Mr. Burns: The 10th Anniversary Concert Reading
- Written by Anne Washburn
- Music by Michael Friedman
- Directed by Steve Cosson
Playwrights: Antlia Pneumatica; Mr. Burns, a post-electric play. Other plays include 10 out of 12, Little Bunny Foo Foo, The Internationalist, A Devil At Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, The Small, and transadaptations of Euripides' Orestes & Iphigenia in Aulis. Her work has been produced by 13P, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Almeida, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Folger, The Gate, The Guthrie, Playwrights Horizons, Red Eye, Soho Rep., Studio Theater, Two River Theater Company, Vineyard Theater, and Woolly Mammoth. Honors include a Whiting, a Guggenheim, an Alpert Award, a PEN/Laura Pels Award for an artist in mid-career, a NYFA Fellowship, a Time Warner Fellowship, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. She is an associated artist with The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Chochiqq, and is an alumna of New Dramatists and 13P.
Credits include Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Broadway and the Public Theater) Unknown Soldier, The Fortress of Solitude, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Mr. Burns. With The Civilians: Canard Canard Goose, Gone Missing, Nobody’s Lunch, This Beautiful City, In the Footprint, The Great Immensity, Paris Commune, Pretty Filthy, and The Abominables. He was the Artist-in-Residence and Director of the Public Forum at the Public Theater and Artistic Director of City Center Encores! Off-Center. He received the 2007 OBIE Award for sustained excellence and was honored with a star on the Playwright’s Sidewalk at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 2018.
Steve Cosson is a writer and director. Directing highlights include Spring Awakening (Olney Theatre), Anne Washburn’s A Devil at Noon (Humana Festival, O’Neill), Bus Stop (Kansas City Rep), U.S. premiere of Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life (Soho Rep). He is the founding Artistic Director of the Civilians. The company creates original works of investigative theater that have been performed Off-Broadway and in over 40 cities nationally and internationally. Highlights of work with the Civilians include Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Washington Post’s #1 play for 2012), Bess Wohl/Michael Friedman’s Pretty Filthy, Paris Commune (2012 BAM Next Wave), The Great Immensity, The Next Forever created for the 2012 TED Conference, In The Footprint (Top 10 of 2010 in NY Times, Time Out, New Yorker), This Beautiful City,(I Am) Nobody’s Lunch and Gone Missing (NY Times Top 10 of 2007). These works and others have been produced at The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Vineyard Theatre, Barrow Street, Woolly Mammoth, Kansas City Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Repertory Theater, Center Theater Group, HBO’s Comedy Festival, MoMA, The Gate Theatre and Soho Theatre in London and many others. His plays are published by Oberon Books, Dramatists Play Service and an anthology from Playscripts. As of June 2013.
A failed grid. A society that has crumbled. And a post-apocalyptic world that needs rebuilding. Sound familiar? Ten years after its iconic New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons, the original cast of Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, reunites with playwright Anne Washburn and director Steve Cosson for two nights only! A celebration of live theater, and a toast to the resilience of Bart Simpson through the ages, Mr. Burns explores how the pop culture of one era might evolve into the mythology of another.
Featuring
Quincy Tyler Bernstine
Susannah Flood
Gibson Frazier
Matthew Maher
Nedra Marie Taylor
Jennifer R. Morris
Colleen Werthmann
Sam Breslin Wright
NY Theater (selected credits): Evanston Salt Costs Climbing; Marys Seacole (Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play); Our Lady of 121st Street (Lortel nomination); The Amateurs (Lortel nomination); As You Like It (Lortel nomination); Small Mouth Sounds; Peer Gynt; Grand Concourse (Lortel nomination); 10 out of 12; The Nether; Mr. Burns; Neva (Lortel nomination); We Are Proud to Present a Presentation…; born bad; Red-Handed Otter; Family Week; Ruined (2009 OBIE for Performance, Clarence Derwent, Audelco Awards); In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play); The Misanthrope; A Small, Melodramatic Story; Matt & Ben, ‘nami; (I am) Nobody’s Lunch; The Ladies. Film (selected credits): The Tender Bar, White Noise, Manchester By The Sea, Easy Living, Still Alice, Ned Rifle, Red Hook Summer, While We’re Young, Hungry Hearts, Rachel Getting Married. TV (selected credits): “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Evil,” “The Equalizer,” “Julia,” “Power Book II: GHOST”, “Ray Donovan”, “The Code”, “Modern Love”, “Power,” “High Maintenance,” “The Good Wife,” “The Blacklist,” “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” “Madame Secretary,” “The Leftovers,” “The Strain,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Education: Brown (BA), UCSD (MFA). 2019 OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Performance, Cullman 3rd Award for Extraordinary Creativity (Lincoln Center Theater, 2019); 2015 Lilly Award, Charles Bowden Award from New Dramatists. She is represented by Cornerstone Talent Agency, The Burstein Company, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
Susannah Flood has been seen on Broadway in The Cherry Orchard (Roundabout). Select Off-Broadway and NY includes The Counter, Make Believe (Second Stage); The Effect, Tribes (Barrow Street); Scenes From A Marriage, Love & Information (NYTW); Mr. Burns (Playwrights Horizons); The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise (PlayCo); Fulfillment (The Flea); As You Like It (The Public/NYSF), Bird in the Hand (Fulcrum); Baby Scream Miracle and Plano, both for Clubbed Thumb, where she is an affiliated artist. TV: Kate Littlejohn on For The People (ABC/Shondaland), also Law & Order: SVU, Chicago Fire, Deadbeat and Mary Laws' upcoming Daylight Daycare (Annapurna for Hulu). Susannah is the voice of Laeticia Saltier on Julian Koster's podcast The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) (Night Vale Presents/WNYC). BA: UC Berkeley. MFA: Brown/Trinity. Go Bears.
