Previous credits: Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre), Men On Boats (Clubbed Thumb), Washeteria (Soho Rep.), and Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature). TV: “Elementary” (CBS). Danaya is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Jen) (she/her). Playwrights Horizons: Men on Boats. Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play and Well. Off-Broadway: Where We Stand (also author. Lucille Lortel, Drama League, AUDELCO, Broadway Black award nominee), In the Footprint (The Civilians), and Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Primary Stages). Film: The Life List, The Book of Henry, The English Teacher, and The Wrestler. TV: New Amsterdam, Happy, Rubicon, Mercy, all Law and Orders, High Maintenance, The Night Of, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, A Gifted Man, and The Sopranos.
Credits include Men On Boats, Telethon, Dot (Clubbed Thumb); The Moors (Yale Rep, CT Critics Circle Award); Judy (Page 73); I Will Be Gone (Humana Festival); The Wolfe Twins (Studio Theatre); Love in the Wars (Bard Summerscape); Pig Iron’s Twelfth Night (Abrons Arts Center); In the Next Room... (Cleveland Playhouse); A Map of Virtue (13P); TDS’ Blood Play (The Public, Bushwick Starr); Telephone (Foundry, Obie Award); Neighbors (The Public); Angel Reapers (Joyce Theatre). Film: The Sisterhood of Night. Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist. TV: HBO's "High Maintenance" (Fall 2016).
Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb and Off-Broadway debut. An actor and playwright, Elizabeth recently relocated to New York from the West Coast after two years touring her award-winning solo show Sick (excerpted at TEDMED 2014). NYC theater: This From Cloudland, The Year of My Mother’s Birth. Seattle theater: Hamlet, These Streets (actor/playwright), The Last Letter, The Compendium of Nastiness, Bash, Big Boss, Trouble in the City of Desire, Ubu, The Hairy Baby.
Playwrights: Men On Boats (co-production with Clubbed Thumb). Selected credits: Bull in a China Shop (LCT3), Sensuality Party (The New Group), Dido of Idaho (Ensemble Studio Theater), Wyoming (Lesser America), Nobody’s Girl (New Jersey Rep), Women (Hollywood Fringe), I Am Gordafarid (Noor Theater), Romeo and Juliet (The Flea). Film: Long Nights Short Mornings. TV: “Instinct.” Web: “My Ex is Trending.” MFA in Acting: Brooklyn College, 2012.
Playwrights: Men On Boats. Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2004). Other Off-Broadway: Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick), Perfect Arrangement (Primary Stages), Good Television (Atlantic), Still Life (MCC), The Cataract (WP), and Almost, Maine (Transport Group). Regional: Humana Festival, Yale Rep, ART, Guthrie, Old Globe. TV: “Daredevil,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “The Good Fight.” Film: When the Moon Was Twice as Big (upcoming), A Kid Like Jake, Appropriate Behavior, Everybody’s Fine. kellymcandrew.com
Kristen Sieh (Woman 1, she/her). Playwrights Horizons: Men On Boats. The Vineyard: Scene Partners, RoosevElvis. Broadway: The Band’s Visit (original cast). Other Off-Broadway credits include: The Public Theater (Gatz, February House, Fortress of Solitude), Ars Nova (Dr. Ride’s American Beach House), Classic Stage Company (Iphigenia at Aulis), Here (O, Earth), and performances in NYC, regionally and internationally with companies such as ERS, Half-Straddle, Banana Bag & Bodice, and The Builder’s Association. She is a founding member of The TEAM, with whom she has co-written, performed and costume designed numerous works including RoosevElvis, Particularly In the Heartland, and Architecting. Kristen has also appeared on TV (The Plot Against America, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Boardwalk Empire, etc.) and on your phone as an award-winning narrator of audiobooks. In 2023 she received a certificate in horticulture from NYBG.
Creative Team
Arnulfo Maldonado
Scenic DesignÁsta Bennie Hostetter
Costume DesignSolomon Weisbard
Lighting DesignJane Shaw
Sound DesignErin Gioia Albrecht
Production Stage ManagerArnulfo Maldonado is a New York City based set and costume designer. He is a recent Tony Award® Nominee for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for the Broadway production of Buena Vista Social Club (Schoenfeld Theatre, dir: Saheem Ali), as well as for A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson (Lyceum Theatre, dir: Stephen Brackett). In addition, Arnulfo received the 2020 Obie for Sustained Excellence in Set Design, as well as a Special Citation Obie as part of the Creative Team of the Pulitzer Prize winning A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson. Arnulfo is a recipient of a Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award and a multiple Henry Hewes Design. Lortel Award, and Drama Desk nominee
I am proud to have designed the world premieres of many new plays including:
Infinite Life, John, Usual Girls, Dance Nation, Porto, The Wolves, Men on Boats, 10 out of 12 and You Got Older.
Opera: Recent projects include world premiere of 10 Days in a Madhouse dir. Joanna Settle, and numerous student productions with the New School and the Curtis Institute.
I am mad for the Classics, including my work on Taming of the Shrew dir. Shana Cooper and Dom Juan dir. Ashley Tata. I enjoy the scale of emotion and freedom available when working in the canon.
Playwrights Horizons: Bella, A Life, Men On Boats, Marjorie Prime, The Christians. Broadway: Bullets Over Broadway, Matilda, Bronx Bombers, Hands on a Hardbody. Other Off-Broadway: Charm, Punk Rock, The Village Bike, The Third Story (MCC); Sundown, Yellow Moon (Ars Nova/WP Theater); Red Speedo (NYTW); Abundance (TACT); Venice (The Public); Bronx Bombers (Primary Stages). Regional: multiple productions at The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse, most recently the development of John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons. MFA: UC San Diego.
★★★★
A thrilling, gender-flipped slice of manifest destiny.
OFF-THE-CANYON-WALLS FUNNY. Paddle or portage your own boat to the theater—but get there!
A rollicking history pageant, Backhaus’s lively script is brought to infectiously vivid life under Will Davis’s highly ingenious direction.