Gibson Frazier is an actor, writer, and filmmaker living in New York City. He has worked in numerous independent films with such luminaries as Steven Soderbergh, Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig, and Kirk Douglas. He also co-wrote, produced, and starred in the cult hit Man of the Century. Gibson has narrated over 60 audiobooks including the beloved Spy School and Funjungle series written by New York Times bestselling author Stuart Gibbs. A denizen of New York’s downtown theatre scene, Gibson was named one of the best off-Broadway actors by both Time Out: New York and The Village Voice.
Playwrights: The Flick (also Barrow Street Theater and National Theater, London), The World Over. Other recent theater includes King Lear (Broadway) and Othello (NYTW, Lortel nomination). Film/TV Include Air, Funny Pages,The Kill Room,Marriage Story, Captain Marvel, Live By Night, The Finest Hours, A Most Violent Year, While We’re Young, “Our Flag Means Death”, “Hello Tomorrow”, “Outer Range”, “Prodigal Son”, “New Amsterdam”, “Mozart in the Jungle”, ”Nurse Jackie.” Two Obie Awards, including one for Sustained Excellence of Performance.
Playwrights: A Life. Taylor holds an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School. Broadway: The Book of Mormon (Eugene O’Neill), Marvin's Room (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: The House that Will Not Stand (NYTW), The Underlying Chris (Second Stage), Lost Lake (MTC). TV: series regular on Invasion (Apple TV+), Orange is The New Black, NCIS: New Orleans, Random Acts of Flyness, Jessica Jones, and more.
Jennifer R. Morris (Jenny) is an actor, writer, and director. As an actor: The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Artificial Flavors (59E59/WNYC), You Better Sit Down (Williamstown/The Flea). She has performed in numerous national commercials. As a director: winner of the Shondaland Women’s Directing Mentorship, named Best Female Creator AMC Networks at Stareable. Her series “if I’m alive next week” made its world premiere at Tribeca and won top honors at SeriesFest, Nashville Film Festival, Catalyst and Stareable.
Playwrights: Miss Witherspoon, Recent Tragic Events. With The Civilians: Canard Canard Goose?, Gone Missing, The Ladies, In The Footprint, Artificial Flavors, and many more. NY theater: Public, NYTW, Soho Rep, Elevator Repair Service, Colt Coeur. TV/film: The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Law and Order, SALT. Werthmann is also an Emmy-nominated comedy writer (The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, the Oscars, etc.).
Playwrights: The Trees. Broadway: Macbeth. Selected Off Broadway: The Temperamentals (Drama Desk Award, Best Ensemble), Coop, Bonnie’s Last Flight, King Phillip’s Head, Vendetta Chrome, Paris Commune. Selected Regional: We’re Gonna Be Okay (Humana Festival), Bunny Foo Foo (Actors Theater of Louisville), The Three Sisters (Berkeley Rep/Yale Rep), Select TV & Film: Madam Secretary (recurring), Bull (recurring), Elementary, Law and Order, The Beaver, Rescue Me, The Crowded Room (Apple TV) Upcoming: The History of Sound. M.F.A. UCSD. Artistic Associate of The Civilians.
Creative Team
Kris Kukul
Music Director
Buy a signed copy of Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
Signed by Anne Washburn!
DOWNRIGHT BRILLIANT. When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin? Get ready to reel, New York. Anne Washburn’s "Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play" has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas. With grand assurance and artistry, Ms. Washburn makes us appreciate a new the profound value of storytelling in and of itself, and makes a case for theater as the most glorious and durable storyteller of all. I LOOK FORWARD TO REMEMBERING IT FOR A LONG, LONG TIME.
Originally commissioned by The Civilians, New York, NY, Steven Cosson, Artistic Director.
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